Really Sotheby Girls?

Just found an interesting article about working at Sotheby's, and lessons learned. Sotheby Girls huh?

Artinfo.com article "Cool Girls Got off at Contemporary.."

N+1 Magazine excerpt

Drew Struzan Indiana Jones drawing auction

Lots of great art was auctioned off this past Sunday, Father's Day, all for a great cause. Pres Romanillos is a long time animator had a relapse in leukemia, so his great friends put together a fundraiser auction to help cut some of the big medical bills.

Among the many wonderful pieces auctioned include this niiiice Drew Struzan Indiana Jones drawing inside the Drew Struzan book Oeuvre. Bidding was fast and furious and this finally settled in at $2000.00 before it was all over. You don't see Struzan pieces for sale very often, and when you do, they sell fast.

Here's a link to the Pres-Aid site. Please donate to this worthy cause by clicking the link and then following the link for "Donate".

Post-San Diego Comic Con news and Byrne/Austin Uncanny X-Men

Hello original comic book art collectors!! Sorry for the lapse, had a fun-filled early 2009 so far with lots going on in my personal life but hopefully most of that is now sorted out and I can try to share more of what I'm seeing in the market.

For those of you that attended San Diego Comic-Con several weeks ago, hope it was a great show for you. I've seen tons of photos and read many stories. But I'd love to hear more of your own personal stories and your own experiences. Were there any great original comic book art pieces for sale?? Notice any trends for what is selling or being marketed to sell?? Shoot me an email when you get a chance.

As a side note, I do know that Jim Lee X-pages are clearly increasing in value. I'm aware of a couple deals that concluded within the past year of nice pages moving. I'm not going to bother giving specifics but they were really *really* nice splash pages. Is now the time to shell out and upgrade that piece you have sitting at home? Can't answer that, but you can always try to see what you can get for it and if it works, move the piece.

If you have any Lee/Williams X-Men or Uncanny X-Men pages for sale, please do contact me. Would love to throw an offer your way!! :D

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Wanted to share a great looking page from Uncanny X-Men 137 that moved. This was from the Heritage Auction that recently concluded this weekend. Uncanny X-Men 137 page 43. This page features Wolverine and Colossus in a (Reverse) Fastball Special move against Phoenix on the moon. It was the all or nothing move. The layout is pretty sweet on this page and it's a key action sequence. Funny how the pages from this time were not as "splashy" as those in the current books you read. No doubt this is a great historic page!!

This gem sold for $16,132.50 including the gravy.

Don Rosa Uncle Scrooge original artwork

This recent auction realized in excess of $14k for the complete 24 page Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge story "Attack of the Hideous Space Monsters!" by Don Rosa.

See the complete interior artwork in large scans at the auction page. A truly beautiful collection of detailed original artwork by Don Rosa.

Jim Lee Batman original art auction

Batman original comic book artwork by Jim Lee. Bid on this piece Jim created and is now auctioning off for a personal cause. Bid bid bid. :)

Quoted from the auction page:

As my schedule permits, every now and then I try and help out with worthwhile causes whether it's the CBLDF or the Clearview School Fundraiser...this time I am doing something on a smaller scale but for as big and worthy of a cause. Something for a friend of a friend. Someone I have never had the honor of meeting but has a plight which moved me into action.

On November 12th, 2008, a friend of a friend, Portia Cano, passed away after battling bone cancer. Diagnosed back in 2003, she underwent dozens of major surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments before she fell to the disease, leaving behind her husband, Marco, and four children, ages one to ten. Unfortunately over the years their bills mounted, as her health insurance didn't cover all of the treatment.

So every year, Will and Amy, friends of Carla and me put on an informal fundraiser to benefit the Cano Family. This year, I am contributing this piece I drew specifically for the fundraiser. I am giving any art collectors looking for an one of a kind holiday gift to check it out here first. It measures 11x14 and is on 2 ply bristol board and is drawn in ink and whiteout.

Jets fans must not be hit by the economic woes

Hope everyone is doing well and surviving some crazy times --stock market chaos, more foreclosures all over, and pending extreme recession for years to come, etc etc. Sorry to remind y'all. I found this article interesting because it seems there still are many optimistic people out there and I'm sure the bad times will pass eventually. If you don't believe me, read on.

Apparently the NY Jets football team will raise at least $40 million dollars from PSLs for their new stadium opening in 2010. They are auctioning off the licenses for some prime location viewing, but that doesn't include the tickets to the games which are suppose to $700/game. The first PSLs sold for more than $65k. How far off can collectible investments be from recreational weekend investments such as this?

