Meat on the Bone: J.Scott Campbell Edition

J. Scott Campbell and his variant covers are the closest things to gold right now in the comic industry. Nobody commands the prices that his variants are receiving right now. If he does a variant cover, it’s going to be popular and make people some money.

He has always been a popular artist, he was successful on Gen 13 early in the Image days, but he wasn’t even mentioned in the same breath as some of the titans over there.

His huge variants such as the Siege #3 RI and Wolverine #1 RI are way out of reach for most people. The hoops you had to jump through as a retailer pretty much made these an impossibility to begin with.

The cover that started to get people’s attention on Campbell again was The Amazing Spider-man Presents: Black Cat #1. This book was released in 2010 and got JSC fresh in the mind of collectors. It’s a brilliant cover and, in my opinion, his best cover to date. The estimated print run on this book is 800.

As you can see by the census data below, there are only 25 copies graded at 9.8. This is where it all started. The JSC variant cover hype can be traced to this exact cover. The Black Widow variant was done in September and is just as popular and hard to find.

What I am here to talk about are some of the independent Campbell covers and their rarity. There are some really incredible books out there right now that he did the cover for that are almost non-existent. This is proven by the CGC registry.

These are the ones that stand out to me.

Elephantmen #18 (Regular and Sketch) (Image Comics) 2014

Regular: 1 x 9.8 copies

Sketch: 4 x 9.8 copies

  The color version sells for $50-60 and the sketch for $60-100.  Comichron lists the print run at 4,085 for this issue. In other words, this regular issue is printed in smaller numbers than most variants.

Danger Girl/ Gi Joe #2 RI Variant and Sketch (IDW) 2013

Scarlett Cover B: 1 x 9.8 copy

Sketch: 2 x 9.8 copies

The Scarlett cover is not a retailer incentive.  That being said, it sells anywhere between $60-150.  That is the power of a nice JSC cover.  The Sketch Variant is a 1:10 with a print run around 1200 and only sells for about $10.

Danger Girl/ Gi Joe #3 RI Variant and Sketch (IDW) 2013

Baroness Cover B: 6 x 9.8 copy

Sketch: 12 x 9.8 copies

Just like the Scarlett B cover above, Baroness sells between $60-150.  The Sketch is again a 1:10 variant with an approximate print run of 1100 and sells around $10.

Danger Girl/ Gi Joe #4 and #5 Sketch Variants (IDW) 2013

#4: 3 x 9.8 copies

#5: 1 x 9.8 copy

Both #4 and #5 Sketches are 1:10 variants with print runs around 1000 for each.  Once again, each only sell for around $10.

Chaos #1 Campbell Variants ( Virgin and Green) (Dynamite Entertainment) 2014

Virgin (25 copies in existence): 0 x 9.8 copies

Green (50 copies in existence): 2 x 9.8 copies

These 2 books fall into the ultra-rare category.  Amazingly, there are a few of the ‘Virgin’ copies for sale on eBay right now in the $250-350 range.  One of the ‘Green’ CGC 9.8 copies sold recently for $72.

Miss Fury #1 Campbell Sketch (2013) Dynamite Comics

5 x 9.8 Copies

This was a 1:35 Variant of a regular print run of 18,441.  That means there are likely less than 500 of these in existence.  A couple recently sold for $12.

Ant Vol.1 #2 Sketch (Arcana) 2004

1 x 9.8 copy

Variant ratios are a little sketchy back in this time period, especially with indie publishers.  That being said, there were only 4588 copies of the regular #2.  It appears that this was a 1:20 variant leaving us with just a few hundred to fight over.  A couple of these have sold recently for around $20.