Pricing on Mike Mignola art? 1 1

[Dr. Balls]

Found this early promotional piece (used for one of four phone card artworks):

on CAF for sale at 'offers starting at $40k'.

Not trying to call out the seller, but is there something to Mignola's work (and perhaps significant to Hellboy) that I am overlooking? I see a Superman cover by Mignola going for $20k also on CAF. His Hellboy covers are all over on pricing for past sales on HA - the past year they've been $3700-$9000 (composition seems to be the driving factor of price).

Is the component that is driving this the vintage of the piece, that it's an early published appearance, etc? I'm an advocate of earlier pieces by well-known artists having more value due to it's vintage, etc - is this something that has taken hold with his work specifically?

Or that early Hellboy production pieces are more rare? Just curious since I generally collect in the 90's era - I'm not very knowledgeable on Hellboy or Mignola, wondered if anyone in-the-know could lend an opinion.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Dr. Balls

[comix4fun]

A lot of what has sold recently has been, well, more recent in creation. There's a big difference between "Seed of Destruction" pages and pages from the last decade or so. The early key stories can bring multiples of what the later pages can. 

That said, specialty merchandising pieces are always tougher to value. They are a real wild card. 

[Rick2you2]

Hellboy is a fan favorite, and like many fan favorites, that dictates pricing. The thrust of my comment, however, is addressed to older pieces being worth more because they are vintage. Early non-Hellboy pieces are not nearly as costly. In his case, he hadn’t developed his style in the earlier pieces.

[Unstoppablejayd]

OP- I’m not sure if the price is correct… but you are talking about one of the earliest published images of Mignola signature characters. I mean your comparison to a Superman cover or recent hellboy cover doesn’t hold a lot of water. 
 

It’s like asking why vintage Byrne X-men pages are 50k and X-men hidden years by Byrne are 3k or Byrne Star Trek pages are 300 

[Bird]

I know the superman cover, I like it and made that clear just before it got a price. I was offered a trade but the $20K valuation seemed aspirational to me (and I have no interest in letting go what they wanted), as does this $40K ask although the piece checks many boxes for me (I have never spent more than very low 5 figures for art though).

[ThothAmon]

On 9/6/2023 at 1:23 PM, Bird said:

I know the superman cover, I like it and made that clear just before it got a price. I was offered a trade but the $20K valuation seemed aspirational to me (and I have no interest in letting go what they wanted), as does this $40K ask although the piece checks many boxes for me (I have never spent more than very low 5 figures for art though).

Definitely could be priced for just the right oil sheik to come along. HA archives would indicate this selling for 1/2 this or less in today’s market. Nice though. 
 

[Dr. Balls]

On 9/6/2023 at 11:00 AM, Unstoppablejayd said:

OP- I’m not sure if the price is correct… but you are talking about one of the earliest published images of Mignola signature characters. I mean your comparison to a Superman cover or recent hellboy cover doesn’t hold a lot of water. 
 

It’s like asking why vintage Byrne X-men pages are 50k and X-men hidden years by Byrne are 3k or Byrne Star Trek pages are 300 

Oh, I wasn’t comparing - I just posted those numbers to show what I’d found in the market on a general search. I was just curious if there were other factors to his artwork valuation - other than the standard attributes like fan favorite artist, popular character, etc.