25+ Auction Records, Top Art on the Bay! Original Comic Art Tips #237
Welcome to #237 of Original Comic Art Tips!
eBay: $13,5k paid for the Catwoman cover by J. Scott Campbell, a good deal compared to Comiclink sales (and without a bad Stan Lee Sig), $5,3k for the Star Wars page by Infantino, days after the record $18k for Colleen Doran a page from the same issue went for $5,2k, a detailed Batman DPS by Dan Mora went for $3,8k, the Fantastic Four page by John Buscema for $2,5k (not bad), a Sheena cover by Celina for $2,4k.
An Iron-Man cover by Mike Choi was sold for a $1,5k Best Offer, a Batman sketch cover by Jim Lee with a ¾ shot was sold for a nice $850 B.O., a print hand colored by Frank Frazetta was a good deal at $1k.
Charity auctions: the Tuki sketch by Jeff Smith went for $4k, three Hellboy sketches by Mike Mignola went for $2k, $1,9k, $1,7k, meanwhile another Hellboy sketch was sold by another seller for a $900 B.O.
Heritage Weekly Auction: many high prices, this week, like the $18k paid for a Terry daily by Milton Caniff, making it the 5th highest price paid on HA for a daily.
Invincible original art by Cory Walker is very rare to find, this page made $6,6k. A Clark Kent page by John Byrne went for $5,7k, a 2 in 1 page for $5,1k, Avengers by Al Milgrom for $4,5k, an Archie Sunday with a Bob Montana appearance for $4k, $2k for a Goon page by Eric Powell.
Heritage Signature Auction: here we are with record prices for this $14M auction. Jack Kirby breaks the $500k barrier with the Captain America splash, sold for $630k. Still very far from the top, with Trimpe, McFarlane, Wood, Wrightson and Zeck (not counting Frazetta, Hergé and Uderzo playing in different markets) over the King in the highest price race. The other nine pages from the same story were also sold in this auction, totaling $345k, so almost a million for the entire story.
A great weekend for Jim Lee, with the $360k record for the X-Men half splash, this auction also placed 4 pieces in the top 10 highest prices ever paid for Lee.
Big $264 jump for Harvey Kurtzman with the early MAD cover, $240k is an interior art record for John Romita and for the 1st appearance of Kingpin, record for John Buscema with an iconic cover sold for $228k ($72k is the new interior art record), $160k for the Spider-Man cover by JRJR, $84 record for the first appearance of Bane by Graham Nolan, $78k for Bane breaking Batman’s back by Jim Aparo.
$72k is an interior art record for Gil Kane, Bob Layton makes a $66k record, doubling the previous price of $34k made by the same cover less than two years ago.
$51k for Keith Pollard, $45k for Dick Ayers, $43k for Marie Severin (full pencils), $20k for John Severin, $41k for Mark Bagley, $20k for a daily by George Herriman, $18k for Colleen Doran, $15k for Ryan Ottley, $15k for Steven Hughes, $14k for Don Newton, $12k for Mark Texeira.
The interior art record for Dave Gibbons is not for a Watchmen page anymore. Alan Davis just went from a $10-15k max price for his covers to $96k.
John Byrne may be the only artist who can make a cover art record of $96k well below his interior art record of $204k… let’s wait for a top X-Men cover to come.
Jon Bogdanove is probably the first artist to directly benefit from the price growth of art in recent years, he probably received many high offers for the Death of Superman TPB cover in the last 30 years, finally selling it for $204k.
The other 10 Superman pages sold last weekend made him another $304k.
As you can see I only linked to record prices, but there were also many other very high prices, no space for everything…
Catawiki: the Uncle Scrooge page by Romano Scarpa was sold for €750, an early Milo Manara splash for €600, the Tex prelim by Magnus for €280.
The early page by Peter Bagge went for €300, the Captain America page by Mitch Breitweiser was a good deal at €350.
Comiclink: $7,9k was the highest price, paid for the early She-Hulk page by Mike Vosburg (at the same time a cover went for $18k on HA), $7,7k for the Phoenix cover by J. Scott Campbell, $6,2k for a Punisher cover by Tim Bradstreet, $6,1k for the Spider-Man cover by Skottie Young.
$5,6k for a Sandman commission by Dave McKean is a very high price. Drawn in February 2022 and paid $1k, this Storm commission by Art Adams was quickly flipped for $3,3k.
Of the many animation designs by Jack Kirby this one was paid $6,1k, $4,6k for this mostly stat Hunger Dogs page.
