John E.

Yup. And you can’t buy everything. Hesitation is my new best friend, keeping me focused on my collecting goals. I haven’t bought anything published since last November. A meaningful cover I want, a meaningful cover I shall have. (Although I saw some nice Bronze Age pages at L.A.)

Thank you, Flambit!!! I know it’s not easy taking all these requests.

Sounds about right. I always thought, what is the most "reasonably" outrageous price they could put on that #55? and $7k was my guess--maybe so...waayy back in 2016.

I’m interpreting it as sarcasm. The punchline is that Coolines always inflate their prices and this should be no different (I mean this cover has been available for as long as I have been collecting [half decade].) I have no idea what a Rom cover that late in the run would go for. My guesstimate had always been $7k and that’s with the inflation taken into consideration. But on the other hand, PanelFan, you make a good point—maybe it is a fair price? I hope you can still let me know what they are asking for it at San Diego.

Me three.

Anyone willing to do me a solid and swing by Coolines to see what the price tag (or price Post-It) is on that Rom #55 cover? I’ve always been afraid to ask.

You have something cool going here and I was thinking you should have David Finch add something in the year 2030

Not if he adds Modok.

Yeah if it's mostly or all Bodé doing the hand coloring I'd like to think that has a lot more value than a traditional color guide. The value of these is a bit watered down because it's somewhat of a second printing, but I don't think it would be unfair to price them roughly as the B&W originals, which to say $350-$650. The low end would be in the $200-$300 range. If Mark hand-colored the issues to begin with, well, then, we'd be talking double the price. In the hands of another reseller maybe the asking would be $1500+. But would someone pay that? Maybe oui; maybe no. This is all my ballpark figure. All and all it's great to see these resurface and get a little story about them. Best of luck!

Hey Dave, Those are really cool pieces. I'm happy to see these pop up. I own two pieces by Mark Bodé which you can see here and here. I've been fortunate enough to make Mark's acquaintance over the years, giving me the opportunity to ask him about his creative process. I really like Jaybuck's answer so I'll just add to it. Mark traditionally draws a tight pencil prelim and the original is lightboxed over it. It may very well be that he still had the original pencil prelims and this color version was lightboxed. If this is the case, then I think it puts it at a higher plane than just a color guide, especially if it was directly used for printing. Bodé hand-paints (or colors, one way or another) his personal projects, so in my eyes this is a different kind of original art separate from the original black and white art, something in line with Steve Oliffe's Akira color guides. But the coloring credits are split, so two questions are: did each artist contribute to each page or did they split the pages up where each fully colored one. If they split the pages and you bought this directly from Mark, then chances are the coloring is all him. A few, but not many, of the original B&W pages from these issues have popped up on eBay over the years on auctions. Depending on the content and the number of turtles present, they range from $350-$650. I just saw one for sale at the LA Ultimate Show for $795, which is high for me, but not so high to discourage anyone who wants one. But what the original b&w pages have going for them is that Kevin Eastman touched them and it's not likely that Eastman worked on the ones you have. Mark Bodé has a loyal following, but despite that, his art is really hard to move outside of an auction with a low starting bid. My conservative value is $200-$300 for each piece. You might be able to squeeze more if you had confirmation from Mark as to his contribution to the coloring. And also, you never know where prices land with auctions.

Yes, “relaxed atmosphere” is a good way to describe the show. I was very surprised at the attention dealers paid to me, a small timer, especially by you, Chuck. No crowds to fight over attention; you had a question about a piece, you got a quick response. I hope the show goes on next year and to whomever was on the fence about making the trip, it’s worth it. (I flew in for the day from Northern California.)

My grails are covers to the first batch of comics I read as a wee lad. The auction is in London.

Bechara Maalouf, Nostalgic Investments

Heroes Comics in Campbell, CA (San Jose, CA). There’s a nice vintage Wonder Woman 2Up that’s obscured by the glare. They also carried an eclectic collection of Marie Severin pages if anyone’s interested.