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/27287683/

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Big-spending New York Jets fans are sealing their bids for the best seats in the house with a click.

Online bidding went as high as $65,100 per seat through the first two days of the team’s unprecedented auction of 2,000 personal seat licenses. The PSLs are in the Coaches Club — located near the 50-yard line and behind the Jets’ bench — in the new Meadowlands stadium, scheduled to open in 2010.

Fans can specify which seats they want to bid on through the online ticketing Web site StubHub. The public auction, which started Sunday and runs through Oct. 27, marks the first time a U.S. sports team has done so with PSLs.

(more...)

Fundraiser for Siegel and Shuster Society

Here is some great artwork for sale, and it's all for a great cause.

Join "Ordinary People Change The World" and bid on one-of-a-kind items donated by famous authors and artists to help repair and restore the house where Jerry Siegel first created Superman. 100% of the proceeds go to the Siegel & Shuster Society.

Auction includes items from:

• Brian Michael
• Bendis Neil Gaiman
• Dave Gibbons
• Jim Lee
• Allen Bellman
• Dan Brereton
• Travis Charest
• Greg Rucka
• Ian Churchill
• Ernie Chan
• George Perez
• Brad Meltzer
• Ed Brubaker
• Joe Stanton
• Gene Ha
• Judd Winick
• Ivan Reis
• Bill Morrison
• John Romita Jr
• Dave Johnson
• John Cassaday
• Andy Kubert
• Joe Quesada
• Stephen Colbert
• Tim Sale
• Geoff Darrow
• Ron Garney
• "Rags" Morales and Mike Bair
• Frank Cho
• Eric Powell
• Geoff Johns
• Amanda Conner
• Alex Ross
• Jerry Siegel
• Be on the TV show HEROES
• Jason Palmer
• Renato Guedes
• Michael Turner
• Ivan Reis
• Walt Simonson
• Murphy Andersen
• Adam Kubert
• Chris Bachalo
• Eric Wright
• Mike Mignola

and more.

Couple of notable items that standout to me include the Charest Superman piece, getting Jim Lee to draw you and Supes, Alex Ross original, as well as a Heroes walk on role.

New York Times article on Collecting Original Comic Book Art

Taken from June 30, 2008, New York Times article, "From Trash to Auction, Faster Than a Speeding.. Well You Know".


Comic-book collectors like their numbers. They know that the first issue of X-Men, which introduced Marvel’s mutant superheroes, was published in 1963 and had a cover price of 12 cents. They also know that today a copy of that issue, in near mint condition, is worth $16,500. (Parents, take note.)

And while the market for back issues is well established, more and more collectors are turning their attention to the hand-drawn covers and interior pages that make up a comic book. This original art has become the focus of auctions with sales in the five and six figures. It’s a surprising turn of events for work that in the early days of the industry, was considered so unimportant that it was used to sop up ink or spilled coffee, given away to fans or even destroyed outright.

The art eventually stopped being discarded, and in the 1970s it generally became policy to return the covers and pages to the artists, many of whom began selling it to fans and collectors, who are hungry for it. Last month the cover of Weird Science No. 16, from 1952, drawn by Wally Wood, sold for $200,000. In February an inside black-and-white page from the 1963 X-Men No. 1, by the influential Jack Kirby, sold for $33,460. Late last year two color paintings by Alex Ross, used as covers for a recent Justice League story, were sold by his art dealer for $45,000 and $50,000. In 2005 an auction for the black-and-white cover of Batman No. 11, from 1942, by Fred Ray and Jerry Robinson, closed at $195,500. (read more)

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Read the rest of this New York Times article here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/arts/design/30comi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Super-Con 2008 in San Jose

I spent all day today at Super-Con 2008 at the San Jose Convention Center, South Hall. As a private joke, the Bar-Con was held next door at the San Jose Marriot. I heard Beer-Con last night was pretty good too. Then rumor has it the wining and dining will continue Monday at the estate of Charest's wifes family. Sounds like fun.

It was a hot day in San Jose but at least the car was cool in the not-so-cheap but safe underground parking. South Hall, for those of you that haven't been to the San Jose Convention center, looks like a small hanger. Almost like a tent. Fortunately it didn't feel too hot in there.