High $2,3k for a Fantastic Four page by Jim Cheung, $4,5k for a Spidey 2099 page by Rick Leonardi.
Many good deals as usual: $850 for a Hulk page by Mike Zeck, $750 for the Wolverine page by Leinil Yu, $400 for a Spidey page by Ryan Ottley, $300 for the Batman by Alex Nino. Good prices as usual for DC splashes by Brett Booth, $550 for Nightwing and $400 for Flash.
This week on eBay
J. Scott Campbell – Wonder Woman Original Cover Art
Mike Mignola: 3 detailed Radio Spaceman pinups for charity, one, two, three.
Then a 1999 Hellboy illustration, very nice but the marker faded a bit…
Remember the remarked Hellboy Artist’s Editions sold lately for $1k? There’s a copy at $850 or B.O.
Marvel: an X-Men page by Dave Cockrum, The ‘Nam title splash by Mike Harris, She-Hulk by Angel Medina, a Conan half splash by John Buscema,
This Spider-Man drawing doesn’t look like John Romita, and there’s a cetificate of authenticity, which usually means it’s a fake… but it’s a long time seller, looks inked with a brush, maybe very quickly? I wouldn’t buy it… This Spidey color prelin is instead original.
A Daredevil cover by Paolo Rivera, nice Emma Frost commission by Terry Dodson, a Fantastic Four cover by Salvador Larroca, a Thor coaster by Walt Simonson for Hero, 4 Fantastic Four sketches by Joe Sinnott,
Still going from last week: the Fantastic Four page by Jack Kirby still has two days to go, this Black Widow cover by Jay Anacleto was sold last week for $4k, now for sale again starting at $2k, the Excalibur page by Alan Davis is ending tomorrow, the Harley sketch by Bruce Timm tonight.
DC: look at that Wonder Woman cover by J. Scott Campbell, I don’t recognize the character, but I like this JLA splash by Gary Frank, an Action Comics page and a Doom Patrol by Byrne, a Spectre splash by Norm Breyfogle.
A funny Superman page by Curt Swan, a 2007 Batgirl commission by George Perez, a zombie Batman by Charlie Adlard, a Promethea DPS by J. H. Williams, a Sgt. Rock cover by Rags Morales.
A self published superhero page by Ditko, Grendel by Wagner, a Carol Day daily by David Wright.
Heritage Weekly Auction
Sergio Aragones – Groo Original Comic Art
Marvel: a 1996 Spider-Man splash by Mark Bagley, a full team Avengers page by Sal Buscema, an X-Factor DPS by Steve Epting, Thor by Al Milgrom.
Some high quality commissions, Spidey/Black Cat by Mahmud Asrar, Spider Woman by Greg Land, Spidey by Tim Sale, a rare Daredevil sketch by David Mazzucchelli.
A Venom cover by Ryan Stegman, an Ultimates cover by Olivier Coipel, a Marvel Universe poster by Adi Granov.
DC: Cosmic Odyssey by Mike Mignola, an Hawkman cover by Kevin Nowlan, a MAD page by Wally Wood, a Catwoman sketch by Darwyn Cooke, a Wonder Woman page by Daniel Warren Johnson.
A Groo DPS by Aragones, Black Cat by Lee Elias, Y by Pia Guerra, Wildcats original art by Jim Lee, Invincible by Ryan Ottley, a Madman illustration by Mike Allred.
Strips: nice Hagar, Terry, and Garfield dailies.
Catawiki Auctions
Aldo Di Gennaro – Original Illustration
A Necron color sketch by Magnus, a drawing by Dino Battaglia, an illustration by Jacovitti, Signor Bonaventura by Tofano, Tex by Buzzelli, a Napoleone cover by Bacilieri, a Dylan Dog page by Micheluzzi, very nice illustration by Di Gennaro, Winnie Pooh by G.B. Carpi.
Nice Conan page by Ernie Chan, Axa by Romero, an Andy Capp strip, a Scrooge sketch by Don Rosa, a Wolverine page by Greg Land, five TMNT covers by Cabaltierra.
Heritage Illustration Auction
As usual I went to dig into the illustration auction to find a few pieces from comic artists… Two political cartoons by Winsor McKay, several pieces by Mort Drucker, here’s a Mad founding fathers illustration, Metropolis by Mike Kaluta, a Blade Runner illustration by Bill Sienkiewicz.
See you next week!!