Sideshow Bob

I'm dealing with the same on a 1980's Peanuts Sunday. The entire back is tacky with a universally applied adhesive from the former frame. My framer is working with a paper specialist to figure out next steps. I'll update here as I go through the process. Bob

Seems a requirement to have such a wide spread in establishing a FMV ratio. It's such a wide range to evaluate, as you're taking all the esoteric issues of published comic art (character, publication, artist, nostalgia, medium, cover vs interior vs splash) and now you're adding new factors like: tight vs rough sketch, paper type, thumbnail vs layout vs next-to-last draft.

Thought I'd add some data to the discussion... Brian Bolland prelim for page 1 of Batman: The Killing Joke. The inked page sold for $120k in 2018 at Heritage. Its on small-sized tracing paper (5 3/4" x 8 1/4"), and the level of finish on the pencils is a bit better than rough. I bought it for $3,400 in 2021. Taking the large numbers out of it (it is KJ...), it still establishes a ratio for this particular piece, in this case about 3% for prelim/published inks. Some of the prelims on more important pages from this book with Joker won't be had for 3%...or 10% for that matter. The pros...it's Bolland who doesn't do pen/ink anymore, it's page 1 from a marquee book, it matches closely with the final. The cons...it's small, it's rough, it's pencils only on tracing paper. Maybe its worth a little bit more today, maybe not. I love it, and it's framed in my office. The raindrop ripples... Bob

Thankfully, they weren't the same quality or I would have been a bidder. Objectively, the one I paid more for was a superior image. I actually thought it would this one would max out at $30k, and was surprised when it pushed through that level. But it wasn't a $40k cover. Not every difference in price is due to bidder participation or market vagaries.

I was the winner on the cover last year, and was neither the winner or underbidder on this one. Always nice to see that there are more than just two people at the top of a market!

#PriceDiscoveryHoax

Everyone knows you never go full Hakes. ComicConnect....200 per page. HA...maybe 100 per page with the popups. ComicLink...ok, do 50 per page. But Hakes? HAKES? Oh no. You never go full Hakes.

I'll provide the flip side of these stories. I made offers of increasing amounts each year for several years on a splash page. Not for a museum or my kids' nursery, but at the time, I was virtually cornering the market on this one particular artist and this splash was a big get for me once the seller finally agreed to another jump in my offer. Two years later, after realizing I had amassed something like a hundred interior pages by the artist, I took stock of my collection and realized that my tastes had evolved and that "more" didn't necessarily mean "better". I trimmed that pile down dramatically to just a couple key pages and sequences, but in that selling process, the splash was sold at auction. I paid over FMV at the time that I bought it (a record for a splash...), and I never built in a sob story, but there is no denying that I extracted a key piece from a collection and within a matter of years it was placed in a public auction (where I took all the risk on it underperforming). Should I feel like I did the seller a disservice? Objectively, there is a purchase and there is a sale, but its not a flip per se... Is it a better fact pattern that it went to auction and they had the right to buy it back at FMV (and possibly lower than what they sold it for)? Bob

Team America! Muck Yeah!

Not my win, or my sale. Just a fan of the book and the author. Congrats to both the buyer and seller though!

Closed at $450k, with the juice that's $571,500....wow!

At $420k, plus the juice....and still going.... yikes!

Not comic art, but rarely do you see Sothebys jump into the space these days with book cover art. But when its the cover and manuscript to Snow Crash, arguably the book that launched the idea of a meta-space, my pulse quickens. Already at $65k and closing this afternoon... but given the prescient nature of the book and it's importance to geeks like me, this wall-power cover should crack $100k easily. Anyone else excited to see this? Sadly, it's past my max bid at this point. https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/snow-crash

Yikes! Looks like another uncontrollable spill of dihydrogen monoxide hit the downtown area. No thanks! https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dangers-dihydrogen-monoxide/

We'll see this same argument being presented to the Supreme Court regarding Warhol's Prince painting. https://dnyuz.com/2023/03/01/why-warhol-images-are-making-museums-nervous/

Well, I would hope so as that is the sole governing body for US sliding sports. I got to walk the 1980 bobsled track this summer in Lake Placid while visiting with my family, which is a very very different experience than 2003 when I was taking the sharp turns at 85 miles an hour under +4 g of force. Face first… just saying…I would love to track down that Green Lantern Hostess ad!

Looking to purchase a Hostess ad with one of the DC heroes or villains. Would be particularly interested in the the Green Lantern bobsled ad or the Flash marathon ad (duh, can't believe I didn't bid on it at HA when it came up...). Why those two? I've done multiple marathons and was actually a member of the US Bobsled & Skeleton Federation (though for skeleton, not bobsled). These would be awesome to have in my collection! I'm a motivated buyer, and comfortable with paying multiples over market (and a finders fee) if we can find the right piece. Bob

Should be in Marketplace.

Hey! Were you the lucky winner of the Two-Face illustration by Art Adams that sold on ebay on Feb 1st for $1,075? Let me know if you want to double your money! [Can't believe I missed this on ebay for the month that it was relisted repeatedly with price drop after price drop...] Bob

(A+)2

Isolating one pick-up in a crazy year for my collection...this title splash/back cover from Batman: Son of the Demon. Not only did I drool over this masterful image by Jerry Bingham when I got the softcover edition of SOD, and again when I upgraded to the HC, but I also wore the hell out of this shirt during Bat-mania in 1989/1990. So happy to have this framed up on my wall! Thanks to whomever put it to auction, as I had been looking for this for years! The hammer price might have surprised some, but I assure you, I was prepared to go a lot further. It is cherished and I'm proud to be it's next custodian. Bob

Acquired multiple targets this year from my hitlist, and the "generally higher price point" prediction was spot-on. Had a couple hitlist pieces show up at auction in a two-month window, but budget constraints forced me to pick one over the other, which is fine but annoying...maybe in a few years it will come back around. Very happy with the targeted approach, but still found a way to stray off the list and get a couple other complimentary pieces along the way. Thanks to those who helped this year with eagle eyes or a kind move on auction day!

When an inker finishes working on a page with pencils, their last action is to go over the page with an eraser and remove all (most) of the remaining graphite. It's always cracked me up when we talk about inks-over-pencils, like a Kirby/Sinnott, that there are no Kirby pencils left on the page once Sinnott was done. So a published piece that is inks-over-pencils fully guarantees the destruction of all traces of the penciller's work. Inks on separate boards, or even bluelines, provides you with concrete evidence of the work done by the penciller in creating the page that a inks-over-pencils piece doesn't. Don't interpret this incorrectly...I'm fully on board for published inks-over-pencils as superior over all other options. Just pointing out one of the quirks of OA collecting that I've had to explain to non-OA people when they look at the framed pieces on my wall, and I have to say, well, the inker actually erased all the pencils...

As a Spectre fan, the cup overfloweth in this auction and it's requiring a strategy with so many quality lots. I'd argue that, if I'm having to strategize, then it's way too much all at once... This really feels like one collector, big into Spectre and Dr. Fate and other DC, was able to negotiate a separate auction. It's too concentrated to be overflow...

Congrats. There is a lot more to these Deadpool prelims than other common prelims. Not many other new characters debuting in the last 30 years, if any, have the cultural footprint of Deadpool. Not everyone will agree on the significance of prelims or their value, and that's ok. These are awesome.