Issue #45
Jim Lee, Bruce Timm, Alex Ross and more! in this week’s Original Comic Art Tips Newsletter!
Ebay: Chris Samnee had a nice batch of Cap/Hulk/Thing pages last week, as usual some went for very good sums and some remained affordable. the cover made $2,500, the splash $1,500, a nice action page $800 and $550 for this one is a good deal. The Jack Kirby Thor page made $4,500, the 4 page Ron Lim FF lot $800, the Gene Colan Dracula half-splash $1,200.
The Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing #2 half splash was sold for more than $14,000, I think it would do 2/3k more on Heritage. The New Superman cover by Philip Tan at $450 seems like a steal, a Superman page by Curt Swan for $300 is nice.
The Spirit page by Will Eisner made $3,500, the Corben illustration $3,000 and the Eastman/Laird Ninja Turtles illustration $1,700. The Steve Dillon original art from Preacher #6 went for $1,000, a good 40% under the latest prices.
HA Signature: Many interesting auction results came in last week, I’ll start with Marvel. Gene Colan made his record with the $240,000 Iron Man/Sub-Mariner #1 cover, the highest price reached by a Colan original on Heritage was $89,000 for Avengers #63. John Romita Sr. is used to making records, the Amazing Spiderman #55 cover ended at $105,000, a classic early issue but it’s a Doc Ock cover… I’d spend 1/3 of that to buy an interior page with nice Spiderman panels. Meanwhile, this page at $9,600 was a good buy.
This Jack Kirby Cap splash was sold for $96,000, one of the highest prices realized for JK interior art, on the other end this Cap cover is one of the cheapest sold on HA in recent years at $22,000. A page from X-Men #1 went for $76k. Given the last spike in Jim Lee original art prices, $19,000 for a Wolverine cover and $17,000 for a wraparound Superman cover are good deals. For Sal Buscema see an interior page go for $10,000 was very rare until a few months ago.
The biggest surprise for Marvel art was Carlos Pacheco, his art has always been pretty cheap, with interiors going from $100 to 500 and covers that rarely sold for more than $1.000. This time two covers, X-Men and Fantastic Four both went for more than $7k!
DC: Page #1 from The Killing Joke by Brian Bolland was sold for $120k, it’s not a surprise, Bolland art is growing steadily, page #14 went for $107k in 2014 and in high end comic art 4 years is a lot of time. In Batman news Bill Sienkiewicz made $13,000, Mignola $33,000, Frank Miller $43,000 and Joe Kubert $14,000 for his cover.
Frank Frazetta‘s painting was sold for $660k! A Weird Science cover by Wally Wood for $90k, Mignola’s Hellboy: $17k and $8k, a early Dennis the Menace panel for $3,800 (all the other strips remained more or less inside their usual price range) Whew!!
HA Sunday: the JLA 19 page lot by Dick Dillin went for $16,800 (800+ each), a Firehair splash by Joe Kubert for more than $2,000, the Superman illustration by Neal Adams for $1,800 and a Tony Daniel Flash splash page for only $200. The Buscema/Sienkiewicz Wolverine page made $13,200, and rightly so. The Thor half-splash by John Byrne $1,800, a Dick Ayers Sgt. Fury original $1,500. A Spirits page by Adam Kubert went for $250 and another Venom/Kraven page by Mark Bagley for $240.
This week on eBay
Bruce Timm – Zatanna Commission
2 Jim Lee pieces on auction, a Punisher page and a Superman original. Speaking of Superman we have a Kingdom Come page by Alex Ross with Clark Kent already at $11,000, a Jurgens/Sienk DPS, a JLA page by Howard Porter and the cover to Lois Lane #114 by Dick Giordano.
Then a Zatanna commission by Bruce Timm, a Kamandi original by Jack Kirby, Batman/Green Arrow by Gene Colan, Batman by Nolan/Sienk, Batman Metal DPS by Philip Tan and a Catwoman page by Guillem March.
Back to Marvel with a Great Fantastic Four cover by Alan Davis, an Avengers page by Bob Brown and Don Heck, a very nice X-Men page by Stuart Immonen and our friend Chris Samnee who’s back with some Captain America pages: here, here, here and here.
A nice Hellblazer by David Lloyd, 2 Michael Zulli Sandman Presents pages, a Sandman by Dave McKean and a Mignola book Illustration. Strips: a rare Beyond Mars by Lee Elias, a Easy Sunday by Mel Graff, and a nice Kevin the Bold by Collins.
Heritage Sunday Auction
Steve Epting – Captain America Original Art
Marvel again (no interesting DC pieces this week) with a page from Captain America #1 by Steve Epting, I’m tempted… A Conan page with no Conan but with a naked girl by John Buscema and another Wolverine page by JB and Bill Sienkiewicz. A nice Doc. Strange DPS and a Sub-Mariner DPS by Geof Isherwood.
A Werewolf by Night by Gil Kane, a Maroto Red Sonja page, a multi character page by James Fry and Terry Austin, a Thing splash by Stuart Immonen, a George Perez full team Avengers page and a Greg Land Wolverine page.
Strips: early Blondie daily (before the marriage), early colored Moon Mullins daily, the perfect Pogo daily with all the strip’s cast, two Terry and the Pirates dailies, early one from 1935, later one from 1946, a funny Broom Hilda and a Happy Hooligan. A Mary Perkins Sunday, a nice Green Berets Sunday, Orphan Annie Sunday and Li’l Abner Sunday.
See you Next Week with Comic Art Tips!
