Original Comic Art Tips #184 – Romita, Cockrum, Kirby!!

Welcome to #184 of Original Comic Art Tips! A very long update, I had to postpone the HA Signature prices report to next week… It’s 2:30 in the morning here, look at the big ebay pieces, both in results and new art:

eBay: the Brown Bag Spider-Man origin page by Ron Frenz was sold for almost $10k, an unpublished Joe Shuster Studio Superman page for $5k, a Conan page by John Buscema for a $3,9 Best Offer, a Spider-Man UK cover by Dave Hunt for a $3,1k B.O.

Don’t be afraid of making low Best Offers… this R. Crumb drawing, posted at $17,5k was sold for a $7k B.O.

Hero Initiative Auctions: the Doctor Strange jam by Chris Bachalo and Neil Gaiman was sold for a surprising $14,5k. A similar commission by Bachalo would cost less than $2k, add something for the charity purpose, and we’re left with a value of +/- $10k for a hand written poem by Gaiman… Wow!

Lately many printing plates of Marvel/DC classic covers appeared on ebay, and they’re selling, despite being ugly and worthless. This Green Lantern cover plate from Gil Kane art went for $3,1k. Still better than buying the “production art” copies freshly printed every week.

A Frank Frazetta life drawing went for $3k, a Spider-Man page by Jim Mooney for $2,2k, the Star Wars by Infantino for $2,6k, a Clone Saga death of Aunt May page by Mark Bagley for a $2,2k B.O., the Harley cover by Gary Frank for $1,9k.

What do you think of this Snoopy drawing by Charles Schulz in a Beckett capsule sold for $2,1k? Hey, an NFT of what seems a rendering for a DC action figure was sold for $900. I’ll have to do a NFT ebay research next week…

BTW, there were many more interesting results, here’s the usual link to see them all.

Heritage Weekly Auction: the great Batman page by Marshall Rogers went for almost $10k, the early Cerebus page for $6,3k, the Longshot page by Art Adams for $5,8k. All of the Superman pages by Curt Swan were sold for very high prices, this one went for $3,8k.

I’d value this Avengers DPS by David Finch (with 1/3 of a Captain America face) at 1/3 of the $2,5k it was sold for.

Stan Drake Juliet Jones dailies are growing a lot lately (or are they from a big storyline?), this one went for $1,5k.

First time I see a Mister X page by Seth for sale, it went for $1k.

Is $1,000 the new record for an inks only blueline page?

Catawiki: a big Manolito drawing by Quino went for €3,2k, a Mafalda sketch for €1,2k. A 1960 Alix pinup by Martin was sold for €2,2k, a page by David B. for €1k, a Scrooge page by Romano Scarpa for €450.

A Conan page by Ernie Chan went for €550, an Elektra page by Mike Deodato for €600, a TWD page by Adlard for €280 and a Kitty Pryde pinup by Paul Smith for €230.

This week on eBay

John Romita – Lost Spider-man sketch

Marvel: a Captain America page by Jack Kirby, a full figure 1974 Spider-Man sketch by John Romita, in very bad condition but real. West Coast Avengers by John Byrne, a page from Fantastic Four #300 by John Buscema, a badly inked Conan splash by Gil Kane, an Avengers by Don Heck.

I can’t identify the artist for this nice house ad from Spidey Super Stories (Dave Hunt inks?), another unidentified 1984 Spidey page and several 1984 Spidey dailes. A very good Spider-Man Sunday is by Alex Saviuk.

Punisher/Moon Knight by Ron Garney, a Spider-Man page by Tim Sale, Invaders by Butch Guice.

Hero Initiative: look at this incredible Hulk Vs. Hulk jam by Dale Keown and Ed McGuinness, Wolverine/Capt. America by Adam Kubert & Garcia Lopez, Spider-Man 2099 original art by Rick Leonardi & Will Sliney and some other pieces.

DC: a Flash cover by Gary Frank, a Flash page by Greg LaRocque, Huntress by Gulacy/Austin, a Poison Ivy painted by Lan Medina, a JLA pinup by Ed Benes, a Joker commission by Andy Kubert, Promethea by J.H. Williams.

A Silver Star splash by Jack Kirby, early TMNT page by Kevin Eastman, Omni Man vs. Superman by Ryan Ottley, a Dave McKean illustration, a 2012 page by Ditko and a nude Luba page by Beto Hernandez.

Strips: an Archie Sunday by Montana, a baseball theme B.C. daily and a Rick O’Shay daily.

Heritage Weekly Auction

John Byrne – Spider-Man Original Comic Art

Marvel: a Sgt. Fury page by Jack Kirby, a page from Amazing Spidey #200 and a Thor page by Keith Pollard, Star Wars by Bob McLeod, a Dr. Strange page by Ron Lim, a Spidey half splash by John Byrne, Dracula by Brereton.

DC: Outsiders by Kevin Nowlan, a Batman splash by Gene Colan, Teen Titans by Barreto, Batman by Gulacy and a Green Arrow cover by Scott McDaniel.

Catawiki Auctions

Massimo Carnevale – Conan Original Comic Art

A page by Manara, a Masers Artist’s Edition with a detailed Frezzato sketch, Erik by Micheluzzi, a Conan pinup by Carnevale and a painting by Lucio Parrillo, a strip by Hugo Pratt.

A beautiful illustration by Gibrat, a sketch by Moebius, Atalante by Crisse, a Mafalda sketch by Quino.

A Poison Ivy page by Don Newton, Flash by Carmine Infantino, a Bane pinup by Glenn Fabry, a Swamp Thing page by Mike Hoffman.

ComiConnect Auction

An X-Men page by Dave Cockrum, a Dr. Strange splash by Frank Brunner, a Black Panther cover by Jack Kirby, a G.I. Joe cover by Trimpe.

Conan by Barry Smith, a Thor splash by John Buscema, an Iron-Man cover by JRJR, F4 by John Byrne.

An X-Men DPS by Joe Mad (noticed how some Joe Mad pages came out recently?) and a Batman cover by Tony Daniel.

Weiss Auctions

A Defenders cover and an Incredible Hulk cover by Rich Buckler are the biggest pieces, an Iron-Man page by George Tuska and the usual many lots from the Joe Kubert estate.

Several Kubert covers like this one from G.I. Combat, a Sgt. Rock page and a lot of 8 Russ Heath war pages.

The Art of Garfield original art auction

Jim Davis sent his entire archive of Garfield strips to Heritage around 2018, and they’ve been selling 2/4 dailies every week since. I reported recently that the later (post 1990 and 2000) strips’ prices are going down, so this may be the right moment to buy one if you don’t care that Davis stopped drawing the strip around 1980. Or maybe prices will grow again thanks to this auction… we’ll see next week.

I’ve been curious to see the strip published the day I was born. This Sunday was printed four days after (I just discovered I was born on a Wednesday btw…), who knows, maybe it was already sold.

Strip prices vary based on the quality of the gag, so, for now, this Sunday must be the funniest.

The earliest daily is from January 1979, seven months after the first strip. This one from March is the highest priced. Here’s the first appearance of Liz, then Christmas day 1980, many complete weeks and a few paintings.

Art-Rite Auctions

A collage and a Snake Agent story by Stefano Tamburini, an illustration by Pazienza, a page from Dylan Dog #1 by Stano, an illustration by Toppi, Gancio by Scarpa, Gli Aristocratici by Tacconi, I like this page by Micheluzzi.

Mystica painted by Simone Bianchi, Secret War by Gabriele Dell’Otto.

See you next week!!