comiconxion

I want to thank everyone that participated today - whether you bought a piece or just sat and listened to the stories. The session went a bit longer than planned (2.5 hours), but that allowed Ger some time to talk (and me to deal with the flurry of e-mails I received to reserve pieces). We sold 28 out of the 30 pieces during the Livestream and the remaining two sold soon after. It meant a lot to Gerhard to see so many people still interested in his art. And, he’s happy more fans will now have a Cerebus piece to hang on the wall. Hopefully we’ll be able to do something like this with fans again in 2022!

Just a reminder that this event is coming up this Saturday at 8AM PT/11AM ET. If you have any questions about the event, feel free to reach out to me. We look forward to seeing many of you there, telling some stories, answering your questions, and selling some Cerebus art from out of the vault. Prices will run from $300-$5,000 (nothing will be more than $5k including covers and double page spreads).

Hama drew issues 21 and 26 - two of the best issues in the run. Lesser known fact is that he did layouts for all the covers which he provided to other artists. Strangely, very few of those layouts ever survived. I’ve only ever seen the layouts to issues 9, 10 and 24. Anyone seen any others?

I would actually say that there is a lot more demand for the first 50 Joe issues than Transformers and thus prices on Joes are higher. Pages from the original four issue Transformers mini-series pages stack up against early Joe pages, but the later ones don't. Same with covers. Outside of pages from the mini-series, I haven't seen Transformers pages consistently selling over $2k. At this point, I'd say most decent Joe pages under issue #30 would sell for $2k+.

So, since this thread started, do we have any more than 2 members?

For those that are fans of the Cerebus issues after Gerhard joined the art team (#65)... we'll be doing an upcoming Livestream with Bill Cox at Comic Art Fans on April 24, 2021 at 8AM PT/11AM ET. And, for the event, Gerhard will be pulling out 30 pieces of original art from his personal collection to sell. Even if you're not interested in buying something, it should be fun listening to Gerhard recount stories of working on different pages and different storylines for over an hour.

As the Spring of 2021 is upon us, there’s an air of optimism in the air and it’s time to celebrate with a Cerebus art sale coming straight from one the artists that helped bring that famed series to life, Gerhard! Starting at 11AM ET/8AM PT on Saturday, April 24th, spend an hour and a half with host Bill Cox, Gerhard, and me (Charles Costas) as Gerhard cracks open his personal vault of Cerebus artwork to offer 30 never before seen pieces of original art. This will be your first chance to obtain pieces ranging from Gerhard’s work on Church and State and Jaka’s Story through Cerebus’ Last Day! There will be pages, covers, splashes, and even double-page splashes and spreads! And, don’t worry, as crazy as the collectibles market has gotten in the last few months, we haven’t priced anything as high as what the Cerebus #5 & #13 pages sold for in Heritage this last week! You can still get your art at "normal" 2020 prices! Here’s how it will work: Click here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2NKTib0TNs) to join the Livestream starting at 11AM ET/8AM PT on April 24th - We’ll start by talking with Gerhard about his illustrious career in comics and what he’s up to today. About 20-30 minutes after the session begins, we’ll start listing pieces one by one for sale. You’ll be able to see them on the Livestream as well as in my CAF gallery at the link (https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=215384). While they’re being shown, Gerhard will give you some behind the scenes insight on each piece. As soon as you see a piece you like, e-mail Charles Costas (me) at comiconxion@hotmail.com to reserve the piece. Reservations will be first come, first served so don’t be slow with your trigger finger! Those of you who have participated in past sales know how crazy things can get. After all 30 pieces have been shown – that’s it! The vault will once again be closed. For those that may need a little time to pay, Gerhard is offering interest-free payment plans up to three months (hopefully that allows people who may want to purchase more than just one a little flexibility). That offer is good whether you buy one piece or many. Payment can be made via PayPal or check. Please join us for this special Comic Art LIVE event. If you have any questions about the event, as always, feel free to e-mail me at comiconxion@hotmail.com and I’ll do my best to answer.

I also made an offer on it. When they accepted the other offer, eBay told me what it sold for.

Sold for $4k. The opening bid was $1400, but they allowed offers.

Classic Cirin vs. Cerebus battle!

The advent of fractional investing companies that allow someone to own a share of these gold standard books will likely continue to drive up the prices on the keys for years to come. I always predicted that Turtles #1 would be the AF #15 of the previous generation. You'll continue to see that for the Silver Age Marvel keys as well with the continued tie-ins to the MCU for generations to come.

Interestingly, about 1/2 the art pictured at the Seattle show had been replaced with other art at this point. I’d be interested to see recent pics.

