THE DEVIL’S FOOTPRINTS #1

Cover shows sharp corners, clean glossy surface, and no visible spine stress lines or ticks. Colors appear vibrant with no fading or staining, and edges look clean without chipping. Book is in a protective sleeve, and interior/back cover were not assessed, so grade is capped conservatively.

The Devil's Footprints #1 launched Dark Horse Comics' four-issue horror miniseries in 2005, based on a story co-created by Joss Whedon and scripted by Scott Allie, with art by Paul Lee. The series draws on the real Victorian-era legend of the "Devil's Footprints," mysterious cloven tracks reported in the snow across Devon, England in 1855, reworking that folklore into a contemporary horror narrative about a small town confronting an inexplicable, possibly supernatural threat. It arrived during a period when Whedon's name carried significant weight in the direct market following Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Fray, and Dark Horse packaged the book accordingly, though Whedon's involvement here was as co-creator and story originator rather than sole writer.

As a creator-driven horror miniseries from a mid-2000s independent line, the book was printed in the ordinary quantities typical of Dark Horse's non-licensed original fiction, and it has not developed the sustained secondary-market demand seen in genuine keys of the era. It carries a small but real premium tied to the Whedon association among completists of his bibliography, but the underlying series itself never broke out as a breakout horror property, and back-issue interest has remained modest and largely dealer-stock driven rather than auction-driven.

This is a book most likely to interest Joss Whedon completists, Dark Horse horror-line collectors, and readers assembling the full Devil's Footprints run rather than speculators. Raw copies in any reading condition are readily available and inexpensive, and even a top-graded slab represents a niche purchase rather than a broadly contested item; it trades as a reasonably priced supporting piece in a larger Whedon or Dark Horse collection rather than a standalone investment target.