Heritage Weekly Auction ending 1/7/18

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