Original Comic Art Tips - Issue #11

If you’re a fan of French BD this is as usual an auction to watch, all of the greats are represented with first quality Artwork, the only “stranger” is Will Eisner with a Spirit cover.

Hergè is represented by many pieces, some panels from the first edition of Tintin’s early adventures, some preliminary art and sketches will all go for big prices. A Michel Vaillant cover from 1958 by Jean Graton, and a Buck Danny iconic piece by Hubinon from 1959. A lot of beautiful originals by Jean Giraud/Moebius from all of his many series, like Blueberry from Chihuahua Pearl, the Incal, and a full-color Arzach page (eur 60.000 estimated price). The biggest Originals from an already rich auction are a Spirou page by Franquin (with an estimated price of eur 80/100.000) and the real historic piece of the auction a Peyo page from “La flûte à six schtroumpfs” the album that introduced the Smurfs to the world (eur 150/180.000)… wish I had enough money!

A good week if you are a Pogo fan, some great art by Walt Kelly this week on eBay and Heritage: a nice daily starring Pogo and a comic book cover with all the gang. The same seller has a lot of vintage covers for sale, like this Mickey Mouse by Paul Murry and a Bugs Bunny by Ralph Heimdahl. The last one for comic strip fans is this Nancy daily with all the kids by Ernie Bushmiller. Then for superhero fans, we have a layout to the famous Uncanny X-Men #126 cover by Dave Cockrum. The image looks like a xerox to me, so be careful… Here’s a link to a cheap Batman page by Dave Finch who is getting a lot of viewers, be quick if you like it! A Namor page by Jae Lee, and a published cover by Walt Simonson (an artist whose originals are always rare).

A very strong Sunday Auction with many big and important pieces this week, let’s start again with Pogo Possum with a lot of illustrations drawn by Walt Kelly in the sixties for a music sheet, look at the first one!! Two nice originals by Joe Kubert, a charming Black Cat Golden Age piece from 1944 and 23 years later a Tales of The Green Berets Sunday strip. I always like Pia Guerra pages from Y the Last Man and I always drool over Al Williamson’s art from Flash Gordon… A detailed Opus illustration by Berke Breathed and a Classic Superman page by Al Plastino. Johnny Hazard Originals from the 40’s to the mid-sixties are pretty rare to find, this week we have not one but three early pieces by Frank Robbins: a very early daily from 1944 (2 months after the first strip!), a not-so-great but still early daily from 1959, and a 1955 Sunday with very detailed backgrounds. Don’t forget also this Donald Duck Sunday by Al Taliaferro.

We end the Heritage section with a bomb: two pages from Eerie #2 by Alex Toth, the splash can be the centerpiece of the collection for any Toth fan…

Just one piece of Original Comic Art in this month’s Autographs Auction but a big one as usual: a Robert Crumb cover from the Complete Crumb. Somebody has probably seen the Calvin and Hobbes signed print that sold for $10.000 on HA two weeks ago, Sanders has another one with a starting price of $5.000.