Are High-End Original Comic Art Prices Going Down? – #288

Original Comic Art Tips #288 – Apr. 08 2023

Nice art this week. Seems like this month i got the ComicLink end date right…

Original Comic Art Auction Results

eBay: $7k for a Eightball page by Dan Clowes, $5k each for two Peanuts illustrations, Snoopy and Snoopy 2, $3k (Best Offer) for a Catwoman page by Jim Balent, I don’t know why this 1960 Superman daily strip by Curt Swan was sold for $3k…

$2k (B.O.) for a Spider-Man cover by Ryan Stegman, $2k (B.O.) for a painted illustration by Jack Davis, $1,6k for a Spider-Man Sunday by Saviuk, a Bloom County daily for $1,3k, a Nightman cover by Kyle Hotz for $1,3k.
$1k was a good deal for this Namor page by Ross Andru, $850 for a nice TMNT page by Lawson/Laird.

Heritage Weekly Auction: $11k for the Swamp Thing illustration by Wrightson, $5,5k for the Titans cover by Grummett, $5k for the Dr. Strange page by Rogers, $3,8k for the Wolverine page by Adam Kubert, $3,6k for the Spidey page by Byrne and $2,6k for the Excalibur page by Alan Davis.

Catawiki: €3,7k for the Sgt. Kirk page by Hugo Pratt, €600 for an illustration by Danjel Zezelj, €500 for the Alan Ford page by Magnus, €300 for the Necron page. €750 for the Uderzo sketch, €400 for the Salgarone illustration by Jacovitti.
€700 for the Crepax illustration, €500 for this Jacovitti half page seems too good to be true.

Heritage Signature Auction: $132k for the cover to Amazing Spidey #116 by John Romita is the highest price paid in this auction, $90k is the new record for Sam Kieth, for a page from Sandman #1, a beautiful splash from #4 went for $60k.
$60k is probably a record for Curt Swan (Hake’s is usually strong on Swan pages, I should check my archives for confirmation). Record price for J. Scott Campbell, with $43k paid for a Gen13 splash, $40k for the cover to Bloodstrike #1 by Dan Fraga, $38k is the highest price paid for a Howard the Duck cover by Gene Colan, highest price for a Green Lantern cover by Mike Grell is $36k.

$33k for a Joker splash is the highest price paid for Alex Ross interior art, at the same time, due to its quality and display value, I was expecting it to go higher, similar to prices paid for covers.
$26k for a top Batman pinup by Greg Capullo, it’s a HA record, but still much lower than privately sold pieces. $21k is a record for interior Conan pages by Barry Smith.
$19k is an incredible record for this cover by Peach Momoko, very high for a relatively new artist.
$13k record for Jose Delbo, but due to the Optimus Prime cover art. $11k Wolverine interior art record for Marc Silvestri, high $9k for a 2015 TMNT cover by Kevin Eastman.

There were also a lot of low prices, many also tried selling again a page they overpaid a year ago, and you know that it’s always a bad idea, but it seems prices are slowing down after the incredible growth in years 2020-2022. The biggest loss was for a Jim Lee Batman page, Lee art prices are coming down after many records broken, but this page was sold for $66k a year ago, and this time it went for $43k, down more than 30%.
A Rob Liefeld Cable page was sold for $47k last year, now it went for $43k (take the 20% BP and commissions away and you can also guess the seller’s loss).
This Johnny Blaze page by Ploog made an artist’s record last year at $50k, now it went for $41k.
Mark Bagley instead made a big $36k for a Spidey panel page, but if you remember his June 2022 $40k record Venom splash was sold again for $32k in January. A Hulk DPS by JRJR went for $12k, sold last year for $17k. the same for this Incal page by Moebius, $20k and $18k.
This Batman panel page by Tim Sale was at the same time a record at $18k, but not a great growth, since last year it went for $500 less. This New Mutants cover by Sienkiewicz, sold on eBay in November for $35k, went for $41k, a big growth for less than six months time, but a loss for the seller.
Many pieces went for lower than expected, the big one is this Spidey DPS by Erik Larsen, sold for $33k, a Little Nemo page went for $56k, a Green Lantern cover by Neal Adams for $30k, an X-Men page by Byrne for $31k, a Krazy Kat Sunday for $28k, Daredevil by Wood for $26k, and I could go on for hours, but I see this is getting too long.

