Prairie Sable Comics

Third Party Grading ... My Opinions

I have been leery of third party grading from the time I first learned of it. I thought that it would be a great thing, if they actually could stick to their plans. If they could truly be impartial then it could be a big boon to the industry.

For nearly a year I never heard much about the great CGC, but then all sorts of news started coming out of the prices that graded books were getting. I also heard lots of rumours of people submitting books that were better copies of some of the big names in comics and getting lower grades. So it seemed that from early on there were already questions of impartiality. However, graded books were garnering huge profits compared to "raw" counterparts so there was a growing trend to get high grade Golden and Silver Age books "slabbed".

So it continued to the point where it is now clearly apparent to many of us that the return of speculators has taken place. Many people who whole-heartedly believe in grading would deny this, but often the book itself seems lost in all the talk about the grade and the money it could or should bring. Indeed, I don't know how people could not say the speculator market has returned when there is the obvious attempts to cash in on high grade books of all ages especially moderns. How could anyone really believe that a 9.8 of any brand new book is really worth $29.95 the day it is released or just a month later?

Now the grading pundits would say that that price is fair considering just how rare 9.8's are. What? Many of the modern popular new titles release thousands of copies of every issue each month and you are telling me that only a few of these will be 9.8's? Has anyone actually put this to a test? How can places like Colossus Comics manage to fill its orders for slabbed 9.8's every month?

Then there is the issue of deciding just what a 9.8 is. I wouldn't doubt that the chance of the grading companies reslabbing a previously graded 9.8 as a 9.8 is only 50/50. Grading is very subjective, and without concrete standards, companies grade differently each day they work. After all, they will have several different excellent examples of the various grades throughout the day which they can hold all ensuing books to.

To be honest though, the sliding grading scales and speculators are really nothing compared to the changes to the "standards" and the lack of impartiality. These two factors are key to having truly third party service that has the potential to remove the unsavoury elements from the hobby.

When I hear talk of standards I think of solid indisputable "measures", such as a kilometre or a centimetre. Standards also come in the form of rules and regulations that dictate actions to ensure that factors from the surrounding environment which could play a role in the work are eliminated or controlled. Regardless of whether the standard is a measure or a regulation they all must be universally accepted and accessible to be considered a standard.

Companies can say they follow a set of standards that are designed to protect the consumer or product, but if those standards are not available to the public or external regulators they are really not standards. If we do not know what the "rules" are that one follows how can we know they have been broken? So standards need to be known by all.

Once you have a set of rules and measures to follow you need to show that you are following them, so it is important for certified companies to record and monitor all aspects of their business that could bring question to their product's integrity. These records then must be made available to those individuals that are responsible for ensuring that the company is following the regulations that are applied to them. These records, in turn, should be available to customers or the public should they be requested. This is all called transparency and it is crucial to any business that is certified. If the company has breach the terms of their certification then their product cannot be considered "safe".

CGC and PGX have their own rules and try and absolve themselves of blame for mistakes by explaining them away as human error or trying to compensate in some way. Their gradings are considered subjective which is supposed to forgive the gaffs they make, and they have made some big ones. None of this really is actually doing any good because they are not really "punished" in any way and, since they have no public standards, they are not accountable in in any way and they are not really obligated to show anyone that they have taken steps to prevent any future mistakes.

Not too long ago it was found that one of the large volume submitters to CGC was allegedly passing trimmed books to CGC and these books were making it into blue "Universal" slabs. The blue "Universal" labelled books are considered to be free of most alterations and trimming is certainly not one of the "accepted" modifications. CGC's response to this whole affair was to buy back some books from dealers, inspect them, admit their gaffs and tell people what they planned to do and certainly should have been doing in the first place.

Now if CGC had to conform to real standards applied externally they would have probably been shut down or lost their "certification" standard. They would further have to submit themselves to an external audit of sorts and other such internal and external investigations to find out how such mistakes happened and how they could be prevented. Then they would have to show that their corrective measures worked. Of course, if documentation of procedures was strictly followed, this should be an easy thing to do.

To provide such assurances that are supposed to go with the claims of CGC and PGX you have to have a business that is, in all aspects, impartial. If you do anything, however slight/minor, it can compromise that impartiality and, again, throw all of your work into question. To claim that you are an impartial service and then be seen with some of the bigwigs in the industry (and they are your biggest customers) is just not impartiality. Especially when the "impartial" system is one that you designed and regulate internally. CGC is even owned by one of the largest (comic) auction houses and the owner of CGC wants us to believe that there is nothing wrong with this.

Indeed there have long been the accusations of favouritism against CGC and it is plausible when you see how close to certain figures in the industry CGC employees are. Not that they are colluding in anything but appearances can be everything. The head of CGC should not be seen so close to his customers that it brings questions of lack of impartiality down on him. I know many of those same customers are friends, but when you are supposed be in the business of being impartial those very same friendships can come back to haunt you.

