McFarlane's Amazing Spider-Man 328 cover original comic book artwork sells for $657,250.00 record price.

Before this becomes old news, the original comic book artwork for Todd McFarlane's Amazing Spider-Man 328 cover sold recently for a $657,250.00.  The original comic book artwork for Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man 1 sold for a surprisingly low (at least it was to me) $358,500.00.

Oh man, I remember when these books were so popular when they came out in 1990.  I remember rushing to the  comic book shop (sorry, nothing was available online back then) and buying multiple copies of the books.  I was fortunate to get copies of all the bagged and unbagged versions of the #1 issue.  Was so excited back then.  Alas, I still have them in some random closet , never read, still bagged and boarded (rebagged/reboarded since).  One of these days I will pull them out and reminisce over them.  Until then, I will enjoy looking at the original comic book artwork of the covers from these books.  :-)

While the Spider-Man 1 cover may be more iconic, could it be the ASM 328 cover is more noteworthy because it features not only Spidey but also Hulk?  And of course, Amazing Spider-Man is the grand-daddy of Spiderman comic titles, and I'm sure collectors place a premium on original artwork from this title.  Regardless, the ASM 328 cover artwork came at the peak time of McFarlane's run at Marvel.  Or could it have been that most collector's figured the cover for SM 1 was going to hit a higher realized value, and as such, didn't want to get into a bidding war with other high rollers.  Maybe Todd himself?  There was a lot of talk about the SM 1 cover hitting a million dollars weeks leading up to the auction.

As an original comic book artwork collector, I think this was a good thing for the hobby but not a great thing, at least I'm not sure if it is great yet.  It does make non-comic book art collectors take notice that this is a growing segment for the art collector niche.  I think it opens more eyes just for the fact this sold for as much as it did when the economy really isn't doing great still.  Judging from comments I read online at sites such as Yahoo, CBS and other "mainstream" non-comic/non-art, most people think this was a waste of money.  I think this may have been a shrewd investment as I can foresee original art continue to grow in the short and long term.  However my concern is if these high priced public transactions have pushed the smaller low budget collectors out of the hobby or have they separated them even more from the mid/high end art collector.  It already requires a substantial cash investment to get started in this hobby for those new to collecting original comic book art.  It will only get more pricey in the years to come.

Would love to hear your take on these record setting transactions of original comic book artwork.

Link to ha.com press release on the ASM 328 cover original comic book artwork record breaking auction.

Amazing Spider-Man 252 original comic book art sells for close to $5k

Just wanted to note that 2 pages of original comic book art from Amazing Spider-Man 252 sold for close to $5000 each page today. They were pages 6 and 22. Of course this issue is the first appearance of the black costume which then later led to Venom. These pages are of historical significance in the Marvel Universe and an important time in Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man 252 page 6 sold for $4919.69
Amazing Spider-Man 252 page 22 sold for $4600 even.

Congrats to the winner of these original pieces of comic book history. With comic books become more and more mainstream, original comic book artwork seems to be poised for more recognition as well as "historical" significance to those following pop culture.

John Romita and Mike Esposito Amazing Spider-Man 52 original comic book art title splash! 1967!

Here's an early Amazing Spider-Man 52 original comic book art page with art by John Romita Sr and inks by Mike Esposito (penname Mickey Demeo). This is from September 1967. The page features Spider-man and JJ Jameson taken prisoner by the Kingpin. This title splash is from the issue "To Die A Hero!".

This is truly an amazing piece of artwork. Currently at $28,988 with reserve currently not met. We'll see about that in the coming week. :)

McFarlane Spider-Man original artwork

Here was a sweet piece that realized more than $4800 on eBay.

Todd McFarlane Spider-Man original comic book art for a promotional piece, with crazy disjointed hips and all, probably from around the time of his run on Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man. Large 11by17 art with some white-out around the eyes and near the arm. Plus a large lower corner cut off but then re-attached. All in all, not a bad looking piece for a McSpidey fan.

Romita Sr Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man 15 cover

If anyone blinked, this 1977 Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man 15 original cover artwork by John Romita Sr auction ended this morning at $7050.00

Really nice large Spiderman image on hard to find early Romita Sr cover. Might not be from ASM, but still great great cover artwork for a nice price.

As noted in the auction, the published cover had a mask statted to Flash's face/head, and another body statted in the background amongst the rubble. Nevertheless, can't beat the original vision as shown in the original art without those 2 stats.

If you have any 70s-80s Romita Sr Amazing Spiderman (ASM) or Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man original art for sale, please contact me.

Todd McFarlane original art gallery

I was browsing the web earlier today and came across an interesting site. I'm sure many of you have already been there and seen the gems...

Todd McFarlane's spawn.com site has a TON of interesting stuff to read and look at, including, yup you guessed it, a nice online gallery of McFarlane original art including some of his favorites. And it's even narrated by him. Woot. The art was original presented as part of a retrospective exhibit showcasing Todd's art and career (Held at New York's MoCCA in 2006).

Shown here, Batman sketch, was the first McFarlane artwork published in a legitimate comic book (1981). Wild wild stuff but very very cool. Something about it sorta reminds me of his work on Detective Comics, Batman Year 2.

Other pages shown at the site include pages from Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man, New Mutants, Hulk, Spawn, and others. Even rejection letters and doodles from high school days.