Complete Catalogs etc.
Comic Art Showcase Winter Supplement (1977)
Heritage Weekly Auction ending 1/21/18
1/21/18 UPDATE
Hello everyone! Another late installment, but here goes.... First, the results from the pieces I highlighted last week, which included one severe overestimate, one very close guess, and two estimates that I consider to be in the general ballpark:
Bob Brown Warlock #7; ComicArtAds estimate $2,250, final price including BP--$836.50
Michael Golden X-Men Annual #7; ComicArtAds estimate $1,500, final price including BP--$1,434.00
Frank Robbins Giant-Size Invaders #1; ComicArtAds estimate $900, final price including BP--$746.88
John Severin Creepy #10; ComicArtAds estimate $1,200, final price including BP--$1,434.00
The big shocker for me was the Warlock splash finishing $200+ less than it sold for 4.5 years ago. Someone on the CGC Boards recently asked whose stock is going down in terms of original art prices, and I'd have to say Bob Brown could be one artist whose prices are stagnant if not decreasing. I picked up several pieces when Mike Burkey listed dozens and dozens of pages on his website years ago, but I have none of them at this point. Maybe that's for the best, but I still liked that Warlock splash.
As for the Heritage weekly auction ending this Sunday 1/21/18, there again are some interesting pieces. I'm a big fan of the first 12 or so issues of What If?, so the lot of four pages from What If? #7 by Rick Hoberg and Sam Grainger caught my attention. This is a fun little sequence showing Flash Thompson acquiring Spider-Man's powers. Even though Spidey does not appear in costume on these pages, they are still fairly sharp-looking pieces of art. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $1,200
Another nifty group of pages comes from Action Comics #410, with art by John Calnan and Murphy Anderson. There are some very nice Superman images on each page, and Murphy Anderson's inking really shines here. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $1,500
I'm going to wrap up this quick column with an exceptionally involved vintage Iron Man sketch by George Perez. This sketch, from 1978, has some rough elements but includes two images of Shell-Head, plus an attempt at a logo at the bottom of the sketch. "Phil" must have been very happy when George handed it to him 40 years ago. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $400
Until next time, keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars! Yours in art, Lee
1/14/18 UPDATE++++++++++++++++++++
Hi folks! Sorry for not getting this posted sooner, but I have been sidelined by a nasty cold and cough. My predictions from the first Heritage weekly auction of the new year (ending 1/7/18) were way low with one exception:
Al Williamson Marvel Super Special #27; ComicArtAds estimate--$15,000, final price including BP--$15,535
Ross Andru Brave and Bold #199; ComicArtAds estimate--$700, final price including BP--$2,031.50
Carmine Infantino Detective Comics #327; ComicArtAds estimate--$1,300, final price including BP--$2,868
Jim Starlin Detective Comics #481; ComicArtAds estimate--$1,000, final price including BP--$2,868
So the estimate that was the wildest guess for me ended up being almost perfect, and the estimates based on recent comps were way off. I'm glad to see that the estate of Ethan Roberts continues, for the most part, to obtain strong results from its consignments to Heritage. The big surprise to me was the Enlongated Man page price. I guess DC Large Art is continuing to surge in value as it more frequently appears at auction.
Moving along to this week's Heritage auction, ending 1/14/18, I see several items that are of interest to me. First, I think the Bob Brown Warlock #7 splash page is pretty great. The big, moving image of Counter-Earth Doctor Doom, as well as the smaller, full-figure drawing of Adam Warlock, make this page a winner. When this piece came up for auction at Heritage in 2013, inks were attributed to Tom Sutton, but I guess I can see Frank Giacoia's style in the heavy blacks on the Doom figure. I need to force myself to be more aggressive with my estimates this week, so...your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $2,250.
The Michael Golden X-Men Annual #7 page was also previously offered by Heritage back in 2013. I guess five years is a respectable amount of time to keep a page you won on Heritage before giving it back to Heritage for sale. The description of this page generously calls it "splashy," bit it does include some nice little shots of some of our favorite X-Men. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $1,500.
The Frank Robbins Giant-Size Invaders #1 page is certainly fun, with a dynamic flashback action scene. Some work was done to the final panel, but that doesn't seem to be inhibiting the bidding so far. Curiously, this page was not previously offered by Heritage in 2013. A day before the auction ends, bidding has hit $500, and I think it's not going to double that by the end. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $900.
I'll try to finally wrap things up with a lovely one-page story by John Severin from Creepy #10. I especially like the demonic black cat crashing through the window! I don't have any comps or old ads for this piece, but it seems like someone would happily pay $1,000+ for this great-looking art. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $1,200.
Please look forward to my next, hopefully much more timely report, where I will fill you in on the success or failure of my predictions, and present more ComicArtAds pre-auction estimates for the next Heritage weekly auction.
Yours in art, Lee
1/7/18 UPDATE++++++++++++++++++++
Happy new year everyone, and welcome back to the ComicArtAds comic art auction previews for the Heritage weekly auction. As usual, I'd like to review my predictions from last week's Heritage weekly auction (ending 12/31/17) and the final results:
Kieron Dwyer Captain America #361; ComicArtAds estimate--$400, final price including BP--$286.80
Jim Aparo Phantom Stranger #11; ComicArtAds estimate--$500, final price including BP--$454.10
Al Milgrom Spectacular Spider-Man #100; ComicArtAds estimate--$800, final price including BP--$3,107
Don Perlin Transformers #29; ComicArtAds estimate--$450, final price including BP--$657.25
My estimation prowess was not impressive this past week. I was only close on the Phantom Stranger page. The big shocker was the Spectacular Spider-Man #100 page. I guess at least two collectors really liked the excellent Spidey-Kingpin action panels. I continue to be generally mystified by the prices of Transformers panel pages. I wish the Captain America page had gone for a bit more, but I didn't bid on it, and I guess other collectors didn't either. Congratulations to the winner, as that Cap page was a solid example from a fun storyline.
