News: Some people still buy back issues (at least Walking Dead, but probably not Deadpool)

by Mike Hansen

Who wants some freshly baked bread? Mmmm.

A few weeks ago, a grade-9.9 copy of The Walking Dead #1 sold for over $10,000. That is INSANE for any comic under 50 years old, much less one from a decade ago – I mean, even a 9.8 copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1 is offered at only $4,000 at Lone Star Comics! The Walking Dead is one of the few series that still has demand outpacing supply, despite the zillions of reprints in various formats (including Walking Dead Weekly, which even included the original letters pages!). I have a feeling that there’s a small group of very rich comics collector/investors out there buying this, probably the same folks who have been pushing up the prices of key 1930s-1960s comics like Action Comics #1 or X-Men #1 or whatever.

On the other end of the scale, folks are finally waking up to the fact that the first appearance of Deadpool in New Mutants #98 is WAY overpriced. I’ve been talking about this for years now – while most Marvel comics sell 10,000-50,000 copies these days, in the early ’90s they generally sold hundreds of thousands of copies. NM #98 is one of the most common back issues in comics history, but retailers have hoarded copies and jacked up prices because of a brief resurgence of interest in Deadpool stories after the Wolverine movie came out. Now there’s a website devoted to this absurdity! I love it.

The fact is,

R.I.P. Craig Miller

by Mike Hansen

I just received this notice from Lone Star Comics owner Buddy Saunders as part of Lone Star’s weekly email, and I thought I should share an excerpt:

Everyone here at Lone Star Comics is mourning the loss of our good friend, Craig Miller.  Craig died Nov. 7^th from a heart attack at the age of 53.  You may know Craig from the magazines he published.  Publishing under the name Win-Mil Productions, he edited and wrote much of the content for Following Cerebus (12 issues), Wrapped in Plastic (75 issues), Spectrum Magazine (35 issues), and Renegade Rabbit (5 issues).

Craig was my first employee at Lone Star Comics, coming to work for me back in 1977. In those days the Lone Star Comics warehouse was my two car garage, and there Craig would join me to pull comic orders after he completed classes at the local university. Craig continued to work for Lone Star off and on right up to the end. During that time he became one of my best and most trusted friends, and a man I will always admire.

I’ve read several issues of Following Cerebus, Wrapped in Plastic, and Spectrum. The passion and effort that went into these publications was undeniable. Craig Miller and his efforts will be missed.