NYCC 2015 Charity Art Auction Report

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.

Charity_Aaron_Kuder--Action-Comics-Issue43-Cover

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.

NYCC 2014 Art Auction

The charity art auction is a comic book convention staple, but wow, I’m not sure if any convention runs a better one than Mike Negin does for New York Comic Con. The NYCC Art Auction took place on Saturday night after the show floor closed. Negin, the talent coordinator for NYCC (meaning he’s the one you should go up to and personally thank for Artist’s Alley being packed with awesome guests each year), amasses a huge collection of original comic book art from creators at NYCC.

NYCC 2014 Art Auction

The art in the auction ranges from interior pages to covers to sketches done at NYCC. I think that because all of the money raised is going to a very worthwhile charity, The St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, artists get very generous with what they donate. You will see some truly gorgeous comic art here. In total, this year’s auction raised $40,535, which I believe is a new record for the NYCC auction.

I attended the art auction in 2013 and 2014. Both years, the night was capped by two items, a Walt Simonson sketch and an Adam Hughes sketch. But really, sketch isn’t the right word to use here. This isn’t the quick $20 head sketch that Adam does at his table (also for charity by the way). This is a fully rendered figure. Last year, he drew Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, flying through space with a full sea of stars behind her. This year, he drew a truly amazing Spider-Man. But if you want to go home with the Adam Hughes piece, you need to be ready to spend. Figure on bringing about $10,000 to take his piece home, and even that might not be enough. The Simonson can be had at the relatively bargain price of about $2,500.

But not everything goes that high and there are bargains to be had. There were pieces that went for under $100. And sometimes the bidding works out in ways that items go for prices that seem criminally low. But Negin and his crew are good about not letting prices go too low. They’re collectors too, and they’ll swoop in to take something home themselves if the opportunity arises.

What really surprised me about the auction was how high some convention sketches were going. There were sketches going well above what the artists would charge in Artist Alley, but I get it, this is for charity and I’m not faulting people for being generous. What I am surprised about is how high some convention sketches went for compared to the original art for published comic book covers.

Allison Sohn Storm

At this year’s auction, I took home a gorgeous mohawked Storm piece by Allison Sohn, an American Vampire interior page by Rafael Albuquerque and a Geoff Darrow drawing of Spider-Man meeting Darrow’s creation Rusty, the Boy Robot.

Rafael Albuquerque

 

PS…anyone know what issue of American Vampire the above page is from? Even Rafael Albuquerque wasn’t sure.

In the weeks leading up to NYCC, Mike Negin will post art for the auction as it comes in on his Twitter page @mightymikenegin. But even if nothing there grabs you, show up to the auction. I don’t even know if half the items in the auction make it to his Twitter feed, mainly because he’s out in Artist Alley during the day at NYCC getting more art from artists.

Geoff Darrow Spider-Man

If you are an original art collector, you need to start attending this art auction. Even if you don’t collect original art, the auction can be one of the most funs times you’ll see at New York Comic Con. The bidding can get epic, especially when two superfans go up against each other, as the two Trekkies did in bidding on a page of original art from IDW’s Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever inscribed by legendary science fiction writer Harlan Ellison. If you do go, just please don’t bid against me. I like going home with a bargain as much as the next guy.