STAR WARS: DARK EMPIRE #3

Cover shows strong gloss and vibrant color with sharp, square corners and no visible creases or spine stress. There is minor edge wear along the top and right border and a couple of faint handling marks near the artwork on the right side of the cover. No tears, stains, or color breaks are visible. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on this front cover photo.

Star Wars: Dark Empire #3 continues the six-issue 1991-92 Dark Horse Comics limited series that returned Star Wars to comics after a five-year absence from the medium. Written by Tom Veitch with art by Cam Kennedy and painted covers by Dave Dorman, the series controversially depicted Luke Skywalker succumbing to the dark side of the Force while confronting a resurrected, cloned Emperor Palpatine, a storyline that proved influential on later Star Wars expanded-universe fiction dealing with clones and Force corruption. Issue #3 falls in the middle of that arc, carrying forward the series' painted-cover aesthetic and its then-novel prestige-format presentation on higher-quality paper stock.

Market activity for the issue is concentrated almost entirely in high grade. Census population is large relative to sales volume, and certified pricing shows a pronounced curve: values stay modest through the 9.0-9.4 range before climbing meaningfully at 9.6 and peaking at 9.8, where recent twelve-month sales activity has been most consistent. This pattern reflects a book that was heavily preserved by speculator-era collectors at the time of release, meaning raw copies in low and mid grade are common and inexpensive, while the premium is reserved almost entirely for pristine certified examples.

Demand centers on Star Wars completists building the Dark Empire run and CGC 9.8 registry collectors rather than casual buyers, since the issue itself is not a recognized key. Entry-level raw copies remain widely available and inexpensive, mid-grade raw copies trade modestly above cover price, and the real market action is at the top of the CGC scale, where scarcity of true Gem Mint survivors — despite a large overall census — sustains steady premium pricing.