eBay Original Comic Art – Winter 20-21 Top 20
eBay for many (not for me), is the home of lower quality original comic art. In the last three months, while searching for new pieces to publish in the Original Comic Art Tips newsletter, I found many top-quality pages, sold for prices not common on eBay. So, a year after I published the last eBay original comic art report, we have this new article commenting on the top prices reached lately.
It’s also a year after the start of the pandemic, and during 2020 there were many auctions for charity purposes, so I decided to divide the “regular” auctions from the charity ones and do a second chart.
Since December 21 we assisted to the last auction from Mike Mignola, who auctioned 4 sketches (often more than sketches) a week from April to December – the latest installment of Jim Lee’s 60 sketches in 60 days, and the start of the weekly Hero Initiative dual charity sketches.
Ebay Original Comic Art Top Ten: Highest Prices
Gene Colan: Captain America #120 Original Cover Art – Sold for $25,000
Not the perfect Captain America cover, but a piece like this usually lands on specialized auction houses. A very high price for eBay’s standards, drawn by the classic team of Colan/Sinnott and published at the end of the ’60s, the best decade for Marvel Comics. Sold on Heritage in May 2017 for almost $23k, take away eBay’s 10% cut and the price remained the same after 4 years, centuries for original art prices. The cover to #123 (a more desirable piece) was sold on HA in September 2020 for $31k.
Greg Capullo/Todd McFarlane: Spawn #33 Original Cover Art – Sold for $17,5k
A cover from 1995, prime year for Image and Spawn. A perfect image of the Violator beating Spawn in a detailed sewer setting. The fact that Spawn gets beaten and is almost completely hidden underwater, has kept the price relatively low for an early piece like this one.
Sean Murphy: Commission spot – Sold for $13,100
Sean Murphy Original Art is very hot between collectors, with pages selling for very high prices. The advantages for the buyer are all explained in the text of the auction:
“You are bidding on an original, 11×17” commission drawn in pencil and ink by Sean Gordon Murphy. The winning bidder can select up to 2 characters, 1 vehicle (optional) and backgrounds.
This will be a cover-quality commission with full backgrounds–not only will you be getting the final piece, but Sean will include the sketches, layouts, and anything else generated while working on the piece in your purchase.
Here are examples of subject matter that Sean has suggested: Boba Fett/Mandalorian with Fett’s ship in a jungle, Batman/Catwoman with the Batmobile in Gotham City, Spider Man 2099 in a futuristic city, 2 of your favorite ‘90s X-Men, etc.
Keep in mind that if you choose a subject/setting that is selected as a variant cover by a publisher in the future, you could potentially be pre-buying a cover (DC Comics has purchased/published many of his Batman commissions over the years). But, of course, that would be up to the publisher.
This will be Sean’s only commission available in 2021 and, as you might know, Sean retired from commissions several years ago. Based on his schedule, it might be 2022 or beyond before he has time for another request.
The commission will be finished within 6 weeks of receiving payment”
Sold on February 28, we may be able to see the finished product in April, if the 6 weeks time window is met. This will probably be a Batman piece, but I admit the Spider-Man 2099 suggestion made me think of how cool it would be.
Tim Sale: Batman “The Long Halloween” Original Art – Sold for $12,900
Another piece I’d expect to see on a specialized auction house. A splash from one of the most beloved Batman stories. The price, based on 2020 auctions, remained inside the current evaluation parameters.
Todd McFarlane: Incredible Hulk #341 Pg. 18 Original Art – Sold for $12,000
Look who’s back. Last year Rob Liefeld Original Art was in 6 out of 10 positions, this time we have two Todd McFarlane drawn pages in the top 5. McFarlane’s Original Comic Art has grown a lot in the last 2-3 years, this page was sold on Heritage in 2016 for $3k.
Mike Mignola: Zombie World #1 Original Cover Art – Sold for $10,000
A very detailed cover done in 1997, a top period for Mignola art.
Jack Burnley (as Joe Shuster): Action Comics #28 Original Comic Art – Sold for $8,950
Jack Burnley was one of the earliest, and greatest, artists on Superman. Here he’s ghosting for creator Joe Shuster in a very early Action Comics Issue. This page was on eBay (at least) since 2020, and was sold a couple of days after the end page from the same story went on Heritage for $72k. Burnley’s art is very rare to come by, but the difference between this page, with Clark Kent getting punched by “the leopard skin thief” and the page on HA is clear. Still, it’s possible the buyer was right in his bet.
Barry Smith: Conan #6 Original Comic Art – Sold for $8,200
Conan original art by Barry Smith is something you don’t expect to find on eBay, it went for a pretty good price too. Perhaps if sold through a specialized auction house it would have raised more, but the seller, paying 25% auction fees instead of the 10% paid to eBay, would have earned, more or less, the same amount.
Brian Stelfreeze: Shadow of the Bat #30 Original Cover Art – Sold for $8,000
Original Batman covers painted by Stelfreeze are incredibly rare to find on the market, and I was very surprised to find one on eBay. This is also a particularly good one, with Batman, Catwoman, and Azrael. ’90s original art with Azrael has been growing lately (the same is happening with Ben Reilly at Marvel), and fans of Stelfreeze’s classic covers from that period are probably also fans of that character.
Jim Lee: Superman #240 original Comic Art – Sold for $7,800
A top ten prices chart would not be complete without a Jim Lee page, but it’s surprising to see a perfect Batman page at the end of the list! The price probably stayed relatively low because it’s a Batman page on a Superman comic, but I wouldn’t mind. Will be easily worth 2 times this price in just a few years.
Original Comic Art for Charity: Winter 20-21 Top 10
- J. Scott Campbell/David Nakayama: X-Men Original Art – Sold for $19,200
- Jim Lee: Penguin Original Comic Art- Sold for $8,950
- Mike Mignola: Hellboy Original Comic Art – Sold for $7,900
- Jim Lee: Batwoman Original Comic Art – Sold for $7,000
- Walt Simonson/Greg Hildebrandt: Thor Original Art – Sold for $6,200
- Jim Lee: Black Adam Original Comic Art – Sold for $6,050
- Matt Wagner/Tim Sale: Spider-Man Original Comic Art – Sold for $5,850
- Jim Lee: Green Lantern Original Comic Art – Sold for $5,600
- Art Adams/Nick Bradshaw: X-Men Original Comic Art – Sold for $5,600
- Bogdanove/Grummett/Guice/Jurgens: Superman Original Art – Sold for $5,150
J. Scott Campbell Original Art always moves hundreds of bidders, Jim Lee is no surprise, with 4 entries from the 60 sketches. Mike Mignola makes the top 10 with the last charity sketch, a thank you piece sold on Dec. 31 (after raising more than $400k with art sales in 2020). Finding Walt Simonson’s original art for charity, since the start of the Covid pandemic, has often happened, and also Art Adams gave a few illustrations in the last year.
These 10 pieces raised together more than $77,000, but many more were sold in the last three months.
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That’s all, for now, if you want to see pieces like these BEFORE the end of the auctions, subscribe to the Original Comic Art Tips weekly newsletter, or click here to see the latest issue.
