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Across the Modern Desk
By Paul Litch
The market for CGC certified modern age comic books
is stronger then ever. The Spider-Man movie has smashed
ticket sale records and recorded sales of CGC certified
modern comic books have smashed all expectations of
dealers and collectors alike. It is definitely a "Hot
Title" driven market. The hottest right now, without
a doubt is Ultimate Spider-Man. Every single issue is
flying past us daily, even the most recent issue. It
sounds crazy, but Ultimate Spider-Man is just as prevalent
in quantity to be certified as its 39-year-old counterpart,
Amazing Spider-Man. Other "Hot" Marvel titles just published
this past year include Incredible Hulk #34, Wolverine:
The Origin #1- #6, Elektra v2 #3 "Nude Edition", and
anything X-Men.
While Marvel may be the dominant publisher that we
see, we still get a lot of DC & Top Cow titles like
JLA, Dark Knight Strikes Again, Witchblade and Fathom.
We are still seeing the popular Wizard's and Wizard
Ace Editions. Now, we are starting to see more CrossGen
titles. They are a huge hit with Sojourn and certified
copies of #1 are still selling great on eBay. Dreamwave
Productions & Devil's Due have both exploded with their
respective Transformers and GI Joe titles. The demand
for the original Transformers and GI Joe, A Real American
Hero series experienced a huge boost as well, especially
in high-grade. Micronauts (Devil's Due) and Thundercats
(DC/Wildstorm) could prove to be very big this summer
as the wave of 80s nostalgia washes over us. Just as
CGC has seen following the new Transformers and GI Joe
series, we are sure to get in a lot of the original
Micronauts and Thundercats issues. We have already seen
some gorgeous copies and we expect to see more. There
is always Kevin Smith and Terry Dodson's Spider-Man/Black
Cat mini-series from Marvel, which we hope will be a
success. There will be a lot of new "Hot" books for
the summer of 2002 - that is for sure.
We were surprised to see some over looked great titles,
come through CGC recently. To quickly name a few, Powers,
The Coffin, Strangers in Paradise and the incredible
Cerebus. Vertigo titles are still strong as well as
the Watchmen. Every so often we get in recalled editions
(Wolverine #131 or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
#5), which we think are very intriguing. What surprises
us most are Marvel foreign editions from France, Germany
and Italy. It is really cool to see a story you recognize
in a different language.
What are the best modern age comic books that we see?
Of course beautiful keys (Giant-Size X-Men #1, X-Men
#94) are always great, but there are some things that
give us pause. There was one invoice of drop-dead gorgeous
George Perez Avengers and John Byrne Fantastic Four's
from the 1980s. Nothing was lower than a 9.6 NM+ (there
were only 3 in an invoice of 40+), with bone white pages.
Absolutely breathtaking and from what we have seen so
far, unmatched. That is cool. We are sure that there
are more out there, but we haven't seen them yet.
We have not seen many 35-cent price variant Iron Fist
#14's, Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe and manga
titles like Akira, Lone Wolf & Cub or Ghost in the
Shell. With the 80s nostalgia riding high, we
are not receiving many of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles series by Mirage Studios. Even a great title
like Liberty Meadows is not common at CGC. Jack Kirby
DC's from the late 1970s in high grade are
also few and far between. Thankfully, there has been
a drop in poly-bagged comics that come in, since it
has become apparent that a poly-bag does NOT mean a
comic book is very high grade.
What does all this mean? With new books, people still
want the best of the best plus a reading copy. CGC's
pre-screen service has exploded in order to meet the
demands of the modern high-grade collector. The amazing
talent pool of artists & creators that are working
in our industry right now, plus the high demand for
CGC product means that CGC will be busy for a very long
time.
Comics Go Hollywood
By Shawn Caffrey
 For
well over 60 years now, everyone's favorite comic book
characters have graced the pages of numerous comic book
titles. Though in the 1940s, comic characters had some
success, the 1950s and 1960s had very little success
with our favorite four-color heroes. Slowly over the
past twenty-five years, comic characters have again
made their way off of the pages and jumped onto movie
screens. The trend began in the late seventies with
Superman, then the late eighties with Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles and graced its way through the 90s with
titles such as Batman, the Crow, and Blade. Though there
are few movies made from the thousands of comics out
in the market, the movies themselves prove almost always
successful. With that observation, comic book companies
are beginning to work with Hollywood in bringing countless
comics to the big picture. X-Men was released in the
summer of 2000 and proved beyond successful. With that,
the recently released Spider-Man movie was one of the
most anticipated movies since Batman. Presently, comic
books are a seemingly resourceful ground for movies
because of their past prosperity. Currently in the works
are Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil, and more to come
over the next year. Not only are mainstream companies
aiming at Hollywood, but the independent market is beginning
to approach with open arms. With titles such as League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Bulletproof Monk, and even
talks of Chaos's Evil Ernie going Hollywood, the independent
market has seen the trend and is taking advantage of
a seemingly successful opportunity. So, with the amount
of work being done between Hollywood and comic books,
it might only be a matter of time until your favorite
comic book character pops up on the big screen.
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