Amazing prices.

So last time , I mentioned that Amazing Heroes #45 (1984) was the first issue of that news/interviews/reviews mag I’d ever read. In chatting over on Bluesky with Johanna from Comics Worth Reading , she mentioned that was the only issue of the ‘zine she purchased (for the “Sherlock Holmes in Comics” article).
She also noted that it apparently contained the first published artwork for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a comic book of some note. I was aware folks desperate to make any thing collectible and, hopefully, expensive, were moving into things like ‘zines and distributor catalogs and house organs like Marvel Age to try to establish supposed “early” or “first” appearances of various characters. I’ve said in the past that I was lucky I bought all the ‘zines I did back when they were cheap, like getting a dozen Comic Reader s for ten bucks, when now you’re lucky if you can get one issue of Comic Reader for less than that.
And that was just the result of people realizing “hey, some of these ‘zines are hard to get now,” with the attendent boost in secondary market prices. But this new wave of forced collectibles, pushing things like a solicit in Previews as a hot item (Spawn’s appearance apparently garnering $400+) are bumping up prices above and beyond what you’d think normal supply and demand would cause.
But, it’s still supply and demand…I don’t know how many copies of Amazing Heroes #45 are out there, but I’m guessing there aren’t a lot, and according to this entry on the Hot Comics App, there are a couple of reasons why it would command demand:

That…is absolutely buck wild. Note it doesn’t say “first” TMNT, but this is definitely an early appearance, with this illo (and accompanying patented editorial comment from our Fantagraphics pals) showing up in the news section:

The actual news blurb is headed, in bold capital letters “JUST WHAT WE NEED” before giving a basically straight description of the comic. It’s funny to see that the reaction, at least from this mag, to the advent of Turtledom was in effect a rolling of the eyes at this nonsense.
The Spider-Man black costume illo appears in the “Comics in Review” column, accompanying the critique of Amazing Spider-Man #252 where said costume first appeared in a narrative.

Again, I’m pretty sure this is just an early appearance of the costume, as I’m sure sketches and promo illos have popped up elsewhere prior to this Amazing Heroes …I think an issue of Marvel Age is considered its in-print debut, maybe? Though honestly I think it’s this Marvel Previews catalog sent to retailers for product appearing in 1992m, when the line was still “2093” and he only creative team member they had listed was Stan Lee on Ravage .
Oh, I should note that the review for Amazing #252 is a positive one. As well it should be…beyond all the hype and “collectibility,” it’s actually a pretty good issue as I recall.
Anyway, I’m not selling my copy of Amazing Heroes #45 and breaking up my run. Also, like I said, this was the first issue of the run I’d ever bought, so it has some sentimental value to me. But I’m certainly glad that was the issue I’d started with, because I’d hate to be looking for a copy of it now .