ZenAmako

There were some great Batman and Batman/Grendel II pages by Matt Wagner in this auction, but they were too rich for me. Had there been any nice pages from the first Batman/Grendel mini, I would have seriously been tempted, though. It was amusing to see the one Batman/Grendel II page that was drawn with the board upside down ("OOPS!" was written where the title/issue/artist information would normally go). I knew the Magebook cover would be out of my price range (but congrats to whomever picked that up). Matt Wagner's art dealer, Jim Warden, often has original art by Matt Wagner that's more affordable. There should be a lot of art from the Grendel: Devil by the Deed Master's Edition available once that book is out, and the art in that is terrific from what I have seen.

The Batman by Kelley Jones was terrific. I'm looking forward to his upcoming project, which I think will be announced soon.

I went to the charity art auction this year. I've really only dabbled in original comic art and it seemed like there were some pretty hardcore collectors there. A Thor piece by Walter Simonson (the cover of the Modern Masters book), which was presented by Simonson himself, sold for $20K. I had my eye on a color illustration of Sam & Max by Steve Purcell. I used to own an awesome page from the first Sam & Max comic, which I sold about 10 years ago on eBay for something like $600 when I needed money. I wanted another S&M piece for my collection, but this one sold for a whopping $10K. I knew I wasn't getting this when the gentleman running the auction bid $3K before the auction had even started. There were quite a few other nice pieces as well, like a J. Scott Campbell Hera and an original Bloom County strip. Anthony's Comic Art and ComicConnect were there in the exhibitor's hall. ComicConnect had the original art for the Batman: White Knight page by Sean Murphy that was censored (the Joker/Harley bed scene). It was $13K. I did see some good pieces, but not many I could afford, sadly.