Moderns soon forgotten...

[the blob]

Manhattan projects and Chew

 

I wouldn't dump chew.

[Pete Marino]

A couple more that I put on "the podium" of my favorite stories. I don't think these have been mentioned, as a bunch of the ones already brought up are some of my favorites as well.

 

Superman: Red Son - An amazing otherverse story that showed what you can really do with superman and a creative storyteller.

 

The Invisibles - one of my personal favorites (check out my avatar). A series that can be inconsistent at times in both quality and tone, but taken as a whole one of the best comics I've ever read. I call it the dirty, homeless, grungy step brother to Sandman. Where Sandman is beautiful and elegant, The Invisibles is just raw.

 

Prophet issue 21+: a total makeover of an "extreme" series. and they turned it into one of the trippiest coolest comics I've read in a long time, with an amazing array of cool artists.

[the blob]

So why oh why aren't these books worth anything as back issues?

 

The only reason any back issue has value is because of demand. And a big boost to demand is having the character still appearing somewhere (comics, TV, movies, etc.) That is why the Walking Dead early issues are valuable (the title is still being published, keeping interest and demand high) where back issues of many of the comics discussed here are not.

 

Marvel and DC's characters have a huge advantage over Independent characters in this regard. Once an Indy book ends and the title fades from memory, the back issue values stagnate and even go down. Marvel and DC superhero characters do not have this problem since they are constantly being written into new stories.

 

Of course there are always exceptions.

 

 

several of the titles being mentioned here do sell well as back issues, at least issues 1 and 2, particularly in slabbed 9.8s, even if the bulk of the run does not.

 

chew is a series i would buy if i saw issues cheap. #1 is not going to be cheap, but #2, which I once sold a pristine raw copy of for $75, can be picked up in lots for not a lot nowadays.

[the authority]

A couple more that I put on "the podium" of my favorite stories. I don't think these have been mentioned, as a bunch of the ones already brought up are some of my favorites as well.

 

Superman: Red Son - An amazing otherverse story that showed what you can really do with superman and a creative storyteller.

 

The Invisibles - one of my personal favorites (check out my avatar). A series that can be inconsistent at times in both quality and tone, but taken as a whole one of the best comics I've ever read. I call it the dirty, homeless, grungy step brother to Sandman. Where Sandman is beautiful and elegant, The Invisibles is just raw.

 

Prophet issue 21+: a total makeover of an "extreme" series. and they turned it into one of the trippiest coolest comics I've read in a long time, with an amazing array of cool artists.

 

The Invisibles

[SquareChaos]

A couple more that I put on "the podium" of my favorite stories. I don't think these have been mentioned, as a bunch of the ones already brought up are some of my favorites as well.

 

Superman: Red Son - An amazing otherverse story that showed what you can really do with superman and a creative storyteller.

 

The Invisibles - one of my personal favorites (check out my avatar). A series that can be inconsistent at times in both quality and tone, but taken as a whole one of the best comics I've ever read. I call it the dirty, homeless, grungy step brother to Sandman. Where Sandman is beautiful and elegant, The Invisibles is just raw.

 

Prophet issue 21+: a total makeover of an "extreme" series. and they turned it into one of the trippiest coolest comics I've read in a long time, with an amazing array of cool artists.

 

Prophet, great call. Even on these boards there hasn't been a great deal of talk about that reboot. Its fantastic.

[Real Elijah Snow]

Starman would make a fantastic show. I think Hitman would make for a good show as well. That's another one that I really loved as it was coming out. It's only been years later that I've realized that that book was perfect for Garth and John with their personalities. Getting to actually know them both a bit as I have you realize what a labor of love that book was. I know John hasn't hit the deadline that many times in a row since, so you can tell John especially loved the out of doing that one. Garth remains stoically ambivalent when talking about most of his stuff that doesn't involve war. That dude seriously knows more about the history of war than everyone else I know combined.

Starman and Hitman ongoing and Sandman Mystery Theatre back issues are fond teenage memories.

