For those of you who remember the ’90s, it was a time of pouches, pecs, big guns, and wholly unnatural bust-to-hip ratios.

(See?)

But even more important than that, the ’90s was a time of rampant consumer speculation — the Big Two (as well as new upstarts like Image and Dark Horse) came out with brand new shiny #1s, issuing multiple printings with chrome and holographic covers…

…That just about killed the comics industry. Sadly, all this demand induced the comics companies to increase their supplies to past the breaking point, and when sales fell swiftly, so too did the companies. Marvel, for one, filed in 1996 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and their fortunes would not return until the successful releases of the Blade and Spider-Man films.

So why on Earth would there be not one, but three different articles in recent weeks on how comics are a good financial investment?

Well, if you listen to Katie Couric, she’s managed to find Rick Whitelock of Lynn Haven, Fla., who has invested more than a million dollars in comics. “You could have taken… $80,000 or $90,000 and easily turned it into $120,000 or $150,000 or even more, if you had made the right comic book purchases,” Whitelock states. While I would probably drool over a million dollars of comic book purchases, I sadly don’t think this is really a realistic picture for most collectors. (Most people are also not advisors over at Overstreet like Mr. Whitelock, which would explain his success a bit.) But keep dreaming, kids!

Indeed, we are at an era that is still too early for major capitalizing on comics. Ironically, the only way people can do it is by years of pristine care — like House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower, who failed to disclose the 17,000 comic books he owned in his collection. That said, even his collection bears some scrutiny, as most of the 35-year-old lawmaker’s books are from — you guessed it, the mid-80s and ’90s.

So despite your hopes, riding out this economy is going to take a lot more than Superman.

[Via Knoxville News Sentinel, Aurora Sentinel, and WTVY.]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 6:45 pm and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.