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Introduction: You’re about to read the first guest post on ComicArt.Tips, written by the collector known in the hobby as “Rabid Ferret”. Here he explains his favorite tip for new original comic art collectors, a worthwhile research technique you can apply to your favorite artists to help know when it’s time to bid strongly on a piece you don’t want to lose. In this example he walks through Jim Lee’s Uncanny X-Men run and helps you realize that having big pockets is probably not enough…

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If you’re here for the first time, don’t forget to go to the homepage and subscribe to the weekly Original Comic Art Tips Newsletter, for news about comic art auctions and auction results. You can also see past issues at this link.

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Researching an Artist’s Run

When Francesco asked me if I had any interest in writing an article one topic jumped immediately to mind; the tip I give to every new collector entering the hobby that I always feel is overlooked.

Research. More specifically, sitting down with an artist’s run and doing the legwork to know what pages exist.

One of the most common problems in this hobby, especially for new collectors, is that they assume a lot based on memory. “I loved McFarlane’s Amazing Spidey run! I know it by heart!” But do you really? How many issues did he work on? How many pages did he draw? Of those pages, how many were any good? How many had Spidey? How many were all Aunt May? How many did Todd ink himself? How many splashes did he do? How many DPSs?

Chances are, you probably don’t know these answers and are relying on memory to fill in the gaps. And when you get into the weeds of reality, you start to get surprised.

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Commissions

This is what Walt posted on his Facebook page: “A Commission Announcement – Gerry posted an announcement from Spencer Beck that I’m doing some commissions. This is true. I still have some work but not a lot, and thought I would try a different direction as an experiment. I haven’t really done commissions seriously in decades. And I’m already doing a half dozen drawings for friends or for benefits. So I’m not sure how this will work out; I really do prefer drawing stories. However, with companies shut down, I decided to spread my time doing some work for charities/benefits of different sorts and also doing some work for me. We’ll just have to see how it goes. The current slots are filled. I may or may not continue to do commissions after I finish this batch. I’ll post them as I finish them. And I’ll revisit this whole subject somewhere down the road.”

The list was for 10 single figure commissions on 11″x17″ paper with no background, priced at $2,000, and it was filled very quickly.

Here’s the original art posted on Facebook until May 2021 (updated), as you can see there are 9 out of 10 commissions. The first one is 22×30″, and as you can see it’s NOT a single character… it probably costed way more than $2k. Finished in April 2021.

 

 

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We have a new record.

Painted art, and more well known characters chosen, helped auctions #41-50 reach a new record, with more than $133k raised. #50 is also a new record for a single auction, with $22,100. All of the ten auctions went over $7,5k. Flashpoint Batman (#50) is perfect for a record, a painted depiction of Batman in a classic Jim Lee pose. The old record price was for #34, Ace the Bat Hound, sold for $20,100. It probably made a record because we had a Batman bust in the background, this time we had a full Batman with no strange costumes, and it paid.

It is also worth noting that #49 is a classic Superman pose, and it made $14k despite being a bust shot, drawing top characters is always the best choice to raise more.

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You’re reading the 4th part in a series of articles analyzing Jim Lee’s Original Comic Art Charity Auctions for Comic Book stores in need during the Covid-19 pandemic. Auction #40 has just ended, so we’re ready for an overview of auctions #31-40.

If you’re new here and want to start from the beginning here’s part One:

Jim Lee original art for charity 1-10,

part Two:

Jim Lee original art for charity 11-20.

And part Three:

Jim Lee Original Art for charity 21-30.

And if you want to follow the live auctions here’s a link to:

Jim’s eBay page.

(And before we start, if you’re a comic art collector, why don’t you subscribe to the Original Comic Art Tips newsletter? A weekly dose of auction results analysis and new auctions highlights. Just go to the homepage, or if you want to read the latest issue click on the Archive button in the upper menu.)

What will happen now?

These are the last 10 “headsketches”, but as you can guess they’re not all headsketches, we’ll see a bust, two waist-up figures and two full figures (with #40 Raven, being a full illustration).

Jim Lee himself annouced on his social profiles that “Sketches 41-50 may be a little different than the rest as I try some mixed media.” and “This ends the “headshots” guiding principle for sketches 21-40.The next ten 41-50 will be mixed media and very different and experimental. Maybe a painted on canvas piece? Then the final 10 51-60 will return to the original style and approach that started this whole crazy campaign! Curious to see what I come up with? Me too”

But he forgot to tell us if these will still be headsketches or not. Well judging from #41 (Brainiac being auctioned now) they will.

