Post by starbrand on Jul 28, 2008 22:10:34 GMT -5
Here's a report my friend Robert from Key Comics wrote for me. I'm sure he won't mind my posting it here.
Hi Mark,
I just arrived back from the Comic-Con this morning and read your email.
I had not heard of that deal you mentioned, but I do suspect that it's accurate.
Time after time, I was reeling, in astonishment, over the current prices. And because of the exhorbitant booth costs, only the most knowledgable and savvy dealers exhibit these days. So I know it wasn't just a fluke that piece after piece of vintage comic art (as well as art by modern masters such as McFarlane and Alex Ross) was at prices that where unimaginable to me.
Adams interior pages in the many many thousands. I saw shi*loads of Kirby pages, (so it's not like Kirby art is scarce) yet all the Marvel Superhero ones were five figures a pop! Nice splash pages were a mind-numbing $27K on up to $45K!!!!! Also noteworthy, the covers and most of the classic or iconic splash pages didn't have the prices on them (ostensibly to prevent injuries to the crowd, from fainting.) This was with all the many dealers selling comic-art, so it's not like just a few of them were trying to gouge people. As far as the previously-affordable artists: if you're willing to settle for a khaky Mike Grell cover: $12K!!! Want a mere Kane splash? How about $7K!!! Willing to drop down to a common John Buscema action page? OK, those were just $6-8 GRAND (not hundreds, as one'd expect!!!) The Starlin interior page to a late Strange Tales, with Warlock but no action, and not too pretty either, was $12K, and maybe a cover would be five times as much or more?!? If you prefer to settle for a prolific modern artist so that you don't have to wait & search due to scarcity, how about the cover to Spiderman #8 signed by McFarlane: It was only $38K. There was a plethora of decent Gene Colan splashes all around, so why not pay $15- 18 thousand a pop?!? I saw numerous interior pages to random (non-hot, non-Freak Bros) undergrounds by Gilbert Shelton, but NONE were less than $8K, with some at $12.5K. And Crumb was even higher. None of the Charles Schultz Peanuts dailies or Sundays had prices on them, as those were already topping $50K last year, so I guess unless you were willing to trade one of your nice Hollywood homes with a view, straight across, you wouldn't bother to inquire as to the prices. Run of the mill Barry Smith interior pages were left and right, but I didn't want to buy too many, at $8K each. Decent title pages, to mediocre Mystery In Space and the like, by Carmine Infantino, were $8-10 grand a pop, yet none were key. And I could go on and on, with such prices, for artist after artist.
I really wanted to buy some art at the show, but nothing that was even remotely decent, by any golden, silver, bronze, or copper-age artist I'd heard of, was at a price that seemed even double-reasonable; Instead, it was all just 'leave my jaw on the floor and rip me a new one' type levels. I must note, that such art was in ABUNDANCE, with nice selections available at many different booths, so it's not a case where such material is starting to appear to be scarce so people are buying while they still have the chance. I mean, some dealers had THOUSANDS of pages in stock, and most of them were THOUSANDS of dollars EACH (you do the math.) More importantly, the art was churning for them, at these astronomical rates. One of my friends, who deals in comic art and that I've hung out with, eaten meals with, and bought artwork from numerous times over the past twenty years, Scott Eder, who doesn't appear to be one of the big guys, and whom never seemed particularly well off, just opened HIS OWN art gallery in the heart of NEW YORK in the super-high-rent district ( so you can imagine how many tax brackets he has jumped lately just to afford such an endeavor.) I saw one cool old horror cover, and the guy said $5K, so it seemed to be a bargain, comparatively. Then, he nonchalantly in passing happened to mention that it is a FUC*ING COPY, and said "of course" in a sanctimonious belittling tone when my eyebrow accidently raised, and demeaningly asserted it would be ten times the price were it the original, as if to mock my obvious stupidity. (He quite clearly was wondering out loud to me and all the other fans in the booth just how I could possibly be such an IGNORANT NOVICE to think I might get a neat cover by a not-super-hot artist to an old comic book for JUST five grand. ) And note that it wasn't like a production piece, as there were no stats or pasteovers, no revisions, no hand-colored or altered areas, no white-out or approval stamps or initials, no editor notes, or any other such work on it. I guess people like the images of neat comic covers so much these days that you can just hit kinkos, and quickly print off a few FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR photocopies when you start to get low on stock of actual original art, --or if you forgot your lunch money that day? ~WTF?!?!
So as far as the original cover art to Avengers #93 (Neal Adams) and X-Men #55 (Barry Windsor Smith) for $175,000 goes -- That sounds about right. (Heck, the dealer was probably doing deals like that, hour after hour, all four days, and he didn't want to dump them off too cheap, right?!?)
At the current rate, I predict that by spring, good covers by any respected artist of yesteryear will be cresting $100K each. Maybe Kirby and Adams and Byrne masterpieces will be a quarter-mill soon?
Sick, isn't it?
