Jim lee art DC vs Marvel

[Koa]

I've noticed that (in general) Jim's DC interior work commands higher prices than his uncanny X-men interiors at auction or when pages come up for sale through dealers and at auction. I'm wondering what that is because usually nostalgia trumps modern art. I wonder if the X-men current decline in popularity , at least among comic book fans has something to do with that?

[J.Sid]

There is a lot of love for the "Hush" storyline, but I think it has to do primarily with the way the newer DC material is priced (it is priced to discourage 'flippers' IMO).

 

 

[Thawk]

I think it has to do with X-Men not being the top tier of Marvel properties. Most of his work with DC has been with their top characters - especially his runs on Hush and Justice League.

[malvin]

hmm.. I have not observed the market so I am surprised to find that. I can see Batman trumping X-men but not Superman or others.

 

And if X-men isn't top tier, oh boy, I wonder what is then, you have high standards.

 

Malvin

[zhamlau]

I don't know about this, I've seen jim Lee hero DC pages sell pretty cheap. Besides which do you think sells more, an uncanny xmen wolverine splash or a misc batman splash? If it's not hush it seems overall well cheaper.

[Lucky Baru]

I think it has to do with X-Men not being the top tier of Marvel properties. Most of his work with DC has been with their top characters - especially his runs on Hush and Justice League.

 

When Lee worked on the X-Men/Mutant titles both they and Spider Man were the two top books Marvel produced. It is why the Image guys, i.e., Liefeld, Silvestri, Lee, Portacio were cycled through them before they left Marvel. They were the top talent that Marvel had and they wanted to keep them happy and have sales numbers. McFarlane is on Spider Man and Keown was on the Hulk. They gutted Marvel when they left.

[Koa]

I don't know about this, I've seen jim Lee hero DC pages sell pretty cheap. Besides which do you think sells more, an uncanny xmen wolverine splash or a misc batman splash? If it's not hush it seems overall well cheaper.

 

I can only go by the public data i've seen and auctions i've been involved in. maybe i'm reading it wrong, I mean there are pages that fly by the X-men ones and then pages that are fairly equivalent.

 

I'm positive there are exceptions but I'm just surprised the general prices for Uncanny and X-men aren't higher. the run was so popular. Maybe I'm just over inflating what i think they should go for in comparison to other art because those X-men books meant so much to me as a fan.

 

 

[Solar]

I could be wrong, but based on a few numbers I've heard privately, I'm pretty sure the best-of-the-best vintage Lee X-Men would outsell any of his other work. I'm talking about covers, but usually that kind of thing trickles down to the panel pages too.

[NinjaSealed]

Top tier X-Men is definetly the king of Jim Lee artwork.

Hush is probably second, but has a higher base price than his X-Men work. Probably since there is less of it and it is a single very well loved story that all the artwork was top notch in. Then comes everything else.

[eewwnuk]

Batman trumps all.

[AKA Rick]

I think Batman Hush is going to eventually be his top valued work. Right now, due to the age and scarcity, his X-Men work is more treasured, 'tho I'd say there's a divide of mediocre pages to stunners, where the consistency of the quality of his work varied in his early days on the Uncanny X-Men title and the relaunch X-Men title was rather lackluster in storytelling, so are simply pretty pictures, whereas his Batman "Hush" was truly a masterpiece in both storytelling and artwork.

 

His other DC work on JLA, Superman and All Star Batman are good solid efforts, but again, just pretty pictures without substance. So, I'd probably rank his Marvel work a bit higher than his non-Hush DC work.

[alxjhnsn]

The only Jim Lee pages that I'm interested in are those from his Legion story in Icons. The only one with characters Albert has left is pretty nice, but a little pricey for me.

 

It is nice though: http://www.albertmoy.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=9093&artistid=380&details=1&from=room

 

[AKA Rick]

The only Jim Lee pages that I'm interested in are those from his Legion story in Icons. The only one with characters Albert has left is pretty nice, but a little pricey for me.

 

It is nice though: http://www.albertmoy.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=9093&artistid=380&details=1&from=room

 

It's a great piece! $3,500 for a double page splash, averages down to a decent price of only $1750 per page... maybe you could negotiate it down to $3k since it's been available on his site for years without any bites to that page nor the other 2 double page sequences.

 

The other page is at $3,000 which rivals the one you referenced.

 

http://www.albertmoy.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=9095&ArtistId=380&Details=0&From=TDetail&Mag=Icon+-+Legion

[Carlo M]

Interesting topic.