All I remember is that Bill Willingham did those comics in Marvel Comics in the early 80's. Willingham had also been one of the "better" TSR artists having drawn the illustrations for modules like S3. And, of course, soon after went on to launch the Elementals. Wish one of those would pop up, but believe they are all buried.

Some cool Cerebus pieces coming up in the latest HA auctions including original art pages from #5, 13, 80, and 159 along with some of the rare hand-colored First Fifth plates and a set of B&W plates: https://www.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=0+793+794+791+792+1893+1577+2088&Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&Nty=1&Ntt=cerebus&limitTo=all&ic=homepage-search-A-K-071316 No #1 however. Those seem to have dried up.

Although the exhibit stays 90% the same for every installation, they switch up some of the art/props/costumes for each city. I haven't seen the exhibit, but know that since the exhibit has opened, they've added content around the X-Men, Capt. Marvel, Shang Chi, Deathlok, and more. So, if you saw the exhibit in Seattle or Philly, it may seem a little different now.

Heritage has a nice selection of Turtles #1's this time across all grades - a 9.6, 9.2, 9.0 and 8.5 1st Prints as well as a Double-Cover #1 9.6 (Both Covers) 2nd Print - so it should give a pretty complete picture of where this book is at the moment.

Yeah, the original has the Marvel Banner across the top. Later, Marvel added the Marvel logo to the price box area which made the price box dimensions change. Not Trimpe's fault. You'll actually note something similar on the cover to G.I. Joe #47. They changed the corner box art to a 25th Anniversary version (which was much longer) so they decided to cut the art in the corner box logo before printing. Here's how it was originally supposed to be printed. You can compare this against the final published version. It's too bad they had someone else draw the missing art. Zeck's original version underneath the stat as much better.

This Hit Girl cover is coming up in Heritage. https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/geof-darrow-hit-girl-4-variant-cover-original-art-marvel-2012-/p/7242-263010.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

For those eagerly anticipating the Lady Jaye series on Amazon, Herb Trimpe's Lady Jaye Order of Battle #1 Pin-up will be coming up for sale in Heritage's March 8th Weekly auction... keep your eyes peeled for it. https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/herb-trimpe-and-joe-delbeato-gi-joe-order-of-battle-1-illustration-original-art-marvel-/p/122111-112001.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

Herb Trimpe... at first looked a lot like Kirby, but have learned to appreciate his distinctive style, especially on the Hulk. And, getting to know him personally enhanced my appreciation of his work.

I actually was the person who surfaced this piece in the mid-90's. It was owned for many years by a collector who ran a Fanzine publication, but was also selling off his original art at a local Washington DC show. I bought out most of the art he was selling at the shows so he invited me over to his house. In his personal collection, he owned this Ditko piece along with an amazing Spidey vs. Goblin page from ASM #23. I really wanted the ASM #23 page, but he wouldn't sell it to me (as he wasn't ready to part with it), but as a consolation he sold me this one. Despite me telling him I'd pay whatever price he wanted when the time was right, he later sold that ASM #23 page to another collector - shows that being patient doesn't always pay off. I think I paid around $200-300 for this piece when I bought it - he did give me a great deal on it. Circa 1995-6, I talked to Mike Burkey for the first time and mentioned I had this piece. Every time I talked with him, he always tried to get this out of me - and eventually it worked (hey Mike's a nice guy). Still in my learning stages, I didn't realize how rare something like this actually was and the figures seemed more cartoony than I wanted from a Ditko example. Plus, it was folded in quarters and had a light cigarette stain on it the border. I wasn't sure something like this could be restored (but, even by the time of this auction it looks like they cleaned it up). I assume Burkey had sold it before this auction or consigned it himself. Will it come up for sale again? I doubt it... I know where it landed and it's well-loved. But, great to see it again here and re-live those early days of collecting art.

Cool - Yeah, I had Mike remarque all those posters so we could sell them to fans. Please do get it framed. I had found a cache of posters from the printers and figured getting Mike to draw head sketches on them would be extra special (and it was). I guess I should have kept one for myself. D'oh!

It's a benefit that we still talk regularly each week after 35 years of being friends and being his #1 fan! Mike's always been great with fans and very humble. I'm glad he got out for the last few years to do shows and let people get to know him a little better.

I bought a box when they first came out - didn't get anything that I wanted and didn't even get a complete set. So, I took matters into my own hands, bought a blank AP card from the set and Mike Zeck was kind enough to draw an autograph card for me. As this was a 1 or 1, I was happy to stop there. I did however get a Bernthal autograph card from the DD set. I liked the fact that the image appeared with the Rabbit in the Snowstorm in the background. I loved the story behind that painting.