ComicLink Auction Features Outstanding Original Art Selection: Place Your Bids!
At long last, the ComicLink Summer Featured Auction is underway, with outstanding highlights within the original art session! There are also exceptional comic book highlights but this article covers just the artwork.
Original Art Auction Session Highlights
To start with, there is a unique opportunity to acquire the cover to Fantastic Four #77 by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott featuring the Silver Surfer and Galactus. This is one of the few Silver Age Fantastic Four covers to come up for public sale in the past two decades, and in our view it's the finest. This prime-era 1968 cover depicts all four members of the team with a powerful villain and moreover, is the only Silver Age Fantastic Four cover artwork depicting the Surfer and the planet-consuming Galactus that we haver seen surface for sale! Kirby's brilliant designs combine with Sinnott's distinctive line work and shading to create striking imagery that any art collector of this genre would love to own as a collection centerpiece.
We are also thrilled to offer two original Frank Frazetta Oil Paintings. One appears to be the earliest professionally published horror-themed oil painting by Frazetta, and was published in 1964 as the cover to the Tales From the Crypt Ballantine Book! Nine years after EC was forced to shelve their horror, crime, and sci-fi titles due to censorship, Ballantine reprinted a number of the original tales in five volumes published between 1964 and 1966. Frazetta was commissioned to paint the covers for the entire series. The second oil painting, created in 1970, features a wonderful array of classic Frazetta motifs including a sword and shield wielding Conan-like barbarian, a long-haired sultry female in a seductive pose, dinosaurs, fanciful winged creatures, alien landscapes, and... a "Frog on the Moon." It was used as the cover to a fold out Doubleday Books advertisement for the Science Fiction Book Club.
Another incredibly historic offering is the cover for Uncanny X-Men #266, featuring the first appearance of Gambit, drawn by Andy Kubert. This is one of the most significant Modern Era "1st appearance" covers to come onto the auction market and one of the few from this time period from the Uncanny X-Men title to introduce an important new character! Gambit was a shining star from the start and he may go Deadpool supernova once the Channing Tatum Gambit film gets off the ground.
Another striking "holy grail"-type original art piece is the Neal Adams cover for Justice League of America #92 (1971) featuring Solomon Grundy raising a defeated Superman, flanked by the fallen JLA and JSA. This is an outstanding piece both for it's sheer artistry and subject matter. It's Adams’ only Grundy cover from the era and one of the few Grundy cover appearances in general within the Silver and Golden Ages. With Grundy coming to TV's Gotham this year, he's poised to skyrocket further in popularity.
Next, we are excited to be offering a highly desired rarity--a rare Bernie Wrightson signed original "Frankenstein's Monster" plate published in the landmark A Marvel Illustrated Novel, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein. Produced over a seven-year period, Wrightson created this seminal work during his peak period in the 70s and early 80s. Few Wrightson Frankenstein plates were completely finished, fewer still were selected to be published in this book, and of those far fewer contain images of the Frankenstein Monster. There are only 44 illustrations in total in the book and of those, a mere 16 depict the monster. This one, published on page 88, is the first depiction of the monster after the story shifts to being told from the monster's perspective. Illustrations from this seminal work rarely come to market and this is one of the very best aquisitions that will be available from this classic example of graphic storytelling.
Some other Original Art highlights include, but are not limited to:
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John Romita Amazing Spider-Man #68 page with multiple panels of Spidey plus the Kingpin; Daredevil #105 cover for the key issue with Moondragon's origin and 1st cover appearance
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Jim Starlin Iron Man #55 battle page with Iron Man & Drax from Drax's 1st appearance issue; Marvel Feature #12 page with an early Thanos image; Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 Avengers vs. Thanos battle page; Death of Captain Marvel #1 page with Captain Marvel battling Thanos.
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John Romita Jr. Daredevil: Man Without Fear #1 cover with Williamson inks
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Todd McFarlane back cover for Wolverine #6 featuring Logan, and strong pages of McFarlane/Capullo artwork from Spawn #33
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Graham Ingels Tales From the Crypt #46 complete 7-page story, "Tatter Up!"
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Hal Foster three Sunday Prince Valiant pages from the 1960s
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Neal Adams Brave and the Bold #85 unused cover for revamped Green Arrow intro
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John Byrne Action Comics #593 cover with the notorious Superman and Big Barda adult film scene; two battle pages from Avengers #165
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Gene Colan Tomb of Dracula #40 cover; Daredevil #154 Double Page Splash
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Geof Darrow Hard Boiled #2 page
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Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3, an early page
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Mike Esposito finished Tales To Astonish #71 page 1 Title Splash with Jack Kirby layouts
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George Evans Haunt of Fear #15 Complete 7-page story, "All Washed Up!"
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David Finch Beyond Wonderland #1 cover, Warlord of Oz #1 cover featuring Cowardly Lion, Ultimatum #5 DPS with the death of Wolverine
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Hal Foster Three Prince Valiant Sundays
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Don Heck Tales of Suspense #66 page 1 Title Splash with Iron Man vs. Attuma
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Gilbert Hernandez Page 1 of Love and Rockets #1! (The start of the BEM saga)
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Jaime Hernandez Love and Rockets #2 page from "Mechanics" and #4 title splash
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Dale Keown covers for Spider-Gwen #1 and Future Imperfect #1
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Hank Ketcham a rarely available Dennis the Menace daily from 1972
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Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Journey Into Mystery #83 Recreation of the 1st Thor cover
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Greg Land Marvel 75th Anniversary magazine cover featuring Marvel's biggest stars
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Jim Lee Justice League #5 page with Batman and Green Lantern, Superman #211 page with Superman vs. Wonder Woman
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Tony Moore The Walking Dead #2 page-- very early scene
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George Perez Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium cover, Infinity Gauntlet #1 key page where Thanos wields the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half the universe; Marvel Tales #261 cover--rare Perez Spider-Man cover vs. Hobgoblin
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Stephen Platt Prophet #9 cover
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Alex Saviuk Web of Spider-Man #35 Ditko-tribute cover
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Michael Turner Wizard Millenium Edition cover featuring with Supergirl, and the ladies of Witchblade, Fathom and Soulfire
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Basil Wolverton original illustration
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AND SO MUCH MORE!
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