Sideshow Bob

Agreed on the timeliness of this podcast and the interview with Kyle. Having seen some of my favorite modern Batman OA end up in his hand in a very short amount of time has been both awesome and terrifying.  The idea of competing against him means I can step aside from any modern Batman OA acquisitions for a couple years...

What is notable, IMHO, is that his focus is very defined. He isn't looking to hoover up the Neal Adams market, nor is he looking to be a major player in the Kirby market, or even the DKR/KJ market. As we move to the next decade, who is going to pick up the inevitable retirement needs driving the release of collections that are going to hit the auction block? Its not Kyle. Its not me. Will today's Prince Valiant or Tarzan Sunday strips replicate the last ten years' results when more come to auction? Will those Kamandi covers keep going up? You are going to need a lot more Kyle's to soak up the supply with an ample amount of liquidity; I just don't see where that cash is coming from.

That being said (in direct contradiction of my earlier statement), I have two of Winsor McCay's Rarebit Fiend Sundays from 1908 on my wall at home, which I adore. But I view those as my sole play in the vintage market. 

Ultimately, this isn't an asset class and never should be treated as such. I fret for those who are depending on prices for vintage OA to remain at these levels. Great podcast! Thanks Felix.

2 hours ago, Doc Joe said:

Love em, was looking at a couple of those myself, congrats and well presented 

Thought I'd share the wall shot too. Stuck between two Perez pieces (cover to Archive edition and Wonder Girl pin-up), with a Zach Howard TMNT on the far wall. And the desk has the Fabok Batman and a Sienkiewicz Raven. 

17 hours ago, DeadpoolJr. said:

A lot of that artwork on his site though was sold privately before being made public though to a group of collectors by invite only. Besides the sketches, and prelims it's hard to say if those sold pages would still be marked as such if not for that small group.

Just to clarify, the art for #1 was sold at the invite event Sean held during NYCC, which was about 1/3 buy-it-now and 2/3 auctioned live. The art from #2 and #3 that are currently marked "sold" were sold via the website on a first come-first served basis, with maybe a couple pages sold at Sean's table at NYCC the day after the invite event. The prices being paid on the #2 and #3 OA are not necessarily only from the uber-fan group. Please note, this is not an endorsement of the pricing.

Detective Comics 526 page 2-3 DPS by Don Newton with an almost-complete Gotham rogue's line-up.

Thoughts on Kraven/Zeck cover? Thought there was a high likelihood of two people going toe-to-toe on it, final price was $33k, which was a bit over what I thought the final would be. Does this price nudge the rest of the covers to auction, or reinforce that they should stay where there are?

Also, that the Wrightson HOM #225 splash that went for $15k....didn't that go through Comiclink not too long ago? Anyone recall the price?

31 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say that the guy who replaced Barry as the auctioneer when the art section started wasn't the biggest comic art fan. 

When he had nothing to say in the dead time between bids and just mumbled "original art", I just about lost it.

41 minutes ago, eewwnuk said:

sodas and water?  not cabal level.  pic needs more champagne and bottles of wine. 

Hardly. They are hoisting glasses full of tears of the underbidders. 

1 hour ago, artistlost said:

For sure numerous times. In fact, there was a Batman piece I actually did buy and when it arrived it had a messed up eye. Small little thing but it bugged me. So, it was the first piece to go when I had to sell to buy something else.

Nearly identical story. Couldn't handle the eyes on a commission piece, but couldn't renege on the purchase as it was completely finished. Sold in the next CL auction. Couldn't get it out of my house fast enough.  

and a fun mashup from NYCC, courtesy of James Silvani.

Very nice panel page from Reborn (Millar/Capullo/Glapion). The first panel is pretty much the cover to the issue.

Another installment of my Batman & Spectre team-up, this time by my Swamp Thing: Rotworld idol, Yanick Paquette.

1 hour ago, RabidFerret said:

As a fan of Sean's work who reached out multiple times to the art sales team about getting pages I had zero idea there was a 'secret auction'.

Instead I kept being told 'we want to be fair to everyone, we don't want to presell or reserve any pages, we want everyone to have a shot'...but apparently not.

And that's not even touching on the pricing,  where it's $2-3k for a Commissioner Gordon panel page? Ouch! The last two books SGM did were in the $500-700/page for the central characters. A DPS would be in the $2-3k range. A Gordon-like page would likely be $300-400. So this is a huge markup where it feels like they believed their own hype too much.

The first issue was decent, but it's certainly no groundbreaking Dark Knight or Year One.

Sure, I want the artist to maximize the money they get, but this felt like a weird and alienating approach...

The Sean Murphy work you're comparing to is The Wake, Punk Rock Jesus, Chrononauts, and Tokyo Ghost. This is Batman, even if its an Elseworlds Batman. That's a different level of pricing entirely. 

3 hours ago, Mr. Machismo said:

LOL! What they did was smart. Gather a small, focused pool of existing SGM buyers and offer a limited amount of pieces to test the “market.” I picked up a number of pieces and may expand on it at a later time. Fun experience and yes, a bit over the top

Re: additional pages. They decided last minute to cancel issue 2 pages so not to upset DC, with the exception of the Freeze splash, which I picked up. I’ll post to CAF when I have scans this week. 

Wow! You got the Freeze splash! Congrats sir! 

Its starting to grow on me already...

24 minutes ago, Sriz said:

Awesome Bob.  Mine is a huge fan of Teen Titans Go. 

The original run of New Teen Titans, for my then 7/8 year-old, was at a level that she just devoured the collected trades and read/re-read them probably five or six times each over the summer break last year. Its just edgy enough to keep her guessing, but pure enough in an early 80s latchkey kid sort of way that I wasn't worried about the themes being too adult like what is on the LCS shelf these days.  

She would love to meet George Perez, which I don't expect will happen anytime soon sadly, but we can all hope. 

Couple of YTLM pages, including one that I sold and had to buy back years later:

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1410518

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1410519

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1410520

When you have a writer like Vaughn, 1/2 of the enjoyment of the series is the word-smithing, therefore I prefer the issues with the word balloons written on the page or stat-ed on...these are all pre-digital lettering.

28 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

I've never seen any Locke & Key art made available, I think GR has kept most, if not all, of that art. Maybe there are a few pieces floating around though - good luck!

There was a time when Gabe sold some covers (not interiors) through a US agent, and then with a Chilean agent, before shutting down those relationships and keeping the rest under lock and key (haha). I was lucky enough to buy a couple through his Chilean agent years ago, but I know there were some other savvy buyers who might have a cover available from that time. Plus there was an interior page that squeaked out to a comic shop, so hoping there might be another out there...  Knowing what people paid and what I'd be willing to pay, anyone that has Locke & Key art will do well to PM me. 

Looking to pay top dollar for each of the following:

Any Locke & Key covers by Gabe Rodriguez

Y: The Last Man, pages from the first 12 issues only

Don Newton:

a) Batman #366 pages

b) World's Finest #259 (Green Arrow/Hawkman team-up)

c) Detective #526 (opening 2-page spread)

Added the first appearance of Ch'p (Green Lantern of Sector 1014, and also a squirrel...) to the collection. As a Don Newton fan, it was really cool to add this first appearance to two others that I have by Newton: the first full appearance of Nocturna and first appearance of The Squid. All three shown here! 

Desperately wanted that YTLM page back in my collection after foolishly selling it years ago. And I paid the price for my folly...

9 hours ago, ESeffinga said:

Cool composition to that piece.

I wish Marvel would pick Hugh up again to do covers for their Star Wars. His Dark Horse covers were stunning.