Once again, the Charity Art Auction at New York Comic Con was my favorite part of NYCC weekend. Attendance at the art auction shot up noticibly this year. In years past, it was easy to find a seat. This year, I found myself holding seats for four friends who were running late, which meant I also found myself catching some serious side-eye from the standing room only crowd.
I went into the Art Auction with a specific strategy this year. I would pick out a few pieces to seriously aim at buying during the viewing that preceded the auction. In previous years, I found myself price enforcing pieces of original art that I felt were going way too cheap, and found my cash supply too low when later in the auction when something I really wanted hit the auction block. Not this year. The problem was I had to keep reminding myself of this throughout the auction. There were many times when I was tempted to bid, and a few times when I did bid, on things I thought were too good a deal to pass up. Thankfully, I was able to restrain myself and let myself get outbid on those items.
Because that meant I was able to go home with a seriously nice piece of original art. The cover to Action Comics #43 by Aaron Kuder. I love this cover. It has such a cool design. I love the vertical panels separating Superman and his supporting cast. I was a fan of this cover before it was in the art auction. When I saw it was going to be one of the pieces auctioned off, I knew I wanted to make a serious attempt to get it.
Unfortunately, that meant letting A LOT of really nice original art pass me by. Once again, Mike Negin, the Talent Coordinator for NYCC and man in charge of the Charity Art Auction, assembled a museum-quality collection of modern comic art. There were too many VERY nice pieces. I had to choose my spots. Anyone who attended had to.
What was great too, was that this year, friends were bidding as well. In past years, friends would join me to watch the bidding action and view the art, but forego bidding and look at me with slightly exasperated looks when I’d get caught up in a bidding war. Bu this year, I had a friend in company for the bidding. Alli, our occasional fill-in co-host at the Tuesday Night Comics podcast, may have been my favorite attendee of the art auction. When I say he got into his bidding, I mean he really got into it. At one point late in the auction, Alli was pacing up and down his row shouting out new bids on a piece he wanted for his girlfriend. At one point, he yelled out a bid and then yelled out another bid, getting into a bidding war with himself! It was great and Alli walked away with that piece.
Once again, the big pieces of the night were the Walt Simonson Thor sketch and the Adam Hughes piece. Both went for many thousands of dollars and helped the Art Auction raise a sizeable amount of money for The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. By the way, Adam Hughes is an awesome individual. Personal issues prevented him from attending NYCC 2015, but he sent over a gorgeous piece just for the art auction. Hughes is really committed to helping raise money for charity at NYCC. Besides making sure the art auction received what is always the most sought after piece in the auction, when Hughes is at a convention, he regularly donates the money from the sketches he does at the convention to charity. The guy is a cass act all around.
I’ve said this before and I will continue to say this: if you are not attending the Charity Art Auction at NYCC, you are missing NYCC’s best event.
