Superstar comics artist Alex Ross announced yesterday that he will be participating in his first-ever signing appearance for the Certified Guaranty Company (GCG). CGC is the world’s leading third-party grading service for comic books, trading cards, video games, magazines, concert posters, and other collectibles and paraphernalia that’s relatively small and degrades easily over time. Ahead of the appearance, CGC will open submissions for processing the day the signing is announced, and continue to accept t hem through early April. Ross doesn’t do many in-person events, and the mail-in nature of this means that fans in areas the artist will likely never visit, can still get their comics signed and graded.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Since a CGC employee needs to be on site to see a graded book being signed, it can be difficult to get signed, authenticated books from big names unless they do a CGC-sponsored event. In the past, CGC has hosted other creators like Todd McFarlane, Frank Miller, Scott Snyder, and more. They also make appearances at conventions, where fans and creators can approach the CGC themselves.
Ross’s appearance is timed to coincide with a series of variant covers he is doing for Marvel Comics, which showcase the publisher’s deep bench of iconic superheroes.
You can see a video below, which shows off Ross’s Marvel villains covers.
You can check out the details on both the CGC website and Ross’s own, where he has a CGC landing page.
After Ross signs the submitted books, CGC will grade and encapsulate them with an estimated turnaround time of six weeks. If CCS pressing is also requested, the turnaround time is estimated at eight weeks. After grading and encapsulation, the collectibles will be shipped back to their owners.
The CGC Private Signing fee for Alex Ross is $110 per item and includes:
Alex Ross’ signature
Estimated turnaround time of six weeks for CGC grading
Estimated turnaround time of eight weeks for CGC grading and CCS pressing (an additional $20 fee applies for CCS pressing)
Encapsulation with the iconic yellow CGC Signature Series label
Ross is one of the most sought-after artists in American comics, with major hits that include Kingdom Come and Justice at DC, Marvels and Earth X at Marvel, and a litany of other covers and merchandise over the years. He also provided covers for the creator-owned hit Astro City, developed Dynamite’s Project Superpowers with his Earth X collaborator Jim Krueger, and collaborated with Geoff Johns on a Justice Society of America storyline that riffed on the events of Kingdom Come. Most recently, Ross released Fantastic Four: Full Circle, which he both wrote and illustrated.
For more instructions on submitting their books to CGC, fans can visit CGCcomics.com/join.
