** Happy 2008 Comic Book Artwork Collectors! **
It's been a great year for collecting original artwork, collectible investments (short of historic homerun balls) and all forms of art seems to be a great investment value again. I can't remember a year where there has been so much good art showing up for sale or being auctioned off in the public market. Let me touch on the original comic book art market, from my limited perspective and extremely biased opinion. :)
Of particular note for me, I've noticed quite a few nice Byrne Uncanny X-Men pieces sell on eBay the past year. Could this be a sign that Byrne UXM pages will be hot again in 2008? McFarlane Spider-Man artwork seemed popular as well, and some finished "sketches"even went as high as $5k-6K range (Read previous posts for more historical info on previous realized auction sales). Kirby FF pieces were selling fast and furious early in the year. Even a Kirby X-Men 1 page made an appearance on eBay, albeit a couple times not meeting reserve.
Jim Lee artwork always seems to have a following. His comics still pretty much fly off the rack and his still hard to come by original artwork consistently sell from dealer/collector's portfolios. With his All-Star Batman & Robin book often late, and with many grumbling fans bitter from not getting their book on time, it is difficult to get a good read on valuation for "current" Jim Lee original artwork (ie. All-Star, Superman, etc), although the prices are high and pieces are in demand. His older work to me seems to be the better value, especially where he got his roots at Marvel --Punisher War Journal, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men were just a few of the titles he worked on early on. Prime pieces of his will always draw interest, but it does seem that even "average" pages/art of his are getting attention. Regardless, I recommend you always buy artwork you want to keep regardless of price and intent to sell.
Moving on to the Wonder Woman artist, Adam Hughes AH! artwork has been hot, no need to mention that. I remember a mega-auction of his artwork that averaged something like $200+ a piece of art. Impressive. And Ethan Van Sciver artwork is still hot, especially his work on Green Lantern, and any Batman/Superman or Wonder Woman artwork of his gets some looks.
For 2008, I think Colan DD pages will start showing up more often, and more early Arthur Adams artwork will appear for sale. Buscema artwork is underrated and will become more collected once people figure out it doesn't show up for sale often. And Romita Sr ASM pages will sooner or later get hot in the public dealer/collector/eBay market, although it would be great if the one BIG Romita Sr art dealer would sell/trade me something. Hint, hint. ;)
Ok, I'm hoping for these things to happen in 2008 anyways.
What stood out for you in 2008? Any artists or characters get more attention that you expected?
It's almost comic book convention season. See ya at the next show and thanks for reading.
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