After the initial round of Gail Simone‘s Batgirl #1 comics sold out, the highly-anticipated title is being found on eBay today for $9.99 plus shipping costs. This is two things. It is 1. impressive, considering that this is a title featuring a female protagonist from DC in a comic written by a woman. And it is 2. a display of what we in the blogging world like to call chutzpah. Because someone is clearly risking their job and relationship with distributors by putting a copy of a comic that hasn’t even been released yet on eBay for higher than the cover price.
The cover price, or the price which you’ll be paying tomorrow if you’ve reserved a copy of Batgirl #1 or drop by your friendly neighborhood comic store before they run out (and yes, sorry, I realize that is a Marvel reference) and get your hands on a copy of Batgirl #1 before they fly off the shelves, is $2.99. But someone, ahead of the official release, is trying to hawk these comics for over three times the price (plus an extra $3.50 for shipping), risking at the least their current job and at most their relationship with the only company that distributes DC comics — Diamond Comics Distributors — at serious risk.
That person’s problems aside, can we step back and look at the impact of the imminent success of Batgirl? Batgirl, a female comic hero! In a story written by Gail Simone, DC’s only female writer on the DCnU! That’s something to be excited about. Let’s hope DC (and other publishers, and other aspiring female comic writers and artists) can get just as excited.
