Cyberspace Comics market report, reviews and more

December 8, 2010

Cyberspace Comics Market Report #4 Dec 2010

Filed under: Cyberspace Comics Market Report — Doorman @ 5:23 pm

I’ve been selling comics in my sparetime since 2002 but I only recently started selling them on a full-time basis. March 2010 was my first full month of full-time comic sales. It’s been a fun ride and it’s allowed me to continue to maintain this daily comics blog. Here’s a look back at the previous month.

Number of listings in eBay’s “comics” section: 1,751,086 (.37% decrease from last month)
Number of those that are Cyberspace Comics listings: 7,049 (18.9% increase)
My “market share” of comic listings on eBay: .40255% (19.37% increase)

Number of eBay comic listings that are auctions: 109,224
Percentage of eBay comic listings up for auction: 6.24%

My current eBay feedback (unique): 9,575
My current eBay feedback (total): 20,707
My positive eBay feedback score: 99.9%

Position Dollar Sales # of Current Listings
First Bad Girls Bad Girls (1,129 listings)
Second Image Comics (↑) Marvel Comics (938 listings)
Third Marvel Comics (↑) Image Comics (706 listings)
Fourth Other Indies (↓) Other Indies (573 listings)
Fifth Undergrounds (↓) Movie/TV Comics (363 listings)

 
Number of listings on Atomic Avenue: 1,248,855
Number of those that are in the Cyberspace Comics Store on Atomic Avenue: 15,045
My “market share” of comic listings on AtomicAvenue: 1.2047%
My estimated “market share” of AtomicAvenue orders: 5.40%

December 7, 2010

Comic Book Cover Swipes Exposed #36 Fantastic Four

Filed under: Swiped: Comic Book Cover Swipes Exposed! — Doorman @ 10:26 am

After looking at hundreds of comic book covers, it becomes quickly apparent that not every cover is 100% original. Whether done intentionally or even underhandedly, there’s something about uncovering these “swipes” that adds a new element of fun to reading and collecting comics.

Pitting the Hulk against the Fantastic Four has always been legendary. #25 is one of the earliest battles although the first was in #11. Decades later, the Trouble With Girls did a fun job with this cover swipe.

Fantastic Four #25
Fantastic Four #25
April 1964
Jack Kirby
the Trouble With Girls v2 #18
the Trouble With Girls vol. II #18
August 1990
 

On Ebay: Fantastic Four | Trouble With Girls | Hulk

December 6, 2010

One-Shot At Greatness #36 Speed Demon

Filed under: One-Shot At Greatness — Doorman @ 12:32 pm

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Speed Demon #1Publisher: Amalgam Comics
Cover Date: April 1996
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Howard Mackie with James Felder
Artist: Salvador Larroca

When the DC and Marvel Universes merged in Marvel vs DC, a new one was created: the Amalgam Universe. This one-shot combined Ghost Rider with Etrigan the Demon.

*Warning! Plot Spoilers Below*

Night Spectre‘s nefarious goal of collecting the Souls of Power is nearing its fruition. His plan to gather humans of great purity or corruption have stolen Blaze Allen’s girl, Iris, from him in the past. This led Blaze to bond with the demon, Etrigan, to become the Speed Demon. Now, he’s out to stop Night Spectre from collecting the last Soul of Power from Harvey Osborne, the Green Goblin! To make matters a bit more interesting, to help Blaze, Merlin has created a new Speed Demon in Blaze’s nephew, Wally. But, who’s the demon bonded with Wally?

This is a pretty fun supernatural super-hero storyline although it’s a bit heavy on the exposition at times. The artwork is superb but Speed Demon’s rhyming dialogue gets annoying quickly. The addition of a second Speed Demon was a nice tribute to the “legacy hero” nature of both Ghost Rider and the Flash (who’s mythos is also heavily involved in this amalgamation). Two things have me intrigued here: (1) Etrigan’s past is hinted at having some neat importance (2) The question of which demon is bonded with Wally is also interesting. Especially since it’s suggested that it might even be the Night Spectre, himself.

On Ebay: Amalgam | Howard Mackie | Salvador Larroca
On AtomicAvenue: Amalgam Comics

December 4, 2010

Minimate Spotlight #29 Ghostbusters

Filed under: Minimate Spotlight — Donny B @ 3:54 pm

Action figures have long been a perfect compliment to comic books, since every kid (or kid at heart) has that natural desire to act out adventures with their favorite heroes off the drawn page. Every so often, a unique style of figure comes along that breaks the mold, so to speak. Each Saturday, Donny B will be showcasing various offerings from Art Asylum’s take on the ‘block figure’, with a weekly spotlight on Minimates.

