• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Artists whose work you think under-performs at auction
0

32 posts in this topic

There is lots of talk here about the record auction sales of recent years here and it's lots of fun but for the most part they're anomalies. Key covers based on first appearances or iconic storylines. In many cases the artist is incidental to the sale price.

 

I was wondering about Artists whose work seems to under-performs at auction.

 

 

1. Mike Zeck (80's-92) jumps to mind. I know that a deathstroke cover sold for around 8k during the last Clink auction but for a long time most of those DS covers topped out at around 2-3k.

 

Zeck drew some hugely popular comicbook mini series and cover runs during the 1980's. At auction though, in general his work can be had much cheaper than many of his contemporaries.

 

2. Jim Lee Uncanny X-men interiors. I'm sure covers are highly coveted but interiors often sell below the average bar set for 21st century Lee art.There were a few very nice pages from 274-275 sitting on ebay at reasonable (for lee) prices that sat for years unsold. I've seen that a few times in private/dealer sales.

 

3. Jose Gonzalez, artist of Vampirella. His storytelling wasn't so great but Jose did some of the most beautiful comic book drawing I've ever seen. His pen ink technique and style seems to have influenced many artists over several generations.

 

4. Marc Silvestri. Een though he's been around for decades and his cover art gets lots of fanfare from publishers and seems to be popular among comic collectors Marc is another artist whose interiors seem to sit around 300-500 bucks a page. His modern Covers (2000-2015) stall out at around 3k at auction.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Koa
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't speak for Silvestri's modern work but his Uncanny X-Men pages will easily fetch 1.2k these days for average pages

There is lots of talk here about the record auction sales of recent years here and it's lots of fun but for the most part they're anomalies. Key covers based on first appearances or iconic storylines. In many cases the artist is incidental to the sale price.

 

I was wondering about Artists whose work seems to under-performs at auction.

 

 

1. Mike Zeck (80's-92) jumps to mind. I know that a deathstroke cover sold for around 8k during the last Clink auction but for a long time most of those DS covers topped out at around 2-3k.

 

Zeck drew some hugely popular comicbook mini series and cover runs during the 1980's. At auction though, in general his work can be had much cheaper than many of his contemporaries.

 

2. Jim Lee Uncanny X-men interiors. I'm sure covers are highly coveted but interiors often sell below the average bar set for 21st century Lee art.There were a few very nice pages from 274-275 sitting on ebay at reasonable (for lee) prices that sat for years unsold. I've seen that a few times in private/dealer sales.

 

3. Jose Gonzalez, artist of Vampirella. His storytelling wasn't so great but Jose did some of the most beautiful comic book drawing I've ever seen. His pen ink technique and style seems to have influenced many artists over several generations.

 

4. Marc Silvestri. Een though he's been around for decades and his cover art gets lots of fanfare from publishers and seems to be popular among comic collectors Marc is another artist whose interiors seem to sit around 300-500 bucks a page. His modern Covers (2000-2015) stall out at around 3k at auction.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't speak for Silvestri's modern work but his Uncanny X-Men pages will easily fetch 1.2k these days for average pages

There is lots of talk here about the record auction sales of recent years here and it's lots of fun but for the most part they're anomalies. Key covers based on first appearances or iconic storylines. In many cases the artist is incidental to the sale price.

 

I was wondering about Artists whose work seems to under-performs at auction.

 

 

1. Mike Zeck (80's-92) jumps to mind. I know that a deathstroke cover sold for around 8k during the last Clink auction but for a long time most of those DS covers topped out at around 2-3k.

 

Zeck drew some hugely popular comicbook mini series and cover runs during the 1980's. At auction though, in general his work can be had much cheaper than many of his contemporaries.

 

2. Jim Lee Uncanny X-men interiors. I'm sure covers are highly coveted but interiors often sell below the average bar set for 21st century Lee art.There were a few very nice pages from 274-275 sitting on ebay at reasonable (for lee) prices that sat for years unsold. I've seen that a few times in private/dealer sales.

 

3. Jose Gonzalez, artist of Vampirella. His storytelling wasn't so great but Jose did some of the most beautiful comic book drawing I've ever seen. His pen ink technique and style seems to have influenced many artists over several generations.

 

4. Marc Silvestri. Een though he's been around for decades and his cover art gets lots of fanfare from publishers and seems to be popular among comic collectors Marc is another artist whose interiors seem to sit around 300-500 bucks a page. His modern Covers (2000-2015) stall out at around 3k at auction.

 

Yeah, IMO 2,3,4 do just fine for what they are and 1's days of being cheap may be over..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know Gonzalez, but everyone here does great at auctions. Now Zeck did do a lot of work on secondary titles (e.g. not Batman or Punisher) so those don't do great. But I cheap Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri X-men pages? Let me know where they are and I'll buy them.

 

Malvin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, just a few mainstream names, Jack davis, will eisner ( so influential to miller and macfarlane) Don Heck in the mid sixties( realy killed it for about five years as well as co creator of ironman and other popular heroes) and Jack kirby hulk pages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

George Perez Teen Titans interiors seem almost shockingly low to me for what they are - many pages sell for 3-figures and the vast majority below $2K. That said, I haven't bought any, so I guess I'm part of the problem. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While it's near impossible to find a bad Byrne X-Men page, there aren't that many great Perez Titans page imho. I believe the art (and price) difference between the average Titans pages and the best pages is huge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1. Mike Zeck (80's-92) jumps to mind. I know that a deathstroke cover sold for around 8k during the last Clink auction but for a long time most of those DS covers topped out at around 2-3k.

