rocket1312

I never really "collected" books other than just what I was reading at the time. As such, other than a full 80's run of Uncanny X-Men, the vast majority of my collection is from the 90's and 2000's. In other words, not much to get too excited about.

That said, in the last decade I have gotten interested in original art. Despite the relatively high cost of entry into the market (especially post pandemic), it's far more appealing to me as a collectible since each piece is a 1 of 1. Some of the highlights of my collection include:

Greg Capullo X-Force #16 page from X-Cutioner's Song



Mark Bagley New Warriors #15 cover




Ron Lim Silver Surfer #60 post Infinity Gauntlet page



Kevin Eastman TMNT from the 2011 IDW series



Alan Davis JSA #3 cover from the Robinson/Goyer/Johns series

Inhumans99

Nice artwork Rocket!! I also own several pieces of original comic art. I know I have brought this up in other threads before, but I own the very first page of the first Dark Horse Aliens vs Predator mini-series (I believe Paul Gulacy was the artist), not an exciting page but kind-of a historic one because I remember that the first AVP mini-series sold like hotcakes and people started noticing independent comic books could become mega sellers just like stuff from Marvel and DC.

I have also mentioned I own an interior Todd McFarlane Spider-Man page with the lizard (huge fan of how Todd drew Marvel's Lizard supervillain), and I may not have mentioned that I own a cool page from from Ron Lim's time on Marvel's Skaar issue 12. My memory is fuzzy, but I once again, I may have also mentioned that I own a double page spread from Jim Valentino's time on Guardians Of The Galaxy from I think issue 21 (or was it issue 25, I forget) that has Lady Wolverine in it. I have every page professionally framed except the page from Skaar (but one of these days I would like to get it framed).

I am impressed that you were able to get yourself a couple of covers.

rocket1312

Wow, you have a McFarlane Spider-Man page?! Which one? Is it from Amazing or the 1990 series? Not sure if you're up on the current marketplace, but either way that's probably a minimum 5 figure page.

Dimension X

In the early '80s, before she published A Distant Soil, Colleen Doran shopped at the same rundown comic shop where I bought my comics. I used to see her there on new comic book day, until she moved away to start doing comics professionally.
I have a bunch of issues of A Distant Soil, but I don't know if I ever read any of them. Buying them was mostly a supporting someone I kinda knew thing...

Trevor

Here’s my first appearance of the JLA, forgive me if I posted it before. Just found all these photos again.

Dimension X

I think I was misremembering here. After doing a search for the Warp Graphics A Distant Soil covers online, the only ones that looked familiar were #1 and #5, so I probably don't have "a bunch of them." More likely, given that I was a poor college student at the time, I bought the first issue, read it, and decided it wasn't for me. Maybe I picked up an issue or two later out of a quarter box.

I don't have many "keys" in my collection, mostly because I could never convince myself to pay a lot for a story that was usually readily available in a cheaper reprint (which I often already had). I would buy a "reader's copy" if I was lucky enough to stumble across one cheap. My favorite of those is the copy of House of Secrets #92 I found in a quarter box (it had a subscription crease, but otherwise was in pretty good shape) which I later had signed by Wrightson and Wein.

EDIT: I went looking for my copy of House of Secrets #92 so I could post a pic, but got distracted looking at other stuff. I have a lot more original art than I thought I had. I don't remember where, or why, I bought some of it.

Inhumans99

Page from issue 4 of the 1990 series, and it was bought and signed at his first(?) Los Angeles con appearance at the con held near USC college. You were given a ticket and when they called the right batch of numbers you then stood in a pretty long line for your turn at getting I believe a max of 5 items signed.

Fun day, I was with my Dad and Bro at that time. At least 5-10 years back my bro felt it was worth at least 5K on the secondary market, but you are probably right that it might be worth around 10K.

It is the page where Spider-Man is bound and pleading with the lizard and the lizard grins something fierce in the last panel, pretty cool page. It was about $225, and I spent about $160 to get it framed and matted with the comic it came from and another issue of Spider-Man 4 was sacrificed to cut out the actual page, makes for a real nice piece of framed art.

Trevor

I was lucky enough to find my DC keys years ago during one of the ‘cheap’ cycles on ebay. And condition doesn’t matter to me, there are only two conditions, complete and incomplete.

