Speculation on Alex Ross

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Comicbookscalping Leave a comment

This article is an excerpt from the Comic Book Scalping video series, “This week in Speculation.” This article originally appeared in episode 4. This video and more can be found on our youtube channel.

Alex Ross is a powerhouse artist but recently he hasn’t had a lot of buzz around his name in terms of speculation. At the height of his popularity Ross had huge titles at both DC and Marvel where he built his own alternate universes using the main characters from both publishing houses.

Most of Ross’s current work have high print runs – especially his work with Marvel comics. When marvel isn’t using Ross on there regular covers they use him on high tier ratio variants. Most of these ratio variants end up having very high print runs and end up being for some of marvel’s highest selling books. This is why these books typically do not do well on the secondary market outside of the first week of release. That doesn’t mean Alex Ross artwork should be slept on.

I think the majority of Alex Ross covers are undervalued, but I want to focus on Alex Ross’s first published work. The Terminator Franchise was brought in to comics in 1988, since then there have been over 20 different Terminator comic book series from various publishers. Alex Ross’s first published comic book art appears in the Now Comics Terminator series Terminator Burning Earth. This book was published in 1990 and ran for five issues featuring full interior painted artwork by Alex Ross, then credited as Alexander Ross.

These books sell for under $5 in near mint condition. MyComicshop currently has near mint copies listed for under $2. Three or four years ago this book would command at least $10. In graded CGC Signature Series if this book hit above a 9.0 grade they can easily sell above $120.

There is one more book to be looking, it features preview artwork by Ross and predates the first issue of Terminator Burning Earth. Now What?! Was a Promotional comic magazine that was distributed to stores to promote the Now Comics publisher. Now What?! Issue 2 features a Ghostbusters photo cover as well as preview images for the Terminator Burning Earth series including a full Pin-Up page.

Both, What Now?! #2 and Terminator Burning Earth #1 can be found at very reasonable prices both online and in the wild. If theres one artist who you should be chasing there first published artwork, Its Alex Ross.