Last month Bleedingcool reported that Mark Buckingham had been working with Neil Gaiman to complete their arc on Miracleman. According to Bleedingcool the story has been plotted and scripted and all that is left to do is for Mark Buckingham to draw the pages. Sales of Miracleman Key issues have been down in the past few years so Marvel finally finishing the story may rebound some of these prices.  I think it would be a good time to explore some of the key issues of the run.

 

In 1941 DC comics sued Fawcett publications for copyright infringement claiming the character Captain Marvel was too similar to Superman. This lawsuit went on for a few years and eventually caused Fawcett Publications to go bankrupt in 1953, with DC winning the lawsuit. British comic book publisher L. Miller and son was founded in 1943 and from 1945 to 1953 most of there publishing catalog consisted of Fawcett Publication reprinted Captain Marvel material. With Fawcett out of the picture, in 1954 L. Miller and son contracted comic artist Mick Anglo to create a new British super hero character similar to Captain Marvel. Mick Angelo eventually came up with the new character –  Marvelman. This spawned onto titles like Marvelman Adventures, Young Marvelman and a Marvelman family title.
Most of the L. Miller and Son catalog are sought after by Miracleman collectors. These books feature early incarnations of the Marvelman / Miracleman characters and based on there small distribution circles high grade copies are hard to come by.

In 1982 Alan Moore relaunched the Marvelman universe in Warrior Magazine starting with the first issue. In 1985 these stories were reprinted and continued by Eclipse Comics under the name Miracleman, due to threat of legal action from Marvel Comics. When the first issue was published a regional exclusive UK edition was printed. This book is recognized by CGC as the UK edition and is identifiable by the yellow back cover advertisement.

At San Diego Comic Con in 1985 Eclipse Comics took the first 1000 printed copies of Miracleman #1 and offered them for sale as special collector editions. Approximately 400 copies of these books were signed by Alan Moore. These books were numbered and given accompanying COAs. Another 600 copies were signed by the Comics editor Cat Yronwode and Eclipse Comics founder Dean Mullaney. These SDCC variants are highly collectible and historically have commanded a high price. The last sale of a CGC graded 9.8 Miracleman #1 SDCC Alan Moore signed copy was in January 2019 for $711, this is half of the 2017 average sale price of $1518!

 

Miracleman #15 features the death of “Kid Miracle” and it is a milestone issue. In 2015 GPA recorded CGC 9.8 copies of Miracleman #15 selling for an average of $300 and the last 12 month average is reported at $188! While this has been the go-to Miracleman key book in recent years the price has dropped significantly.

In 1985 Eclipse comics reprinted the Warrior Magazine Marvelman Special in as a special 3-D oneshot, labeled Miracleman 3-D. There was a limited to 100 signed and numbered 2-D variant. Copies of this book are very hard to come by.

Alan Moore ended his run on Miracleman at issue #16 and he passed the torch on to Neil Gaiman who took over the title on issue #17. This is the first issue of the Miracleman Golden Age storyline with the silverage storyline starting in issue #23. In 1992 Eclipse Comics went bankrupt resulting in Miracleman ending at issue #24. This book sells for between $40 and $50 in high grade condition.

Before they went bankrupt Eclipse Comics produced trade paperback and hard cover editions of the Miracleman story. The Miracleman hardcovers are very hard to come by – these books regularly sell above $200 – The standout is Miracleman Book 3 – Olympus. While there havn’t been any sales online in the past two months – this book can command well above $600!

At some point after the collapse of Eclipse Comics, New Dimension Comics purchased the Eclipse Comics warehouse overstock and acquired many copies from the Miracleman run. Some copies of these books were embossed with an original John Tottleben foil stamp and given limited edition numberings. Some of these books were signed by members of the creative team. These books are in essence manufactured collectibles from the mid 90’s. They arn’t true Miracleman variants but there is still some collectability with them. Its very important to remember that these books were made by a comic book store looking to cash in on a collection they purchased and that these were not made by Eclipse Comics themselves.  New Dimension Comics quotes the following print runs for the special editions:

• Miracleman #4  “Gold Edition” Limited to 175
• Miracleman #4 “Royal Blue Edition” Limited to 25
• Miracleman #5 “Platinum Edition” Limited to 99
• Miracleman #8 “Gold Edition” Limited to 199
• Miracleman #8 “Blue Edition” Limited to 99
• Miracleman #8 “Ruby Red Edition” Limited to 25
• Miracleman #17 “Gold Edition” Limited to 199
• Miracleman #17 “Platinum Edition” Limited to 99
• Miracleman #17 “Ruby Red Edition” Limited to 25
• Miracleman #23 “Platinum Edition” Limited to 50
• Miracleman 3D “Gold Edition” Limited to 199
• Miracleman 3D “Blue Edition” Limited to 99

Those are the key Miracleman issues. Did I miss one? Do you have something you think we should be writing about? Comment down below or contact us on one of our various social media links!

Thanks for reading and happy travels!

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