Michael Browning

What Starlin Warlock page sold so high?

Is that book a rare book? If so, I had no idea.

I wanted to add to this that I offered it to DC Comics as a variant cover for the current Wonder Woman series and they turned it down, saying it wasn't a very good Dave Stevens Wonder Woman. My argument is that it is STILL A DAVE STEVENS WONDER WOMAN COVER. The reason I offered this to DC as a variant cover is that last year, when it was announced that Marvel was celebrating Captain America's 75th anniversary, I contacted Marvel and offered them my Steranko Cap commission as a variant cover and they jumped at the chance and Steranko actually offered them 11 other commissions as variant covers, eight of which have already been published (including mine). So, I thought this was a great opportunity for DC to do the same with Wonder Woman (although it wasn't much of a 75th anniversary celebration). Unfortunately, they did not agree with me. Oh well, it's DC's loss.

When a big auction house was wanting to auction off some of my covers, they tried to give me estimates of what they thought my art would sell for. Knowing how a couple of my friends have lost big after hearing these great estimates, I said "Thank you, but no thank you." I look at what art has sold for in the past and how much similar pieces are still up for sale for (those that have been up for sale for awhile without selling).

I'm not sure why estimates even matter. I mean, bid what you are willing to (and can) pay if you like a piece well enough. As a buyer, I don't care what the auction house THINKS the piece might sell for. If you're the seller, then I'm sure they've talked it over with you about what they think it might sell for. I know they did me when they tried to get me to put some art into an auction last year (I didn't do it).

I think it's a great story and was my first exposure to the new-style of Mike Mignola (before this, I thought his art looked a bit like Michael Golden's). Starlin does what Starlin does -- epic, metamorphic, cosmic soap opera -- and he does it brilliantly.

Mitch, according to the info gathered from Klaus in 2014 and as noted in Alex's research, the separate sheets didn't start until 184.

Alex, On another thread about this very same subject, you asked me to give you specifics about the DD 181 page I own and the pencils that are underneath so you can note them in your research. I have looked at the DD 181 page I own very closely and pencils are clearly seen under the inks and outside the inks, where Janson hadn't fully erased them. The pencils are most evident in the knee/leg of Bullseye as he runs out of the room in the last panel, in Foggy's hair and in Matt's hand in the next-to-last panel and in Bullseye's hand in the third tier panel. I have attached photos so you can see. My apologies if these are too large. I took them with my iPhone, so I hope that they are viewable. I do believe these are Miller pencils under the Janson inks as I cannot imagine why Janson would do pencils if he lightboxed this page from Miller pencils drawn on another, smaller sheet.

Alex, I have looked at the DD 181 page I own very closely and pencils are clearly seen under the inks and outside the inks, where they weren't erased. The pencils are most evident in the knee/leg of Bullseye as he runs out of the room in the last panel, in Foggy's hair and in Matt's hand in the next-to-last panel and in Bullseye's hand in the third tier panel. I do believe these are Miller pencils under the Janson inks. I cannot imagine why Janson would do pencils if he lightboxed this page.

Thank you, sir! I appreciate the help. I'm also posting some pics of my DD 181 page on another thread that deals with this very same subject and I'll post them here, too.

Okay, I have a question about a page from DD 177. This is one of the flashback scenes, where Matt is bullied by some kids. He is pictured as a kid in his DD suit being pushed over in the top tier and then in the bottom 2/3s of the page, he's shooting the arrow under Stick's guidance. The top, flashback tier is done on craftint paper and looks to be all Miller pencils and inks, as was pointed out to me last year. The bottom tier is most definitely by Miller AND Janson, as you can see the styles change with the inks being much different on the bottom 2/3s. The top tier is on craftint paper and has been taped onto the regular comic art board. The arrow that DD is shooting has been cut out from the regular paper and the shaft and arrowhead have been laid on top of the craftint paper. The top and bottom styles aren't even close to one another. Can anyone tell me any information about the art from DD 177 and who drew what? I have attached photos so you can see exactly what I'm talking about. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Cool book and hard to find, but not even close to being a Modern Comic.

If I remember correctly, Watchmen original art really skyrocketed when the movie was announced and then dropped considerably after the movie came out and a lot of collectors who bought high, had to sell low and take a pretty hard hit. But, that was then and this is now and I believe a lot of people learned valuable lessons from that situation, which makes me think the Wonder Woman cover was either fueled by two people who really have a nostalgic feel for that cover or by a couple new collectors who were wanting a piece of art that they believed would get hotter because of the popular WW movie. I'm a Barreto fan and have owned some nice Barreto art, but I would think $5200 is on the high end of his art sales, so maybe it is the movie hype that's caused this sale to go so high. Congrats to the seller, that's for sure. I can remember several years ago when Barreto sold a lot of his covers to one collector and some of the better covers were put up on art dealers' sites and sat there for years without anyone buying them.

