Jericho Drumm is starting to work his magic on comic collectors. Although, a few years ago, there was mild interest in Strange Tales #169 (his comic debut), only a small number of people had enough faith or foresight then to see his potential.

The clues were there. Now, at last, Brother Voodoo’s first appearance is really starting to heat up.

Back in February 2017, after release of the ‘Doctor Strange’ movie to Blu-Ray, there was an Easter egg included: a deleted scene seemingly meant for Brother Voodoo fans. There it is established that the ground is being prepared for a future appearance of Jericho Drumm. Don’t you love the meticulous details and attention to fan service contained in these Marvel releases?

In a scene that failed to make the theatrical release, after we see Kaecilius invade the Sanctum Santorum we learn that it is protected by its current guardian: Master Drumm.

The exchange between Steven Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and the mortally wounded ‘Master Drumm’ (played by Mark Anthony Brighton), unequivocally lets us know that this character is Daniel Drumm: brother to Jericho.

Finally, the recent word from Marvel, still a rumor but basically all but confirmed, is that Daniel’s appearance in the first 'Dr. Strange' film does indeed mean that Jericho Drumm will be making an MCU appearance in director Scott Derrickson’s ‘Doctor Strange 2’. According to media reports floated the other day (see here), not only is Tilda Swinton in talks to return as the Ancient One (after just recently reprising the role for 'Avengers: Endgame'), but both Jericho Drumm and Clea may be set to make their MCU debuts.

Clea is deserving of a blog post in her own right, but sticking to Jericho Drumm, let’s take a look at how this news is affecting numbers on Strange Tales #169.

Strange Tales #169 (September 1973) – First Appearance of Brother Voodoo

About four months ago, when I first posted about this book (see here and here), there were around 480 copies of this comic on the CGC census with only seven 9.8 copies.

Fast forward 17 weeks or so and we now find 541 CGC copies. The submission rate is increasing in a steady stream and is likely to keep doing so as 'Doctor Strange 2' goes into production. This is a fairly hard book to find in 9.8 but around December, if you had a certified 9.8 copy, it would have had a FMV of around $3, 100.00. On February 24, 2019 a 9.8 copy sold on Heritage Auction for $3, 600.00. Four months ago, 9.6 copies had a FMV of $850.00. Today a 9.6 can sell for $1,100.00. That’s some serious spiking.

Four months ago, I recommended buying a 9.0 for $220.00 – if you took my advice, that 9.0 is now worth $425.00. Remember, Brother Voodoo hasn’t even been cast yet (but since he and Daniel were twins in the comic, we can assume he will also be played by Mark Anthony Brighton).

Looking at the sales trends over the past twelve weeks, we see an already hot book getting second wind:

6.0 grades show positive returns, up +33.5% after 2 eBay sales [04/15/2019 = $100.00; 05/08/2019 = $133.46].

7.5 grades showed negative, down -18.7% after 3 eBay sales [03/12/2019 = $160.00, 03/25/2019 = $138.00; 04/09/2019 = $121.90]

8.0 grades showed negative, down -12.8% after 3 eBay sales [02/25/2019 = $219.00; 03/03/2019 = $195.00; 05/05/2019 = $188.49]. And,

8.5 grades were positive +4.2% after 4 eBay sales [02/27/2019 = $400.00, 04/26/2019 = $209.00; 05/08/2019 = $325.00; 05/08/2019 = $310.00].

What’s that you say, mixed numbers? Two things to remember: (1) The above sales came on the back of basically steadily rising value for ST #169 and (2) they all happened before the news leaked, two days ago, that Drumm is likely to make a 'Doctor Strange 2' appearance.

What do you think will happen once the 'Doctor Strange 2' trailer drops and it shows Brother Voodoo fighting side by side with Strange?