While Frank Giacoia (1924–1988) and Edith Meiser are the original creators of the 1950s Sherlock Holmes newspaper strips reprinted within this issue, the signatory, Bill Blackbeard (1926–2011), is the central figure of this valuation. Blackbeard was not a comic illustrator, but rather one of the most vital comic strip historians in American history. Through his San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, Blackbeard spent decades traversing the country, rescuing over 75 tons of bound newspaper comic supplements that libraries were discarding or destroying in favor of microfilm. His efforts single-handedly preserved millions of historical comic strips that would have otherwise been permanently lost. Eternity Comics, an imprint of Malibu Graphics operating out of Newbury Park, California, played a similar preservationist role in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They serialized and reprinted rare, public domain, or forgotten black-and-white strips—such as Giacoia's 1954–1956 run of Sherlock Holmes—bringing them to a Modern Age comic shop audience. Because Giacoia passed away in 1988, he could not have signed this 1990 issue. Blackbeard’s signature on a comic dedicated to the exact historical preservation he championed creates a deeply relevant, albeit highly niche, collectible.^[1][2]

Direct sales of this specific issue signed by Bill Blackbeard are absent from public records (0 direct matches), requiring a market-informed composite valuation. The underlying asset is a low-demand Modern Age reprint; unsigned copies of Eternity's Sherlock Holmes #23 routinely sell between $3 and $11 based on condition. The valuation is therefore anchored by treating Blackbeard's signature as a proxy premium. Hardcover reference books authored or edited by Blackbeard, such as his 1981 'Sherlock Holmes in America', sell for up to $55 when signed, establishing a firm market ceiling. Because this signature appears on a peripheral comic format rather than his primary scholarly work, the autograph premium is modeled at $10 to $25, placing the final FMV slightly below his dedicated hardcovers but well above standard back-issue bin pricing.^[1][2][3]