The Kevin Smith Original Comic Art Collection + Many Record Prices! – #312
Original Comic Art Tips #312 – September, 22 2023
Welcome! A really busy week: many records at HA, a long eBay section, the great Kevin Smith collection and something for all tastes.
Original Comic Art Auction Results
eBay: $19k for the 1972 Peanuts daily, it will probably be the highest price of 2023.
$2,6k for the Witchblade page by Michael Turner, $2k for a Wrightson illustration, $2k for a cover quality Hulk Vs. Spidey commission by Bagley, $2k for Superman and Batman head sketches by Kevin Nowlan (aren’t his commission prices much lower?), $2k for a Dracula title page by Colan.
$1,8k for the Spidey sketchagraph by John Romita, $1,8k for a cover layout by Kevin Eastman, $1,6k for a Thunder Agents page by Wally Wood, $1,6k for a Bloodshot cover by Vosburg, $1,5k and $1k for the Man-Thing pages by Starlin, $1,3k for the Pogo Sunday strip.
Good deals on the Bronze Age Marvel pages: $700 for Ghost Rider by Perlin, $600 for Morbius by Redondo, $550 for Avengers by Milgrom, $350 for The Thing by Ron Wilson.
The fake Yellow Kid sketch was sold for $5,5k (after selling for $5,2k last week) is it the record price for forged original comic art?
Heritage Weekly Auction: $5k for the Batman cover by Maleev, same price for the James Stokoe Batman illustration and the Daredevil costume design by Wood. $3,5k for a Wolverine cover by Asrar, $2,7 for an Avengers page by Pacheco.
Heritage Signature Auction: not a world record, but an Heritage record with $312k for a Flash Gordon page by Alex Raymond (the first Flash Gordon strip was sold for $480k in 2020). Many high prices for Golden Age original art, an early and rare Batman cover sold for $270k represents a record for both Fred Ray and Jerry Robinson, $180k for a Captain Marvel cover is a new record for Jim Starlin, and Al Milgrom, and the first Starlin cosmic piece to go over $100k.
$150k record for Mort Meskin with a Golden Age DC cover, $114k for a cover by Dave Stevens, Star Wars covers always make record prices for artists who drew them, this time Rick Hoberg enters the 100k club with this cover sold for $102k. $102k also for the cover to X-Men #200 by JRJR, $102k is instead a little low for a Conan cover by Barry Smith, sold in 2019 for $90k+.
$78k is a record for Keith Pollard, with the cover to Thor #300, record price for Ryan Stegman with $28k for the cover to Carnage #1, $18k record price for Claudio Castellini and a Marvel Vs. DC cover.
You probably remember that I always found weird that the highest prices for Archie comic art, a children comic, were for “swimsuit” Betty & Veronica pinups. This time a Veronica cover by De Carlo went for $16k.
Is $12k a record for Olivier Coipel? It seems low but I don’t remember. Record for Chris Samnee at $8,5k.
There were also many low prices, as it happened in the last few months, with the hope to go down near 2019 price levels, but this newsletter is already too long…
Comiclink Auction: I can’t seem to not miss the “premium session”… but this time it wasn’t really premium, just a few nice pieces. Top price was $5,3k for a page from Strangers in Paradise #1, some more Thanos Quest pages by Ron Lim, $3,5k for this one. $2,8k for a Moon Knight page by Sienkiewicz, $2k for a Vampirella splash by Pepe Gonzales, $1,6k for a Cosmic Odyssey page by Mignola.
$2,1k for this Spidey page by Chris Bachalo, I own the page next to this one and valued it $800 until yesterday…
Some good deals, like $850 for this Spider-Man sketch by John Romita, $700 for a Conan page by Buscema, $700 for a Namor page by Colan, $400 for a Batman page by Nolan.
This Week on eBay
Marvel: Conan by Buscema, look at this Ms. Marvel title splash by Jim Mooney (with De Zuniga not Sinnott), a very nice Nick Fury commission by Joe Sinnott, ’90s style Ghost Rider page by Giarrano, a Magneto page by Kelley Jones, a Spidey page by Todd Nauck, a Cyclops commission by Bachalo.
