The first thing I ask when somebody says Phantom Lady is which issue number is on the cover. It matters more here than on almost any other title, because two issues of a fairly obscure Fox comic both sold for six figures on the same night and they are not worth the same.
Number 17 is the famous one — the cover reproduced in Seduction of the Innocent as evidence against the industry, and probably the most recognized racy image of the Golden Age. This is number 23, the sister book.
Sold the same night, four times apart
Both issues came out of the Promise Collection and both sold at Heritage on June 19, 2021, which makes the comparison unusually clean.
Two copies from the same collection, sold the same night, two tenths of a grade apart, worlds apart in fame, and about four times apart in money.
Same publisher, same artist, same era, same pedigree, same room, same bidders. The variables that usually muddy a comparison are all held still. What is left is the difference between a cover that entered history and a cover that did not.
That is worth understanding if you own the #23. It is a genuinely valuable comic — $108,000 is not a consolation prize — but it is not the famous one, and any valuation that treats the two as interchangeable is wrong by a factor of four.
The usual caveat applies to both numbers: these were census-topping pedigree copies in a landmark sale. An ordinary copy of either issue prices far below.
Matt Baker
The reason collectors chase these covers at all is the artist. Matt Baker was one of the first African American artists to build a substantial career in comics, and he did it in the 1940s, drawing for Fox and Fiction House at a time when the industry offered him very little.
His figure work is why these covers are still discussed. He drew women in a style that was distinctive enough to be immediately recognizable and provocative enough to get the books held up in a Senate hearing, and the historical interest in his career has grown considerably in recent decades.
So the demand for these books runs on two tracks: the notoriety of the covers, and genuine interest in Baker as a figure in comics history. That second track is the more durable of the two.
Fox Features, and why these books are physically poor
There is a reason Phantom Lady copies grade badly as a rule, and it is not that owners were careless.
Fox Features Syndicate was a marginal operation working on thin margins. The paper was cheap even by the standards of a business that used cheap paper, the printing was often loose, and the books were assembled quickly. Copies that have survived eighty years tend to show it: browning through the whole block, chipping at the edges, and spines that split at the staples.
So do not read a low grade on one of these as evidence that a particular copy was mistreated. It is normal, it is priced in, and the market for Fox books has adjusted to the fact that pristine examples barely exist.
The corollary is that a Fox comic which genuinely presents well is worth taking seriously, because it is far more unusual than the same grade would be on a DC book of the same year.
Selling a Phantom Lady #23
- Confirm the issue number before anything else. The difference between #17 and #23 is roughly four times the money at the top of the market.
- Expect fragile paper. Fox used poor stock and these books brown and chip readily. Handle as little as possible.
- Do not price off the Promise result. A pedigree 9.4 in a landmark auction is not a benchmark for an ordinary copy.
- Look for #14 as well. A third Baker Phantom Lady cover that collectors chase, and it turns up in the same runs.
I would rather establish which book you have than talk about price at all until that is settled. On this title it is the question that decides everything else.
Have a copy?
Send three photos: front, back, and the small print. That is all I need to tell you where your copy really sits.
Related
- Phantom Lady #17, the famous cover and the more valuable book.
- The 100 most valuable Golden Age comics, and what each one really sold for.
Cover images on this page are shown small, for identification, with the publisher credited in the caption. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, contact me and it comes down.
