I still believe there was some Covid Comic impact as I call it. The #1 and #2 weren’t impacted, but around the time #3 hit, is when there was a bit of anxiety building (at least in my area I know). #4 hit in March. So any heat that was being generated/discussed with folks wanting to complete the run/get them after the fact was really squashed.
There were still tons of copies (well, tons is relatively speaking) sitting on racks when things were getting somewhat back to normal in Mid June/Early July.
Heck, even a month ago this series could be found on racks which is a bit crazy given it’s not essentially a year old.
Any of the heat relative to #3 didn’t come about until the very first images and news of High Republic broke. We are already on the 2nd round of spec buying/rising prices with regards to #3.
It was on the hot lists the week of release. It was released simultaneously with the movie. The big cover right out of the gate was the 1:25 which is Ben Solo staring at the Kylo mask tying into the theme of the movie. Then after that got high, the A heated up as it dried up.
Everything was Star Wars right then. And his turn to Ben Solo was the major plot point of the movie. And look here’s a comic on the origins of Ben Solo with a Ben solo 1:25 and a Ben Solo action figure variant which was hot for a bit too.
Some older fans didn’t like the character, but there many that like him as the best character in the trilogy (low threshold).
But “why” it got hot is irrelevant. My point was surprised the print run of 3 was so low. It was released in February, but FOC would’ve been late Dec/early Jan which is pre-Covid and right when 1 was hot. I just would’ve thought it would’ve been higher then 33k.
I know it was less than a year ago…but there is an incredible overall change in the focus on Star Wars comics now. I love Star Wars…always have, but in terms of Star Wars comics…up until recently, they just weren’t really a hot commodity. Sort of niche fan base. Sure I’m generalizing a bit…but there was never interest in Star Wars comics to the degree of that was seen with other areas on a consistent basis.
In Feb and March of last year (and I looked at my purchase records), I bought a Clone Wars #1 at a show for $50. I bought a Heir to the Empire for $10 (it ended up a 9.8), and I was still pulling Knights of the Old Republic, other Dark Horse SW comics, out of dollar boxes consistently.
I think the biggest “comic news” of the year (of course aside from Covid impact) is the overall craziness and surge relative to Star Wars comics.
I think that the ending of the last trilogy of movies also had something to do with this. People trying to get their star wars fix/speccing on the next star wars movies/shows. The mandalorian absolutely added to this as well, and these factors caused people to seek out any and all star wars comics.
And as someone who kept procrastinating and was waiting for cons to come back to finish filling in collection holes (versus buying stuff online and hoping for good condition) I hate it!
It’s not rare for issue 3 to be significantly lower than 1 and 2 of a new hot series. 1 is almost always going to be high just becauses it’s #1 and you have a huge amount of people who will buy all number 1s “just in case”. 2 a lot of people who buy 1 will still get because a lot of times 2 will FOC before 1 comes out, or even if they didn’t like 1 they still want to give it a shot and will check out 2. But 3 is where the spec USUALLY dies (not many people care about the 3rd issue of a series unless a character is introduced) and also where people who are on the fence with the series or weren’t huge fans of it will stop reading and either wait to see what other people say about it, or wait for the first trade to come out.
100%. Right around Covid hitting Star Wars started to take off, especially Dark Horse, and hasn’t stopped since.
Just the other day I got Jedi Vs Sith (1st Darth Bane) issues 1 through 6, plus the DF variant of 1, for $18 for the set. It was priced before the boom and was sitting on a hidden rack of sets. That’s now $600-700 in books.
I think a few factors caused it. The end of the Skywalker saga. The Mando boom. And places like the forums here, Key Coll, CBSI, youtubers, etc…started to talk SW and put out lists of firsts and it snowballed from there.
I think Mandolorian was a big part of it. Diehard fans kind of felt meh about the new trilogy, and it didn’t have the staying power with new fans that previous Star Wars stuff has had, so it almost seemed like with Disney in charge it was a matter of “can Star Wars survive?” not “what’s the next big thing?”
But with how great Mandolorian season 1 was, it not only gave hope to the older diehard fans that new and good Star Wars stuff COULD be made under Disney, it also brought in new fans and KEPT them fans better than the new movies did. The new movies created fans of Rey or Kylo, not of Star Wars; whereas Mandlorian obviously created an army of Baby Yoda fans but also brought attention to the universe as a whole beyond Skywalker imo.
I am seriously considering dumping my Rise of Kylo Ren set. I have 1 & 2 second prints and 3-4 first prints… part of me says hold because it may appreciate in value, other half says sell while hot.
They are a longer hold. You have to wait for the high republic to come out and avar kriss to gain a following then that will be the time. If you got them for cover I would put them away in a longbox and forget about them until the high republic TV shows are announced.
Luckily I did! I am more concerned that her hologram in RoKR 3 will be over shadowed by true first appearance in High Republic. As of now, RoKR is the only place to get Avar Kriss.
