After much murmuring and grape vine whispers, Amazon seems all set to adapt Brian Vaughan’s Paper Girls comic to the small screen. Will it happen? As my trusty Magic 8-Ball is telling me: “Outlook good”. Well, my Magic 8-Ball in tandem with this ‘Nerdist’ article ( see here). Beside Paper Girls #1, what other comics might be worth picking up in connection with this news?

Paper Girls #1 (October 2015) - First issue in series

First let’s take a look at Paper Girls. Paper Girls has been called the ‘Stranger Things’ of comic books (I wrote about the latter – which has since become a series of comic books, here: Stranger Things in Comics). Set in 1988, Paper Girls tells the story of four teenage girls, Erin, MacKenzie, KJ, and Tiffany, who, while delivering newspapers, become unsuspectingly thrown into the midst of a time-war! Basically this is ‘Stranger Things’ meets ‘Dr. Who’ (or, as the Image Comics publicity blurb puts it: “Stand By Me meets War of the Worlds”). Brian K. Vaughan’s scripts are illustrated by Cliff Chiang and the series was planned to end at issue #30, but who knows if the Amazon news will not extend its life or even lead to a spin-off series.

Should you buy it? Let’s look at the data:

Currently Paper Girls #1 has a FMV in 9.8 certified condition of $75.00. I would expect that to change as the hype from the Amazon deal leads to a rush to buy this book. In the recent past, the book already broke the $100.00 mark on several occasions. A 9.8 sale on 07/09/2019 for $107.00 on eBay was only the latest of the ‘over-100’ dollar sales that have been transacted. Once a book breaks the $100.00 mark once, it can happen again. The question we want to answer here is how high can it potentially go?

This was already a well-liked series and people seem to have anticipated the live action news to an extent, since the CGC census shows a total of 764 copies already graded. 9.8 copies make up the top 90.2% of all graded copies: this is, after all, a modern book (major caveat: Do NOT buy lower than a 9.8 grade of this book if you are purchasing for investment purposes).

What have returns on first prints looked like?

Long term returns have been very strong. The biggest winner, according to available data, is 9.2 copies with a positive return of +199.9%, but keep in mind that data set is based on 2 sales over the last 4 years. A more reliable indicator would be the 9.8 sales which also show positive returns, but this time of +129.8%, moreover that’s after 241 sales over the last four years. 9.6 grades show a positive +67.6% after seven sales. However 9.4 sales are showing negative returns of -33.8% after 5 sales over the last 4 years.

If we narrow our window down to the last 12 weeks, there have been only 9.8 sales documented by GoCollect and they show a positive +34.7% return after 26 sales. All good signs, especially if you have bought a copy for under $100.00 dollars and want to sell now. Is it a good time to buy right now? Looking over at eBay offers, the hype machine has already played a part as raw copies are going for between $15 and $20.00. I haven’t seen a 9.8 up for sale with an offer below $100.00. Now is not the best time to buy, it's possible once the show premieres prices will dip.

So, let’s say you don’t have a copy of Paper Girls #1 already, and like me you aren’t convinced this comic will rise high enough to make an investment worthwhile at current prices, what are your alternatives?

Saga #1 (March 2012) – First issue of titled series; First appearance of Alana, Hazel, and Marko; First appearance of The Will; First appearance of Prince Robot IV

All the focus on Paper Girls is taking attention away from the comic I think Brian K. Vaughan will be remembered for. This one has legs and it’s the Space Opera called Saga. The first ten issues of this series in first prints are better bets for long term spec than Paper Girls. If you're not impressed with the Paper Girls news, but like Brian Vaughan and think his star is on the rise, get the early Saga issues while they are still relatively affordable.