ComicLink May Featured Auction Underway May 10

Posted on 5/8/2012

Bidding in ComicLink’s highly anticipated May Featured Auction starts May 10,and will commence on the ComicLink.com website.

The May Featured Auction is ComicLink’s top-tier auction. “Every single lot within this auction was screened for quality and collector appeal,” said Josh Nathanson, president of ComicLink. As mentioned by ComicLink Consignment Director Douglas Gillock, “There are some extraordinary comic book and original art lots included in this auction, ranging from top grade Golden and Silver Age keys to major works by some of the most important artists in the history of comics.”

Some top offerings from the Golden Age of comic books are: Action Comics #5 CGC 9.4 (single highest — one of only two 9.4s from the first ten issues of this entire Superman run), All Winners Comics #1 CGC 9.4 (the only 9.4 of the first Timely / Marvel superhero team-up and one of the top two graded by CGC), All Star Comics #5 CGC 9.6 (single highest for the first Hawkgirl and first female superhero in costume), Captain America Comics #3 CGC 7.5 (classic Red Skull cover), Detective Comics #168 CGC 8.5 (Joker origin), Jo-Jo Comics #11 CGC 9.6 (a classic Kamen cover and the only 9.6 in the entire Jo-Jo run), Marvel Mystery Comics #9 CGC 6.0 (the classic Sub-Mariner versus Human Torch battle), Shock Illustrated #3 CGC 9.8 Gaines File Copy (rare, highest one of two), Terrific Comics #5 CGC 8.5 (classic Schomburg cover, Gerber photojournal example, second highest) and Wonder Woman #7 CGC 9.2 (classic "Wonder Woman for President” cover, second highest).

A few of the top Silver Age comic book offerings are: Amazing Fantasy #15 (an upper mid-grade example of this first Spider-Man appearance, out for CGC certification at the time of this writing), Amazing Spider-Man #2 CGC 9.2 Massachusetts, Amazing Spider-Man #3 CGC 9.6 (fourth Spider-Man, first Doc Ock, just one higher), Amazing Spider-Man #5 CGC 9.8 (single highest), Amazing Spider-Man #26 CGC 9.8 Double Cover (highest one of three), Avengers #1 CGC 9.0 (first Avengers), Avengers #4 CGC 9.4 (first Silver Age Captain America, second highest), an exceptional run of Fantastic Four issues including #1 CGC 8.5 (first Fantastic Four), #5 CGC 9.4 (first Doctor Doom), #12 CGC 9.4 (classic Hulk battle), Strange Tales #114 CGC 9.8 Twin Cities (first Silver Age Captain America try-out, highest), Tales of Suspense #39 CGC 9.4 (first Iron Man, second highest) and Tales of Suspense #46 CGC 9.8 (first Crimson Dynamo, highest, 1 of 2).

The original comic art segment of this auction is also packed with highlights. One of the most impressive is a Steve Ditko Spider-Man versus Lizard battle page from Amazing Spider-Man #6. The other Ditko Spidey page from Amazing Spider-Man #30 is also impressive. A rare auction offering of a John Romita Amazing Spider-Man cover is presented in the form of the cover art to issue #95. The Avengers and the characters within this all powerful super-team are well represented within classic Jack “The King” Kirby pages; an Avengers #3 page features the first ever meeting between the Hulk and Sub-Mariner; Hulk and Subby team up to attack the Avengers in a fondly remembered Journey Into Mystery #112 page; Thor battles Hyde in a dynamic Journey Into Mystery #106 page; Captain America is represented in Kirby’s cover artwork to Captain America #213 and the splash page to issue #211. John Byrne also pays a stunning tribute to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon’s classic Captain America #1 cover in his own published work from Captain America #255. Another Kirby highlight is a near complete Jack Kirby Pre-Hero story from from Tales of Suspense #27, which includes an absolutely stunning monster title splash.

This is one of ComicLink’s best original art auction segments to date, with many other highlights abound. Some examples include a Frank Miller page from Ronin #1, Greg Land’s Wolverine #55 homage to Crime SuspenStories #22 (Wolverine with a beheaded Sabretooth), the very first appearance of Hobgoblin in his costume from Amazing Spider-Man #238, pages 10 and 15 from John Romita’s Amazing Spider-Man #59, Doug Mahnke’s Joker: The Man Who Laughs cover art, Mike Zeck’s complete Captain America #267 interior art (21 pages), Gil Kane’s Conan #38 cover art, an incredibly inked Frank Frazetta 1940s Romance page, Joe Kubert’s Our Army at War #196 cover art, Dave Cockrum’s Spectacular Spider-Man #4 cover art, a Don Heck Tales to Astonish #45 page featuring a very early Wasp appearance, a wonderful Boris Vallejo color pin-up, a Bernie Krigstein Valor #1 page, a Wally Wood Vampirella #9 page, Wonder Woman #179 page 9 featuring Wonder Woman giving up her powers and much more.

There are so many other highlights within this particular auction, that to list them here would nearly be reproducing the entire auction itself! All auction lots are broken out into separate categories for comic books and comic art, and can be viewed at ComicLink.com

Josh Nathanson and Douglas Gillock remind us that now that the ComicLink May Featured Auction consignment deadline is past, sellers are looking towards the ComicLink June and July Focused Auctions and the August Featured Auction. To reserve auction placement, and maximize your preview exposure within upcoming ComicLink auctions, email buysell@comiclink.com with your prospective auction list, or call (617) 517-0062, option 1, to speak with Douglas Gillock, Jason Crosby, Sean Goodrich, Josh Nathanson or other members of the ComicLink team.

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.