Trending Comics and Best Cover Art #628 – And An InvestComics State Of The Modern Speculation Market Message

InvestComics/Trending Pop Culture; SINCE 2005.
Here are this week’s top Trending Comics and Best Cover Art headed your way this Tuesday/Wednesday 5-19-20/5-20-20

Click on the RED links, Images or the comic cover to buy/bid from All available sellers on Ebay
Please note: New comic book releases and all items are subject to change

With the ever-changing comic book industry during these times, there are sudden changes and moves that occur within a moment’s notice or no notice at all. This pandemic has sent an already fragile industry into unknown territory. Thus the reason(s) for changes on the fly sometimes.

We had everything aligned regarding a bunch of DC Comics to follow and check out, but DC pulled the rug out and they’re only releasing a bunch of trades and a few reprints this Tuesday. Marvel will not be back until May 27th. So, with that, we still believe we have the indie books in order for this week, providing these come out. Either way, it looks as though next week will be the official week DC Comics gets on board with NEW comics. Marvel Comics are set to return the following week. Again, this can all change, so here’s hoping things back on track soon. Until then, enjoy the indie comics set for this week (we hope) below.

Steve #backthecomeback

Before that though, let’s have some fun! 

VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM INVESTCOMICS REGARDING THE STATE OF THE SPECULATION MARKET: Long time coming here. Here are some very candid InvestComics comments/opinions regarding the NEW state of the modern comic book market and the market as a whole. Please, please put big boy pants on before reading. This message is not meant in a malicious way but spoken in a harsh/real way. Many will say it’s complaining or we have a stick up our ass or whatever it may be, but it’s not. It’s an opinion. Don’t like it, can’t handle it, feel triggered, move along. Be a grown-up. It’s big boy time now.

As many who have followed InvestComics since 2005 will know, we were the premier/first full site regarding speculating comics on the internet. Number one for many years even after all the copycats came along. Somewhere around 2009 or later, many “experts” themselves emerged, were born, and started literally copying the InvestComics guidelines. They too recommended the first Thanos or the first Guardians Of The Galaxy or the first Namor or the first Black Panther or….well, you get the idea. Of course, there is nothing wrong with anyone recommending a comic to buy, but when InvestComics made our picks, it was years prior to those making them then and making them now. Also, one should always give credit if they read it there first. Let’s understand something about InvestComics, we too were hyping comics as though they were the next best thing to send your kids to college…..during our infancy stage. But, something happened along the way. We grew up. We matured to the realization that the modern market was changing, it became so contrived and overall undisciplined. Keen followers of our site would witness/read the change happening over the years within our vernacular well before the change over from InvestComics to Trending Pop Culture happened in early 2018. In order to evolve, one must be aware of the market and where it’s headed. The current market is not a market, It’s a convoluted mess. 

