A horse of a different color

Well, the Spider-Man/Obama comicbook is out now,and, well, I didn’t get one.

That’s right. I didn’t get on. You see, one of the comic shops at which I usually shop, was supposed to get 40 or 50 of them, and put most of them out at cover price, only they were (apparently) shorted by their distributor. To be sure, they will be getting copies of the second printing in next Wednesday (there is already a third printing, I understand). The second printing is supposed to have a yellow cover (rather than the blue of the first printing — no word on what the third printing will look like).

The cover you see here is the “Standard” cover. It is the version that I purchased, because, well, I am not about to pay exorbitant price-gouging prices for a brand-new comic, I don’t care who is on the cover. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ll pick up a copy of the second printing next week, because, well, it is kind of a cool thing to own, but only at cover price.

On the day of issue, neither of the two shops near me, nor the guy I purchase my books from has the Obama cover. a shop three towns away was selling them for $40.00, and my brother picked one up two towns further out for $15.00 (he’s thinking of selling it, and I’ll replace it with a 2nd printing edition).

Personally, I don’t see this comic holding its value over the long haul. I mean it will be like this for three, maybe six months, but a year into Obama’s term, or after he is no longer in office (eight or 10 years from now) it simply will not exponentially increase in value.

Near as I can determine (through my own inquiries, and by chatting with other collectors), the folks scrambling to buy this issue at any cost are — by-and-large — not comicbook collectors. They are (first and foremost) speculators, Democrats who voted for Obama, and, well, African Americans. I can’t help but to think that anyone who is buying this comic with the intention of selling it in a few years and putting their children through collage are going to be seriously disappointed.

Interestingly enough, I recently learned that this is not the first time that Obama’s visage has appeared on the cover of a comic (and, no, I’m not counting the pair of comics that came out before the election). Two companies published comics staring him and Senator McClain. One comic was a flip book (one side Obama and the other McCain) while the other company (IDW) produced individual comics for each candidate.

No, I'm talking about Obama appearing on the cover of Savage Dragon #137. In fact, the way I hear it, Obama has become something of a regular in Savage Dragon. I really don’t follow that title, so I was totally unaware of this, but still, I find it hard to believe that Erik Larsen put Obama on the cover and I, as both a Democrat and funnybook fan missed the announcement entirely.

To me, that simply smacks of bad marketing.

Anyway That’s what I have today (truthfully, I have more, but I’ll leave the rest for tomorrow, now I’m going to bed). In the mean time, go back and look at the Spidey cover again, as it is this cover that will be the topic of our next conversation.