Time for Charts.

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Neal Adams – Superman and Batman pinup, sold for $601

Neal Adams commissions aren’t cheap if you go to the source, I think that for $600 you could buy no more than a Batman bust, going to the secondary market for commissions is often a way to spend a little (or a lot) less. (altro…)

Here we are with the third part of our series following the Jim Lee Original Comic Art sales for charity. Yesterday #30 “Composite Superman/Batman” was sold for more than $11k, it’s time for a recap of the last ten pieces.

If you want to start from the beginning here’s part One:

Jim Lee original art for charity 1-10,

and part Two:

Jim Lee original art for charity 11-20.

And if you want to follow the live auctions here’s a link to:

Jim’s eBay page.

 

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(And before we start, if you enjoy this article and you’re a comic art collector, why don’t you subscribe to the Original Comic Art Tips weekly newsletter? Just go to the homepage, or if you want to read the latest issue click on the Archive button in the upper menu.)

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Total raised is $391k.

This time the ten auctions raised a total of $94,272, less than the last ten, and it’s not a surprise, since #11-20 were full figure with background illustrations, and these were announced as head sketches, usually simpler and less valued drawings.

Surprise!

The surprise is that they’re NOT all headsketches… Bane, Poison Ivy and Composite Batman/Superman are waist up shots and Swamp Thing is full illustration with background. (altro…)

Yesterday the auction for #20 of 60 “Batman by Gaslight” drawn by, you guessed it, Jim Lee, ended for more than $14,000, so it’s time for a second recap.

If you’re new to this, you can read the first post on this series of 60 pieces of original comic art that Jim Lee is drawing in 60 days. Proceeds will go to help closed comic book stores during the Covid-19 pandemic, and all of these drawings will probably become DC Comics covers in a near future.

Read part 1 of 6 here.

Auctions are going every day, so if you want to see what’s being auctioned right now here’s a link to:

Jim Lee’s ebay page.

Many top comic book artists are also sending original drawings for this auction, so the raised money will grow even more.

The record is still with #9, “Batman: Red Rain“, sold for $17,300 on April, 12, but the average price has grown since the beginning, so the total price paid for auctions 11-20 is $120,168. Well done Jim!

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Legendary Comic Artist Jim Lee is helping his way in the Covid-19 pandemic by doing what he does best: drawing superheroes!

Here’s the description in his own words:

“Here’s a chance to get some Jim Lee original comic art and do something good during these unprecedented times. I’ll be drawing and posting 60 different sketches – one a day – over the next two months which I will then be auctioning off with all the proceeds going to a fund (Book Industry Charitable Foundation) which will benefit local comic shops/brick and mortar stores in need. High bidder of each sketch gets to pick the next DC character I draw for the next sketch in queue! No character (version) to be repeated!”

Prices will go up:

These 60 pieces of original Jim Lee art will then be collected by DC Comics in a single volume, and each drawing is going to be published as a variant cover to a future comic book (adding to the value of the original art). Auctions are going great, the first 10 pieces already raised almost $90K, I’ll be following along documenting these auctions 10 at a time, so come back next week for auctions 11-20.

I think he started with the idea of doing “quicker” sketches (look at #1, Nightwing), then when he/DC decided to publish them, began to add more detail, culminating (for now) in #9: a cover quality depiction of Batman and Catwoman.

End prices vary, based on character and detail, from the $4,800 of Bizarro to $17,300 of Batman/Catwoman. I’ll be putting them in a chart, we’ll see at the end (in a final post) how the curve goes.

Click here to see current original art auctions from Jim Lee!

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Winter ended a few days ago, so it’s time again for our report on the best original comic art sold on eBay during the last 3 months! As usual we have a top ten for auctioned pages and one for Buy It Now sales. The order of this chart is by highest price only.

Are you all fans of Rob Liefeld? If you follow ebay sales on the Original Comic Art Tips Newsletter (subscribe on the homepage of this website) we experienced a flood of original art by Liefeld since December, (here’s a link to original Liefeld art sold since January, I counted 29 pieces) most of the best pieces were sold by the same two accounts, but after seeing the very high prices for vintage Marvel art many collectors followed putting for sale their original art. So that said, let’s see the chart, with 6 out of 10 pieces drawn by the same artist! (altro…)