Crazy Prices(?) for Original Comic Art

Hex

This afternoon I was wondering how much cash John Byrne was making during the height of his career at Marvel in the late 80's, simultaneously producing both Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight (I recall figuring it out before and it was CRAZY money, but I can't remember how crazy).
Anyway... while scouring the internet trying to get a rough estimate, I ran across this;
Original Art for Marvel X-Men’s ‘The Fate of the Phoenix’ Expected to Sell for $150K



I thought that was a lot of scratch for a (double) page of original art. I had no idea original art sold for that much.
Interesting read.

As an added note... the auction ends tomorrow and the highest bid (as of typing this) is currently only(!) $85,000.

bralinator

That is what I refer to as "fine art"

Torchsong

Those two pages, though, are perhaps among the most iconic pages in comic history. Whether or not you're an X-fan, you've likely seen them. To be honest? $150k seems cheap to me.

Hex

Torchsong said:

Those two pages, though, are perhaps among the most iconic pages in comic history. Whether or not you're an X-fan, you've likely seen them. To be honest? $150k seems cheap to me.

I wouldn't count this among my top ten images of the Byrne/Claremont run on X-Men. But I can see why it would be valuable (X-Men #137, double page spread, excellent grouping of all the main characters, etc.).
And let's be honest, Beast's expression alone is almost worth 150 grand.

WetRats

You know, this is an incredibly lengthy conversation about where you are to have without anyone bothering to turn their head and look behind them.

Oh and Majestrix Lilandra: neither Jean nor Charles are standing before you, they're dangling. And Kurt's not so much standing as squatting.

Hex

Feels odd that poor Bobby got left out of this issue. Claremont managed to get four of the five original X-Men back into the fold for this storyline, why not Iceman too?

nweathington

WetRats said:

You know, this is an incredibly lengthy conversation about where you are to have without anyone bothering to turn their head and look behind them.

Oh and Majestrix Lilandra: neither Jean nor Charles are standing before you, they're dangling. And Kurt's not so much standing as squatting.

To be fair, only three X-Men are having a conversation: Cyclops, Beast, and Angel. The rest may well be speaking/thinking all at the same time.

And I'm sure Gladiator says that to all intruders, standing or not. It's just a court formality. :smiley:

WetRats

nweathington said:

WetRats said:

You know, this is an incredibly lengthy conversation about where you are to have without anyone bothering to turn their head and look behind them.

Oh and Majestrix Lilandra: neither Jean nor Charles are standing before you, they're dangling. And Kurt's not so much standing as squatting.

To be fair, only three X-Men are having a conversation: Cyclops, Beast, and Angel. The rest may well be speaking/thinking all at the same time.

Storm responds to Angel. And Charles' though bubble is in response to Peter's statement of obviousness.

I'm also amused by everyone holding their hands in the same fashion, Byrne could have thrown in at least one set of jazz hands into the mix, instead of all the cat claws.

WetRats

BTW: I loved this stuff at the time, it's just fun to notice the cheesiness thirty-five (*gasp*) years later.

bamfbamf

does an average joe have the chance to buy new/recently produced original artwork or do most artists have agreements with brokers to only sell their art to them?

WetRats

bamfbamf said:

does an average joe have the chance to buy new/recently produced original artwork or do most artists have agreements with brokers to only sell their art to them?

I think it's mostly the biggest names that go exclusively through brokers.

Hey @Pants: are you out there? Your input on the subject would be appreciated.

Torchsong

bamfbamf said:

does an average joe have the chance to buy new/recently produced original artwork or do most artists have agreements with brokers to only sell their art to them?

Collecting original art - depending on what you hope to get out of it - can be really fun and doesn't have to break your wallet in the process. Many artists sell their pages directly shortly after they work on them and the work has been published. Others go through brokers, just to save themselves the hassle. One of my favorite things to do at conventions is go through the original art that creators put out for sale.

And yes, that page from a 1960s-era Fantastic Four comic is likely going to set you back a pretty penny. But you can get pages from popular books like Rat Queens, Copperhead, and This Damned Band (all recent releases) for a comparable song (maybe $50-300 depending).

I set up the following criteria for myself:

1) Self contained story on the page. I need to be able to look at the page and see that something's happening, even if it's part of a larger narrative.
2) Characters I like - a no-brainer, sure. I picked up a couple pages from Secret Six that featured Nightshade in them. Some Thunderbolts pages with Dr. Doom as the centerpiece. And I have a page out of Son of Ambush Bug #2, which brings us to...
3) Have a Grail Page (or three!). We've all read that one page that absolutely blew us away or have that artist we just love. Set a goal for yourself to get that page!
4) No breaking the bank. If you follow the first two rules above, the third gets easier. Sure, I'm gonna drool over that Spidey page, but I'm not gonna actually drool, because there's no way I can afford it.

Get to know artists you like. Follow them on facebook. They'll often say when their work is going up for sale. Some are as simple as a "PM me and when I get your Paypal funds I'll shipped it off signed!"

Nothing cooler than landing that grail page, framing it, and seeing it on your wall.

AxelBrass

When two rich guys want something, it can get expensive!