 

Starman was a superb series. I remember saving a copy of Previews or Wizard because it had a big piece on the next arcs and I it felt like a treat to find out what was coming. Can't think of a series since that had such a great grasp on setting (Opal City and Turk County are so well realised).

 

Thinking about it, Starman would make a great show.

[rjpb]

 

I'm purging stuff that I'm not likely to pick back up and read again and I'm coming across many series that were fun or had great art. These books all had potential to be something more than they ended up being for various reasons.

 

I'm purging as well, but judging by the non-response to my sales thread, pretty much everything I liked reading over the last 20 years is on it's way to being forgotten.

 

 

[rjpb]

Some personal faves that may or may not have been mentioned:

 

Sandman Mystery Theatre ( still a modern right?) - the greatest reinterpretation of the early DC Golden Age heroes ever.

 

Blue Estate - a fun crime read with excellent covers. Forgotten already.

 

Back to Brooklyn - a great gritty crime mini-series by Garth Ennis that was barely noticed.

 

The Atomics by Michael Allred - the peak of his Madman related writing, brilliantly recreating the joy of reading SA Marvels without being overly retro.

 

Unstable Molecules - The best "What if" storyline ever.

 

Zombies that Ate the World - Best zombie comic I've read.

 

The Violent - Ed Brisson is almost as good as Brubaker when it comes to crime stories, but lack of interest killed this book after the first story arc.

[JTLarsen]

Ennis's Hitman and Punisher will be bigger some day. Authority, too. These are long-term investments. Remember, Watchmen and Dark Knight (with the exception of #1) waited a long time to see their recent bumps in pricing.

[WilliamG.Staggers]

Are certain valiant titles still in high demand?

 

I can't see Edge of Spider-Verse #2 holding its demand for much longer. I sold my variant copy almost 2 years ago and it looks like GPA prices haven't changed all that much...yet.

[F For Fake]

A couple more that I put on "the podium" of my favorite stories. I don't think these have been mentioned, as a bunch of the ones already brought up are some of my favorites as well.

 

Superman: Red Son - An amazing otherverse story that showed what you can really do with superman and a creative storyteller.

 

The Invisibles - one of my personal favorites (check out my avatar). A series that can be inconsistent at times in both quality and tone, but taken as a whole one of the best comics I've ever read. I call it the dirty, homeless, grungy step brother to Sandman. Where Sandman is beautiful and elegant, The Invisibles is just raw.

 

Prophet issue 21+: a total makeover of an "extreme" series. and they turned it into one of the trippiest coolest comics I've read in a long time, with an amazing array of cool artists.

 

The Invisibles

 

And a big chunk of The Invisibles also had Bolland cover art, so they've got that going for them too!

[Pete Marino]

OK, one more and then i'll shut up for a bit.

 

Another book that can show how good a Marvel title can be when they leave the writer alone to do their own thing....

 

Journey into Mystery (622-645) by Kieron Gillen

 

The saga of Kid Loki was just amazing. Well written with a cool journey and proof that no one is smarter than Loki... Ever!

[oldbsturgeon]

Out of all the things I read fairly recently and that I found excited to read that then something happened to make people not care anymore was nowhere men.

The restart was too late for it to really bounce back.

[divad]

Ennis's Hitman and Punisher will be bigger some day. Authority, too. These are long-term investments. Remember, Watchmen and Dark Knight (with the exception of #1) waited a long time to see their recent bumps in pricing.

 

Watchmen is waaaaay too good to sell, even at current prices.

[the authority]

Ennis's Hitman and Punisher will be bigger some day. Authority, too. These are long-term investments. Remember, Watchmen and Dark Knight (with the exception of #1) waited a long time to see their recent bumps in pricing.

 

Watchmen is waaaaay too good to sell, even at current prices.

 

Agreed. I still have my set and they have a permanent home.

