COMIC DETAILS
|
Comic Description:
|
Action Comics 683 Signature
|
|
Grade:
|
9.8
|
|
Page Quality:
|
WHITE
|
|
Certification #:
|
4431377003
|
|
Owner:
|
Iconic1s
|
SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
This was one of only three Signature Series 9.8’s when I added it… there were 60 Universal 9.8’s at the time!
Of all the Doomsday cameos I enjoy this cover the most. The realism is amazing, and the Moon is haunting in the background! I really enjoyed all four cameos of Doomsday punching his way out of containment. In the past there had been a couple of these on eBay asking over $3K... I don't understand what was driving that asking price (or if anyone would ever pay it) but it made me glad I got my original Universal 9.8 long ago. I reholdered my Universal 9.8 in December 2020.
On 25 May 2020, an eBay auction of this book ended with a final price of $210.37 with 48 bids (9 bidders), another 9.8 ended on 1 June 2020 for BIN $249.99 so I guess those two sales answered the three-thousand-dollar question at that time.
Incredibly, when I added this Signature Series 9.8 to my collection in April 2025… it was listed on eBay as an auction with a starting bid of only $150.00. The seller had a history of doing pretty good with his auctions and I expected there to be some competition for this book. I watched it for a week and sniped it with a few seconds left. I went higher on my max bid but ended up being the only bidder and got this book for the starting bid of $150.00. Upgrading my set with this book from Universal 9.8 to Signature Series 9.8 added 4 points and put my set at an even 5000 registry points… at this moment I am thinking about having this book be the last improvement to my competitive set and leaving it at that (but we will see!). When this book sold there were Universal 9.8’s listed for around $200.00 on average, there were no other 9.8 Signature Series available, so this was a pretty anomalous sale.
The second image is of a piece of original art I picked up in a ComicLink auction. I originally chose to put it with this book because it was first in the gallery in the competitive Registry set, and I wanted this original piece of art to also come first when viewing that set. At this point I have so many things with other books that this is as good a place as any for it! If I am correct, this piece pre-dates even these Doomsday cameos.
The top half of the image is the page, and the lower half is a blowup of the stamp that is on the back of the artwork. Aside from the image being super-cool, the stamp on the back says Special Projects Dept and has the date 3/22. I can only assume this may be 3/22/1992 but I am not 100 percent certain. The project name is Style Guide/Doomsday Model Sheet so I am (again) assuming by the date and the facts concerning the way it is referred to that this was done to ensure all artists drew Doomsday consistently throughout all of the titles and must have been done before the story hit shelves. Janice Walker is currently Senior Art Director at DC, and I am pretty sure the initials MC are for Mike Carlin. If you are reading this and know anything else about dating this piece I'd love to hear from you.
Here's the info from the ComicLink listing:
DOOMSDAY STYLE GUIDE
Section: For Sale / Original Comic Art / Miscellaneous / DAN JURGENS
Primary Artist Name: DAN JURGENS
Secondary Artist Name: BRETT BREEDING
Dimensions: This art is executed on standard 11" x 17" art board and has an image area of approximately 11" x 9"
Item description: Illustrated by the Famous Superman Killer's Creator
ComicLink Comments:
Doomsday was created by Superman artist/writer Dan Jurgens in 1992 and first appeared in Superman: Man of Steel #18. He's the creature that famously killed Superman in the best-selling "Death of Superman" saga that culminated in Superman #75. When DC decided to kill Superman, longtime fans realized it would not stick, but the general public was completely sucked in by the story and sales jumped to over a million copies. It was the first time in years that many people bought a comic book, and it touched off a whole new era of collecting. The aftermath of the "Death of Superman" was huge, with sales on subsequent issues going through the roof. Doomsday became an important part of the Superman mythos following this huge event, and the character has returned several times over the years. He even kills Superman in the high profile 2016 movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
|
|
|