Now many people will take this as an anti-certification/CGC/PGX rant. Well, it's not, but I think they could do things better if they truly are concerned about forcing the unsavoury elements out of the hobby. I am being idealistic but if certification was done properly it would be a strong and robust business that was not just located in two places in the world and be a service for those with more money. I would love to see it as a service available in many locations and to all level of collectors. This would remove a few thing that many of us hate about slabs: the premium they hold and the "fear" many of us have not to "free" the book from its slab.

Yeah I am dreaming, but it would be nice to have more than just CGC and PGX to choose from and also have a market mostly free of the greedy cheats that have tarnished this hobby for decades.

Some recommendations: DMZ (new title) and Meridian (old discontinued title)

I was recently browsing one of my favourite comic book forums, Comics Price Guide (you really should check out the rest of the site too it is a great resource and they have great services at great rates), and came across a thread that was talking about the new release from DC's Vertigo imprint, DMZ. DMZ in this case stands for De-Militarized Zone. It takes place in a time where some states in the USA have revolted and formed a group called the "Free States" which is in armed conflict with the other States that still remain within the Union. Manhattan has become sort of a No-Man's land between one of the "Free States" of New Jersey and New York that is supposed to be de-militarized. At the time the story starts there is a fragile ceasefire between the warring factions.

No one outside of Manhattan really knows much about life in the DMZ so a prize winning journalist plans to go to the island to document life there. The story does not revolve around the journalist though, instead it follows an newly hired aspiring photojournalist Matty Roth. Things go desperately wrong upon their arrival and Roth is cast into a who new eye-opening journey

It is craftily written by Brian Wood. Wood also contributes the art which may not appeal to all readers but the style certainly lends to the gritty story-line. This book certainly has lots of potential and could be fantastic continues in the vein of the first issue.

DMZ is an ongoing title under DC's Vertigo Imprint. Cover is $2.99 US. 3.5 out of 5

Meridian was released by the now defunct CrossGen. It chronicles the tales of a young girl, Sephie, who is given a sigil and powers of healing by a mysterious race of beings. Originally her powers were given to her father and the opposite powers (of destruction) to her Uncle Ilahn, but Sephie's father was too physically weak to handle "the gift" and he passes the powers to sephie just before he dies.

In all the confusion Sephie is whisked away by her Uncle and he assumes control of Meridian in the aftermath. Sephie later discovers her Uncle is evil and escapes him and the rest of the series deals with her trying to return to Meridian with allies to overthrow Ilahn's invading army.

It's wonderfully written by Barbara Kesel and Pencilled by Josh Middleton, Steve McNiven, June Brigman, Vincenzo Cucca, and Mike Weiringo. The run spanned 44 issues. There were also 4 Trade paperbacks that collected up to issue 26 including one issue of CrossGen Chronicles. This series easily has some of the most colourful and graceful covers I have ever seen. 3.5 out of 5

Reviews: Season of the Witch and Manhunter

Season of the Witch is relatively new title under the Image banner. Season of the Witch is about a young girl, Jessica Suddreth, who is basically an outcast at school and has a crappy home life to boot. She is filled with insecurities and self loathing. That all changes when she is summoned to Asamando, a mystical world where everyone appears as their "perfect self". Jessica has been summoned because she has been judged to have a very high level of powers with which to free Asamando from the suppression of it evil King Elian.

Now I have to admit that the writing is a bit flakey/far-fetched at times but it is still a very fun book with nice artwork compliments of Kevin Sharpe. I think it can only get better with time and a maturing of Jai Nitz, the writer. I am going to stick with it for now.

Season of the Witch is an ongoing title from Image. Cover is $3.50 US. 3 out of 5

Manhunter is probably one of the best comics I have read in some time. It is far from your typical "super-hero" comic since the hero in this case just a regular person who has decided that there needed to be someone to level the playing field for the public.

Kate Spencer is a high profile prosecutor for Los Angeles who decides to take up the mantle of "Manhunter" when she is unsuccessful at getting the death penalty for the vicious, psychotic meta-human killer Copperhead. Her retribution opens the door to a whole host of new troubles both on the "super-hero" front and in her private life.

One of the great aspects of this incarnation of Manhunter is Kate Spencer herself. While clearly a person who fights for good in the courtroom she is still far from the typical squeaky clean people that make up so many of the other super-heroes out there: Marvel or DC. One is left to wonder if her drive in the court is really for the good or a matter of winning at all costs.

Outside of work she smokes, is controlling and is pretty much a lousy parent. Though she loves her child she clearly does not have many mothering skills. This added to all her other faults really makes for a great hero. She is growing into the roll and at the same time she is growing into a better person. It is brilliant.

Manhunter is deftly written by Marc Andreyko and has been pencilled wonderfully by Jesus Saiz (issues 1-7) and Javier Pina (8-present). It is published by DC Comics and has a ticket price of $2.50 US. 4.5 out of 5

Copyright © 2008 Aaron Stechesen

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