Secret Wars #8 OA page sells for 3.4 million, first page appearance of the black costume. 6 6

[alexgross.com]

On 1/13/2022 at 1:23 PM, Buzzetta said:

 

Part of me believes that when Heritage said that he would do better they were hell bound to make sure it did come hell or high water or NP Gresham. 

my thinking exactly. until we hear conclusively otherwise, i'm going to assume this piece is part of the halperin collection now. 

[alexgross.com]

what is the previous publicly sold/auctioned high price for a page of original artwork from any era? 

[chrisco37]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:44 PM, alexgross.com said:

what is the previous publicly sold/auctioned high price for a page of original artwork from any era? 

I thought it was the IH180 last page with Wolverine for around a million.  

[Bird]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:43 PM, alexgross.com said:

my thinking exactly. until we hear conclusively otherwise, i'm going to assume this piece is part of the halperin collection now. 

 

On 1/13/2022 at 4:44 PM, alexgross.com said:

what is the previous publicly sold/auctioned high price for a page of original artwork from any era? 

so yes, we should all be skeptical but even market manipulation makes no sense. Perhaps I just lack the necessary vision.

The prior page was not too far off pre-auction estimates, making less sense from manipulation perspective. But again, perhaps that is why I type about it and am not living that life!

[alexgross.com]

On 1/13/2022 at 1:59 PM, chrisco37 said:

I thought it was the IH180 last page with Wolverine for around a million.  

you mean this one? 

this was me at heritage's LA office in feb 2018 where they apparently had the hulk 180 final page framed and hanging on the wall of the office. i had to take a pic. when was it auctioned for that price?

[JollyComics]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:18 PM, alexgross.com said:

you mean this one? 

this was me at heritage's LA office in feb 2018 where they apparently had the hulk 180 final page framed and hanging on the wall of the office. i had to take a pic. when was it auctioned for that price?

I saw this one at World Wizard Chicago in 2018 before the auction.  Awesome!

[Poekaymon]

On 1/13/2022 at 5:18 PM, alexgross.com said:

you mean this one? 

this was me at heritage's LA office in feb 2018 where they apparently had the hulk 180 final page framed and hanging on the wall of the office. i had to take a pic. when was it auctioned for that price?

Nice.

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:02 PM, Lazyboy said:

"first page appearance of the black costume"

 

Not even close. It's only the first page with Spidey wearing the full black costume in the issue in which it's finally explained how he got it but which came out after he got rid of it in ASM 258.

And, yes, that price is nuts.

Maybe continuity is finally more important than publication dates....

[Yale Stewart]

On 1/13/2022 at 2:13 PM, MattTheDuck said:

I don't know anything about how much artists were paid to produce these pages, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't $3.5 million.  Not sure how you could arrange a system where the artists have a stake in perpetuity for resales of OA.

Your average penciler is getting paid a couple hundred bucks per page TODAY, with some top-level talent cracking four figures per page. I don't think anyone out there is making five figures per page, much less seven.

[MattTheDuck]

On 1/13/2022 at 3:43 PM, Yale Stewart said:

Your average penciler is getting paid a couple hundred bucks per page TODAY, with some top-level talent cracking four figures per page. I don't think anyone out there is making five figures per page, much less seven.

It couldn't work the same way, but I think of musical artists who own their own "catalogue" and get paid when someone buys a record or downloads a song.  This is very different as we're talking about individual, unique works of art, but it's too bad the artists can't share in the windfall.

[wormboy]

On 1/13/2022 at 3:50 PM, MattTheDuck said:

It couldn't work the same way, but I think of musical artists who own their own "catalogue" and get paid when someone buys a record or downloads a song.  This is very different as we're talking about individual, unique works of art, but it's too bad the artists can't share in the windfall.

I believe (some?) NFTs have a mechanism that pays the artist each time the NFT is resold.

At the least, it’s another revenue stream for artists, at least the famous ones.

 

[catman76]

If the artist is alive and you sell their art and you don't give them a huge chunk of what you made from selling it then you are a huge A-S-S-H-O-L-E

[Shrevvy]

On 1/13/2022 at 7:33 PM, catman76 said:

If the artist is alive and you sell their art and you don't give them a huge chunk of what you made from selling it then you are a huge A-S-S-H-O-L-E

No you are not.

[jjonahjameson11]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:59 PM, chrisco37 said:

I thought it was the IH180 last page with Wolverine for around a million.  

The IH 180 page sold for $657K back in 2014. It is the most expensive NA interior panel page to sell publicly.

however, I believe sales of European interior panel pages have surpassed it.  Perhaps The Smurfs and/or Tin Tin

[Randall Dowling]

People can shrug about Mike Zeck and how he feels about this but I guarantee this wasn't a great day for him.  Realizing that you sold something for hundreds that became worth millions, even 35 years later, feels bad.  Not the reward I'd like to see these creators get for the entertainment they've given to so many.  

I personally subscribe to the belief that living creators should get a percentage of the sale every time their work sells for a higher price.  

[chrisco37]

It’s a nice idea, but unrealistic and not how the world works.  The artist, if they ever owned the page at all, sold it for a price they were willing to sell it for.  This wasn’t the same as some old lady getting fleeced out of an Action 1 (where we could say the buyer was an ahole). 
Should anyone that sells an AF15 give Marvel a kickback?  Should the builder or architect of Tiger Woods mansion get a cut when/if Tiger sells it?

How many people here would be crying bloody murder if Roy Lichtenstein’s heirs got a piece of the action anytime one of his paintings change hands?  Or does this only apply to artists that are living?

 

[jjonahjameson11]

On 1/13/2022 at 7:53 PM, Randall Dowling said:

People can shrug about Mike Zeck and how he feels about this but I guarantee this wasn't a great day for him.  Realizing that you sold something for hundreds that became worth millions, even 35 years later, feels bad.  Not the reward I'd like to see these creators get for the entertainment they've given to so many.  

I personally subscribe to the belief that living creators should get a percentage of the sale every time their work sells for a higher price.  

I absolutely disagree with that belief.  The artist sold it, and that’s the end of it.

[Bird]

On 1/13/2022 at 8:03 PM, chrisco37 said:

It’s a nice idea, but unrealistic and not how the world works.

It is not the way the US works, but I am under the belief (perhaps mistaken) that there are significant parts of the world where this is how it does work. The BWS Artists Rights to Transfer contract gets some discussion around here every few years (I am in favor of it) and IIRC European Union practices some form of it as law. Then again, I didn't even stay in a Ramada Inn last night so I could be way off base.

But I do agree to the idea, and was willing to sign if it was part of the deal when I have purchased from BWS.

okay, cue 10 page OT discussion!

[Cat]

On 1/14/2022 at 11:37 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

I absolutely disagree with that belief.  The artist sold it, and that’s the end of it.

I agree. Just because your decision turned out to not be the wisest choice decades later doesn't entitle you to a second bite of the apple, barring of course the generosity of the seller, but there's certainly no obligation on their part. The artist had his chance, and made his investment choice, and reaped the benefits of it at the time, so there's no good reason why he should get a second shot just because it's value has increased in the ensuing years. 

[s-man]

Would love to know why the bidders were willing to pay so high a price.  Are they the biggest fans of Spidey/Venom ever or were just bored and had a lot of money to burn.  Personally it would take owning Supes or Batman's or the X-Men's first app. to get me to pony up that much change (wish I had it to spend ).