drdroom

On 4/13/2024 at 9:43 PM, sfcityduck said:

I'm now trying to figure what to do with this. I was going to sell the below Caniff 1943 Burma piece for $1,300 as a "hand-colored print." But then I realized that Heritage sold a very similar 1944 Miss Lace piece as original art and darned if they're not right! Both pieces are below:

The comparable piece sold by Heritage for $5K+ back in 2005 is this (note the similar price placement to mine in the bottom right and similar paste up residue and white out):

So here's my questions:

(1) Is there a highly skilled conservator I could submit it to who could carefully clean and press it without damaging the inked art?

(2) Where's the best place to list it for sale (here, Heritage, CLINK, etc.)? I only sell comics and comic related items, not comic book original art. So advice appreciated.

THANKS!

 

Is the idea here that Burma is printed and the other art is original? She doesn't look cut out as Miss Lace is on the other one.  

On 4/16/2024 at 9:43 AM, KirbyCollector said:

Funny how times change. In 1990 if you wanted to buy a piece of art for $250,000, you got into a suit and tie and traveled to an auction being held in a mansion located in NY, London or Paris where you were served champagne and treated with class. Now you bid online dressed in a t-shirt and shorts while toggling back and forth between cat videos and PornHub while drinking a Mountain Dew you bought at the Shop Rite. We've lost something as a society, I think.

That right there is a classic post. 

On 4/15/2024 at 3:34 PM, Captain ShipWreck said:

 

Production really worked it over! I wonder what it looked like to start?

I remember seeing the SS 2 cover at auction--had a lot of paste-up/ re-positioning, surprisingly for such an elegant end composition.

On 3/14/2024 at 7:37 PM, drdroom said:

This is a truly a wacky turn of events. DC should immediately start publishing a Machine Man comic in the style of Weisinger-era Superman comics. Just to mess with Marvel.

I mean actually this is genius. Machine Boy! Machine Girl! Bolty, the Machine Dog! 

This might be the prelim of the prelim, but its for a memorable cover, so I'll take it. It's either Romita (who did the final) or Buscema (who drew on the other side of the board).

On 3/14/2024 at 12:51 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

if you have a high six or a potential 7 figure consignment, you can get much better terms, that extend not only to what you give them up front, but anything else you throw their way for a year. (more common with comics, that may need to go through the CGC pipeline) Not to mention an advance on the expected sales.

Thanks, that's super helpful. Lemme just rustle up one or two of those high-six pieces... where did I put that Itoya...? 

On 3/14/2024 at 6:39 PM, MyNameIsLegion said:

Here you go Glen!

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-comics-have-told-marvel-that-they-own-machine-man/

This is a truly a wacky turn of events. DC should immediately start publishing a Machine Man comic in the style of Weisinger-era Superman comics. Just to mess with Marvel.

On 3/13/2024 at 10:08 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

2001 is a far more important property and page. I'm not sure Kamandi is, although there are a few diehard fans of it.

OK, that's interesting. What niggles me though, is 2001 is an important FILM property, created by Clarke and Kubrick. The much later comic adaptation? That seems kind of trivial (much as I like the series). Kamandi is much less known of course, but it's Kirby's own creation. So I'm still puzzled, but the market has spoken. Shoulda bought a bunch of those caveman pages back when the getting was good! 

On 3/11/2024 at 1:00 PM, Latverian Tourism Board said:

My guess is that it’s a fresh to market situation. That DPS was on a dealers site for quite a while at a much higher price (a little more than double its sale price). I was present at a couple conventions where I happened to notice that it was shown (shopped?) to a couple  other dealers, too. Maybe that got them to not bid, making the market lighter? Just guesses, but I think those put downward pressure on that piece. I’ve noticed a couple other dealer pages that had similar prices and discussions, so maybe that’s a thing? 

That makes sense (and I've been following that page around too), but I really thought the price was around where I expected. Kamandi pages are plentiful and he doesn't wear spandex, so there's an inherent limit on the price of those pages, no matter how good. For me, that DPS is exquisite, but I've also known collectors to not like it at all. 

It's the upward pressure on the 2001 page that puzzles me.

On 3/12/2024 at 11:00 AM, The Voord said:

Hate?  That's a strong word . . . that I didn't use.  Don't hate it, no, just didn't care much for it . . . and I'm a Kirby fan

You didn't use the word, but, I mean, saying you'd pick a 4-panel 2001 page over, for example, this...?