 

 

I would agree that Mike's work has been a little undervalued when it comes up for public auction. I think it suffers because of a few things:

 

1) When they auction things art off alphabetically, Zeck's art is always the last in the auction, and by that point, many people have over-spent their limit or have left the auction.

 

2) For a long time, there wasn't much of Mike's art hitting the market and much if his prime stuff sold privately which left people questioning what it should really sell for. Without good comps, people get a little nervous on how to price things.

 

3) The best pieces you see are usually "re-cycled" - I've seen a lot of great Cap covers in the recent years being offered 2-3 times over the course of a 2-3 year period. When pieces are offered multiple times that quickly, typically it erodes the prices instead of increasing them.

 

4) Most of the prime stuff that people want is privately held and may not be going anywhere anytime soon. Seems that people have been waiting for nice examples of those to come along and resisted paying high prices for nice stuff, but wasn't the "best." Perhaps the recent Deathstroke cover sale is a sign that people are starting to realize that even his "nice, but not super-classic" 80's/90's covers should be priced closer to an average 70's Marvel cover and that they may never really get a shot at his most classic stuff outside of the Kraven pages that were offered a few years back. If you did see one of his most classic pieces (Cap Annual #8, Secret Wars #8, Kraven covers,Punisher covers), I wouldn't surprised if they would easily crack the $100k range which would send a bit of shock wave out that may have people looking a little differently at the prices of Mike's art (as did the Hulk #180 page with Trimpe's art). But, don't expect any of those pieces to hit the auction block anytime in the near future.

 

I think quietly behind the scenes, the prices on his Secret Wars pages have risen in recent years. His Cap pages are still relative bargains, only averaging $500/page for decent pages, and his MOKF pages are even a better bargain. And, you can still find pages from lesser titles (Eliminator, Bloodshot, Damned) for around $100 which is a steal when you look at the quality of the art. More so than in previous years, there is a lot of great B+/A- material out there as well where you could still build a nice collection of Mike's art at reasonable prices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think generally speaking I correlate "under-perform" with "under-valued" so with that my answer or opinions rather, would be:

 

Carmine Infantino is under-appreciated, especially his 1980's super hero artwork

 

EC Comics art and artists is commanding lower values than I'd think vintage art of that era and importance should or could be worth.

 

Gil Kane is slowly rising, and he along with Infantino I feel should be gaining demand momentum of many collectors are getting out priced to afford peers of that ear like Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, John Romita, John Buscema and Steve Ditko.

 

Bill Ward, although his art tends to be on the erotic and risque side, I feel his body of work is solid, and prices very reasonable and affordable for all.

 

George Perez seems to be seen a a lower tier to John Byrne of that era, and with that the prices seem disproportionate and I feel are under performing to their potential.

 

Marshall Rogers - aside from his work on Detective Comics Batman, most of his material doesn't command much attention nor pricing/value. His style is unique and I'd think it's only a matter of time it's more fully recognized by the masses.

 

Modern Day Artists of Today - Although I think to a degree art is like fine wine and a lot of patience needs to be instilled in the waiting game of allowing the fan base to mature and the body of work to appreciate and be appreciated. I think art by Ed Benes, Mark Bagley, Brett Booth, John Cassaday, Mike Choi, Ian Churchill, Mike Deodato, Ale Garza, Josh Howard, Dan Jurgens, Greg Land, Salvador Larocca, Ed McGuiness, Steve McNiven, Carlos Pacheco, Philip Tan and a few others have the potential to go up in value where there's good buying opportunities today at auctions to pick up pieces that under-perform.

 

I do think some of the pop culture subject matter art for TV shows and Movies like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars and other licensed properties have been under performing, but mainly because a lot of the art is rendered by lesser known named artists.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Totally agree on the Jim Lee prices. You guys really need to be bidding those pages up higher, especially the ones inked by whats-s-face.

 

:jokealert:

 

Scott

 

Who is going to pay crazy money just b/c of who the tracer is? :baiting:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought Kevin Maguire really underperforms, especially his Justice League stuff, considering what a fan favorite he was and how loved that book was.  I've seen at least two JL covers from his run go at auction in the last few years, both for less than 5k.  Maybe that was reasonable, but I was a bit shocked.  

Of course, I'm sure if it was one of his "elevator" covers, it would go for a bit more than that...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its interesting to see this thread brought back.  From my observations most modern/currently working artists are 'undervalued' at auction. Or vice versa - they are overpricing their art when they sell it new.

Favorite artists that come to mind include:

Terry Dodson

Nick Bradshaw

J Scott Campbell

And no doubt there are many more you can name.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Curt Swan. Bob Oksner. Kurt Schaffenberger. Terrific artists and undervalued in my estimation, especially their panel pages. It could be because so many OA fans love the House of Ideas above any other publisher. If a dynamic 1966 Schaffenberger Superboy splash and a mediocre 1966 Werner Roth X-Men page hit H.A. at the same time, I'm confident the Roth page would command more money.

Dan DeCarlo, too. For me, he's the premiere Archie artist. The prices for his work have been blunted due to DeCarlo's lengthy career, an ability to produce at Kirby-like speeds, and a willingness to bring all of his originals to market.  Plus, y'know, he drew Archie comics, limiting the collector base.  There's a premium for his Humorama cartoons (limited supply + good girl action) and his B & V swimsuit covers (limited supply + good girl action), but his other work goes for pennies compared to some of his contemporaries. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
0