Although Vigo the Carpathian is not considered to be the most memorable foe that the Ghostbusters faced, he certainly had a unique presence in the second movie. To honor that, I decided that there was no more fitting approach for featuring this particular Minimate than to portray him as a painting:

The Ghostbusters franchise spawned a decent number of fan favorite ghosts, not the least of which was Slimer, the gooey green slob whose main purpose in life is to gorge himself on any food he comes across.

Art Asylum’s rendition of Slimer is rather accurate to the movie, which required a creative take on the overall design. Instead of a full Minimate body, Slimer’s frame is made up of everything above the waist, which sports a sculpted piece that conceals everything except the arms. To keep him posed, he comes packaged with a clear stand that you can insert where the waist peg would normally go.

Behind the Images:

For the image of Vigo, I found a scan of the painting featured in the film and simply superimposed a photo of the Minimate overtop of it. It only took a small amount of tweaking the color scheme to make everything feel as though it was done as a complete painting.

Slimer was a much quicker photoshop job than Vigo, even though it was essentially the same process for both images. With Slimer, I didn’t need to alter the background as much (note – the background is a screen capture from his introductory appearance in the first film). And to achieve the slightly transparent look, I only needed to utilize some filters and a few layer commands. I also added a glow effect to give him that slightly supernatural feel that he had in the movies.

On Ebay: Ghostbusters
On AtomicAvenue: Ghostbusters

December 3, 2010

Retro-Read #35 Cosmic Guard

Filed under: Retro-Read — Doorman @ 4:25 pm

With years spent reading single issues here and there, juggling storylines of dozens of titles, I decided it was time to find a better way to read comics. So, it was off to the back issue bins armed with the longest want list you’ve ever seen! Putting together series after series and reading them in their complete goodness, I was reborn as the Retro-Reader!

Cosmic Guard #1Publisher: Devil’s Due & Dynamited
Number of Issues: 6
First Issue: July 2004 ($2.99)
Last Issue: December 2005 ($2.99)
Writer: Jim Starlin
Artist: Jim Starlin

*Warning! Plot Spoilers Below*

Ray Torres is a teenage orphan who feels that suicide is his only way out. That is, until he finds himself imbued with the Cosmic Guard power. Along with the power comes a dead super-hero’s spirit who speaks with him inside his head. This hero is the Dark Paladin, who despite being the previous holder of the Cosmic Guard, was unable to stop the Genociders from destroying his home planet. Now they’re headed towards Earth and the Dark Paladin has to train Ray Torres so that he is capable of defeating this deadly alien force. Ray’s first mission? Destroy the Genociders’ Z-10 Kilbot herald.

The Bad: This is the beginning of a much larger story that has yet to be told …. and unfortunately, hasn’t been continued for the past 5 years.

The Good: Jim Starlin knows how to tell a cosmic hero story.

The Verdict: Jim Starlin is the master of cosmic super hero stories … and here’s another one! Sure we’ve seen some of these concepts before – in fact, the Cosmic Guard power brings to mind Marvel’s Uni-Power – but Starlin always manages to keep it fun and exciting. I wish this story would have had more of a threat than just a robotic probe but as I mentioned earlier, there’s a much bigger story waiting to be unfolded here. However, since that bigger threat has yet to be realized, there’s nothing here that puts this series over-the-top in terms of cool concepts, designs or action.

On Ebay: Cosmic Guard | Jim Starlin

December 2, 2010

Famous Fanmail #35 Ted Adams

Filed under: Famous Fanmail — Doorman @ 10:37 am

You may not be surprised to learn that most people in the comic business grew up reading comic books. However, you might be interested in knowing what they were reading. Here’s a look at “Famous Fanmail”!

Ted Adams is the CEO and one of a few owners of IDW, the comics publisher that was founded in 1999. Interestingly enough, he got a letter printed in Destroyer Duck #5 (cover date – December 1983), sharing his fondness for some of Marvel’s titles.

Destroyer Duck letters page with Ted Adams

On Ebay: Destroyer Duck | IDW

December 1, 2010

Glow in the Dark Comics #17 CyberRAD

Filed under: Glow in the Dark Comics — Doorman @ 10:25 am

During the speculator boom in the 1990s comic book market, publishers enhanced comic covers to increase sales. These gimmicks included shiny foil, holograms and even pop-ups! But, one of the coolest enhancements was the glow in the dark cover. Let’s shed some light on the subject, shall we?

CyberRAD #5 glows in the darkPublisher: Darqüe Studios
Cover Date: October 1991
Cover Price: $2.00

Continuity’s CyberRAD #5 has a pretty nifty glow in the dark cover enhancement. In the light, the human side declares his humanity but when it glows in the dark, the robotic component says “I AM A MACHINE”.

On Ebay: CyberRAD

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