I just said earlier that I was surprised a Barreto WW cover -- and not an image I think is very dynamic -- sold so high. Aside from the DC Comics Presents cover featuring the first Superboy Prime, I wonder if any other Barreto covers have hit this mark.

The black covers are, indeed, considered error covers and are pretty rare. I sold my copy for $250. I have checked nearly 100 copies of the Edge of Spider-Verse 2s and the only black copies were in the batches from Books-A-Million. I've owned four copies and they all sold for quite a bit more than the maroon background covers.

That is a nice variant and they don't ever turn up in stores. They were specifically made for Family Dollar stores and were sold in three-packs. The thing is, there are two other comics in that three-pack that are just as rare and three MORE comics in a second three-pack from the same store that are extremely tough to find, too. These are all especially hard to find in high grade because of a printing defect that left many of them with printer roller marks down the center of the cover near the logo.

I found two newsstand copies of Darker Image 1 today at a comic shop in Knoxville and a Cyber Force 29 newsstand. I'd say all of these are tough to find.

There is another extremely hard to find Dragon comic, but I can't remember what it is. I know it had a tiny print run and, somewhere, I've got an envelope with black and white copies of the entire comic. I'll have to dig it out this weekend and post some pics.

Another stipulation to the deal was that I make him a print of the comic art and mail it to him to replace what he was losing. I agreed and so that brought the cost to $3112. The guy didn't even collect comic art - nor did he even read comics. He just like DeCarlo art and saw it for sale and bought it. He said numerous people had tried to buy it from him all the years he had it, but none ever made him think it was worth his while. He said he stopped reading my offers around $1500, but might have taken my $2000 offer the year earlier if he'd even opened the email to read it. Arrrgghh! Sometimes, you have to catch someone at the right time: the guy who owned the Cheryl pinup was needing a new roof and the $3100 went a long way toward getting that taken care of, at the time. He later told me that after he cashed my check, he looked at the cash and decided to store it away in his safe for a later day.

Late last year and earlier this year, I was looking at getting some Dan DeCarlo Betty and Veronica and Cheryl Blossom bikini covers/pinups and found a few that were all NFS. I inquired and made an offer well over the FMV and got several of the ones I was going after. Here's the one that took me paying 100x its FMV: the Archie's Pals and Gals 161 Cheryl Blossom pinup that was my grail. The guy who owned it bought it for $75 from Anthony Snyder more than a decade ago. I started my offer at $500 right after he bought it and was refused. Every year, I would ask again and increase my offer. Finally, after 10 years, and an offer of $3100, the guy relented and sold me the art. I wish I could have gotten it far cheaper, but, I didn't want to offend the guy and I knew I had to make it worth his while.

There is actually one page from the Cyblade-Shi crossover issue that featured Bone drawn by Jeff in, if I remember correctly, three panels. I bought it directly from Billy Tucci, who drew the rest of the page. Billy had one other page with Bone on it and the DPS from that issue that had Bone, along with characters from other companies that were drawn by their creators. Billy, after selling me the one page, has said he won't sell the others because it technically is the only Bone published art that isn't in the Ohio State collection. I ended up trading the page away a couple years ago and I know I saw it pop up on CAF last year.

I'm the owner, and I'm not actively trying to sell them right now. I offered them to a couple dealers when I got the collection and both told me that it was art and that they weren't interested unless I sold them at prices below what I paid for each page.

While I have bought from C-Link, I do not consign to auctions. I'm content to hold onto all this great art for awhile longer, unless one of my friends asks me to sell or trade to him/her. I have sold a few pieces here and there, but privately, instead of at auction.

Elektra, Punisher, Daredevil, Captain America, Hulk, Ghost Rider and a few others.

I recently found a treasure trove full of 1990s pages that feature some of Marvel's most popular characters, but no dealer will even touch them (I was even told the art was " art"). I'm telling you, the dealers' disregard of this era prevents some prime 1990s pages from ever hitting the market. In turn, collectors won't offer them for sale because they're told they are worthless and no collector wants to be told that their art isn't worth even trying to sell. But, when dealers start selling stuff that THEY, THEMSELVES, don't collect, and start selling art without bias to decades, then we will see a lot of great stuff hit the market that many of us have been looking for. A lot of dealers won't sell or deal in anything that they, personally, don't collect. One dealer doesn't want anything newer than 1980, another doesn't want anything that isn't large art and another only buys art that is published by Marvel and DC. Those dealers are focused primarily on selling to help build their collections and disregard anything that isn't in their collecting scope and, a lot of times, miss out on great art that is available for sale -- art that WOULD SELL IF PUT UP ON THEIR SITES. And that, in my opinion, would cause a lot of the 1990s art to come out of the woodwork and into our collections.