Original Comic Art Tips - Issue #113

Welcome to #113 of Original Comic Art Tips!! Many auction results to see.

eBay: The winner is Gene Colan with his Howard the Duck cover sold for $12k, a Kirby Fantastic Four page went for $8k, the Thor page for $5,6k, the Monsters O.T.P. cover for $2,7k.

Iron-Man original art by Gene Colan sold for $4,6k, the John Buscema Wolverine splash for $2,4k, Spidey by Ross Andru made $2,7k, X-Men by Don Heck for $3,1k, a bust of The Shadow by Steranko for $2,5k, a Magneto Trading Card painting by Marc Sasso for $3,6k, A Simon Bisley painted cover sold for a Best offer of $2,5k, a Doomsday Clock by Gary Frank went for $3k.

Chris Samnee Batman sketches: I’m happy that this Commissioner Gordon sketch was the highest price at $750, usually great pieces without Batman get overlooked. This one made $700, this one was nice and pretty affordable at $250.

Heritage Signature Auction: the auction winner is Robert Crumb, with one of his classic pieces, sold for $690k. I was sure the winner would be Neal Adams with his Batman cover, it still is his personal record at $600k.

Jack Kirby makes his personal Heritage record for original art with the Cap cover and the Dr Doom, splash each sold for $288k. The Doom origin page is the 4th price ever with $180k, and some other pieces enter in the top ten.

We are now used to see Killing Joke pages by Bolland going over $100k. The iconic Spectacular Spidey cover by John Byrne made $90k, the same price was made by Mick McMahon with the first appearance of Dredd. Starlin makes another record price with one of his most iconic covers.

The Todd McFarlane Spidey splash almost doubled its price in 2 years, going from $20k in 2017 to $36k. A complete Spider-Man issue by Romita Jr. went for $16,800, not bad, less than $800 a page.

Heritage Sunday: the Greg Capullo Spawn page was sold for $2,000, until 3-5 years ago Buscema/Sienk pages from the Galactus mini were the entry point for JB original art, they now go for $2,000. A Batman page by Eduardo Risso went for $1,900, the other one for only $500.

The Batman Who Laughs page by Jock went for $1,400, the nice JLA page by Don Heck for only $550 and the nice Spidey prelim by Frank Cho for only $300. A Wizard of ID Sunday went for $1,200, almost three times their usual price.

Christies/Huberty & Breyne: They posted a commentary on the auction, making half of the job for me themselves. I edited a Google Translation from French and added links to the art.

“The Cartoon & Illustration Sale achieved: € 2,998,250 / $ 3,322,803, or 72% in value. The Top Lot is a page by Hergé, prepublished in 1939 in Le Petit XXe. Tintin and Snowy, Le sceptre d’Ottokar sold for € 394,000 (lot 83).

Six new records achieved for works by Andreas (lot 265), Gazzotti (lot 25), Geluck (lot 124), Roba (lot 218), Wasterlain (lot 70), and for André Juillard, with the first page of the legendary album Le Cahier Bleu sold for € 81,250, doubling its low estimate (lot 133).

The classics have aroused great interest from international collectors from 17 countries. Besides Hergé, let us remember the prices realized for Uderzo, including ”Asterix, The rose and the sword“ sold € 118,750 (lot 230) but also for Peyo, Martin or Franquin whose illustrated Trombone was sold for € 68,750 (lot 169). Finally, 100% of the works of the master of eroticism, Milo Manara, were sold, realizing a total of 210,250 euros.”

I’ll add to this a few other links: Giraud, with a Blueberry page sold for €52k, a Lucky Luke illustration by Morris sold for €15,000, another Gaston page by Franquin sold for €68k, a Bilal page for €47k and a Jesuit Joe page by Pratt sold for €22k.