This Week on eBay

Sal Buscema – Captain America Original Comic Art

Marvel: some more John Byrne pages, Daredevil, Champions, Iron-Fist, a Ka-Zar half splash by John Buscema, a Captain America page and a Defenders page by Sal Buscema.
A Hulk cover by Ron Wilson, a Morlock cover by Rich Buckler, a G.I. Joe page by Andrew Wildman, an Iron-Man page by Luke McDonnell.

Ok, here’s a Thor page by Walt Simonson, but beware: the panels look like stats pasted to board to me!
A Spider-Man sketch cover by Todd McFarlane, a Spider-Man illustration for charity by Saviuk/Sienkiewicz, a full team Avengers page by Mark Bagley.

DC: a Superman illustration by Wayne Boring inked by Byrne, a Batwoman DPS by J.H. Williams, a Batman page by Bo Hampton, a Legion page by Jason Pearson, Supergirl by June Brigman, a Wonder Woman sketch by Neal Adams.

I’m happy that the Kelley Jones Batman page print was sent back to the seller, and is now advertised as a print.

Look: with the new D&D movie in theaters, Tim Levins had the good idea of auctioning the cover to #1 of a new D&D comic published by IDW, it’s going pretty high.
Some Archie covers by Dan De Carlo ending today, a Norse Mythology cover by P. Craig Russell.

Two Ben Casey dailies by Neal Adams (one, two), a Li’l Abner daily, I find this 1979 Wizard of ID daily very funny. A B.C. Sunday, a Tumbleweeds Sunday, a Flash Gordon Sunday by Mac Raboy.

Heritage Weekly Auction

Marvel: Avengers by Ditko/Byrne, Spidey by Milgrom, Excalibur original art by Alan Davis, Infinity War by Ron Lim, an Iron-Man title splash by Trimpe.
An X-Men page by Ian Churchill, X-Men by Joe Mad, a Punisher cover by Liam Sharp.

DC: JLA by Dillin, Green Lantern by Grell, a nice Superman page by Gil Kane I remember seeing elsewhere a few months ago, Wonder Woman and Batman commissions by Byrne.
A nice Hellboy commission by Alex Maleev.
A Terry daily by Caniff, a Garfield daily, many Sunday strips: B.C., Family Circus, Wizard of ID, Big George, On Stage.

Catawiki Auctions

Bill Reinhold – Prowler Original Comic Art

Nice Batman sketch by Frezzato, La Compagnia della Forca by Magnus, an illustration by Crepax, a Ken Parker page by Milazzo, an illustration by Claudio Villa, a Pinocchio illustration by Mottura.
A Disney page by De Vita, a Disney illustration by G.B. Carpi and one by Marco Rota.
A Thor page by Stuart Immonen, a nice Prowler title splash by Bill Reinhold, a JSA half splash by Jesus Merino, an Outlaw Nation page by Goran Parlov.
A Clara pinup, a Tex commission and a Torpedo pinup by Jordi Bernet.

Comiclink Focused Auction

X-Men by Brent Anderson, New Mutants by Sal Buscema, Spidey 2099 by Rick Leonardi, Hulk Vs. Wolvie by Garney, many Spidey pages by Ramos, Spider-Man original art by Chris Bachalo, some Ultimate Spidey pages by Bagley, an X-Men DPS by Terry Dodson.

A great 2Face by Bruce Timm, Batman by Don Newton, Hellblazer by Sean Murphy.

A Walking Dead page by Adlard, a 1990 Groo commission by Aragones, some Y pages by Pia Guerra, a Creepy page by Infantino/Simonson, a Wake page by Sean Murphy.
Pages and pages of commissions as usual, many bad ones and some highlights, like three pieces by Joe Quesada, here’s Spidey, Batman by Tim Sale, a Superman by Timm sold some months ago on eBay, a Wolvie by Matteo Scalera.

See you next week!!