Collecting Original Comic Art
It’s one thing to collect comic books, but what about the actual artwork? These one-of-a-kind pieces of art are exactly that…art! When you hold one in your hands and really take a look at it, you can imagine the journey it made from artist…to inker…to letterer. If you look closely you can see the actual brush stokes of the inker and the blue lines used to line up the letters. In some of the older pieces you can see the writers notes in the borders explaining what was to go in each panel. Nothing brings the collector greater joy than when you hold up a comic in one hand and in the other you have the actual artwork for that page.
These pages are highly sought after today, but there was a time, legend has it, that Stan Lee would have a pile beside his desk and he would hand them out to kids and visitors. I’m no expert, but I believe Jack Kirby was the first artist to swing a deal where he would get his pages back after printing.
Today we are seeing the value of this artwork skyrocket. In my opinion, that is driven by these factors:
Each page is “one-of-a-kind.”
Nostalgia is a strong emotion, and those who can remember reading these books are hitting the age where they have the income to afford buying them. And about every ten years we see another generation catch up. For example, as the years pass I’m seeing the value of Jack Kirby art (though still not cheap) soften a little while Todd McFarlane art is going through the roof.
Many of the newer comic books are drawn on a tablet. The artwork is digital. So there are very few new pieces hitting the market in comparison to art from the past.
So what affects the value of comic book art?
The popularity of the character.
The amount of times that character appears in the panels.
The popularity of the artist.
What page is it. Cover art is worth thousands. Spash pages (especially page 1) are next. Followed by interior pages.
So how do I get started?
Yes, some of these piece can be worth thousands, but don’t let that deter you. There are pieces that can be very affordable. Sure an interior page of “Tomb of Dracula” by Gene Colon and Tom Sutton may not actually have Dracula in it, but it is till very cool to have. There are only a few dealers who specifically deal with comic art. Most of my pieces have come from romitaman.com or anthonyscomicbookart.com. For beginners I would say try out romitaman.com first. Mike Burkey will work with you and even set up a payment plan if you have an eye on something that is a little out of your budget. Stick to the reputable dealers and you won’t have to worry about buying a forgery. I have not heard of many cases of forged art, but like collecting anything, if the cost is too good to be true, there’s probably something fishy going on.
The gallery below features some of my favorite pieces from my personal collection. Run your mouse over the bottom left corner of each one for info.