InvestComics made many visitors to our site a lot of cash. The issue now is all (not some) of these speculator sites (and not spec sites) are recommending the comics that accompany a movie or TV announcement, even cartoons. Variety, Hollywood Reporter, TMZ, etc., take your pick. They literally wait for a post from an entertainment site, search for first appearances, then post it as though they’ve actually done something good for the collectors market. Anyone can do this now. And everyone does. A new Flash character to appear on a television show does not equate to a comic commanding big money. The drop side is too big. A villain making an appearance in a film does not always make for a “key comic”. It’s amateur moves like this that made InvestComics realize, it’s time for a change. Anyone remember the price the first Hydro-Man commanded at one time? First Dark Elves anyone? It’s hype nonsense and most newbie speculators are being played. When a movie/TV/cartoon announcement does not occur for a while, a nonsense spec book always seems to emerge as a HOT book. It’s usually described as a rare print run, a first cover appearance, and on and on. It’s an absolute fact this occurs, watch for it, learn, be vigilant. This imaginary hype is created to keep things going, to solidify the broken modern market as well as the entire market itself. The modern market is especially broken, but the Bronze/Silver/Golden will always have a market in pop culture. We saw a modern 9.8 modern graded comic the other day that sold for $400+ with ZERO validity to its warranting a price tag like that. No first appearance, no notes on the grade to highlight a notable issue, nothing. The high price tag arrives because it’s a hard get in “high-grade”. A random Wolverine comic. Not a variant, not even a pretty cover, not a premiere issue, first appearance, nothing. The spine turned out good on some copies and not all. THAT”S IT. This is the REAL reason for the $400+ asking price. The absurdity here is astounding. How about another recent comic we came across, Adam: Legend Of The Blue Marvel #1. A 2008 release. A $500 book. How? Why? Oh yes, first Blue Marvel appearance was once RUMORED to be in a Marvel movie and is “hard to find”. Want to see what InvestComics said about this comic in 2008? We’ll copy and paste the exact text (Zero edits here. Caps, grammatically errors, spacing errors, spelling errors and all are included);
Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1  Now here’s an interesting character that will fly right under the radar on Wednesday. While fans flock to get the Ultimatum, the INTODUCTION of a new Marvel character is coming out, in a number one issue no less. Tony Stark finds the only man to ever defeat Anti-Man, Going back into time he gets Blue Marvel! This character not only looks bad ass, but is going to kick some ass in New York City and in sales. Get this quickly or buy the second print in a few weeks! Within the SAME article InvestComics said this about a particular book. Already three years into our existence and the change was taking place to distance from the hype of modern books; Ultimatum #1  “This series changes everything”. A quote that seems to have very little validity these days, but as always (especially with Marvel) I’m in! Marvel puts the whole Ultimate Universe on it’s butt and is taking a major character down for the dirt nap. The Ultimate Universe could use a kick in the nads and this just might be the series that does it. Get the white variant cover and hold onto this comic when this series really starts heating up, then dump it. You’ll be able to get back that variant a year from now for a third of the price. MORE FROM THE SAME ARTICLE!; Marvel Comics brings it this week with the much anticipated and hyped Ultimatum and the much under-hyped Blue Marvel. AND LAST FROM THIS SAME ARTICLE; A small week indeed…..This would be a perfect time to go to those back issue bins and find yourself some treasures. Look for those Bronze age comics; obscure first appearances, first work by writer/artist, death issues, origin issues, number one issues, buy it all up while  they are still very affordable and becoming scarcer. I’ll leave you with the Bronze Age pick of the week. Iron Man #55, first appearance of Thanos. Buy this, read it, love it and hold on to it. All of this from ONE article IN 2008. Please notice. No movie mention, no television rumor, no cartoon appearance, nothing. Man, we’re good.   

It’s a call(s) like this that separates InvestComics from the boys. There are countless calls like this throughout the years that never required a movie/TV/Cartoon announcement. We are the GOAT. Always will be. Are we tooting our own horn? Yep. When all is said and done, InvestComics will be remembered as the Babe Ruth of this market place. When all the haters, sh**talkers, jealous, envious, storytellers, liars, are long gone, InvestComics will get its due. Lest we remind anyone reading this, InvestComics never, ever spoke sh*t about you or anyone. Ever. EVER. We’ve always given credit to Wizard World magazine for giving us the spark to start InvestComics. We’ve given credit to anyone and supported the comic community for 15 years now. We never had hangups about giving anyone their due.

So back to the current market. Many of the modern spec collectors have to wise up. Realize the fact there are no speculative sites these days that are truly helping you make a decision(s) on where to spend your money in today’s market. Hyping a random book with little to no validity so they can get some traffic to their site is not real. That’s taking care of their bottom line, not yours. It’s so comical the books that are pawned off as “hot comics” these days from speculators and spec sites. Here’s one that still makes us chuckle from a few years ago; Scooby-Doo comic with a Harley Quinn appearance. RARE, short print! Huh? It’s the characters’ 947th appearance in a comic with a talking dog. Really? An early appearance of HQ would make more sense here, not a comic no one will truly give a sh*t about 10 years from now. Now please, understand this as well, money is good. Money is awesome. If you have a Blue Marvel and think you can dump it for $500 to a buyer, then, in turn, pay a phone bill, light bill, and groceries, then you should do that. If you want to sell it and reinvest in a Bronze/Silver/Golden Age comic, that’s smart investing. Buying a $500 pretty Venom variant cover that came out last week because some website says it’s rare, is a big gamble. The inside of the comic is the same as the thousands that have a different cover. Like the cover that much? Wait for the poster to come out. Too much possible downside with these variants. We can hear the nerds/wannabes screaming already, “don’t tell me how to spend my money.” We never would, trying to educate you, but you keep at your pace. See how far you get.
So here’s a very giant warning regarding the speculation market we wrote about on Trending Pop Culture site a few weeks ago regarding the pandemic. When things come back, the next big GET/HYPE for the ridiculous modern market will be dubbed as “LOW PRINT RUN”. News flash people, every single new comic will have a significantly lower print run as previously ordered. This means lower prints on any and all Punchline comics, Virus comics, Clownhunter comics, variants, etc. EVERY. SINGLE. COMIC. WILL. BE. A. LOWER. PRINT. RUN. Do not succumb to the nonsense sell promoting this. Be your own judge and jury on a comic and figure out what will be important. Speculator sites and sellers will in FACT run with this hype. Do not fall for it. Not every comic that has a small print run will be a home run. Again, money is beautiful, if you can get a hold of a ridiculously hyped book and flip it for 300% of its value, do it if the other side is willing to pay for it, but try to refrain from hyping the sale. You’re not a used car salesman. Some of these new characters are bringing in more money than the first Deathstroke because it’s hot right at this moment. Zero history for the Punchline character, Virus, and soon to be Clownhunter and they’ll have an asking price way above their pay rate. Imagine that, zero anything and the asking price in the hundreds. Why?? Paying on the high end for some/most LOW PRINT comic hype is and will be a loss in the long term. You will lose. InvestComics cannot stress this enough, this is a real issue about to hit the modern market. Not everything named “short print run” will be worth gobs and gobs of money. 