This week's Heritage weekly auction already has one jaw-dropping item: the Al Williamson Return of the Jedi panel page, currently sitting at $10,000. I wouldn't be surprised to see a price like that for a Howard Chaykin page from the 1970s move adaptation, but this price caught me off guard. Then again, pages from this book were advertised at pretty high prices over 20 years ago:
The above image credits Dave Stevens as an artist. I wonder whether Dave lended any assist to the page on Heritage. Regardless, I think this strong price is the result of good timing and a scarce supply of vintage Star Wars art at auction recently. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: uh, considering this already is higher than I would have imagined, let's say $15,000.
I find the unusual art combination of Ross Andru and Rick Hoberg to be quite pleasing on this page from Brave and Bold #199. A lot of six pages, that included this Batman-Deadman beauty, was auctioned at Heritage back in 2003. Once again, this page is from the amazing collection of Ethan Roberts, although I'm not sure Ethan won this page as part of the 2003 lot. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $700.
A Carmine Infantino Enlongated Man page from Detective Comics #327 is off to a strong start at $600. This page also comes from the Ethan Roberts collection. A page from the same story sold for about $1,100 at Heritage a little over a year ago. I think the page currently at auction is a little nicer. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $1,300.
I will continue to focus on Detective Comics with my final prediction for this week, which comes from issue #481, with art by by Jim Starlin and P. Craig Russell. Not surprisingly, this solid example also comes from Ethan's collection. A nice page from the same issue was offered by Graphic Collectibles in 1997:
Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $1,000.
Thanks for reading, and please tune in next week when I report on the success or failure of my predictions, and present more ComicArtAds pre-auction estimates for the next Heritage weekly auction.
Yours in art, Lee
12/31/17 UPDATE++++++++++++++++++++
Happy holidays, and welcome to my third installment of Heritage weekly comic art auction previews! First, I'd like to review my predictions from last week's Heritage weekly auction (ending 12/24/17) and the final results:
Dale Keown Incredible Hulk #387; ComicArtAds estimate--$900, final price including BP--$1,075.50
Joe Kubert Star Spangled War Stories #147; ComicArtAds estimate--$3,500, final price including BP--$4,063.00
Alex Toth Eerie #64 two-page lot; ComicArtAds estimate--$2,800; final price including BP--$4,063.00
Herb Trimpe Defenders #80; ComicArtAds estimate--$375, final price including BP--$418.25
I have to pat myself on the back, at least for three of the four estimates. Perhaps the fact that my estimates were around 15% less than the final price is a tribute to my personal cheapness and not wanting to pay full market value on art. I was pretty far off on the Toth lot, which finished stronger than the two-page lot the week before from Eerie #2. Is the Eerie #64 story somehow significant? I don't get it, but it looks great, and I don't blame someone paying that kind of money. Overall, I think last week's Christmas eve ending did not affect prices much.
This week's Heritage weekly auction, ending on New Year's eve, has some interesting pieces, but one piece in particular stands out to me for personal reasons.
I bought page 9 from Captain America #361 in 2005 and likely paid around $50 for it. The page features everyone's favorite Gallic gangster, Batroc the Leaper. I was trying to find Batroc comic art examples by as many artists as possible in the 2000s. I have since partly moved on from that collecting theme, but I still have a soft spot for Batroc. In January 2015, I worked out a deal with long-time art collector Ethan Roberts to trade a big box of his old comic art catalogs for this piece of art. This trade inspired me to try to share old art ads in a serious way, so I will always be thankful to Ethan for this trade. I still like this page and hope it does well, although I'm not going for it. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $400.
There has been a lot (and I mean a lot!) of talk of a Howard Chaykin Phantom Stranger commission on the CGC boards this month. Although there is no Phantom Stranger image with pasted-on corrections, it's still nice to see a vintage Jim Aparo Phantom Stranger #11 page in this week's Heritage auction. This same page sold for $227.05 on Heritage in November 2014. Vintage Phantom Stranger pages by Aparo that feature the title character have sold for $775+ over the past couple of years. This is a good-looking title page with a creepy bad guy, so I think it has some appeal. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $500.
The page from Spectacular Spider-Man #100 by the team of Milgrom, Isherwood, and Colletta is an interesting piece with some things going for it, as well as a few features that could make it somewhat affordable. The Spidey/Kingpin battle action is great, but there is some noticeable water damage in a bottom corner. There seems to be some ink fading on background inks in places as well. A less-desirable page from the same issue sold for $573.60 a little over two years ago. I think bidders might overlook the condition issue and focus on the fight scene, and the nice portraits of the Black Cat. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $800.
I'll wrap up this week's installment by focusing on a page from Transformers #29 by Don Perlin, Ian Akin, and Brian Garvey. I have been surprised to see the reasonable final prices for Jose Delbo/Dave Hunt Transformers pages in recent months on Heritage, which have ranged in price from $143.40 to $358.50. Perhaps issues from two years earlier, by different art teams, are more desirable to collectors? A Perlin/Akin/Garvey page from Transformers #25 went for $657.25 in April 2016. I have a hunch that this will finish stronger than the Delbo/Hunt examples, although I don't know Transformers comics and art fans enough to say why. Your ComicArtAds pre-auction estimate: $450.
Thanks for reading, and please tune in next week when I report on the success or failure of my predictions, and present more ComicArtAds pre-auction estimates for the next Heritage weekly auction.
Yours in art,
Lee