SHI: POISONED PARADISE #2

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creasing or spine stress. Minor edge wear cannot be ruled out due to the protective sleeve reflection, and a faint scuff is possible near the lower left corner. Interior and back cover were not assessed, so grade is based solely on this front cover image.

Shi: Poisoned Paradise #2 is the second chapter of a short miniseries published by Avatar Press in 2002, continuing the adventures of Billy Tucci's katana-wielding heroine Shi, one of the defining independent "bad girl" characters to emerge from the black-and-white and creator-owned boom of the 1990s. Tucci returns as writer and contributes to the cover art, with Karl Waller handling interior pencils and inks and also contributing cover work alongside Matt Martin and Sean Shaw; Nimbus Studios provided colors and William Christensen edited. By this point Shi had already passed through several publishers and imprints, and this Avatar Press run represents a later stop in the character's ongoing publication history rather than her introduction.

As a modern-age independent comic with no first appearance, no landmark creative milestone, and a standard print run typical of early-2000s Avatar Press output, this issue trades as bulk stock. It shows up regularly in dollar bins, quarter boxes, and bulk online listings, and the near-total absence of certified sales data or a tracked fair-market value reflects genuine collector indifference rather than an oversight — the book was produced in enough quantity, and has enough surviving supply, that raw copies rarely command more than token prices regardless of condition.

Collectors who pick this issue up are typically Shi completists working through Tucci's full publishing history across Crusade, Image, Avatar, and other imprints, or dollar-bin browsers rounding out a longbox. Raw copies move cheaply and easily at any grade, with condition mattering little below near-mint; a submitted CGC 9.8 can command a modest premium simply because so few copies of this specific issue have been certified, but that scarcity is a function of low submission volume rather than genuine market demand. It is not a book pursued for investment, and its market position is unlikely to change.