[followtheleader]

A couple more that I put on "the podium" of my favorite stories. I don't think these have been mentioned, as a bunch of the ones already brought up are some of my favorites as well.

 

Superman: Red Son - An amazing otherverse story that showed what you can really do with superman and a creative storyteller.

 

The Invisibles - one of my personal favorites (check out my avatar). A series that can be inconsistent at times in both quality and tone, but taken as a whole one of the best comics I've ever read. I call it the dirty, homeless, grungy step brother to Sandman. Where Sandman is beautiful and elegant, The Invisibles is just raw.

 

Prophet issue 21+: a total makeover of an "extreme" series. and they turned it into one of the trippiest coolest comics I've read in a long time, with an amazing array of cool artists.

 

Prophet, great call. Even on these boards there hasn't been a great deal of talk about that reboot. Its fantastic.

 

Prophet was a good addition to this list.

Totally cracked out, but made the 90s garbage fun by never knowing what will pop up.

The last mini series has felt kind of so-so. But it's still better than a lot of books.

 

Patrick

[followtheleader]

LOW... maybe not as popular as it once was, but I think it's not a bad read.

 

 

Great read and still popular with me. The setting of this story is

 

Beautiful art, but hard to discern for me. It made it fatiguing.

 

I had the same problem. It made every issue feel like a chore, or like the pacing was incredibly slow.

 

Though I'm a big fan of his art, I think there was general concurrence on the 1st few issues. But it has definitely rounded out well since.

It honestly felt like the colors were too similar and muddied early on. More distinctive now.

Polar bear chick is tight.

 

Patrick

[Lonzilla]

I'll throw in some books which are done and pretty much dead on the secondary market but were series which I really enjoyed and still take out to re-read now and then:

Clone

Sheltered

Happy

Ten Grand

Harvest

Bedlam (Rossmo 1st arc)

Happy!

[SquareChaos]

Ten Grand was a big disappointment for me, I felt like I was far from alone in that. I think the timing of it may have set up too many expectations. Maybe a lot of people were looking for a Hellblazer replacement (talk about some good modern stories that no one much seems to care about...) like me and just wanted something different... I'm not sure.

[the authority]

...there was also...

 

New X-men - issues starting from #114 through the #130s and maybe a little higher, were completely awesome. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely ? Are you kidding me ? I ran across this run in TPB as I'm going through these boxes. I have the originals too but almost never pull them out because I want them to remain pristine. These are special.

 

While Morrison's take on JLA took characters like Batman and Martian Manhunter to godlike levels of power, New X-men completely redesigned both the looks and attitudes of most of the mutants in the books. Even better than that, very, very interesting new characters were introduced to us and man were they fun.

 

Cassandra Nova, Sentinels, and the obliteration of Genosha start the series off and you know you're in for a ride. A side note. When I was a kid in the '70s and early '80s, Cyclops was my favorite X-men. He was the good guy in the way that Superman was but he was also the field leader of the team. In this series, he is once again that guy....with swagger and a little edge to him. Loving Jean Grey while desiring Emma Frost was a completely new dynamic. It used to be that Jean Grey was the center of the love triangle. Cyclops had more edge now and was a bad, bad man. Not an easy recovery for a character that for years, seemed dulled down....back to the story.

 

As if bringing back badass Sentinels weren't enough, Morrison brought the Shi'ar empire back to...the mansion. The X-men seemed both more powerful and more vulnerable than ever. Characters like Xorn, Fantomex, Quenton Quire ( a very powerful and unstable guy ), and other new characters made each new issue a must read. Quitely' art and perception of the X-men was very unique and took a few issues to get used to. Looking back, I imagined reading these stories must as a kid would have probably been like reading Silver age Marvel comics new as a kid. You never knew what to expect.

 

These X-men turned out to be the foundation for the X-men movies much the way Mark Millar's The Ultimates were used in the Avengers movies. I could go on for hours about this series but would simply suggest that you read it if you haven't but it still holds up well and buy the originals. They will be in demand at some point...