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Comic Book Guides: What's my comic worth?

© Robert Smithers

Recently, I have had a number of question like, "How much is my issue of Fill-In-The-Blank-Person worth?" I'm going to give you some guideline on how to look up the comic in the Guide (Collector's price book). I get many questions on to find a specific comic book issue in the price guide, and I will try to give you my best tips on how to look up a comic in a guidebook.

The three main components to looking up a comic in a price guide are the title, the volume, and the issue. The "Title" of a comic is the 'official' name the publisher gives to this comic. The "Volume" refers to the current title's continuing series of issue number. The "Issue" is the number given to the comic within the volume. Clear as mud, right? Let's go to some examples.

Take a comic book . Look at the cover. The name on the cover is the "Title", right? Wrong. Open the comic. Look at the bottom of the inside cover or the bottom of the first page. In small print, there should be complete copyright and publication information, including the address of the publisher. On the first line of this copyright information is the "official publication Title" of the comic book. This may or may not be the same as the name on the cover of the comic. EXAMPLE: On the cover of a Marvel comic it says "The Amazing Spider-Man" On the inside publication information section, the title is officially listed as "The Amazing Spider-man". No problem. EXAMPLE: On the cover of a Marvel Comic it says "The Invincible Iron Man" On the inside publication information, the title is officially listed as "Iron Man" . Oops! The official title and the cover are different. EXAMPLE: On the cover of a DC Comic it says "Xenobrode" On the inside publication information, the title is officially listed as "Xenobrodes" Oops again. Similar, but plural. Just different enough to have us tearing our hair out.

Okay, in the same publication information, right after the title, it SHOULD list a volume number. Volume is sometimes abbreviated "Vol." EXAMPLE: Superman Vol. 2.... If no volume number is listed, it is assumed that this comic title is volume 1. (And, IMHO, the publisher should be hung by their thumbs for a few days.) The complexity of a volume comes in when a comic changes titles without changing volumes. EXAMPLE: DC's Superboy title changed to "Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes" without changing volumes. Additional complexity has been added my publishers like Image. EXAMPLE: Cover of image comic says "Wildstar". Inside publication information say "Wildstar: Sky Zero" The "Sky Zero" nomenclature can be thought of as both a title change, AND a volume label. Now, you as the reader have to try and figure out if "Sky Zero" is before or after "Ground Zero" or any other subtitle the publisher may include.