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Top Ten Marvelman Comics

Published Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:20:31 -0500

So, you want to read Marvelman. The comic that simply everyone is talking about. How much is it going to set you back? Prices indicate the highest reach of recent eBay sales on non CGC issues.

1. The Complete Eclipse Collection. Miracleman 1-24, plus Miracleman Family 1 and 2, Miracleman Apocrypha 1-4 and Miracleman 3D 1 – $470. A quick and easy way to get the full Miracleman experience, published from the late eighties into the nineties. working out at about $15 an issue. Although naturally some issues are worth more than others. Indeed the earlier issues are more plentiful and are worth less.

2. Olympus TPB – $400. This is where it gets really silly. The third trade paperback of the series is almost worth the entire series in single form. Rare and very much in demand from people who want their comics in a spine. And you know what? The reproduction isn't even that good. But it does contain the rarest issues of Miracleman in shelf form.

3. Artwork from the original 1950s Marvelman series has been doing compartively well recently, with a high of $315 a page. And there are so many pages available. Original issues of the comic book have also been selling for $17.50. I have no idea how mujch the Moore/Gaiman era artwork would go for now. I only know that my two pages of Davis artwork (when Winter first sees Garguanza from the womb) were stolen from me on public transport hours after buying them by someone who most klikely threw them away… it still hurts.

4. Miracleman #1 Gold $250 – 400 copies of the first issue were remarked and signed by Alan Moore for convention sales. The "Gold" variant used to get $1000 before people realised just how silly that was.

5. Miracleman Bowen Statue $120. The statue made to fund Marvel & Miracles LLC attempt to clarify who owned the character, was itself part of a court case when Todd McvFarlane sued over the money, which kept it held in Escrow for years.

6. Miracleman #15 $117. The rarest, most in demand individual issue of the series, featuring a truly destructive superhero fight that wrecks an entire city. A real revelation at the time, its shock value has not diminished since, though its influence can be seen in many a title, principally The Authority.

7. Total Eclipse #1 Promo $60 – the first tiny appearance in Todd McFarlane comics of Miracleman, and given away to retailers who ordered certain amounts of Spawn. It was not shipped to the UK to minimise any legal issues and the issue of Spawn in question was made returnable. 1000 copies of this Eclipse bible were printed, though another 2000 were made without the covers, intended to be stitched into other books. This never happened. The lack of knowledge about this item menas that copies can on occasion be picked up for cents.

8. Red King Syndrome TPB $56 – the second trade paperback of the series. Horrible reproduction, issues with binding and yet…

9. A Dream Of Flying TPB $51 – the first trade paperback, featuring the original Alan Moore/Garry Leach/Alan Davis run from Warrior Magazine. Has the kind of cliffhanger us Brit readers would have to wait years to get resolved. oh the pain, the pain.

10. Golden Age TPB $45 – Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham's first run on the title. This shows off Mark Buckingham's range more than anything else he's worked on since, using an array of materials and styles. The Andy Warhol issue is possibly my favourite work of his to date.

There's also a significant premium on issues of Miracleman issue 9, 11, 16, 17, 20 and 24
as wel as the Total Eclipse Preview by Eclipse from 1988.

Intriguingly the original prints of Marvelman in Warrior Magazine have not received such market attention, the most being #4, the Summer Special from 1982 with a never-reprinted story, where Marvelman fights his versus his future self, introducing Garry Leach's Warpsmiths.

One reason is that publisher Dez Skinn seems to be sitting on several cases of the magazine and continues to sell them on eBay at relatively low prices. Once those are sucked up by the new Marvelman market, expect prices to rise…

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