Many iconic covers on Heritage – Original Comic Art Tips #222
Welcome to Original Comic Art Tips, and happy new year! This is #222 first of 2022, I had to send it on Friday as usual, but you know, Friday was a busy day. As we enter the 6th year of this newsletter let’s see what happened last week.
eBay: the highest price was -probably- paid for this Elektra commission by Bill Sienkiewicz, with a Best Offer lower than $5k. Then a Korak cover, painted by George Wilson was sold for $3,1k, a 1955 Superman page by Al Plastino for $3k, the Poison Elves cover for a little less than $3k.
The 1967 Batman strip went for $2,6k, then Howard Chaykin, with the Batman splash sold for $2,5k and the Black Kiss for $2,3k.
A cover by Alan Quah went for $1,8k, the 1985 TMNT sketch by Kevin Eastman for $1,7k, the Avengers page by John Byrne for $1,6k, a Spawn page by Capullo/McFarlane for $1,5k, a Green Lantern splash by Darryl Banks for $1,5k.
Look: the blueline ink to a Hulk cover by Joe Bennett went for $1,7k.
Heritage Weekly Auction: I never wrote here about it, cause my interest in Vampirella is below zero, but you probably noticed how high prices for Pepe Gonzalez’ Vampirella original art have been going lately, high prices for published art are understandable, but even post-2000 sketches and commissions are going very high, like this one sold for more than $10k, and a second one for $3k.
A Transformers page by Frank Springer went for $3,8k, the highest price on HA for Transformers interior art. A G.I. Joe page by Trimpe went for $1,7k, while a nice Hulk page went for less than $900.
A Hagar strip by Dik Browne went for more than $1k, highest price paid on HA (and probably everywhere else) for a daily.
High prices again for color guides, after a few months: the Spawn splash by Steve Oliff went for $1,3k, a Daredevil DPS and a title page by Glynis Oliver over photocopied Miller art both went for $1k.
Catawiki: very high prices, when usually auctions stop around festivities. €150k of artwork sold in a week. Top price €7k for this Jerry Spring page by Jijé, the Secret Wars page by Gabriele Dell’Otto went for €4,3k, an illustration by Yslaire for €4,2k, a Lucky Luke by Bonhomme for €3,9k.
A Young Corto strip by Hugo Pratt went for €2,3k, Blake & Mortimer by Juillard for €2,2k, the pinup by Marini for €2,4k, Franka by Kuijpers for €2,2k, Long John by Lauffray for €1,8k, the Dropsie Avenue page by Eisner for €1,4k, the illustrations by Milo Manara all went for around €2k.
Most of the top Disney pieces went unsold, the Topolino cover by Mastantuono was sold for €600, one by Silvia Ziche for €400, a page by Chierchini for €300, one by Bottaro and one by Scarpa for a little less.
Jean Francois Charles: not every piece was sold, and some went below estimation, in total the sale amounted to €22k, with the top price paid at €3,1k.
This week on eBay
John Romita Jr. – Robin Original Cover Art
Marvel: a Dr. Strange page by Gene Colan, a Thor splash by Sal Buscema, ending pretty soon a vintage Scarlet Spider page by Tom Lyle, Morbius by Ron Wagner, a Shang-Chi title splash by Keith Pollard, a 1986 Rogue by Kerry Gammill, early Marvel art by Jae Lee.
Trading card art by Tim Sale, a Spider-Man illustration by Angel Medina, a Gambit sketch by Ed Benes, a Two in One page by Jim Cheung, rare original art by Giuseppe Camuncoli.
DC: our usual Infinity Inc. pages by Todd McFarlane, a Weird War Tales page by Alex Toth, a Robin cover by John Romita Jr., a Harley commission by Stephane Roux, a cover quality Wonder Woman illustration by Larry Stroman, a Flash commission by Greg LaRocque.
Three Ben Casey strips by Neal Adams here, this is the one I like, a 1930 Bringing Up Father daily.
Heritage Weekly Auction
DC: nice Green Lantern page by Jack Sparling, Batman Vs. Demon by Norm Breyfogle, Batman by Mike Grell.
Marvel: 1964 Wasp page by Larry Lieber, a Captain America splash by Carlos Pacheco, I like this X-men cover by Mike McKone.
Crime Does Not Pay by Dan Barry, Frank by Woodring, a Spawn color guide by Steve Oliff.
Strips: a 1931 Gasoline Alley daily, a 1940 Blondie Sunday, a top Corrigan daily by Williamson, a 1975 Doonesbury daily.
Catawiki Auctions
An illustration by Dany, a prelim and a Satanik page by Magnus, a page by Gipi Dylan Dog by Micheluzzi, Jacovitti, Calegari.
Heritage Signature Auction part 2: Covers/Illustrations
Jack Kirby – Captain America Original Cover Art
A Snake Eyes cover by Ed Hannigan is already at $125k and will probably be a record for G.I. Joe original art, then some very iconic covers, like the Bicentennial Battles cover by Jack Kirby and the Hulk Vs. Batman cover by Garcia-Lopez.
Then X-Men by Dave Cockrum, Fantastic Four by Gil Kane, Avengers by Romita.
A horror cover by Lee Elias, Frontline Combat by Kurtzman, the only Conan cover drawn by Kirby, an unpublished New Mutants cover by Rob Liefeld.
Spawn by Mark Silvestri, Batman by Alex Ross, Life and Times of Scrooge by Don Rosa and a Green Lantern cover by Frank Quitely.
The entire Marvel Universe drawn by John Byrne, and a Fantastic Four cover box, the Hulk poster by Romita, a color Dr. Strange illustration by Mignola, a DC style guide by Garcia-Lopez, a Frankenstein illustration by Wrightson.
See you next week!!