Issue #61
Simone Bianchi, Ramos, Romita and More! in this week’s lonnnnnng Original Comic Art Tips Newsletter!!
Results. Ebay: The Spiderman page by Erik Larsen ended for $1,800, the Matteo Scalera Batman for $1,500 (I think his commission rate is $500…), Batman by Tim Sale $700, Spiderman by Sal Buscema $1,500, Avengers by Sal $1,000, the EC page by Wally Wood $3,700.
Good deals: the Alex Saviuk page with many characters ended for $300, the Ed Benes DC women for $120, 2 Pogo strips (with Pogo) for $450, the Li’l Abner half Sunday for $370.
Heritage Signature – part 2: Some crazy as usual Jim Lee prices: an unpublished Batman Illustration for $13k, a Hush Hardcover cover element for $7,200, a Deathblow cover for $6k and an All-Star Batman page for $6k.
More and more fans of Jim Starlin‘s Cosmic original art can’t afford his classic pieces, like this calendar illustration sold for $22k. Modern pieces are still pretty much affordable, with big growing potential. A Captain Marvel cover for $5k, a Thanos cover for $3,8k and a Thanos half-splash for $1,700.
John Buscema had dozens of pieces for sale, a 3 character Conan page went for $3,3k while a nice page inked by Sinnott ended at $780. A Silver Surfer page for $28k is a surprise, pages from the Wolverine GN for $7,8k are not, but if you wanted a Wolvie, this half-splash for $2,4k is not bad at all and another page went for $1,200. Originals from his first F4 run are growing quickly, but this later page from the 80’s went for $900.
Romita Jr. Iron-Man pages for $2,800 are still cheap compared to some of his work, a Thor DPS went for $2,600 and a Thor Vs Thanos cover for $3k.
Strips: the pre-Peanuts Li’l Folks panel went for $55k, the Sunday Peanuts strip for $63k, the Gary Larson The Far Side panel for $26k. The rare Milt Gross Sunday at $6k was by far the highest price paid for Gross original art on Heritage, the Rube Goldberg invention at $14,5k was not only the highest price paid for Goldberg on HA, but also a big increase in price since 2016, when another Invention was sold for $9,5k.
A rare Orphan Annie daily from 1927 went for $1,700, a Felix Sunday by Otto Messmer for $7,2k. $1,200 for a 1985 Garfield Sunday was a pretty low result. In retrospect I’m sad I haven’t made an offer for this 1958 Hi and Lois Sunday sold for less than $400.
Heritage Sunday: the Thor page by John Buscema went for $1,600, the Conan half-splash for $1,300 and a nice Tarzan page for only $500. Our usual Happy Collector bought the Ian Churchill Hulk splash for $450, a Barry Kitson JLA splash and two Romita Sr. sketches for $350.
Dick Tracy strips with dead people always sell for premium prices, this daily made $2,200. A nicely drawn Rick O’Shay Sunday made $1,100 after months of low prices, the World’s Finest Tuska Sunday made $1,500.
This week on eBay
Simone Bianchi – Colossus Original Art
Metropolis Comics, months ago, had an exhibition/sale of Simone Bianchi paintings from Marvel Masterpieces 2018. Now they uploaded many on Ebay, I like Colossus, Spiderman Vs. Venom, Iron Fist Vs. Daredevil and Thor.
Very nice Fantastic Four #200 page by Pollard/Sinnott, Galactus splash by Byrne, Thing and ROM by Bob Hall, ROM by Sal Buscema. A page from Avengers #23 by Romita/Heck and another great illustration by Matteo Scalera, Punisher/Bullseye.
Mutants: this full-team Werner Roth page from X-Men #22 is still cheap, the end page to issue #26 has a different starting price. Nice Wolverine page and X-Men page by Andy Kubert, X-Men by Salvador Larroca, very cheap Wolverine by Leinil Yu, a Cable half-splash by Ian Churchill, an Emma Frost splash by Humberto Ramos.
Conan By Buscema: one, two and three.
DC: two nice Flash pages by Francis Manapul (one, two), Flash by Don Heck, Nice Batman sketch by Norm Breyfogle, I know some readers here who will be following this auction… Batman sketch by Jeff Dekal, Batman by Don Newton, Joker by Francesco Mattina and by Bill Sienkiewicz.
Charlie Adlard‘s cover to TWD #127, cheap Tarzan sketch by John Romita, rare Tarzan sketch by Burne Hogarth, Hagar Sunday strip, Corrigan daily by Al Williamson.
Heritage Sunday Auction
Curt Swan – Superman Original Art
A slow week over at HA. DC: An Arak cover by the underrated Ernie Colon, a Wonder Woman page by David Finch, a Flash page by Carmine Infantino, Superman Twinkies Ad page by Curt Swan.
Marvel: Wolverine by Sean Chen, Excalibur by Alan Davis, Thor and Hulk by John Romita Jr.
Strips: Neal Adams’ Ben Casey, a 1963 Flash Gordon daily by Dan Barry, a funny Dennis the Menace panel, a Doonesbury 1988 daily. A beautiful Winnie Winkle Sunday, Orphan Annie Sunday and many Bob Lubbers pieces as usual, like this nice Tarzan daily and this Long Sam Sunday.
Comic link Focused Auction
Jim Lee – Icons Original Art
Today I discovered that the Comic Link auction is their best ever, the level is similar to last week’s Heritage signature, but I don’t have three weeks to show you everything… I’ll try with the best piece from each artist.
5 Art Adams pieces from classic to modern, I like this Avengers cover. Ross Andru. Look at this Spiderman title splash. Jim Aparo has a ton, here’s the cover to Brave&Bold #140. Mark Bagley, an Ultimate Spiderman cover. Rich Buckler Avengers #140 cover.
John Buscema has a dozen, here’s a page from F4 #112. I like this Captain America page by Sal Buscema, the John Byrne pages are all great, can’t show you just one. Marvel 2 in one, Man of Steel splash, Wonder Woman splash. Nice Cassaday covers like this one from the Avengers. Gene Colan, the cover to Daredevil #26 and more. Many classic Flash originals by Infantino and this Batman splash.
HA‘s Kirby section won but we have many pages like this Thor splash. Great Wizard cover by Andy Kubert, DC Icons cover by Jim Lee. Prophet/Cable cover by Rob Liefeld, Incredible Hulk by Todd McFarlane, and and Incredible Avengers DPS by George Perez. Moon Knight by Stephen Platt, the perfect Romita Spiderman page, the death of Captain Marvel by Starlin, Venom by Stegman, and Conan by BWS.
Some miscellaneous pieces, a Thor cover by Olivier Coipel, Infinity Gauntlet by Ron Lim, Iron Man by Quesada, Joker by Bolland.
Others
Cambi is a big fine-art auction house in Italy, they noticed the growing comic art market and they’re doing their fist auction this weekend. End of the good news.
They asked for help to Little Nemo, which specializes in comic art auctions. The result is an auction that looks exactly like another Little Nemo Auction, no fresh air brought to the market and a 30% Buyer’s Premium.
Russ Cochran: the auction is ending today and is one of the weakest they’ve ever did, if you’d like some cheap strips go take a look, you never know.
Swann is doing an auction with a few pieces but with great taste, most from the New Yorker: a beautiful Charles Addams panel, William Steig, a Peter Arno cover.
A Doonesbury daily, some Russell Patterson panels and there’s a handful of Peanuts daily strips with a starting price of $5/6k, I don’t know the size of their audience, but if it is smaller than Heritage you can try to win one for a good price.
See you Next Week, We’ll see if the final prices for the high-end art on Comiclink will reach Heritage’s level, and the usual great art!!
