It took one month and a half to go from auction #40 to #50 (May, 20 to July, 03), work started again everywhere and probably Jim was slowed by deadlines like everybody else.
You’re reading part 5 in a series of articles analyzing Jim Lee’s Original Comic Art Auctions. Auctions benefit Comic Book stores in need during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an overview of auctions #41-50.
If you’re new here and want to start from the beginning here’s part One:
Jim Lee original art for charity 1-10,
part Two:
Jim Lee original art for charity 11-20.
part Three:
Jim Lee Original Art for charity 21-30.
and part Four:
Jim Lee Original Art for charity 31-40.
And if you want to follow the live auctions here’s a link to:
Jim’s eBay page.
(And before we start, if you’re a comic art collector, why don’t you subscribe to the Original Comic Art Tips newsletter? A weekly dose of auction results analysis and new auctions highlights. Just go to the homepage, or if you want to read the latest issue click on the Archive button in the upper menu.)
Jim Lee is painting!
The last 20 drawings were headsketches, a choice made to draw faster after many cover quality illustrations, but as we know many headsketches were as detailed as a full illustration (and some were indeed more than a “head”).
For these latest ten drawings he chose to do full painted art, often also varying techniques. Shots are also varied, I count 3 headshots, 5 full figures, a waist-up and a bust.
We have a new record.
Painted art, and more well known characters chosen, helped auctions #41-50 reach a new record, with more than $133k raised. #50 is also a new record for a single auction, with $22,100. All of the ten auctions went over $7,5k. Flashpoint Batman (#50) is perfect for a record, a painted depiction of Batman in a classic Jim Lee pose. The old record price was for #34, Ace the Bat Hound, sold for $20,100. It probably made a record because we had a Batman bust in the background, this time we had a full Batman with no strange costumes, and it paid.
It is also worth noting that #49 is a classic Superman pose, and it made $14k despite being a bust shot, drawing top characters is always the best choice to raise more.
Let’s do the Math.
As you can see from the chart the total raised goes over $500k ($525,857.00), and judging from the average auction prices #60 will probably take the total raised for charity to over $600k (not counting art donated by other artists), not bad at all.
Now that we’re almost at the end we can see the trends, auctions #1-10 went up slowly, as more people heard the news of Jim Lee drawing and selling original art.
Then auctions #11-20 all went really high, with the news that DC will publish the art (both as single variant covers and in a volume) fans started offering more, and Jim went from “quicker” drawings to cover quality pieces.
Auctions #21-40 were mostly headshots, so the average price went down again, rising then for the last ten painted pieces. We’ll see in a few weeks how will it end, I’m expecting a bang, at least for #60, the last auction.