Original comic art coming to “Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction” brought to you by the Prop Store. I went to this show to find Grails and this auction has two. Time to sell!

Albert Moy

Koch Comic Art

Saul Zimmerman

For whoever remembers to take pics, post them here!

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I brought a few modern pages. I’m on my way to the Hilton. This is is me. John.

Trades are tough. If you happen to have a good rapport with a collector who, let's say, collects Savage Dragon art and you happen to find SD art at a con, then great. In addition to that, that collector must also have something you want that he is willing to let go. The Voord's anecdote is a perfect example of that. Otherwise, speculating on modern pieces with a faceless collector in mind can be risky. Less risky if you're talking Spider-Man; more so if you're talking the current hot title from Image. Buying a nice looking Savage Dragon page for full or close to full price thinking it's trade bait without a recipient in mind may have you stuck with something expensive that you don't want, and will later lose money on in real cash or trade. I think I'm kinda sorta in your position when it comes to wanting art that is out of my budget or comfort area. For the first four years of collecting, I sort of bought on spec, but now I've decided to just save that money and let my war chest grow. When there's something that I have to have and I'm short, I'll just go ahead and sell a piece or two to make up the difference and call it "trading up." Finding myself with $0 in the war chest and having to fund that grail by selling 5-6 pieces often costs me more after paying 10%-13% in fees, if you know what I mean.

Any attendees here who are not vendors plan to bring art to sell or trade? I'm considering it but I don't know if it's worth the hassle or the risk (of losing the art).

That is correct, Gene. Something tells me that you are not new to collecting. In fact, if you have any half-splashes with particularly dull panels surrounding it, I'd advise you to cut out the splash portion and slab that. That is very attractive to buyers. Or if you have trading card art where the artist drew two or more separate "cards" on one board, then you should cut out each individually to slab. Newbies--I'm kidding of course. Never cut up your art. By the way, we are operating under the assumption that previously published art cannot be slabbed, only witnessed art. CGC's competitor offers a signature verification but that only verifies a signature and not the art. I AM NOT FOR SLABBING PUBLISHED ART! But just because I'm against doesn't mean that I don't believe it won't eventually happen. You all are the experts, but knowing that there is a debate over which DD pages Frank drew and which Jansen inked, or whatever, or how I learned on the Felix Comic Art podcast how one early buyer of DKR art bought a page that turned out NOT to be the one that was published, I could see how a company will use those uncertainties to sell "slabbing" in some form or another in which they authenticate exactly what you possess. They will use those "who drew what?" conundrums as a selling point to "protect your investment." The marketplace is chock-full of sellers ignorant of what they are selling (at best) and sellers who are outright deceptive, so why wouldn't some company try to sell you (or the less informed) a service that protects you from deceptive practices? Condition issues from pinholes to toning to creases will be noted. Then there are the restoration checks. Also whether or not the art is in blue pencil or blueline ink or whether this piece of art is a prelim or unpublished cover (ahem). But from there, resellers will use the service to slab any ol' quality page. Again, I'm not for it, but I think it's a matter of time.

I don't slab art. Generally, if you're slabbing art, you're probably going to sell it and the authentication helps with buyer confidence which in turn gives you on a premium on the art. Although I can tell you from experience that "slabbed art equals premium prices" is not always the case. The value of the art is dependent on supply and demand, etc. I also have a buddy who slabs every sketch cover he gets by the famous and the obscure without an intention to resale. He just likes having the art in slabs. More to the point, I'm not opposed to slabbing a sketch cover or sketch by a legend like Frank Miller or Bruce Timm, especially when the latter is a recent target of forgery. Twenty-five years from now those sketches are going to be harder and harder to verify. Otherwise, check CGC and their competitor's sites for details as to what can or cannot be slabbed because there is a limit on paper size. I think it's somewhere between than 8"x10" and 9"x12".

What’s a “signiture?”