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

Neal Adams Brave and Bold 86 page from 1969

Welcome 2012.

I've been distracted with life since my last post. But I have been browsing original art on eBay again since late last year and noticing original art price trends seem to be going upwards slightly. Am I reading this properly? If so, forget the banks. I'm investing in original comic book art. Case in point...

The post I'd like to share today is a sweet early Neal Adams Brave and Bold 86 page 4 that sold today. Iconic Neal Adams Batman in the top pane and gotta love the irregular shaped panels. This page is just so clean in layout makes me wish I bid a tad more. All Neal Adams artwork.

According to the auction description, this page was purchased from Heritage for $3107.00 in Nov 2011. Couple hundred bucks profit in a few months. :)

UPDATE 3/12/2012: Just saw this same page for sale on an art dealer site for $6500.00 this morning.

UPDATE 8/4/2012:  Artwork is still available for sale for $6500.  Great looking page though.

Awesome Byrne Uncanny X-Men, Perez Sinnot FF, Pollard Thor, Starlin Dreadstar and JRJR Ironman 80s art jam

Here's a sweet Byrne Uncanny X-Men, Perez/Sinnot Fantastic Four, Pollard Thor, Starlin Dreadstar, and Romita Jr Ironman jam piece. Current going for $11,000.00 ($13,145.00 with premiums). This one will go up more.

I'll update this after the auction ends in about 10 hours.

Miller Daredevil 172 page 15 original comic book art

Here's a sweet Miller Daredevil 172 page of original comic book art that featured Bullseye and Kingpin from that classic run. This was the last issue that Miller fully penciled.

This fits the definition of an interior page in every way. Smaller individual artwork from the "middle" of the story. There is no splash element to this page. If anything, this page is extra dark with the (moody but great) Klaus Janson inks from that period.

But what makes this page so great is the awesome layouts, fascination storytelling (layouts) by Frank Miller, wonderful inks by Klaus Janson, and the uniqueness of the long elongated panels. This won't be the last time you hear me say this (or write it in this case) but boy do I miss the way comic books were drawn from back in the day! Most everything nowadays is splashy and storytelling is usually the afterthought. Publishers and artists are now so intent on making the book "look" pretty that they miss out by only using larger images. And artists also will tend to be able to sell more of their pages at a higher price if they are splashier, which may or may not be a coincidence. Whatever happened to creating a mood on the page by using blacks or different film-esque camera angles for the panes. Telling the story like you are watching a movie. That might also be why I enjoyed watching Watchmen the movie. If you watch it again, compare it to the graphic novel and the panels in the GN are almost identical to the way the movie was shot (camera layout). Eerie but done the way it should have been done.

21 bids @ $7800.00

Zatanna color cover study by AH!

I'm a fan of Zatanna. Here's a beauty done-up by none-other than Adam "AH!" Hughes. Looks to be like a cover warm-up but looks very finished all in all. Nice use of color markers on drawing paper.

From the auction:

"Up for auction is a sketch study by Adam Hughes of Zatanna. Adam is the new cover artist for the DC Comics Zatanna comic book (starting with issue 11), and this was a piece he did as a warm up before starting work on a cover. The piece is rendered in warm Copic markers on drawing paper. Piece measures 11 inches wide and 13 inches tall, and the image fills most of the paper. "

28 bids @ $3,270.51

Charles Schulz Peanuts Strip Original Art - Charlie Brown

I've been away for a bit but no time like the present to come back and post a quick note.

Here's a great looking Peanuts strip original art piece for sale with a few hours remaining. This strip features Charlie Brown. Currently at $10,000.00

"Where The Wild Things Are" original artwork

Here's something you don't see often. An original Maurice Sendak "Where the Wild Things Are" original art piece and it's for sale from Sendak.

The art isn't cheap though. This piece had an asking price of over $100k. This is the original artwork for a Harper's poster from 1990. 15" x 21" unframed, graphite on vellum, 25" x 31" framed. Looks super super detailed.

Check out the other great Sendak pieces for sale here.

Ditko Spidey & Dr Strange art

Another cool piece available is this Steve Ditko Spiderman and Dr Strange sketch! How often do you see Ditko original art for sale?!? And a Spidey and Doctor Strange piece, to boot.

Here is the original description from the auction itself. Currently @ $5200.00 and rising...

DESCRIPTION:

We have for you Comic Art Collectors and Fans alike a very special piece of artwork by the legendary artist Steve Ditko! For all of you who have not lived under a rock for the past 40 years know Steve Ditko is the artist who first gave live to two of Marvel Comics most iconic heroes SPIDER-MAN and Dr. Strange! We offer here now for you to own the PIN-Up art Steve Ditko drew for an early 1960’s Comic Book Fanzine.

This Marvelous Masterpiece Pin-Up features not one but both of Steve Ditko’s most monumental heroes: Spidey and Doc Strange master of the mystic arts, both together on one page! Drawn in pencil, pen and brush with black magic ink on 8 ½ by 11 typing paper. If you look close enough you can see the pencil work around Dr. Strange’s waste, where the lines were erased for the mystical fog.

Artwork is on 8 ½ by 11 typing paper; shows some age; little nick out of lower right edge corner (Dr. Strange side) with a piece or two of tape on the back from many years ago when it hung on the wall. This is a pulse-pounding piece of art from the Marvel Age of comics that any true believer worth their no prize would proudly love to own!!

Steve Ditko - Early career. Ditko studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City under Jerry Robinson and began professionally illustrating comic books in 1953. Much of his early work, beginning in the early 1950s, was for Charlton Comics (for whom he continued to work intermittently until the company's demise in 1986), producing science fiction, horror and mystery stories. Later in the decade, he would also begin drawing for Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics. He is well known for designing superheroes that wear masks that show absolutely no facial features. Such examples are Spider-Man and the DC Comics character the Question.

Is notoriously reclusive and very rarely, if ever, appears in public. He never gives interviews and the closest most people have ever been to seeing his face is in an early issue of Spider-Man in which a self-portrait of him sleeping at his desk appears.

He is the creator of such comic book characters as Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, the Question, Shade and The Changing Man. In addition, he has worked as an artist on many other comics. Although Ditko had returned to work for Marvel Comics several times after his mid-60s departure, he has steadfastly refused to again draw his two most famous characters, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

Schulz Peanuts Sunday artwork auction passes $16k and keeps rising

For those of you that haven't seen this yet, there's a nice Charles Schulz Peanuts Snoopy "Sunday" original artwork up for sale on eBay and it is currently at $16,050.00 but has not yet met the reserve. Looks very clean and in great condition, and nicely framed. From Sunday January 21, 1996.

Will this exceed $20k?