Don’t Speculate On Comics. Read ’em And Love ’em.

Now don't get me wrong. We were very happy with all the business we did last week, thanks to the "death" of Captain America. I was actually pretty pleased with myself for having ordered a bunch of extra copies. Marvel had hinted that something big was going to happen in Cap #25 (which I took with a grain of salt), but when I saw that there was no solicitation for Cap #26 in April, I figured something was up. (And to be honest, my hat's off to Marvel for keeping this under wraps until the New York Daily News broke the story). But...

Even with all the extra copies (basically doubling our normal Cap numbers--which are quite high thanks to the talents of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting), we were sold out before the end of the day Wednesday. And the phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing, as more and more media outlets picked up the story to liven up an otherwise slow news day. And then the Colbert Report ran. Thanks, Stephen.

Now a few of these calls were from old Cap fans who wanted to know how he died, but mostly I was getting calls from speculators who wanted to get in on the "action." Whatever. As of this writing, there are 1155 Captain America #25 "items" on eBay. And most of them are sets of both covers! All in Near Mint condition! (To put this in perspective, the "death" of Superman, which came out on a slow news day in 1993, was selling for upwards of $75 the week it came out, and now can be had readily for $10).

So my advice is this: If you're curious about the "death" of Captain America (and how long do you really think he'll stay dead?), don't waste your money on a marked-up copy of Captain America #25. Wait and get yourself a copy of the second printing when it comes out; or start at the beginning of the Brubaker/Epting Cap run with Captain America: Winter Soldier, Vol.1, and go from there. And if you really want a first printing for your collection, just wait a few months for the price to come down.