Elvis Presley loved reading comic books as a boy. His favorite hero was Captain Marvel, Jr. It is reputed that his jet black hair style with the curl hanging down in the middle of his forehead was originally inspired by Captain Marvel, Jr.

In today’s email:

• Top Story - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #1, with 55 variants!

• Exclusive Interview - dangerroom_comics

• Community Sales and Deals - Shortboxed Auctions

• This Week’s Comic Conventions

This Week’s Trivia Question (answer at the bottom): In The Last Ronin, what tragic event led to the deaths of Michelangelo's brothers and the collapse of the Ninja Turtles' family unit?

TOP STORY

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #1, with 55 variants!

The first issue of the new series shipped on March 6 with 55(!) cover variations. Definitely FOMO territory as collectors will be betting on which covers will be the most popular. Here is the release schedule as far as we know:

• #1 is confirmed to be out on March 6

• #2 is confirmed to be out on May 1

• #3 may be out on July 3, but that's still to be confirmed

• #4 may be out on September 4, but that's also still to be confirmed

• #5 may be out on November 6, but that's also still to be confirmed

Story Synopsis: More than a decade after the Last Ronin defeated the Foot Clan, New York City finds itself in a state of steady decline. Now, the disparate gangs vie for economic and political control and the chaos is taking its toll. It’s clear to Casey Marie that if something isn’t done soon, the city she knows and loves will be lost forever. So, whether they’re ready or not, she and her young pupils must raise a new coalition and lead the charge to keep the peace.

This series is looking good and not to be missed!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Exclusive Interview -  dangerroom_comics

Where can the community find you online?

To this day, I have never been big on social media and Instagram is the only platform I currently use, as I like the people and community there. My IG is @dangerroom_comics.

What is your origin story and where does your online name come from?   

Since 1998, I am a non-stop collector of US comic books. First in German, but relatively quickly after that in English. As I am in Germany, you have to emphasize the "US" part as we have French and Belgian books here as well, with a very significant audience. My two first "real" comic books were Spider Man and Batman from 1995 (German reprint was in 1998) drawn by Mark Bagley, and Spawn 2 (which had the US Spawn 3 and 4 in it). I am saying "real" because back then I naively considered Disney books to be only for kids. Well, I guess you live and learn. 😆 

Over the years I accumulated thousands of books and stored them all in one room, which was filled with piles of books, shortboxes, and shipping boxes the stuff came in. It was just piled up stuff in a Tetris manner, up to the ceiling with a small and very narrow path in, so narrow that a slim person had to go sideways. So a friend of mine called it the Danger Room because of that. It had nothing to do with the X-Men's training room. A few years ago, I moved everything out and it became my son's room. No worries- I still have the books, plus a few more.

What’s in your personal collection? What are you collecting, reading, or hunting right now? 

A bit of everything- books, prints, posters, original art. After the ‘90s craze died down completely, I began to focus even more on vintage books. For me, that meant the original cover price was $1 or less. Now it is primarily $0.25 or less. That means Bronze, Silver and Golden Age books. In the past three years, I have been collecting Bronze Age Horror from Marvel, DC, Charlton, and Gold Key. Also some Golden Age Romance up to the late Bronze Age books from DC and Charlton. Yesterday I read the third book of the four part mini-series Shadowmasters from 1989 (Marvel).

You have quite a collection of Mark Jewelers, especially some high quality Gold Keys. What kind of exotic titles do you have? Do you press and clean them? Get them graded?

A big chunk of my Mark Jewelers books come from an original owner's collection. The books are not pressed or cleaned. We are in Germany, if you go to a convention with 100 tables, ALL of the slabs you can find combined and stacked on top of eachother are still not 6 foot high. Just to give the readers an idea of what reality we are talking about here. To this day, I have never sent books to be graded. For me it would have to be books of $1500 each in value to justify all the paperwork and customs regulation insanity. Bureaucracy is nothing I enjoy, I have other hobbies.

Also you would need a paid membership with one of the companies to be able to grade your books. To me that feels more like a cash grab than a "service". 

What are some valuable lessons you have learned along the way? Advice for someone looking to get into comic book selling? 

Having a good community who treat each other with respect and honesty is very important. The majority of the good deals are not public and for that you have to know people you can trust and they trust you. My advice would be to learn how to properly grade your books (always ask for advice if you don't). You shouldn't smoke crack when pricing books. Fair market value is the way to go. EBay isn’t a good indicator often enough. If no value can be determined, be open to offers and get a second opinion. And please pack your buyer's books carefully- safe against bends and bumped corners. You will be surprised how many fail to learn that lesson, unfortunately.

What are the best platforms right now for selling?  

 That highly depends on what you have to sell.

Original art like a 1970s Marvel or DC cover would go to ComicLink, Heritage, or Comic Connect.

Books in the $1 to $5 range go to eBay more than Instagram, from what I have seen.

Books in the $5 to $5000 range are on eBay and Instagram.

That being said, the higher the cost of the book, the higher your trust level in the Instagram community should be.

For new sellers, eBay can be easier at first. There are commission sites on Instagram that can handle the distribution for you.

Their pricing and terms vary. They are ideal for $500+ books if you are new to selling.

There are also FaceBook groups where books are traded, but as I have no FB account I never looked into that.

What tools do you use?  

Sleeves, acid free boards, and Magic Tape by 3M.

What challenges have you faced in the last year?

Finding someone reliable to code a website. That will become almost obsolete in the near future, though.

Do you have any predictions for 2024?

Smaller and local comics-only shows will be the greatest way to buy books in person as the big cons are not worth it anymore for dealers and buyers alike.

This trend will continue to expand in 2024 and through 2025.

What services does the comic book community need that currently don't exist?

I know many who want to see this happen: The breaking down of the CGC and CBCs census to distinguish between Newsstand, Direct, and Mark Jewelers editions.

Personally I am working on an index for the Mark Jewelers books to show which books had those inserts and which did not. Also, what kind of insert, as they changed every 12 months.

COMMUNITY SALES AND DEALS

Shortboxed Auctions

Shortboxed has another awesome auction with a mix of 40 Silver, Bronze, Copper, and Modern keys. What I think is pretty cool is the transparency they publish after each auction. Check out the graph below illustrating the values of the books sold in the 3/3 auction:

From the Shortboxed blog:

Last week’s auction results show us several trends. High-grade Bronze Age key sales are strong and have been. If you want to move your BA keys, now is the time to start thinking about it.

Bronze Age keys that performed notably well were: Nova 1 9.8, Marvel Special Edition 15 8.0, Conan the Barbarian 1 8.5, and Forever People 1 8.5.

Within the range of most recent sales, here are last week’s numbers:

• 15 Under Recent Sales

• 23 Within Range

• 2 Above Recent Sales

They are now accepting books from the community! You can read policies and FAQ here.

THIS WEEK’S COMIC CONVENTIONS

3/7 - 3/10: Lexington Comic & Toy Convention 2024 - Lexington, KY

3/9 : Power Comicon 2024 - Florence, SC

3/9 - 3/10: Colorado Cosmic Con 2024 - Colorado Springs, CO

3/9 - 3/10: Louisiana Comic Con 2024 - Lafayette, LA

3/9 - 3/10: Sac Comic-Con 2024 - Sacramento, CA

Thanks again for reading this week’s news. Send us something!

We get lonely without hearing from you! We would love to promote your channel and auctions. Send it to [email protected].

Comic Book Store Trivia Question Answer: In The Last Ronin, the tragic event that led to the deaths of Michelangelo's brothers and the collapse of the Ninja Turtles' family unit was the destruction of April O'Neil's farmhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts.