Top Original Art Pages on Heritage, Many Romitas on eBay – #298

Original Comic Art Tips #298 – June, 17 2023

Welcome! I’ve been very saddened by the death of John Romita, who has been my favorite superhero artist since I was a kid.
Since we’re talking about original art here I tried for years to buy a published Romita page, I even bought one on ebay in 2005, but the dealer never bothered shipping it to me…
Less than 10 years ago I was a bid away from winning a Spidey strip but lost it. Then as the time passed it became clear that I had to renounce. By the way, as you can guess eBay is already starting to get flooded with Romita art and signed items, we’ll take a look in the eBay section.

Original Comic Art Auction Results

eBay: $5,5k for the Vampirella illustration by Bruce Timm, $2,8k for the Hulk page by Gary Frank, $1,8k (Best Offer) for a David Mack cover, $1,6k for the trading card art by Jim Lee, $1,8k for a Flash Gordon Sunday by Mac Raboy.

John Romita original art: most of these were on ebay forever, they all went quickly this week. $3k (B.O.) for a tiny Spidey sketch, $1,4k for a Spidey sketch from the last batch he did in 2021, if I remember correctly he lightboxed them from a set of photocopies. $1k for an Arabian Nights cover prelim, $1,7k for a slabbed Ramos sketch with a JRSR signature.

Not by Romita but surely related to a search this week, another of those $400 Larry Lieber dailies (with Saviuk ghosted finishes) was sold for $3k (B.O.) due to a fancy matting.

$1k (B.O.) for an Iron-Man cover prelim by Alex Ross, $1,4k (B.O.) for a Fathom page by Michael Turner, $1k for a Spider-Gwen commission by Robbi Rodriguez, $1k for an X-Men DPS by Chris Bachalo, $900 (B.O.) for a JLA cover by Doug Mahnke.

Heritage Weekly Auction: $6,5k for a Wonder Woman cover by Terry Dodson, $3,5k for the page by Wally Wood, $3k for an Avengers DPS by Bob Brown, $3k for the Frankenstein prelim by Wrightson.

$1,5k for the Grendel cover by Wagner, $1,4k fora Rube Goldberg daily. Good deals on this Starfire commission by Perez, $1k, $600 for a Batman page by Finch, $450 for a Conan page by John Buscema, $600 and $430 for Batman and Batgirl sketches by Bruce Timm.

Catawiki: €1,8k is the highest price paid in the Will Eisner original art auction, but there were also some affordable prices, like this page prelim sold for €400. You can see all of the price results here. €4,4k for the Walt Disney signature, €750 for a Spidey commission by JRJR, €250 for a Brian Bolland sketch.

Daniel Maghen Auctions: €167k for the Asterix page by Uderzo, €60k for a page by Gibrat, €52k for a Blueberry cover by Vance, €47k for a Goldrake illustration attributed to Nagai, €21k for a page by Juillard, €19k for a page by Chaland, €11k for a Manara splash and €9k for a Druuna page by Serpieri.
The auction of Joe Bar Team original art went very well, with most pieces doubling the highest estimate. Highest price was €30k for this page with a €7k estimate.

This Week on eBay

Ryan Ottley – Thor Original Cover Art

Marvel: a Thor cover by Ryan Ottley is the top piece, but the one I’d like to have is this Conan pinup by John Buscema, from the pics I can’t say if it’s original or a print.
Man-Thing by Mooney, Ghost Rider by Infantino, I like a lot this Silver Age Millie splash by Stan Goldberg, New Warriors by Robertson, a Thunderbolts pinup by Bagley, Planet Hulk by Pagulayan.

Romita art: a Spidey Sketchagraph, a Kingpin pinup, a tiny Gwen Stacy, a lightboxed Captain America sketch and look also at this Venom page and Venom DPS by JRJR.

DC: a Batman page by Sean Murphy,  Teen Titans and New Titans by Perez, Firestorm by Tuska, a nice Wonder Woman page by Jeff Parker, Young Justice by Nauck.

Some full illustrations of the Mandalorian for charity: Brereton, Blevins, Walt Simonson, Dave Johnson, Plunkett.

A Captain Victory page by Kirby, Barbarella by Celina, Elric by P. Craig Russell, a zombie sketch by Wrightson, a Woodring page, pricey but nice Witchblade page by Michael Turner.

Heritage Weekly Auction

Marvel: Sgt. Fury by Ayers, Conan by Buscema, 1986 X-Men original art by JRJR a 1987 Groo pinup by Aragones, a Venom page by Angel Medina, look at this Iron-Man DPS by Jim Calafiore.

DC: 

A Golden Age Black Cat page by Kubert, a Wrightson illustration, a Concrete cover by Chadwick.

A Christmas day Yogi Bear Sunday, a 1953 Pogo Sunday, some nice Phantom dailies by Sy Barry, a very funny Garfied daily, a beautiful Gill Fox strip.

Catawiki Auctions

Magnus – Le Femmine Incantate Original art

An illustration by Crepax, a model sheet by Magnus and two Alan Ford pages, a Zagor cover by Ferri, a Tex illustration by Laura Zuccheri, a Micheluzzi page and a Jacovitti pinup.

A Chick Bill page by Tibet, a Mejai illustration by Marini, a nice sketch by Altuna, a page by Azpiri and a Titans DPS by Barry Kitson.

Heritage Signature Auction part 3: Interior art

Ok, this is the big one, I always start from covers and strips because it takes less time to see them all… this week I can’t postpone.
A big lot of pages from John Byrne, here’s the X-Men, an even bigger lot of Kirby pages, here’s early Avengers, many from Miller, here’s Daredevil, many John Buscema pages, with an Avengers splash, many by Jim Lee, here’s a page from his first X-Men issue.

Then we have a top Spider-Man page by Ditko, one by Romita, another page from the origins of Iron-Man by Heck, Captain Marvel by C. C. Beck, some top Neal Adams pages, a Flash title page by Infantino, Hawkman by Kubert, look at this Supergirl splash by Art Saaf, Swamp Thing by Wrightson.

A page from Watchmen #1, some Sandman pages by Sam Kieth, Batman Vs. Bane by Nolan, Batman by Paul Pope, Batman by Timm, Spidey by Larsen, Wolverine by Adam Kubert, X-Factor by Portacio, Daredevil by Tim Sale, a great Torpedo page by Bernet.

Aibo Auctions

An auction of mostly anime cels, with a few manga pages and illustrations. 
3 Cobra pages by Buichi Terasawa, some Samurai Troopers pages and an illustration, a painted Goldrake illustration.

See you next week!!