Author: James Jou

Efficiency in Determining What to Grade

THE PROBLEM When deciding on a book to grade, is there a good strategy on how to decide which book to grade? Assuming limited financial resources, is there an efficient way to weigh the cost of grading versus the resultant market value?   ...

Collecting the Todd McFarlane/Neil Gaiman Feud

With the winter holidays over and the accompanying arguments with friends and family surely settled, let’s capstone it with collecting the key books involved with one of the most infamous comic book feuds of all, the one between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman....

Unusual Activity in The Walking Dead Variants

In the Walking Dead variant market, the usual focus tends to be on the Lucille variant of Walking Dead #100. Fair enough, given the iconic weapon gracing the cover. But sorting a little bit further into the variant haystack has...

The Prowler

With all of the attention on Miles Morales’ key comic, what is going on with those of his antagonist and uncle Aaron Davis, also known as the Prowler? Better yet, let’s expand further back to include the original Prowler, Hobie Brown.  ...

Instead of a positive movie bump, is a negative effect possible?

We often see movies positively affect the price of a book, but in a first, one of them might have been negatively affected. In examining the key comic books of Dr. Bolivar Trask and his creations, Master Mold and the Sentinels, such an event might have...

The Original Mandalorian: Star Wars #42 & #68

Long before the current Mandalorian (and baby Yoda) craze, was the craze for the original Mandalorian, Boba Fett. He was so popular that he managed to outgrow his Star Wars Holiday Special debut and even survive death by Sarlacc pit. In an...

Can a Jonathan Hickman original get a TV adaptation already?

Given the rising popularity of Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X, it makes one wonder when some of his Image Comics originals will gain favor in the market.  Especially with the recent deluge of more eclectic comic books turned TV series choices; such as The Boys,...

Sauron – Savage Books on the Rise

Originally created as a way around the Comics Code Authority’s rules against vampires, Sauron has since risen to become one of the X-Men’s greatest antagonists. And yes, Sauron is named after the dark lord in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels. With much of X-Men...

Speculation update: Jane Foster, Peggy Carter, Sharon Carter, Batroc The Leaper

Another installment of examining a batch of comic book characters that were likely heavily speculated on surrounding their silver screen debut, but now less so. It just so happens that the characters to be featured here all happen to be more human...

Any Love for Black Suit Superman?

With all the black suit Spider-Man comic book collection show and tells, any love for black suit Superman? Most recently, the suit has managed to find itself at the center of the fan-driven “release the Snyder cut” campaign. Also known as the Recovery Suit, Regeneration Suit,...