Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: action comics, brent anderson, Comics, Curt Swan, dan clowes, dc, eightball, marvel, mike grell, original art, x-men

From The $112,016 Curt Swan Action Comics 309 Cover To The $10,158 Mike Grell Karate Kid 1 Cover – And Other Original Art Results

Published Tue, 26 Nov 2013 21:00:24 -0600

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Tue, 26 Nov 2013 21:47:04 -0600

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Action Comics 309 - Curt Swan - $112,015.75 — Action Comics 309 – Curt Swan – $112,015.75

Last week was a busy one for original art collectors, with major pieces going on the auction block at both Hake's and Heritage. Out of a rather full slate of strong results, the sale of the cover of Action Comics #309 by Curt Swan for $112,016 stands out.

The cover penciled by Swan and inked by Sheldon Moldoff features President John F. Kennedy disguised as Clark Kent on the cover, and hit stands about a week after Kennedy's assassination, unlike the Kennedy-related tale which ultimately ran in Superman #170 by the late Al Plastino (which was originally meant to run in Superman #168 with art by Curt Swan), this Action Comics #309 feature was too far along in the publication/distribution process to be halted in response to the tragic news.

While not a record price, any six figure sale of a Silver Age DC piece is noteworthy because Marvel art dominates the high-end Silver Age art market in general. Our usual disclaimer about private and closely-held sales in the often-secretive art collecting world applies, but by my count this is the second highest price paid at public auction for a Silver Age DC cover, after the November 2012 sale of the cover of Flash #137 by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson for $167,300.

Moving on to Heritage results, there are some eyebrow-raising hammer prices all over the place here, but the $44,813 sale of the cover of X-Men Annual 5 by Brent Anderson is perhaps one of the most intriguing — this is a very nice cover by an under-appreciated artist working during one of Marvel's classic periods.

Also worth noting is the Eightball #23 Alternate Cover by Daniel Clowes which sold for $23,900, confirming the strongly emerging market for Clowes work that we noted with the sale of the Lloyd Llewellyn #3 cover for $47,800 this past August.

Below is a highlight gallery of artwork and prices realized.