ComicLink March 2020 Featured Auction Report
Welcome to our ComicLink March 2020 Featured auction recap! Finally we have the close of the first bigger auction of the year. It is always a bit quiet in the gap between the last quarterly Heritage/CLink auctions of the year and the first of the next.
Overall I think prices were on the FMV to stronger side. This ComicLink featured auction was in my opinion slightly on the weaker side of offerings, but there are always good pieces available, Let’s look at a few pieces/results I found interesting.
First let’s get straight to the craziest price of the auction which was the Amazing Spider-man #365 cover by John Romita which finished at $46k. $46k! What amounts to a small(8×10) homage to the Amazing Fantasy #15 cover is a very steep price. Sure it’s a published John Romita Amazing Spider-man cover, but the actual “art” you are paying for is downright laughable. Still…Spider-man sells.
Another strong price was the Adam Hughes Catwoman #72 cover. It is a great example by the good girl art pinup master and probably FMV compared to what his art usually sells for. Still not the first thing I would choose to pony up almost $18k for. It also makes me wonder what his absolute best 5 or so covers would sell for.
There was a Bolland Judge Dredd cover available which went for $17k. Right on the money price wise for what it was. Bolland Dredd is always a drool worthy sight.
Another great piece was this Jae Lee Batman and Joker illustration. In my opinion it is one of the nicer pieces he has ever produced and I can imagine it breaking 5 figures if it was a published cover. At $5300 it is well spent on such an amazing oversized piece.
A few McFarlane pieces were up for sale. A panel page out of the only issue of Daredevil he illustrated was a great deal at $3600. Published Marvel Art with a significant hero for under $4k? A great buy.
Also up were 3 Spawn pages McFarlane had a hand in inking(#41 full inks #53 inks with assists from Danny Miki I believe) over Greg Capullo pencils finishing from $2665 to $4100. My pick would be the Spawn #41 splash with a large image of him for $3300.
It’s nice to know if you can’t afford a McSpidey piece, much of McFarlane’s other art can still be attained “reasonably.”
The best deal of the auction was in my opinion the Batman/Superman #2 cover by Ed McGuinness. The peak art period for McGuinness on a very popular run #2 cover for $1411? It’s hard to find random mediocre modern covers for that price. McGuinness art in general remains very reasonable for how popular his late 90’s early 2000’s work is.
The steal of the auction had to be the Amazing Spider-man JRJR complete interior story for $4.6k. Although the story had few Spider-man in costume pages, the ones it did have are probably worth about $8k alone! I had my eyes on other pieces, but if I had noticed it at this price and I would have thrown in a bid this cheap!
Two Sean Gordon Murphy pieces from the very popular Batman: White Knight were up for grabs which finished slightly below the prices he asks for similar quality pieces on his bigcartel for Batman art. I am interested to see the demand for these pages in the long term from the modern master. I would have thrown in another bid on the Batman/Joker page if it had a little more Batman on it.
I really like this Adam Kubert Wolverine #73 DPS at $2622. The more I look at it the more I like it. Butt shot of Wolverine, but plenty of claws out and the Gambit panels really make it just a great piece.
A cool Cockrum later series X-Men #163 page sold for $3.6k. If you are a Havok fan(one of the more underrated mutants IMO) this page is really the bee’s knees with that killer last panel.
Finally let’s talk about Kirby, the bellwether of comic art. Only a few examples in this auction, however two had the infamous Doctor Doom. A cool Fantastic Four Annual #2 page lead the way which sold for $13k. Compared to a few pages that sold at Heritage late last year from this issue the price was very reasonable. The second was a Fantastic Four #23 Page which sold for page for $7600. Doom was only in one panel, but it’s probably tough to get a published Kirby early Silver Age Doom example for less. It still amazes me that pieces this significant can be had for “affordable” prices.
That wraps up our coverage of the first big auction of the year. On to the next one!
