Tomb Raider #1 is CGC’s Featured Comic of the Month for February

The variants of Tomb Raider #1 include Another Universe, left, and E3 Edition Click images to enlarge. (Images courtesy of ComicLink)

Name of comic: Tomb Raider #1

Comic publisher: Top Cow

Date: December 1999

Variants: Another Universe Edition, Another Universe Gold Edition, E3 Edition, Holochrome Edition, Park Variant Cover, Tower Records Gold Foil, Tower Records Holofoil Edition, Variant Cover B, Variant Cover C

What makes it special? The Tomb Raider franchise began as a video game series, with its original version, released in 1996, considered to be among the best games ever. Adventurous archaeologist Lara Croft made her first appearance in Tomb Raider Witchblade #1 (December 1997), but her first appearance in her own title is Tomb Raider #1 (December 1999), which kicked off a series of several dozen issues that ran through 2005.

Why is it interesting now? The film franchise is being rebooted in March, starring Swedish actress Alicia Vikander. The original 2001 movie, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” helped propel actress Angelina Jolie to superstardom and was a box office success (unlike its 2003 sequel, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.”)

Did you know? The creator of the video game originally planned the main character to be a man, but changed it amid concerns that it would be too similar to Indiana Jones.

Total graded by CGC: CGC has graded 532 copies of this book (including 247 of its variants), as of Jan. 10, 2017. Fifteen percent of them have Signature Series labels

CGC median grade: The median grade for these books is Near Mint + 9.6

CGC highest graded: CGC has graded four copies (including one Another Universe Edition variant) of this book in Mint condition (9.9).

Sales highlights: A CGC 9.6 Holochrome edition was sold by Heritage Auctions in August 2003 for $27. High-grade CGC-encapsulated copies of Tomb Raider #1 can be found on eBay for about $100.

CGC Comics Registry Champion: A set named “World of Tomb Raider” by “109” is at the pinnacle of the Tomb Raider world, collecting most of the books in the set, including a Tomb Raider #1 Another Universe variant graded 9.9. This particular set has won Best in Set Type from 2013 to 2017. See this and other collections in the CGC Comics Registry.

Related links

• Fantastic Four #52 is CGC’s Featured Comic of the Month for January
• Star Wars #1 is CGC's Featured Comic of the Month for December