Zeck’s WR.. Have you Seen Manga Art Prices? Original Comic Art Tips #224
Welcome to #224 of the Original Comic Art Tips Newsletter!
Original Comic Art Auction Results:
I’ll do a complete report on this weekend’s Heritage Signature Auction next week after the auction is done, but let’s see the record-breaking $3,36 Million paid Thursday for the Spider-Man black costume origin page by Mike Zeck! There are two covers that went higher, as we all know, the -unpublished- Tintin cover by Hergé was sold for $3,9M and the Eerie Magazine cover by Frank Frazetta sold for $5,4M, so this is a record for interior/panel art only.
Let’s see some past (panel pages) record highlights, dominated by Tintin and Asterix original art: $1,77M for a Tintin on the Moon page, $1,786M for two Ottokar pages (so $893k per page) $688k for this TT on the Moon page.
The $650k paid for the first appearance of Wolverine by Herb Trimpe seemed a lot but that was 2014, the Stone Age compared to today’s market. $512k for the first Flash Gordon strip by Alex Raymond, $491k for this Asterix page by Uderzo, Another Ottokar two-page lot, sold for $937k ($468k per page), then Tintin again, a page went for $450K, another page sold for $425k.
$448k for the DKR splash by Frank Miller, $364k for another Asterix page, a Peanuts Sunday by Schulz sold for $360k, the X-Men cover by Cockrum for $360k and the Spidey splash by Ditko (both sold 2 days ago too) for $336k, then several other Tintin and Asterix pages went between $330k/$300k. And I stop going down at $300k…
Also notice that only two pages ever went over $1 Million at auction, and the Zeck page doubled the existing Hergé record. By the way, if I forgot a piece please reply to this email and let me know, I may do a blog post out of this chart if time permits.
eBay: a Gwen Stacy bust commission by J. Scott Campbell was sold for $3,3k, the SCUD cover by Rob Schrab went for $2,5k, Schrab is selling most of his vintage original art week after week, and it’s all going for high prices.
A Secret Wars splash by Esad Ribic went for $1,7k, a Wolverine commission by Dale Keown for $1,5k, a Mary Perkins Sunday for $1,3k, a Conan page by John Buscema for $1,2k, Infinity Inc. pages by Todd McFarlane for $1,2k and $1k.
A printed proof for a Sunday Peanuts strip was sold for $1k…
Best Offers: a Weird Fantasy splash by Will Elder for less than $8,5k, less than $4k for Sam and Max statue designs by Purcell, $3k for two Green Lantern/Green Arrow pages by Mike Grell, a Batman page by Breyfogle for $1,5k, a beautiful Tarzan splash by Tom Yeates for $1,3k.
Heritage Weekly Auction: A Superman cover recreation by Fred Ray went for $8,4k, an Archie cover by Bob White for $5,3k, a Vampirella commission by Pepe Gonzalez for $2,2k.
Catawiki: a Corto Maltese strip by Hugo Pratt went for €2,7k, a Tintin prelim by Hergé studio for €1,5k, the Dany illustration for €500, the Moebius prelim for €500.
A very quick (and a bit faded) Gwen Stacy sketch by John Romita was sold for €750, a 100 Bullets page by Risso for €320, a Tex illustration by Ticci for €850, the Galep/Muzzi page for €400.
Very rare to find a published page from a succesful manga for sale, a page from Attack N°1 was sold for a pretty affordable €550, and speaking of manga original art…
Mandarake Auctions: as usual I only show here the exceptional results from Mandarake, this time there were four, two of which for very rare published pieces. A cover by Shigeru Mizuki was sold for 8 Million Yen ($70k), a small illustration of Tetsujin 28 for 2,8 Million Yen ($25k), an animation drawing by Hayao Miyazaki for 6,2 Million Yen ($54k) and a sketch of Goku by Akira Toriyama for 3 Million Yen ($26k).
This week on eBay
Mahmud Asrar – X-Men Original Cover Art
Marvel: the best piece of the week is this vintage Spider-Man page by Mark Bagley, already at $2,5k. Also from Bagley a New Warriors page, from the same era a full-team Avengers page by Steven Butler and a full-figure 1992 Captain America sketch by Lee Weeks.
A Shang-Chi page by Mike Mignola, look at this Scarlet Witch commission by George Perez, also from Perez an Avengers page and the art for an Ultraverse poster, a Daredevil bust by Lee Weeks.
Great X-Men cover by Mahmud Asrar, very nice AVX page by John Romita Jr, a Black Cat commission by Artgerm.
DC: a 1991 Superman page by Frenz/Buscema, a JLA/Avengers page by George Perez, a Batman page by Tom Mandrake, a Batman/Nightwing splash and a Nightwing page by Scott McDaniel.
A Batman page by Gary Frank, a Green Lantern cover by Brad Walker, a Promethea DPS by J.H. Williams.
A very iconic Madman cover by Mike Allred, a science fiction illustration by Jim Aparo, a self-published superhero page by Ditko, a Something is Killing the Children cover by Alan Quah.
A Johnny Comet strip by Frank Frazetta.
Heritage Weekly Auction
Jim Lee – Justice League Original Comic Art
DC: A DC vs. Marvel splash by Dan Jurgens, a beautiful Black Canary illustration by Garcia-Lopez.
A Justice League page by Jim Lee, a Batman commission by Olivier Coipel, a Batman pinup by Gabriele Dell’Otto, a full-figure Wonder Woman sketch by Adam Hughes.
Marvel: Rawhide Kid by Ayers, Daredevil by Sal Buscema, a Fantastic Four page by John Byrne, Tomb of Dracula by Colan, a Conan strip by Ernie Chan.
A beautiful Machine Man commission by Jim Cheung, an Excalubur DPS by Alan Davis, a Hulk splash by Coipel.
A very nice Dick Tracy Sunday strip, early Madman by Allred, a pinup by Jeff Jones, a page by Harvey Kurtzman.
Catawiki Auctions
Claudio Villa – Thanos Original Illustration
A detailed Thorgal sketch by Rosinski, a pinup by Enrico Marini, an Adele sketch by Tardi.
A Green Lantern splash by Rafa Sandoval, a 1963 Flash Gordon strip by Dan Barry, a Thanos illustration by Claudio Villa.
A Zagor cover by Ferri, La Linea by Cavandoli, a detailed Ranxerox sketch by Liberatore, a page by Gipi, a Sturmtruppen strip, a Tex prelim by Magnus, a Tex page by Ticci, an illustration by Manara.
See you next week!!