 

With the proviso that I have a vested interest, as I have a few J Lee UXM pages in my collection (and one currently on sale in the CLink OA Exchange section), I also have the feeling that at the moment Hush is more valued than Lee's X-Men work. However, in comparing Lee's X-Men to Hush, one should compare a page featuring Batman prominently with an X-Men page featuring Wolverine if not prominently at least with one or two good shots. XM pages by any artist differ in values significantly depending whether and how Wolverine is featured.

 

I also agree that the best X-Men period by Lee was from the Uncanny run circa 268-275 and XM 1-3. Before that (an I love love love the Lady Mandarin trilogy) the art was still inconsistent, while the art on adjectiveless XM post issue 3 was already Image mannerism, IMHO.

 

Carlo

[drotto]

You also have to look at the types of pages that are available for each book. Many of those early X-Men pages are very heavy on small panels. It is even difficult at times to find complete or nearly complete images of any character let alone top tier characters. When you look at Hush or the more recent JL stuff, the books are much more splash page heavy, and have better images of iconic characters. That is always going to fetch a better price.

 

So when you do find the X-Men stuff that has a great image the price skyrockets.

[Koa]

Ie the consistency of the quality of his work varied in his early days on the Uncanny X-Men title and the relaunch X-Men title was rather lackluster in storytelling, so are simply pretty pictures, whereas his Batman "Hush" was truly a masterpiece in both storytelling and artwork.

 

 

While I agree that hush was a modern masterpiece I disagree with your assessment of Jim's storytelling on Uncanny X-men and partly on X-men.

 

I think Jim's storytelling was a major reason as to why his Uncanny X-men run was so well received at the time. Claremont was not a pretty picture writer. As revered as Claremonts X-men run was I always got the sense Claremont was not writing stories with artist (or even the visual storytelling) in mind especially during the latter half of his run. Jim lee's approach made them easy to follow.

 

I think Hush becoming Jim's most notable work is probable if not already the case. I think Lee/Williams are remarkably consistent artists whose work continually improves. The popularity of Batman and Jeph's highly visual approach to writing was perfect for Jim.The X-men was a real ongoing monthly book where stories would stop and start, then get derailed by a crossover and start up again. hush was a self contained story as well which really helped Hush build momentum as the story progressed as did Jim and Scott's artwork.

 

His other DC work on JLA, Superman and All Star Batman are good solid efforts, but again, just pretty pictures without substance. So, I'd probably rank his Marvel work a bit higher than his non-Hush DC work.

 

I never saw Jim as a splashy artist but more of storyteller although I realize I'm in the minority. I've really enjoyed his DC work through and through. Each series has been different from the last and think Jim has been getting solid writing that's compatible with his strength's in storytelling.

[Koa]

Interesting topic.

 

With the proviso that I have a vested interest, as I have a few J Lee UXM pages in my collection (and one currently on sale in the CLink OA Exchange section), I also have the feeling that at the moment Hush is more valued than Lee's X-Men work. However, in comparing Lee's X-Men to Hush, one should compare a page featuring Batman prominently with an X-Men page featuring Wolverine if not prominently at least with one or two good shots. XM pages by any artist differ in values significantly depending whether and how Wolverine is featured.

 

I also agree that the best X-Men period by Lee was from the Uncanny run circa 268-275 and XM 1-3. Before that (an I love love love the Lady Mandarin trilogy) the art was still inconsistent, while the art on adjectiveless XM post issue 3 was already Image mannerism, IMHO.

 

Carlo

 

I think l Uncanny 268-278 and X-men 1-3 were the best X-men books by lee too. The X-tinction agenda issues 271 and 272 are still some of my favorite comic art. Some of the best wolverine pages by any X-men artist are in those issues, imo.

 

 

Jim's work got more splashy with X-men but I never saw him as a single image artist. i followed a number of artists just because i thought they drew "cool" but jim was not one of them. he always seemed more grounded in classic marvel storytelling even the Image stuff was storytelling oriented. In my opinion.

 

I think Lee/Williams are better artists now than they were 10, 15 or 25 years ago in every respect but the uncanny stuff, wildcats are still some of my favorites to revisit.

[Eric Seffinga]

I've never been a Jim Lee fan. Over the years I have grown to see his appeal, especially in respect to the other folks that split Marvel to join/form Image. To me, he is the draftsman of that group. Steadily improving his craft, and refining his style to where it is today. He's somewhat stripped away and softened the angular linework of his early years, and he's improved greatly in his anatomic accuracy.

