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Superman Drawing from Curt Swan
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17 posts in this topic

Not sure the best place to post this but am trying to get some info. on the value of a small drawing of Superman by one of the original cartoonists, Curt Swan. It was a quick small drawing  for an airplane employee in the 90s , drawn on a barf bag.  Anyone know where I should go to find out if this has any kind of value? Should I get it authenticated? Thanks! Pat  P.S. I know very little about comics, I'm a baseball card guy.  But have a friend who is trying to ascertain value and/or info.  

 

32903734627_ac3e81dec6_b.jpg

Edited by mintacular
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28 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

BTW it's Curt not Kurt .

In answer to your question...it's not prime period Swan; it's not published; it's a loose sketch; it's done on a vomit bag.  It's tantamount to convention sketch IMO.  

$100 give or take

The bag may improve the value.

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Okay, thanks for the clear up on Curt.  So far I have an estimate of $100.  I am going to a baseball card show with James Spence, not sure if they do entertainment authentication.  Would you try to authenticate this type of piece or financially are you just really breaking even--I know costs are high to authenticate.  Any other estimates?  I want to give my friend good advice.

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31 minutes ago, mintacular said:

Okay, thanks for the clear up on Curt.  So far I have an estimate of $100.  I am going to a baseball card show with James Spence, not sure if they do entertainment authentication.  Would you try to authenticate this type of piece or financially are you just really breaking even--I know costs are high to authenticate.  Any other estimates?  I want to give my friend good advice.

I wouldn't bother.  If he wants to sell it he can put it up here or on eBay.  2c

Edited by pemart1966
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Yeah I wouldn’t bother with authentication. No one is going to fake a Swan sketch on a barf bag. 

Curt Swan’s published work is readily available at all price points. I see something like this closer to $50, but with auctions, you never know. $100-$110 wouldn’t surprise me either. Anything around the $200 mark would. If your pal has zero money tied into this sketch, it’s a win at any price. If he dumps money on JSA then he has expectations that may not be met. 

What I think this piece has going for it is the flying/nausea thing. There’s a lot to break apart there. That uniqueness can be the deal maker to the right buyer. 

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17 minutes ago, Jay Olie Espy said:

Yeah I wouldn’t bother with authentication. No one is going to fake a Swan sketch on a barf bag. 

Curt Swan’s published work is readily available at all price points. I see something like this closer to $50, but with auctions, you never know. $100-$110 wouldn’t surprise me either. Anything around the $200 mark would. If your pal has zero money tied into this sketch, it’s a win at any price. If he dumps money on JSA then he has expectations that may not be met. 

What I think this piece has going for it is the flying/nausea thing. There’s a lot to break apart there. That uniqueness can be the deal maker to the right buyer. 

+1.  It's got a story behind it, obviously, which is kind of cool, but it wouldn't break $200.

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If you want to learn about pricing comic book art, this might help. [Put in Spoiler tags because it's long and lots have folks have seen it before though I've updated it a bit.]

Spoiler

You might want to explore the following resources

  • The website Comic Art Tracker can help you find art and look at current asking prices for similar pieces.
  • The OA auction archive at Heritage Auctions – This archive presents the results from all of their OA auctions.. Once you sign-up and get an id, you can search for pieces by your artist and see what they have sold for.
  • The CAF Market Data - More auction results (more than 1,000,000) are available if you join the Comic Art Fans site, pay for Market Data access, and access eBay and other auction sites as well as Heritage.
  • The Comic Art Database. It contains transaction records entered by the owners of Comic OA.
  • Dealer sites. Dealers, generally, post their art with fixed prices though there are exceptions. There is a list of dealers on CGC OA board and the Dragonberry site has a list as well. The CAF site will search the inventories of several dealers for you. [Of course, Comic Art Tracker is better.]
  • Blouin Art Info which tracks sales at major art auctions. It can turn up some Comic OA as well. Look for the “Art Prices” item on the top right of the screen
  • Jerry Weist's Comic Art Price Guide - Heritage published a third edition of it. In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed.
  • A topic  on the CGC OA boards, A-level panel page valuations by artist/run - thoughts/additions/changes?, holds a discussion that relates to your question. It provides some "generally agreed upon" ranges for popular runs by popular artists on popular characters.
  • The Biggest OA Prices thread tracked some of the largest sales in the OA space. While that particular thread has stopped; it's probably worth reading for the discussions. Meanwhile , the information is still being updated - just with a different mechanism.
New buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree that it is difficult. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear.

 Examples of how piece can differ in ways that impact pricing include:

  • Content: Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. 
  • Page Layout: In general, you might say:

           Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel page

However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash.

  • Penciler vs. character: There are "A-list" artists, but not all of their books/characters have the same value. Kirby FF pages generally go for more than JIM/Thor pages which go for more than Cap pages (2nd run) which go for more than ...
  • Pencilers/inkers combinations - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/InkerX FF page might be more or less than a Kirby/Stone Thor page. Hard to tell.

Finally, you should join the comic book OA community. The three main points of Internet contact are:

The main points of physical contact are probably:

  • Dedicated Comic Art Shows
    • Comic Art Con (Spring/Fall) - A twice yearly show originally in northern NJ, but moving to NYC. The domain seems to have lapsed, but the show owner has a page for it here.
    • NYC Comic Art Expo - Annual spring show, nothing but art people (dealers, individual sellers, and buyers) and a few local artists. Held at the Penn Hotel opposite Penn Station
    • LA Comic Art Show - Annual art show one week before SDCC to leverage the dealer’s visit to the west coast
  • Conventions with High Dealer Attendance
  • Shows with a comic artist focus
    • Heroes Comic Con - Not a lot of comic art dealers, but a huge number of artists who generally will draw and have portfolios to sell
    • Baltimore Comic Con - Similar to HeroesCon.

One last comment, if you are looking to buy or sell, spend the time to learn the market. That might take 6 months, but it's worth the time.

 

Edited by alxjhnsn
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4 hours ago, mintacular said:

Okay, some good thoughts rolling in.....appreciate it all very much....if anyone else has opinions let me know!  (P.S. Good thing the barf bag was unused, right :cloud9:

Depends who used it and if the barf could be authenticated. 

Collectibles are a tough market.

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1 hour ago, Twanj said:

"swan barf bag" isn't bringing up any past results at Heritage. Any ideas for a better worded search?

https://www.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?Nty=1&Ntt=swan+barf+bag&N=790+231&ic10=ArchiveTab-071515

Replace "barf" with the more dignified "vomit" and see what comes up (no pun intended).

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Throw it up on eBay and see what happens. What d'you have to lose but your lunch?

That's what I'm saying: too many puns to not make this something special in a tongue-in-cheek way. 

This is also how I see it: you have Curt Swan, who's closely associated with Superman, drawing on an airplane. The airplane is closely associated to Superman ("It's a bird! It's a plane!...) The invitation on the inscription reminds me of Lois Lane/Margot Kidder's flight with the Man of Steel in one of the Superman movies. Because really, had one really flown with Supes in that way, the first thing that would've happened upon landing is the tossing of the cookies. This brings us back to the barf bag. This is a joke on par with a veteran astronaut writing "You ready to go?" on a barf bag to the astronaut first-timer. This is why I think the barf bag makes the sketch more interesting than if, say, it was written on hotel stationary.

But that might just be my twisted mind. 

 

I've had many of my descriptions recycled on eBay so copyright Jay Olie Espy twenty-nineteen. 

Edited by Jay Olie Espy
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