We have noticed that the InvestComics brand has made various appearances within the Trending Pop Culture articles more recently than not these days. It’s hard to sit idle and watch this whole market turn into this overinflated bubble. One recent recommendation InvestComics was very high on and no one else at the time, was/is Marvel’s Strange Academy from Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos. We are strongly bullish on this series. We came across a post on social media that had someone hyping it as though it was new news. Someone (thankfully) posted a link from Trending Pop Culture stating that we (InvestComics) were touting this comic months ago. Hopefully, that person becomes a fan now. Or maybe they were and pulled the “look at me, I’m smart” card. Haha!

Maybe it’s time for InvestComics to make more appearances for a bit and educate the market place. This broken market needs us more now than ever before. Things are going to get out of control in the modern speculation market. Money will be tighter than ever now and guidance from the GOAT will probably be needed. We’ll see. Invest Wisely. Read Comics.

Trending Comics and Best Cover Art #628

Savage Dragon #248 – The leadup to the 250th issue begins here. Most of the Savage Dragon rouge gallery gathers to finally slay the Dragon. Creator/artist/writer, Erik Larsen, says it’s a fantastic jumping on point too.
Star Wars Adventures The Clone Wars Battle Tales #1 – A new weekly Star Wars story. Weekly?? Okay, what’s not to love about that? Writer Michael Morec and artist Arianna Florean.  
Vlad Dracul #1 – Scout Comics has been one of the few indie publishers to sling new comics through their own website during the pandemic. Kudos to them for doing so. This book was covered already a few weeks ago on Trending Pop Culture, but it looks as though (maybe) the release arrives this week….officially. Who knows anymore?? Probably can head over to the Scout Comics site and grab it there now anyway. Writer Matteo Strukul and artist Andrea Mutti.   

Savage Dragon #248
Vlad Dracul #1
Clone Wars Battle Tales #1

Click on the RED links, Images or the comic cover to buy/bid from All available sellers on Ebay

The Ludocrats #1 – Image Comics breaks into the Trending pile this week with a debut series from writers Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol, with artist Jeff Stokely.
Make Way For The Man #1 – One of two premier issues from Titan Books this week. Make Way….from writer Mark Wheatley and artist Marc Hempel. The other debut is Cutting Edge The Sirens Song #1 from writer Francesco Dimitri and artist Mario Alberti. 

The Ludocrats #1
Make Way For The Man #1
Cutting Edge #1

Click on the RED links, Images or the comic cover to buy/bid from All available sellers on Ebay

BEST COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

Bob Q
Paolo Pantalena
Christophe Quet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VIDEOS – Trending music, gaming, movie trailers, television trailers, viral videos this week…

Prince & The Revolution: Live

https://youtu.be/KRa8ZH_iOXo

6IX9INE- GOOBA (Official Music Video)

Paper Mario: The Origami King – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch

(Important Notice: How this all works and more….We provide a link(s) (red link or a clickable image) that leads to ALL available ebay sellers of a featured item(s). We DO NOT house or own any of the items featured or recommended in this article. The buyer will assume all responsibility of their purchase between them and the ebay seller if a purchase is made. We will and NEVER would force-feed any comic or item for personal gain. Again, we do not own any of these items.
Trending Pop Culture and InvestComics have nothing to do with any of the sellers within this article. The buyer assumes all responsibility and relinquishes Trending Pop Culture and InvestComics of any issue(s) that may incur during their process of purchasing anything linked within this article or the entire website.) 

Secure your legacy.
Carpe Diem.
Jay Katz

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