Like walking in a Brookstone and your eyes just wander all over the place, there are now more variants of Modern comics than ever all fighting for our limited attention and pocketbooks. Here we will weed through that and feature a few that are rising in popularity.

 

VENOM: THE END #1 (CONVENTION EDITION)

This variant of Venom: The End #1 with cover art by Clayton Crain has been quickly climbing the popularity rankings over the last few months since its release as an exclusive for Chicago’s 2020 C2E2 event. How many copies are out in the wild? The variant was limited to 600, with COAs included.

Again, keeping the relatively low volume in mind… The first 9.8 slabs to come on the market started in the low $200s. With a total of 6 slabs graded at CGC 9.8 sold since March, the most recent two went for $450 and $500. On a side note, there are almost 6 times as many CGC 9.8s graded under the CGC Signature Series than there is the blue Universal label.

The artwork is very reminiscent of another of Clayton Crain’s covers, the Scorpion Comics edition of Spider-man Annual #1 (2019) which features Spider-Man also draped under the Star-Spangled Banner. Here, the most comparable is the virgin variant, which was also limited to 600 copies. The FMV of a CGC 9.8 for this book sits at $110. Interestingly, the sales prices only broke above the $100 level in mid-2020; mirroring the behavior of Crain’s Venom: The End #1.

 

 

STRANGE ACADEMY #1 (OPENA VARIANT)

A school for the magically gifted… Nope, not Hogwarts. The future of Marvel’s magical universe now has its own school, Strange Academy. With Doctor Strange at the helm, it’s easy to draw comparisons to Professor X and his School for Gifted Youngsters. Of the variants for the premiere Strange Academy #1, the most popular one at the moment appears to be the Jerome Opena cover.

In May 2020, initial sales of CGC 9.8 slabs sold around $150, but by the end of the month, it reaches highs of just under $200. It only broke above that $200 level with the two most recent sales, $225 and $300. For a quick reference, the next most popular variant Comic Mint Edition B (Peach Momoko) has a CGC 9.8 FMV of $170 and the main cover is at $80.

On the off chance that Marvel Studios ever decides to break into the magical school market, this book could be an interesting pickup. Very low chance, but not impossible. Optimistically, this book does contain the first appearances of the school itself and a lot of its students.

 

 

STAR WARS ADVENTURES: CLONE WARS #1 (FRANKIE'S COMICS ""VIRGIN"" EDITION)

Continuing the trend of low volume of sales but high sales prices are the Frankie’s Comics variant of Star Wars Adventures: Clone Wars #1 with cover art by Peach Momoko. The print run of this book was limited to 1,000. As the most recently released of the books featured here, its volume of sales is the lowest; only 3 CGC 9.8 slabs have sold so far with 1 currently at auction on eBay (possibly sold depending on when this article is published). Overall, the CGC 9.8 FMV at the moment stands at $250.  A quick look at the overall market for Peach Momoko’s books does seem positive.

 

 

 

“Everybody can draw, in my estimation. If you give a man 50 years, he'll come up with the Mona Lisa.” – Jack Kirby