Original Comic Art Tips - Issue #136

Welcome to #136 of Original Comic Art Tips! Many new subscribers, this week, thanks for joining, let me know how you arrived here!

eBay: Jim Lee Auctions, Atrocitus (#26) went for $4,350, Swamp Thing for $10,3k, Poison Ivy for $10,6k, Death for $19,1k, Composite Superman for $11,1k and Spectre for $5,2k. All of the comments, price charts and comparations are in the new blog post…

Jim’s friends: Tony Daniel’s Gotham Sirens went for $3,1k, Lobo by Doug Mahnke for $2,5k, Bizarro by Bill Sienkiewicz for $5,1k, Ronin by Frank Miller for $5,6k and Spider Jerusalem by Darick Robertson for $2k.

I wonder if it’s better to give artists a secondary character or to maximize money, since they’re raised for charity, and assign a fan favorite name? I’m thinking of Atrocitus, Bizarro and Ronin…

Mike Mignola did both, this time, after having fun, but raising less money, with monsters and cereal mascottes, he gave fans a painted Hellboy and teamed him with Ultraman, making 10k. Then he had Hellboy fighting another Japanese monster, sold for $3,2k, and made Batman a robot, selling him for $2,1k.

Aussies4comics is another fundraising group for comics stores, they auctioned a David Yardin X-Men cover sold for $3,5k, and an Humberto Ramos Mary Jane cover, sold for $1,1k. They should use a single ebay account though.

Not Charity auctions: a Teen Titans DPS by Jurgens/Perez went for $1,1k, a JLA prelim by Alex Ross went for $2,2k. After trying to sell this Buscema illustration for insane prices months ago it was sold for $4k.

Not comic art but a David Bowie painting by illustrator Koufay was sold for an impressive Best Offer of $20k.

Heritage Signature Auction: Frank Frazetta is, as usual, the auction winner, but with a piece that was sold for much less than we’re used to, $300k.

Another high price for original art from Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, the Endpapers were sold for $240k, not surprising considering that the cover was sold a few months ago for 1,2 million dollars.

A splash with the quality of a cover is the highest price paid for Spider-Man interior original art drawn by John Romita. It’s an early issue and a great image, the price went over many classic covers, $180k.

Surprise records: the X-Men #55 cover by Barry Smith went for $132k, early art, very far in quality from his Conan covers sold for $60-90k. A (beautiful) Avengers cover by Jim Starlin went for $75k, much more than his most celebrated Cosmic pieces.

A surprise price but in a negative way, an iconic cover by Gil Kane from an iconic (#150) issue of Spidey sold for $69k. Consider that #98 was sold in 2015 for $179k.

Another jump ahead for Frank Miller art prices, Dark Knight interior original art until this auction changed hands for $30/40k, this one went for $66k. Will collectors try to capitalize on this by consigning art for the next auctions?

Did you notice another big growth for George Perez original art? The cover to Infinity Gauntlet #2 went for $45k, the same cover was sold exactly 3 years ago for $28k.

Not surprising records: the title splash for Daredevil #5 was sold for $96k, a record for Wally Wood interior art, but one of his most celebrated (and historic) pieces. Te cover to Spectacular Spidey #132 by Mike Zeck went for $51k, not surprising for one of the most famous Spidey stories ever.

Frank Thorne makes his record but with the most famous cover he’s ever drawn, Red Sonja #1, sold for $42k. Kelley Jones’ Batman art rarely comes on the market and many collectors are in search of a piece. A Batman cover went for $33k.

Heritage Weekly Auction: the Jack Kirby collage went for $5k, the Jack Davis cover and the Ron Frenz Black Knight cover for $3,6k, the Batman pinup by Keith Giffen for $3,1k, a Swamp Thing head sketch by Bernie Wrightson went for $2,4k, until a couple years ago they were sold for $600. The Christmas day Garfield daily went for $1,6k.

Comiclink: top price was paid for the JLA cover by Jerry Ordway, sold for $4,4k, the X-Factor DPS by Joe Quesada went for $2,3k, the Superman DPS AD by Dan Jurgens went for $1,6k, the Hulk splash by Joe Bennett for $1,450, the Spidey/Venom pinup by Mark Bagley for $1,8k, the Avengers splash by Mike Deodato for $1k and the Harley Quinn original art by Jason Fabok for $1,2k.

Happy collectors took home: a Superman/Batman pinup by Neal Adams for $600, that’s the price he would charge for a bust… a splashy Spidey page by Alex Saviuk for $550, an Avengers page by Leinil Yu for $300 and many more.