Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #1 - Marvel Magazine Movie Adaptation (1988, Joe Jusko Cover)

Product Overview

• Title: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #1
• Also Catalogued As: Marvel Spring Special #1
• Publisher: Marvel Comics
• Cover Date: October 1988
• Format: Magazine-sized one-shot
• Original Cover Price: $2.00
• Cover Art: Joe Jusko and Ernie Colon
• Interior Art: Ernie Colon and Romeo Tanghal
• Writer: Sid Jacobson
• Content: Official comic book adaptation of the 1988 feature film
• Era: Copper Age (1984-1991)
• Language: English
• Status: Out of print

Description

Cassandra Peterson had spent most of the 1980s building Elvira from a late-night local horror host into a genuine cultural fixture, and by 1988 the character had earned a feature film. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark put her in a small New England town that is scandalised by her existence - a premise that let the film do what the character always did best, which is puncture prudishness with a punchline and a raised eyebrow.

Marvel published the official adaptation in oversized magazine format, and the creative team is better than movie tie-ins usually get. Sid Jacobson scripted. Ernie Colon handled interior art with Romeo Tanghal - Colon being a genuine industry veteran whose range ran from Richie Rich to Amethyst to, decades later, the illustrated 9/11 Commission Report. The cover pairs Colon with Joe Jusko, whose painted work would define the Marvel Masterpieces trading card sets of the early nineties and make him one of the most collected painters in comics.

The magazine format is worth noting in itself. Marvel used the larger trim for material aimed slightly above the standard comics readership, and the format gives the Jusko cover art considerably more room to work than a standard comic would.

Collectible Value

This book sits at an intersection of three collector categories, which is more than most one-shots manage. Elvira collectors pursue it as a primary artifact of the character's peak commercial moment. Joe Jusko collectors want it as early painted cover work predating the Masterpieces cards that made his name. Movie adaptation collectors want it as part of a category that has quietly become desirable as the format itself died out.

Magazine-format releases survive at lower rates than standard comics. They did not fit standard bags, boards, or long boxes, so they were shelved, stacked, or stored loose, and the larger trim makes edge and corner wear far more likely. Presentable copies are meaningfully harder to find than print numbers suggest.

Movie tie-in comics were also treated as disposable at the time - bought by filmgoers rather than collectors, and rarely preserved with any care. That neglect is precisely what makes surviving copies of a well-drawn one now worth seeking out, particularly for a film that has held a durable cult following for nearly four decades.

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A Copper Age one-shot with genuine cover-artist pedigree, from the high point of one of horror's most enduring personalities. Add it to your cart today. Please review the listing photographs for cover, spine, and page condition before ordering. Shipped flat with board protection and packed with care from Hammer of War in Tacoma, Washington - message us about combined shipping if you are taking more than one book.