Your's truly,
Robert Letscher II
KEY COMICS
Always great to hear from Robert! Hope you guys enjoy this.
Hi Mark,
I just arrived back from the Comic-Con this morning and read your email.
I had not heard of that deal you mentioned, but I do suspect that it's accurate.
Time after time, I was reeling, in astonishment, over the current prices. And because of the exhorbitant booth costs, only the most knowledgable and savvy dealers exhibit these days. So I know it wasn't just a fluke that piece after piece of vintage comic art (as well as art by modern masters such as McFarlane and Alex Ross) was at prices that where unimaginable to me.
Adams interior pages in the many many thousands. I saw shi*loads of Kirby pages, (so it's not like Kirby art is scarce) yet all the Marvel Superhero ones were five figures a pop! Nice splash pages were a mind-numbing $27K on up to $45K!!!!! Also noteworthy, the covers and most of the classic or iconic splash pages didn't have the prices on them (ostensibly to prevent injuries to the crowd, from fainting.) This was with all the many dealers selling comic-art, so it's not like just a few of them were trying to gouge people. As far as the previously-affordable artists: if you're willing to settle for a khaky Mike Grell cover: $12K!!! Want a mere Kane splash? How about $7K!!! Willing to drop down to a common John Buscema action page? OK, those were just $6-8 GRAND (not hundreds, as one'd expect!!!) The Starlin interior page to a late Strange Tales, with Warlock but no action, and not too pretty either, was $12K, and maybe a cover would be five times as much or more?!? If you prefer to settle for a prolific modern artist so that you don't have to wait & search due to scarcity, how about the cover to Spiderman #8 signed by McFarlane: It was only $38K. There was a plethora of decent Gene Colan splashes all around, so why not pay $15- 18 thousand a pop?!? I saw numerous interior pages to random (non-hot, non-Freak Bros) undergrounds by Gilbert Shelton, but NONE were less than $8K, with some at $12.5K. And Crumb was even higher. None of the Charles Schultz Peanuts dailies or Sundays had prices on them, as those were already topping $50K last year, so I guess unless you were willing to trade one of your nice Hollywood homes with a view, straight across, you wouldn't bother to inquire as to the prices. Run of the mill Barry Smith interior pages were left and right, but I didn't want to buy too many, at $8K each. Decent title pages, to mediocre Mystery In Space and the like, by Carmine Infantino, were $8-10 grand a pop, yet none were key. And I could go on and on, with such prices, for artist after artist.
I really wanted to buy some art at the show, but nothing that was even remotely decent, by any golden, silver, bronze, or copper-age artist I'd heard of, was at a price that seemed even double-reasonable; Instead, it was all just 'leave my jaw on the floor and rip me a new one' type levels. I must note, that such art was in ABUNDANCE, with nice selections available at many different booths, so it's not a case where such material is starting to appear to be scarce so people are buying while they still have the chance. I mean, some dealers had THOUSANDS of pages in stock, and most of them were THOUSANDS of dollars EACH (you do the math.) More importantly, the art was churning for them, at these astronomical rates. One of my friends, who deals in comic art and that I've hung out with, eaten meals with, and bought artwork from numerous times over the past twenty years, Scott Eder, who doesn't appear to be one of the big guys, and whom never seemed particularly well off, just opened HIS OWN art gallery in the heart of NEW YORK in the super-high-rent district ( so you can imagine how many tax brackets he has jumped lately just to afford such an endeavor.) I saw one cool old horror cover, and the guy said $5K, so it seemed to be a bargain, comparatively. Then, he nonchalantly in passing happened to mention that it is a FUC*ING COPY, and said "of course" in a sanctimonious belittling tone when my eyebrow accidently raised, and demeaningly asserted it would be ten times the price were it the original, as if to mock my obvious stupidity. (He quite clearly was wondering out loud to me and all the other fans in the booth just how I could possibly be such an IGNORANT NOVICE to think I might get a neat cover by a not-super-hot artist to an old comic book for JUST five grand. ) And note that it wasn't like a production piece, as there were no stats or pasteovers, no revisions, no hand-colored or altered areas, no white-out or approval stamps or initials, no editor notes, or any other such work on it. I guess people like the images of neat comic covers so much these days that you can just hit kinkos, and quickly print off a few FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR photocopies when you start to get low on stock of actual original art, --or if you forgot your lunch money that day? ~WTF?!?!
So as far as the original cover art to Avengers #93 (Neal Adams) and X-Men #55 (Barry Windsor Smith) for $175,000 goes -- That sounds about right. (Heck, the dealer was probably doing deals like that, hour after hour, all four days, and he didn't want to dump them off too cheap, right?!?)
At the current rate, I predict that by spring, good covers by any respected artist of yesteryear will be cresting $100K each. Maybe Kirby and Adams and Byrne masterpieces will be a quarter-mill soon?
Sick, isn't it?
Your's truly,
Robert Letscher II
KEY COMICS
Always great to hear from Robert! Hope you guys enjoy this.