Picked up Akira 38 at my lcs 1 1

[TheAvenger80]

I was psyched to find this as I have looked for a long time and never come across it. $5.00, and in 9.6 - 9.8 shape, to boot. How scarce are these later issues? They seem to draw some attention on eBay.

[Omegadepot]

# 38 seems to attract more interest than a # 1...i am intrigued as well. you would think # 1 would be more sought out since it has the main characters first American appearance in a comic. maybe a low print???

[Jeffro.]

I believe it's a print run thing. However, there are quite a few available if you're willing to pony up the asking price. Doesn't appear to be a truly scarce book

[Bronty]

# 38 seems to attract more interest than a # 1...i am intrigued as well. you would think # 1 would be more sought out since it has the main characters first American appearance in a comic. maybe a low print???

 

#1 is super common compared to #38.

 

There is a long gap (3 years maybe? I forget) between #31 or 32 and the next issue. As a result, those last five or six issues came out when a lot of fans thought the series was done.

[bellrules]

I also seem to remember there being a second print of #1

[dupont2005]

I think I paid $200 for mine, but they seem to be readily available for much less these days. Still not a cheap book and $5 is a fantastic deal for it

[pmpknface]

On 10/19/2016 at 1:01 PM, Bronty said:

 

#1 is super common compared to #38.

 

There is a long gap (3 years maybe? I forget) between #31 or 32 and the next issue. As a result, those last five or six issues came out when a lot of fans thought the series was done.

I think it was even longer than that between issues.  But yes, because of that #38 has a much smaller print run.  I bet the print runs got smaller as the last 4-5 issues got printed too.  Also, #38 has a bunch of pinups by various artists that's pretty cool.  

[lou_fine]

On 10/19/2016 at 4:42 AM, Jerkfro said:

I believe it's a print run thing. However, there are quite a few available if you're willing to pony up the asking price. Doesn't appear to be a truly scarce book

+1

I believe it's the same scenario with a lot of the final issues for many of these MA or CA runs. 

Edited February 18, 2017 by lou_fine1

[Allimagee]

Congrats on the #38!! It is definitely more sought after than the early issues due to the gap and the low print runs, as others have mentioned. I've been looking for 38 myself as i have 23-37 and a few early issues. Im more concerned with finding the last issue in High Grade. It seems like these books in this trade paperback style format are either thrashed or in really good condition. $5.00 is a hell of a deal, i'm super jealous!!!

[Bronty]

On 10/22/2016 at 11:04 PM, dupont2005 said:

I think I paid $200 for mine, but they seem to be readily available for much less these days. Still not a cheap book and $5 is a fantastic deal for it

I think the phone book style reprints hurt the collector market for the floppy squarebounds