The show opened at 10am but by the time I got there, it was closer to like 11:30am. Entrance was easy enough since I had prepaid my admission but there were no lines at that time anyways. Seemed to be pretty light (crowd wise) but it did seem to get slightly busier later in the day. I started with a walk-through of the entire floor to get an idea of what the day would bring and just browsed booths and tables. I was immediately greeted by Michael Golden at the end of the first corridor. After some chatting, admiring his artwork, and fanboy geeking out, I regained composure enough to continue my walk. Actually saw a couple collector/dealer friends that I hadn't seen in some time, so it was good to see them and catch up. This show wasn't really a big "original art dealer" show. There was 1 dealer booth who had a couple portfolios of various artwork. There were many "smaller" artists and their dealers selling artwork though, probably more artists than I had seen at a comic book show in a long time. And of course, there was a fairly big list of "bigger" artists including Dan Brereton, Travis Charest, Tony DeZuniga, Ernie Chan, Frank Cho, Paul Smith, Tim Vigil, Greg Horn, Joe Jusko, Steve Leialoha, Ryan Sook, Adam Hughes, Michael Golden, etc etc.

After my once-around, strange enough, I ended up stopping at Paul Smith's table often. It was the first time I met him and got the chance to talk with him. Wow what a great person and artist. I have newfound respect for this guy, and his work on Spirit is k-i-l-l-e-r-!!! Get the book if you haven't yet. I didn't make it on his con commission list, but I did pick up 2 pre-made pieces he had done earlier. They had an unmistakable PMS feel to it... I'll post these later... If I run into PMS at the next local show, I'm gonna be sure to chat more with him. I'd recommend you do the same as well. This guy is just easy-going and how I would expect all professionals to be. Funny too. Also chatted a bit with his new inker, Walden Wong. Seems like a humble dude too. Paul had been working with Walden on making sure the "look and feel" for their book is right. Paul is inking his own work right now, but soon enough Walden will join in on Spirit. Hope this wasn't a big secret I just let out of the bag. :-)

I ended up sitting in on the "inking Q&A" panel. There were a few interesting questions on topics such as "digital inking", "Vince Colletta inks :-)", "inking as an artform", etc. The photo above is of that inking panel discussion, including Tony DeZuniga, Frank Cho, Adam Hughes, Ernie Chan, etc. The only annoying part of this panel is that they didn't use their mics or didn't talk INTO the mic, so it was hard to hear anything they were saying. Thank GOD Adam Hughes knew how to use his mic, otherwise the discussion would have been moot.

Next up was what I pretty much came for --the original comic book art auction. I don't recall the final count of pieces, and I didn't bother tracking values for each piece, but it seemed like the auction went on for 1.5/2 hours. There were 2 versions of a Wonder Women pinup, one by Michael Golden and the other by AH!, that were blueline copied then inked over by various artists. For the most part these pieces started at $100.00 (and surprisingly some got up as much a few hundred) but of course the AH! inked piece over AH! blue-lined pencils went for the most, over $3k. I believe the Travis Charest inked piece over the Michael Golden blue-lined pencils went for second most, around $2800.00 range (I forgot the exact number). Regardless, both pieces were nice.

Regarding these blue-line inked pieces, I know Charest worked on the piece, and technically it is his original art, but would you spent that much on a Charest inked-only piece?!? Maybe if it were his own pencils underneath, or maybe even his own blue-lined pencils, I would consider it, but this wasn't either. The AH! inked over AH! (blue-line) pencils to me might be closer to true value, but for some reason, without original pencils under inks, I personally didn't think it's value would be as high as what was realized today. Chatting with a few other collectors/dealers there, they pretty much agreed. We'll see how/if they retain their value *if* they hit the open market. I thought they were going to auction off the penciled originals (Golden or AH!) but alas, I think those were kept by the artists or organizer of the show and good for them. Oh yeah, there was a small pile of artwork that didn't meet the starting $100 value so those were kept. I can imagine there will be some of these unsold pieces for sale in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out on eBay if you are interested, or email me and I can tell you who you want to talk with if you are interested.

All in all, I thought the show was decent, esp if you were looking for some deals, although the few dealers I chatted with didn't seem as excited with the lack of sales in their booth. Not many art dealers either. Because the crowds were not of Wizard shows, WonderCon or SD Comic-Con levels, however, it was much easier to walk the floor and enjoy yourself without running into people or walking at a snails pace. At least I left the con with a couple sketches and some bargain basement priced compilations ("Essentials" books).

Looking forward to Super-Con 2009. If I could leave feedback for next year's con, I'd ask for more original art dealers, and also please bring back Paul Smith. :-)