{"id":154,"date":"2024-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qualitycomix\/index.php\/2024\/03\/02\/how-know-comic-real\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:13:14","slug":"how-know-comic-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qualitycomix.com\/guide\/how-know-comic-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds: How to Know if Your Comic is Real"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Image source<\/a><\/em><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collectibles, like comics, are an investment. They're pieces of media with limited quantities, limited quality, and a variable amount of interest that, in many cases, only grows. That kind of environment is ripe for investment, for speculation\u2026 and for fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With any valuable item, there comes the opportunity to create fake versions of that item to pass off as real. This has been happening for all of human history \u2013 there are examples of counterfeit coins from thousands of years ago<\/a> \u2013 and it should be no surprise that it still happens today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buyer beware, as they say. Maybe you bought a comic, and you're not sure if it's real. Maybe you're considering buying one, either online or in person, and you want to validate it. Maybe you're worried about fraud when you step into the comics investing world. Whatever the case may be, you need to protect yourself, and that means you need to know what to look for and how to identify the fakes, the forgeries, and the frauds out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, let's talk about the types and categories of issues you might run into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comic Book Counterfeits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First up, we have counterfeit comics. But here's the thing: true counterfeits \u2013 that is, copies of a comic that weren't printed legitimately but instead were printed by someone with resources to mimic the original \u2013 are very, very rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few reasons for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest is simply that most valuable comics are also old <\/em>comics. Old comics were printed on disposable newsprint or cheap letterpress, and they aged like milk. The reason you see comics graded in part on the color of their paper<\/a> is because that paper browns and yellows over time and with exposure to the air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is actually beneficial! Not because of the terrible paper but because it's very hard to even find <\/em>paper that bad these days, and even if you can, it's very hard to make it look old enough to pass inspection. Counterfeit Golden Age comics<\/a> \u2013 and even Silver Age comics \u2013 often just look and feel way too new. They just don't pass muster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, you can look to the opposite side of the scale: newer comics. Newer comics are printed on newer, better paper, with more modern printing techniques and more standardized processes. That makes them a lot easier to counterfeit. But at the same time, the vast majority of those comics are only worth $5, sometimes even less, and are readily available. No one needs to counterfeit them when there are much better scams that can be run, like pump-and-dump scams. Why counterfeit books when you can buy legitimate copies to run a scam with instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some comics that are nevertheless vulnerable to counterfeits. Mostly, this falls into the indie comics range, largely in black and white comics, and in the contemporary era, as far back as the late 70s and 80s. Basically, it has to be something that's easier to replicate, harder to spot as fake, but still scarce enough to be both worth money and worth faking. You can learn more about the most valuable comics from the 1980s<\/a> to understand why certain issues attract this kind of attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Counterfeit<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then you have the rare example of a comic that was counterfeited at the time, <\/em>which is itself just as old and scarce as the real thing. Like those ancient counterfeit coins above, they're still valuable because they have that age to them and are an artifact of history. The biggest example is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1<\/a> counterfeit that sold for a price comparable to the real thing - making it one of the most valuable TMNT comics<\/a> in any form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forged Signatures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another somewhat more common form of fraud in the comics industry is fake signatures. Signatures are a bit of prestige, a chance to make an issue of a comic stand out from the average issue because the owner got someone noteworthy to sign it. Usually, that someone was the creator of the character, like Stan Lee<\/a>, or the writer or artist for the comic. Sometimes, it could be the celebrity who played the hero on the big screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Comic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image source<\/a><\/em><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something I've already talked about elsewhere, so I'm not going too deep into it here. To sum up, faked signatures happen but aren't as common as some people might think; at the same time, signatures often don't actually <\/em>make a comic more valuable, so there isn't much incentive to fake them. You can read more in my discussions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n