Something a little different - color art

[weasel-king]

I started picking up some original art (hinting at a future thread... ) and came across a seller who has a fair number of color art pages. The vast majority are from titles I have no interest in, but I've picked up a few.

For those who may not know, color art are 1/1 products from the comic companies. Basically after the inker is done they make a copy of the work and turn it over to the colorist. The colorist does his/her thing, oftentimes writing in the color code for accurate reproduction (using the CMYK model).

In this day and age of computer coloring, I imagine these aren't being used anymore.

These are the ones I've picked up thus far.

Spec Spidey Annual #13, pg 22:

Wolvie 113 pg 18:

Wolvie 116 pg 17:

Uncanny X-Men 287 pg 4:

Uncanny X-Men 287 pg 7:

X-Men Unlimited 7 pg 49 (need to verify this one):

 

[newfiecomicguy1]

I have avoided these because they are usually so darn expensive. However I do still have a few comissoned pieces that I paid artist to do for me. great stuff Joe, the colours look amazing.

 

[weasel-king]

Certain titles can be expensive, but you'd be surprised. One of the above I picked up for less than the cover price of a new book, so it's all relative. In fact, I just won another X-Men one tonight for less than $2.

Not that I'm an expert by any means, but the ones that seem to go for more are the splash pages or pages from key issues. I don't know that there are colorists who are more popular than others, so I don't see a trend there.

These are nothing compared to the original inked works, though. I have a few of those, too, mainly Catwoman ones. They can go for a lot more than lunch money.

 

[newfiecomicguy1]

You buying them off ebay?

 

[Ferrian1]

Neat stuff Joe, I hadn't seen these before. I picked up a few original art pages years ago, and had them framed next to the comic page that I ripped out (heaven forbid), and they were quite pricey, my favorites are a Backlash page (my username came from that book it was my favorite) by Brett Booth, and a page from a Catwoman Elseworlds title done by Jim Balent.

 

[weasel-king]

Yeah, the original art stuff is much more expensive. They are the actual inked pages after the pencils are done. I have just a few of the original art now, and they are all on the 11"x17" boards ((with exception of the Joe, which is slightly smaller):

BM Legends of the Dark Knight iss178 pg 4 (because of the Catwoman parts)
The BM Strikes iss 6 pg 7 (Catwoman again)
Catwoman iss87 pg16
GI Joe Reloaded iss 4 pg20

I have a couple more Catwoman originals incoming, as well as more color art as well.

The prices are strange. The original art GI Joe I picked up for something like $25. One of the Batmans was something like $120. Not sure if it was because it's from a Batman book or if it was some of the deep-pocketed Catwoman collectors out there. I know a Jim Balent Catwoman page went a couple of weeks ago for over $300.

The color art, though, has ranged from a few bucks to $25 or so.

I (think) I like the original art better, but I love the colors of the color art (duh) and you can't beat the prices on them. Of course, who picks up certain books or titles just for the colorist?