On 3/11/2024 at 4:12 PM, malvin said:

Is there really any negotiation though? Isn't it just a function of the value of your total consignment?

One may be an awesome negotiator, but if the items are only worth the minimum (be it $5K or $10K). I don't think they will move from their list prices. Your only leverage is that you will chose another auction house. And again, at $10K or so, I don't think they will care.

Malvin

Yep. You've got to bring more value. There might be some existing relationship advantages--maybe?

On 3/12/2024 at 1:12 AM, The Voord said:

Ah, right, my bad, lol!  

If it had been the 2001 page vs a Fourth World DPD, I'd have gone for the former!

 

Seriously? You hate the Fourth World that much? I mean, I'm glad, I wish everyone did so I could have it all, but those DPS's are pinnacles of Kirby's career.

On 3/9/2024 at 7:24 PM, tth2 said:

The starting point for any negotiation should be 0% seller fee.  

Scuttlebut I've heard is HA is getting tougher in these negotiations, & I believe they've recently doubled the minimum consignment value from 5k to 10k (?). All which suggests they are not hurting for merchandise.

On 3/11/2024 at 3:25 AM, The Voord said:

Kamandi DPS for me . . . though I do like the 2001 page.  Kamandi and The Demon were the only two (DC) Kirby books I actually followed in the 1970s.

I was presenting this as a ridiculous no-brainer: panel page with no one on it vs DPS featuring title character at lower price!? But maybe I'm missing something. The 2001 page has Kirby's variation on the famous bone-to-spacecraft cut--does that seem valuable?  I'm just really trying to understand this result ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Which Kirby deal would you choose? Left: 18,750. on Heritage. Right: 16,250. on Comiclink.

On 3/9/2024 at 11:43 AM, KirbyCollector said:

😮 today

Yes, what the actual f-----? I would have predicted 4500. 

On 3/7/2024 at 6:59 AM, Bronty said:

I dunno about sleeping giant but to me you have an old Schwarzenegger play an old Conan.

Arnold as King Conan is not a half-bad idea. Sorry I'm not a powerful studio exec (how many times have I said that?).

On 3/7/2024 at 8:03 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

And yet a half splash with a babe, and Conan and Elric went for $8.9K.

for a series/artist combo that is supposedly significant, the page went cheap to me.

 

It's a tricky page to value and I get why it's had such a rollercoaster ride at auction. Conan + Elric (first app storyline), great, but they're bit players on the page. The top splash panel is really most of the ballgame here, and it's a knockout example of Smith just hitting his artistic stride--but that seems like just the place where his market is weak? Collectors seem to want his fully realized pages, which probably fully starts with Conan 24. What would a panel page from Song or Red Nails go for?

On 3/7/2024 at 6:23 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

Technically, aren't pages from illuminated manuscripts the same thing? Yet, no one would think twice about treating a page from the Book of Kells (if it were broken up into its constituent pages) as a legitimate work of art in its own right. 

Good point. Or a page from one of William Blake's books, which are in fact broken up, and which I recently had the pleasure of seeing several examples at the The Getty. So age seems to help (and, shallow as it may seem, I think color helps). If we step away from the modern/contemporary art world, so vigorously skewered by Dr Balls above, and think about the future gallery market for historical popular art, I don't doubt our grandchildren will be seeing exhibits of Herriman, McKay, Gould, Tezuka, Kirby, Crumb, etc., as, on occasion, we already do. The true originals. But just as we don't much recall the names of guys who were influenced at the time by, say, Blake or Hogarth, I'm not so sure about the swath of superhero art following in Kirby's wake, or the bulk of manga post-Tezuka. 

On 3/7/2024 at 5:53 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

I agree on the Glory Boat. If that was a Marvel page with, say, the Fantastic Four, it probably goes for double. 

Quadruple! It's the climatic page of of one of the top five or so greatest 4th world issues. In FF terms, it's a whole team splash from #52 or something.

On 3/6/2024 at 9:21 AM, Dr. Balls said:

while juxtaposing it with the typical toxic masculinity that poisons the personality of the Fantastic Four's leader, Reed Richards.

I mean, that's fair.

Back to the topic at hand, Comiclink results:

Glory Boat splash: 48,262 hammer.

Kamandi 16 DPS: 16,250 hammer.

What do we think? To me Glory Boat was a good deal for the buyer, Kamandi about right or a little low.