DC: 1-2-3… run to buy this really low priced Kane/Wood Green Lantern page.
a Canary/Arrow page by Dan Spiegle, a 1955 Superman page by Plastino, one by Boring, Superman by Swan, Superman by Saviuk.
A Flash cover by Howard Porter, I like this Two Face commission by Tim Sale (bidders are liking it too), a Swamp Thing illustration by Frank Cho, Demon Vs. Lobo page by Semeiks, a Supergirl splash and a very nice Batgirl page by Greg Land.
A Set of CGC 9.8 Watchmen sketch covers by Gibbons: Comedian, Smiley, Rorshach, Dr. Manhattan.
A nice 1989 commission by Adam Hughes, a page of Williamson/Frazetta Flash Gordon studies, a Jabba page by Gulacy, some big lots of free ’90s sketches, this set has a Michael Turner and other big names, this set has Amanda Conner, Deodato and Joshua Middleton, this set has a detailed Daredevil commission by Leonardi, a Jungle Girl pinup by Gary Frank, Mage by Wagner, a ZOT page, a 1950 Western cover by Bolle.
A big collection of strips for sale: multiple Hagar, Judge Rummy, Shoe dailies, multiple daily and Sunday Beetle Bailey strips, a Popeye by Zaboly, a Smokey Stover Sunday a Gaar Williams panel and more.
Heritage Weekly Auction
Marvel: Conan by Buscema, Not Brand Ecch by Kirby, more Daredevil prelims by Wood, Spidey by Saviuk, a nice Daredevil commission by Allred, Avengers by Opena.
DC: Superman by Kane, JLA by Perez, a Superman splash by Ordway, a Superman splash by Immonen, there’s also a nice page. Incredible Batman illustration by Shawn McManus, a Dr. Manhattan cover by P. Craig Russell.
A Spawn splash by Capullo, a Concrete illustration, look at this beautiful McKay-esque cartoon, three Green Berets strips by Kubert, a top Juliet Jones Sunday, a Ben Casey daily, a funny Garfield, a Heatcliff panel by Gately.
Catawiki Auctions
A Corto Maltese strip and a very nice page by Hugo Pratt, western page by Sergio Toppi, Petra Cherie page by Micheluzzi, a Ken Parker page by Milazzo, Dylan Dog by Roi, a Kriminal page by Magnus, a small illustration by Gipi.
A Corto Maltese sketch by Bastien Vives, the Blueberry sketch by Giraud is ending tomorrow.
I like this manga cover illustration, there are also two Gundam pages,
A Batman commission by Khoi Pham, a Captain America commission by Michael Golden, a Catwoman commission by Jorge Jimenez, a full team Futurama sketch by Bill Morrison.
BD Encheres Auction
Top pieces by Giraud, Weinberg, Jidehem, Malik, Moebius, Batem, Hermann, Mourier, Delaby, Zep.
Then Macherot, Swolfs, Dany, Guarnido.
Bodnar’s Kevin Smith Auction
The personal collection of Kevin Smith, he’s auctioning some top (mostly DC) pieces and some of the best art from comics he’s written.
There are multiple pages from the same comics, so you can hope to get one for a lower price.
Many Preacher pages, never seen so many, here’s a page from #3 and one from #10, many by John McCrea, here’s Hitman and Batman, many from Matt Wagner, look at this Batman splash, early Mage, a painted Mage cover. A couple Batman pages and a DPS by Tim Sale and a couple by Breyfogle.
Some Sandman pages here’s Mark Hempel, a Starman cover by Tony Harris.
Marvel pieces are a Daredevil cover and a page by Joe Quesada and a Daredevil page by Frank Miller.
If you were a fan of Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow this is the right time to buy original art, there are most of the Matt Wagner painted covers, here’s #1, and dozens of great Phil Hester pages.
Little Nemo Auction
A beautiful illustration by Micheluzzi, many Jacovitti pages, a full Kriminal issue by Magnus and many (mostly high priced) strips like this 1940 Dick Tracy.
Then a big selection of classic Disney pages: Scarpa, Bioletto, Bottaro, Carpi, De Vita.
A Peanuts Sunday at a random auction house is still low.
See you next week!!
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