I doubt I’ve paid more than $40 for any single issue. I was able to get most of the keys or first appearances that I really want, but waited too long on the early Usagi appearances. I’ll likely never own those now.

rocket1312

Is this the page? If so, I think this would go for minimum 15-20k at auction. And it might go for a lot more than that if you get a couple of bidders going after each other. Spider-Man being tied up probably dings it a bit, but he's in every panel and there are multiple shots of Lizard. I'm not an expert or anything, but prices have gone bananas in recent years and even pages without Spider-Man on them from this run have been going for 10k.

You should share a pic if you can. I'd love to see it.

Inhumans99

Nice googling to find the pic, yes that is the one! It even has the "Doom's" glued to the page. I think it is not personalized but I will need to visit my parent's house again to get a picture to put up. McFarlane's sig is pretty cool, as he even drew a little spider next to his sig. I actually think the artwork looks even better in black and white, especially Lizard's grin at the end as Todd puts so much detail into his artwork. This page was a gift to me from my Dad. I had it framed and matted with the comic and page at The Great Frame Up which used to be on Ventura Blvd in the Valley (Southern CA), which has long since gone out of business (at least the Ventura BLVD location), but the job they did was worth every cent. Since I had it promptly framed and it hung on my bedroom wall for many years out of "direct" sunlight and has been since stored covered by a blanket in a closet for many years it is in cherry condition.

rocket1312

As someone who is relatively new to this stuff and could never afford to acquire any of the top shelf art from my childhood (which this is), it's exciting to see stories about a page like this just being in some random guy's (no offense) childhood bedroom. Within comic art collector circles it's usually the high rollers or the long-time mega collectors who have all of the best pieces. Every once in a while something will turn up that maybe someone bought way back in the day on a whim and has been sitting in an attic ever since. This obviously happens with a lot of different kinds of collectibles, but the 1 of 1 nature of original art gives it another level of mystery and Intrigue. For all we know, someone could have been looking for that particular Spider-Man page for 30 years wondering where it might be or if it even still existed. Maybe they'll stumble into this thread and sleep easier tonight knowing that it's safe and sound.

As for the art itself, McFarlane was obviously going for something dark and moody and more horror themed with that series and I don't think the production process of that time did the art any favors at all. The final versions look pretty muddy a lot of the time. I'm sure the original art is far superior. It would be cool to see his run get properly restored to Marvel Masterwork quality. Who knows if that line will survive long enough to make it that far though.

Dimension X

I doubt any of my original art would be of much interest to other people - I couldn't afford covers, or splash pages, but I bought stuff I liked when I could afford it. I thought I had a half-page of LoSH by Kurt Schaffenberger (he was at a small show I went to, but I didn't know he would be there, so I hadn't brought anything for him to sign - I ended up buying a cheap (half) page from him that he signed), but when I looked at it recently, I saw it was actually the last (half) page of a Jimmy Olsen story from Jimmy Olsen #159 (August, 1973). I didn't take a picture of it, but here's what it looks like (except the Tarzan ad isn't on it, just a hand written note to place the ad there).


I believe the reason I thought my Schaffenberger (half) page was from a LoSH story is because I also have this title page from Secret Origins #42 (July, 1989) signed by Dave Cockrum. I have no idea where I got it. I thought I first saw Dave Cockrum in the early '80s before this book came out, and although I have seen him more than once, I don't remember buying any art from him, and it isn't personalized, so I might have bought it from a dealer at a con (I do have some un-signed pages I remember buying at a Heroes Con when I had some extra cash in my pocket, and the seller was looking to make deals to move stock).

Now, we come to George Perez, and my original art "gem." I think it was the first time I saw him, in the early '80s, when I bought this Dracula drawing by him from Perez: Accent on the First E (1977). I was a huge Tomb of Dracula fan (I got into it after the comic ended, and it was one of the few comic series I actually bothered to acquire every issue), and it naturally caught my eye. I don't know if it's worth anything, but I still like it, and that's what counts.

If you look at the right edge of that pic, at the top you can just see Wonder Woman's legs from the page from Wonder Woman #8 (September, 1987) that I bought from George Perez the next time I saw him (it was cheap, I assume, because a lot of the page is text).

Below that is Dave Cockrum's signature on the Secret Origins page I talked about earlier, and below that, you can just see a little bit of the bottom of a Doctor Strange page featuring Dracula (but no Doctor Strange - that's both why I wanted it, and why, I assume, it was cheap) from Doctor Strange #59 (June, 1983), signed by Terry Austin (the inker).