2.1
That number represents the amount that the comic book Action Comics no.1 sold for, $2.1 million that is. Yep, that’s a whole lot of money but considering there are only thought to be 100 copies of this rare comic left in the world and it graded a 9.0. That’s near perfection and for a comic that came out in June 1938, a 9.0 is near miraculous. I’ve got comics that just came out last month that are in worse shape than that one, and it’s not because I messed it up but because that’s how I got it when buying it. Which only makes finding one that came out 73 years ago when stores that sold a comic book, especially the first one and involves some dude in tights and a cape, they didn’t really care how they handled the comic when putting it on the shelves. There’s also the people buying them, more than likely kids, maybe a few adults, but unless the one buying it had a time machine to go back in time to say hey take care of that comic, the people buying the comic wouldn’t think they should keep in good shape to collect.
Figured I throw that out there first on this weeks blog. It’s some news in the comic world, kind of big too because it’s the highest selling comic book in history. Not only is it that but there’s some controversy surrounding the comic and the selling of it. This particular comic book was once owned by Nicolas Cage and was stolen off of Cage back in 2000. It was recently found in April at a storage locker in California. Though the drama surrounding it deepens because it’s being said that this is Cages comic but then some are saying that it’s not. There are some markings on the comic that is supposed to prove that it is the one owned by Nicolas Cage, which is where the drama comes in. Is it his or is it not? I would say that the markings on the comic cover would prove that it’s his and considering he just made $2.1 million bucks that goes to say it is his. Must be nice to be able to sell one comic for that amount of money, I mean even with waiting the 11 years to get the comic back, it only took a few months for it to sell at 2 million. I sure would wait 11 years if I knew I was getting $2.1 million.
Anyways, on to the other stuff of the comic book variety.
I just finished reading the 8 issue miniseries of Ozma of Oz and again what a great series this is. Before this I would not have thought that I would be liking the story of Oz so much but with some astounding artwork by Skottie Young added with the adventure that the writing takes me on by Eric Shanower. The story is pretty fun where it takes Dorothy Gale, who has been back in the normal world and is on a trip with her Uncle Henry when the ship they are on gets swept away in a storm. Or I should say it’s Dorothy who gets swept away because she ends up back in Oz where she meets a talking chicken she names Billina, who is really funny actually. Stuck in Oz again Dorothy has to deal with the Wheelers, some very creepy dudes I must say, a tiger with unending hunger, the Nome King who looks more like a demented Santa Claus, meeting the new queen of Oz Ozma, and of course hanging out with old friends Cowardly Lion, Tin Woodman, and Scarecrow.
These are great stories but I got to admit it’s the artwork that I like the most. Skottie Young does a tremendous job with making these characters come to life with his work. His way of drawing is not the typical style with the solid lines, sharp edges, and looking more like a photograph than a drawing. Nope, he has a style where the work has a rough look to it, the edges look like he had started to fill in a sketch but didn’t quite finish. It works though, it works very well and it has kept me spending my money to get more of it. Which the next series that has already started and is now on issue 3 is Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Notice that it’s IN Oz and not Of Oz. Though with it being again an 8 issue series I still have another 5 months before I will be reading it.
Also, it seems like FF is still going even with the Fantastic Four restarting again with issue #600. Which I suppose is good as long as they keep with the same characters, mainly Spider-Man being part of the team. Though what I’m thinking is that because the FF stands for Future Foundation and there are more members on it than just Reed, Sue, Ben and Spidey, there’s also all the kids and the Dragon. That means they could turn the FF title into one that features the kids instead of Reed, Sue, Ben, and Spidey. Now that Johnny Storm aka Human Torch is back I’m waiting for how long it will take before the people of Marvel decide to put him back on the Fantastic Four and give Spider-Man the boot. If and when that does happen, I’ll probably read the F4 title for a few after, see how it runs, try to enjoy it, but as before the F4 are fun to read for small portions, they make good back up characters in other titles, and have fun space adventures but the fun of reading the main title fades pretty quickly for me.
