October Heritage International Art Auction 3 3

[Michael Browning]

Highs and lows, thus far.

[jjonahjameson11]

On 10/7/2023 at 9:59 PM, tth2 said:

Some pieces I was following:

Brian Bolland 2000AD Prog #110 Page 6 for $13,750.  This seemed a bit light to me given the iconic image of the "cheap punk".

John Byrne and Terry Austin X-Men #129 Story Page 7 for $90,625.  Seemed pretty strong given such a small image of the team.

Steve Ditko The Amazing Spider-Man #36 Story Page 11 for $100k.  Is it just me or was this insanely light for a page with Spidey in action in every panel?

Dave Gibbons Watchmen #1 Story Page 3 for $115,625.  Seemed like a solid price.

Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #3 Story Page 45-46 for $550k.  The highlight of the auction, which puzzlingly went on the second day rather than the first.  Seems like a very strong price given that it's not the published version.

Alex Raymond Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim #9 Sunday Comic Strip Original Art dated 3-4-1934 for $42,500.  This went for a relatively light price given that it contains the first mention of "Ming the Merciless" and also include the Jungle Jim topper.  However, Raymond's style at this early stage of the strip's life is not to everyone's taste.  

John Romita Sr. and Mike Esposito Amazing Spider-Man #52 Story Page 16 for $137,500.  This seemed very strong to me.

I'll take a shot at the Byrne Xmen 129 page.  I thought it had a lot going for it, including:

1.  Bottom left panel containing image of the team is somewhat reminiscent of the cover to Xmen 126, which is also reminiscent to GS X-Men1 so there is a 'familiarity' with the image.  Furthemore, Byrne X-Men pages with nice team images have been few and far between.  Also, Wolverine with claws out (but no 'snikt' sound effect).  I think the aforementioned increases the appeal of this page.

2. The issue contains 1st appearances of both Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost (White Queen).  Both are significant characters to the X-Men mythos (and other titles) for decades.  Although neither character appears here, it is still a page from their 1st appearance book and commands a premium.

3. The Dark Phoenix Saga begins with this issue.  The Saga is certainly amongst the most well-remembered/well-received storylines of the late Bronze Age, but let's just say its in the Top 3, for arguments sake.  Pages from this storyline have traditionally carried a premium over other storylines, and I think we see that here.

4.  The Byrne/Austin combo is one of the greatest artistic collaborations in comics history.  Not all Byrne pages were inked by Austin, but this one was, and its a really nice page.

5.  There's a few BSD's known to go after Dark Phoenix Saga pages and I'm certain this also played a part in the final hammer price

[Mickey7]

On 10/7/2023 at 8:59 PM, tth2 said:

Some pieces I was following:

 

Steve Ditko The Amazing Spider-Man #36 Story Page 11 for $100k.  Is it just me or was this insanely light for a page with Spidey in action in every panel?

 

John Romita Sr. and Mike Esposito Amazing Spider-Man #52 Story Page 16 for $137,500.  This seemed very strong to me.

I agree on these two.  Real nice buy for whomever got the Ditko piece.  I was thinking $125,000 at least.   Strong price on the Romita, especially with the amateur restoration.   Though, large art Romita Spider-man work doesn't become available too often.  

[KirbyCollector]

On 10/8/2023 at 10:51 AM, NinjaSealed said:

Little live bidding and some of it seemed very hesitant. They really had to milk some of these bids out. I actually placed a few bids on stuff not necessarily at the top of my want list, but they were so low I had to take a shot.

Stock market has taken a fairly large hit since August, BTC struggling over the same time period and inflation eating extra savings means a lot less discretionary income to go around

[delekkerste]

On 10/8/2023 at 10:51 AM, NinjaSealed said:

The DKR pages went at what I thought the minimum was $250k/300k bit thought they had a chance for more. I’m sure Mandel is happy with paying that for them assuming that’s where they went.

I heard he only buys published DKR pages.  

[tth2]

On 10/7/2023 at 10:15 AM, tth2 said:

Most irritatingly, I'd picked up a page from a manga series from the 1950s for peanuts in the last auction and prices for pages from the series are much stronger in this auction.  

I wasn't able to pick up the double page spread that went on Day 1, but was able to get this half splash on Day 3.

[Michael Browning]

A cross section of the Sunday International HA with a few notes.

Mazzucchelli DD sold high.

Infantino Star Wars UK art is still solid.

Perkins Swamp Thing art is new and has some value.

The Adam Strange prelim probably should have been listed as a cover, since those were done with very sparse lines and everything else was done by computer. Whoever got that got the deal of the auction - maybe the year.

Jae Lee Namor art is hot.

I thought the LaRocque Web of Spider-Man #2 page would sell higher.

Wrightson Batman sketch sold fairly high, in my opinion.

Hannigan Spectacular Spider-Man art keeps climbing higher and higher.

That Giarrano Batman splash sold much higher than I figured. Azbats might be more popular than I imagined.

Byrne Martian Manhunter sold fairly cheap. It isn’t a great piece, but I think it was a bit of a bargain and the commissioner of that piece paid more for it.

Falcon Marvel Premiere page, Infantino Ms. Marvel page, Ron Wilson Spectacular Annual page and Kupperberg MTIO pages all sold very cheap.

[BanjerD]

This is the first public sale I've seen for Ma Wing-Shing published page!

Hong Kong manhua (manga)