Issue #36

Mignola, Perez, Neal Adams and more in this week’s Original Comic Art Tips Newsletter!

Results. eBay: The Hellboy model sheet was sold for $11,300, with that price you could buy the best, published art by Mike Mignola. Many bidders probably thought this was the original model sheet, but the real story for this piece was in the pictures of the auction… the other Mignola original from Dracula ended at $2,600. The Dustin Nguyen painted Batman cover made $3,800, the Don Newton Batwoman $1,000. A vintage Death/Sandman pencil sketch by Chris Bachalo made $500. The Spiderman/Daredevil original by Mark Bagley ended at $1,200, the Spiderman page by the recently retired from comics Stuart Immonen at $350 and the Jim Starlin Thanos at $600. the Jim Lee Wildcats 4PS didn’t meet the reserve at $15k.

HA European Auction: The auction was clearly made to appeal to European buyers, the American artists selected are the most appreciated here (Will Eisner $16k – R. Crumb $20k and others), and the European artists are all the big names with no big surprises. Many items went unsold but many reached the reserve in the end. We start with the obvious highest price a Tintin original by Herge that made $425,000, the Manara page from El Gaucho almost $12,000, A Corto Maltese page by Hugo Pratt $65,000, A Moebius Incal original art $21,000 and the Jack Kirby Black Panther Splash $12k. A Jim Starlin/Milgrom Thanos commission ended at $4,500. Three nice pieces ended for affordable prices: a Jack Kirby Mister Miracle for $2,000, a Frank Cho Loki cover for $2,500 and a Jim Lee X-Men page for $2,500.

Ha Sunday: Jim Aparo did really well this week, a Batman Vs. Aquaman page was sold for $3,800, the Batman/Deadman splash for $2,000. Don Heck for once did even better with a Batgirl splash sold for $5,500. Somebody must be very happy with this Val Semeiks full team JLA/JSA DPS bought for $600, and an Impulse cover by Humberto Ramos for $450 isn’t bad either… Marvel: the Dale Keown Hulk half-splash and the Gene Colan acrobatic Daredevil page both ended at $2,868, a vintage Art Adams X-Babies rough went for $1,550. Pretty low was this Namor page by Sal Buscema for $600 and this X-men page by Ian Churchill for $300. I left the best for the end: the rare Alex Toth pages all made record prices (why were they in a Sunday Auction?), the very rare Torpedo original $7,700, the rare Flash page $3,500, and the classic My Greatest Adventure $2,600. Some quick high results for strips: On Stage (Starr) $1,800, Little Orphan Annie (Gray) $2,600, Cisco Kid (Salinas) $1,200.

This week on eBay

Kelley Jones – Batman Original Art

I think this comic store owner is selling his vintage art collection, something you don’t often see on eBay: a Romita Sr. Spiderman (without Spiderman) page, three Neal Adams X-Men pages (one, two, three), a cosmic Perez/Sinnott Fantastic Four original, a Joe Kubert Sgt. Rock Splash (that looks like it was a DPS), Kane/Severin Fury cover, a great Sgt. Rock title splash by Russ Heath and a Ditko Hawk and Dove. Another page you don’t see often for sale is a Batman page by Kelley Jones (see also a Jones Micronauts page). Speaking of Batman this seller has 3 Irv Novick Robin pages, a nice Colan/Janson Batman/Robin page, one by Pat Broderick and an Adam Kubert DPS. Some Mike Mignola pieces in order of importance: a Hellboy cover!!! A BPRD cover, a Homunculus action figure art, a REAL Hellboy sketch and a FAKE Hellboy sketch (report it to eBay if you want). A McFarlane Hulk page, a Scott McDaniel Daredevil, Spiderman page by Ron Lim, a Don Newton New Gods Splash, and an incredible page from Preacher #6 by Steve Dillon. A good week!

Heritage Sunday Auction

J.H. Williams III – Promethea DPS Original Art

A Brian Bolland Camelot 3.000 page, a George Perez Teen Titans original, Jim Aparo‘s Batman/Superman and Batman/Green Lantern and a Mike McKone Teen Titans Cover. A Jack Kirby Rawhide Kid page from 1961 (the year of F4 #1) and a Ron Lim Silver Surfer/Thanos page. Wow, look at this Buscema/Alcala Conan splash! A rare Roussos/Jerry Robinson Green Hornet page and many strips: another beautiful On Stage Sunday by Leonard Starr, a Robbins Johnny Hazard Sunday, a Hagar daily by Dik Browne, a funny BC daily by Johnny Hart, and the best Cisco Kid by Salinas so far. A sexy Frank Thorne page, a Promethea DPS by JH Williams III and a complete Maggie story by Jaime Hernandez.

See you Next Week!