Auctions featuring original comic and cartoon art and comic books.
Occasionally a comic book collection of immense value goes public. Such is the case up Mike Peterson way.
Following the death in April of Vermont comic book retailer and collector Christine Farrell, her legendary collection is about to go up for auction.
Farrell, who succumbed to a long illness at age 72, owned Earth Prime Comics and Quarterstaff Games, both located on Church Street in Burlington. She was an avid, lifelong collector of comics with a particular interest in the DC Comics oeuvre: She’s believed to have at one time owned the entire run of DC, starting with comics published in 1938. Farrell was a tightly guarded person who rarely spoke to the press or discussed her collection.
But now that rare collection, which includes first appearances in print of heroes such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, will go to the highest bidders on the online site Heritage Auctions. It opens for online bidding on October 7; the auction itself takes place October 22 to 25 [emphasis added].
From Seven Days a week ago comes A Look Inside Christine Farrell’s Rare Comics Collection:
A portion of the collection was posted online for purchase in late September, but the gems of Farrell’s collection, some 500 of the most sought-after comics of all time, will go live on Heritage’s website October 25 and 26. This includes the first appearances of superheroes such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
The comics are expected to fetch some high offers. Heritage vice president Lon Allen, who is also an adviser to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, an annual publication considered the top authority on comic book appraisals, estimated the entire collection to be worth between $6 million and $7 million. The October auction alone is likely to generate $4 million.
The ‘gems collection” goes up for bid tomorrrow and Heritage Auctions offers a look at the slabbed Golden Age comic books and some original comic book art mostly from the Silver Age.
Note: registering with Heritage allows in depth views of the comics and bids and after years Heritage has yet to bother me with any spammy-type emails, though I do get an occasional flier through the USPS.
I do check in with Heritage’s original comic art auctions once in a while and today is a recent while. The original comic art auctions feature far more comic book art than comic strip art which is where my interests are more attuned. To be clear I am not above checking out the comic book art, especially those created during my comic book collecting days – sometimes they align:
The oldest comic books in my hoard are Golden Age Pogo Possum and Animal Comics by Walt Kelly.
And here comes my confusion with original art collectors: That 1966 Sunday Pogo page by Walt Kelly recently (today, in fact) sold for $1140, but that 1977 John Romita daily Amazing Spider-Man will, undoubtedly, go for much more than the Pogo Sunday. Superhero fans, I guess.
That Peanuts Sunday by Charles Schulz featuring a Charlie Brown and Lucy football gag, even though it is late in the comic strip’s run, will go for a very shiny penny.
Heritage is not the only auction site and comic strip and book art aren’t the only originals getting bid on.
Stephen Nadler at Attempted Bloggery tells us of a Charles Alston New Yorker cover.
Harlem Renaissance artist Charles Alston painted only one illustration that was used on the cover of The New Yorker. It graced the issue of October 6, 1934. The original art was sold yesterday at Toomey & Co. Auctioneers of Chicago.
Attempted Bloggery has all the details about the artist, the artwork, the provenance, and supersized images; as well as what the piece eventual garnered the owner.
to Michael Maslin for the heads up
Now on to another auction house (Julien’s) and other comic art (gag cartoons) and another magazine (Playboy).
From Julien’s comes ILLUSTRATION ART FROM THE PLAYBOY ARCHIVE for Oct 30AT10:00 AM PDT Los Angeles.
Hundreds of mostly PG Playboy cartoons from the likes of Jack Cole, LeRoy Neiman, Ben Dennison, Eldon Dedini, Mike Allen, Erich Sokol, Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder, Roy Rayonde, Elmer Simms Campbell, Gilbert Shelton, Arv Miller, Francis ‘Smilby’ Wilford-Smith, Bernard Kliban, Shel Silverstein, Absens, Alden Erikson, Aldrich, Arnold Roth, Barth, Bill Mauldin, Brian Savage, Bruce Cochran, Chauncey Addison ‘Chon’ Day, Dink Siegel, Don Addis, Don Madden, Gahan Wilson, Frank Interlandi, Gardner Rea, George Booth, Jerry Dumas, Harrison Cady, Bill Hoest, Howie Schneider, Hugh Hefner, JB Handelsman, Joe Farris, John Dempsey, John Ruge, Leo Garel, Michael Ffolkes, Phil Interlandi, Richard Decker, Robert ‘Buck’ Brown, Ronald Giles, Sidney Harris, Syd Hoff, Toni Ungerer, Willaim Hamilton, and many others.