 

Anyway, here's my .02¢ as a Lee art outsider...

 

I own bought and own Hush. I bought it as trades first, to see if I'd like it, and then picked up the Absolute version because I enjoyed it. I bought in because of Loeb though. And truthfully, I see Hush as an also-ran to Long Halloween and eventually Dark Victory before it.

 

Hush is another story in a list of Loeb tales trying to tie in as many characters as possible from the Bat stories. And for me, The Long Halloween is lightning in a bottle. It is up there with some of the best Bat stories in DC history.

 

BUT, here's the thing. Tim Sale's art appeals to me on a visceral level. He has such a unique style, it's like much great art. It's often a love it or hate it situation. A lot of folks do love it, and a lot of folks are indifferent, or never got into Tim's work.

 

With Hush, Lee brought a tighter look to his work. It is accomplished and fresh, and you can tell he put his all into that book. I never had a love affair with it, because to me it's a bit too "vanilla". And that's not a dig at all. Vanilla is tasty. But to me it's not Tim Sale's "Rocky Road" or Frank Miller's Mint Chocolate Chip.

 

And a LOT of people like a great tasting Vanilla. It's sweet, it's creamy and it can be very tasty. So from where I stand, the appeal to Jim's slick, tight, detailed artwork, and a pretty good yarn from Loeb equaled big big interest, and lasting interest over time.

 

To me, Jim's X-Men work has the disadvantage of being his learning curve years, as an inexperienced artist. The growth from the earliest books to the end of his time at Marvel is evident. His time at image, even more so, but none of it quite matches up to that work on hush, which to my eyes was Jim finding a fresh new voice, and leaving behind some things.

 

But I've never been a constant Lee watcher, so to me there have been jumps where someone along for the whole ride might see things as having occurred more gradually.

 

So, for some, I'm sure nostalgia and character trumps artistic skillset. That's always a factor with comics, isn't it? But for folks that want some slick Batman art, the Hush stuff is hard to argue with.

 

In fact, I almost bought a piece when they first went up at Albert's. And did I mention, I'm not really a Lee art fan, and I don't buy art for nostalgia? It was a really great IMO page. So take that for what it's worth.

[Kwan Chang]

yes i agree. his uncanny x-men art is not as expensive as his dc art

 

that being said.................................

 

please PM me about selling your uncanny x-men pages as i am always interested

 

thanks !

[Koa]

I've never been a Jim Lee fan. Over the years I have grown to see his appeal, especially in respect to the other folks that split Marvel to join/form Image. To me, he is the draftsman of that group. Steadily improving his craft, and refining his style to where it is today. He's somewhat stripped away and softened the angular linework of his early years, and he's improved greatly in his anatomic accuracy.

 

To me, Jim's X-Men work has the disadvantage of being his learning curve years, as an inexperienced artist. The growth from the earliest books to the end of his time at Marvel is evident. His time at image, even more so, but none of it quite matches up to that work on hush, which to my eyes was Jim finding a fresh new voice, and leaving behind some things.

 

But I've never been a constant Lee watcher, so to me there have been jumps where someone along for the whole ride might see things as having occurred more gradually.

 

So, for some, I'm sure nostalgia and character trumps artistic skillset. That's always a factor with comics, isn't it? But for folks that want some slick Batman art, the Hush stuff is hard to argue with.

 

when it comes to refinement Jim's DC work wins hands down. Like you said, he toned down a lot of the overkill with anatomy his marvel and image work had at times. His panel compositions are much better and storytelling is smoother. Scott's inking plays a big part in the looks of his work. I mean look at the brushwork on All Star batman and robin (I'm assuming but sure much of that series was inked with a brush). People can say what they want about that book but the art is gorgeous.

 

But yeah, I'm surprised the collecting community driven the way it is doesn't seem to bind Jim to their nostalgia. I think Marc Silvestri is doing his best art over the last few years, His Uncanny and Wolverine stuff seems to get more interest and better prices than his modern work.

 

X-men volume 2 looks much better than the original published books which seemed dated a few months after he left the book. The original art looks much better in my opinion and seeing the pages turned my eye back to the book then I picked up a copy of mutant genesis 2.0 or whatever it's called to see modern computer color applied to the first 7 issues of X-men and that new paint job the gap between his marvel/DC work closed considerably.