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Category: Comics

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$6 million shopping spree, part 2 – Winsor McCay

In which I continue my $6M Comics Shopping Spree

As you may recall, Action Comics #1 (DC, 1938) sold recently for $6M, breaking all previous records for a comic book sold at auction. The sale got me thinking, playing a fun “What if?” game in my head, like you do when you hear about big lottery winners. We all do that, right?

Action Comics Number 1, sold for $6 million
Action Comics Number 1, sold for $6 million, image courtesy Heritage Auctions

So, let’s say we’ve hit some kind of Brewster’s Millions scenario where we must spend the $6M, and it must be spent on original comic art. Not $1M in comic art and $5M on a really nice house and estate for it all — all $6M of it on comic art.

I will buy stuff I like, not things as “an investment,” and talk about my selections. Art I want to hang on my walls and live with and enjoy. After spending $6M on original art, conservation funding, gallery space, and state-of-the-art storage will be added as a reward, so I don’t have to worry about it as I’m splashing out for big-ticket items and won’t let my museum curator brain get too distracted about planning and worrying about caring for it all longterm. I’ve worked in museums for over twenty years, so I can’t help but think about these things.

Some parameters:

  • The budget must be respected — I will only spend $6M and get as close as possible to spending all $6M.
  • In the interest of transparency, I will only shop publicly. Gotta show those receipts. No bidding up the next cool thing to $6M and be done. No deals with a wink and a nod to pay $6M for something not worth anywhere near that and split the difference on the back end. Let’s keep this as above board as high-end art buying can be. [cough] (My citation of a sale somewhere *is not* an endorsement to shop there for real.)
  • And let’s make the prices recent. No buying Jack Kirby art from a fanzine auction in 1972 and owning every piece by Jack Kirby to cross into private hands. So, let’s say anything purchased must be from any 2020 or more recent public sale. Also, no buying a whole comic shop for $6M.
  • And lastly, as curator of the Schulz Museum, it’d be a conflict of interest for me to buy any Peanuts art, so there will be no Charles M. Schulz art on this list, though it’d be a dream come true to own anything by him.

Did I forget anything? Write me and let me. Ok, let’s go!

Winsor McCay

A pioneer of comic strip art, animation, and drawings that will break your brain and make you feel too unworthy to pick up a pencil. However, he was a pioneer of the comic strip form and is widely recognized for his artistic ability, even among art lovers who will turn up their noses at comics. You can read up on him on Wikipedia if you don’t know who he is. Let’s get into some art!

$168,000, sold March 2020

Incredible action in this Little Nemo Sunday page, which is what I always love to see in Nemo strips. The action and the fantasy are all incredible. Doonsbury cartoonist, Garry Trudeau owned this one for an interesting bit of trivia to go along with it as it hangs in my dream collection. It is also one of only a few Winsor McCay Sunday pages sold since 2020. I like this one best because it captures the action I love seeing in his work. I’m also a fan of his draftsmanship, like anyone, but his action is funny and fun to look at, except for the racist bits that he sometimes included, which are gross and a bummer. The price, granted, is more than I have spent on a house in my life, but still — worth it.  With $6M to spend, I’m not bargain-hunting!

$75,000 in October 2022

Again, beautifully drawn — this time with Santa and reindeer and crowds of people we should think of as we head into the holiday season. We see some of McCay’s thinking as an editorial cartoonist. I can really get behind this one. It’d be a treat to hang it on December 23rd and take it down on December 26th like all good Holiday decor.

$6,500 in June 2024 at Swann Galleries

This looks like a sketch, not the finished drawing, which is super impressive on its own. Swann Galleries says it was for one of McCay’s editorial cartoons. Some catastrophic flood has hit Manhattan — another calamity from the mind of Winsor McCay. Nightmares that make you fall out of bed, a sneeze to match a typhoon, and here, with buildings turned topsy-turvy. Again, it is a crazy, fantastic image and frankly, a bargain at the price.

$20,000 in June 2022 at Artcurial

I adore this one. I always love a comic strip about visiting museums. I’ve often thought that would be a fun collection theme — Museums In Comics. I love how McCay outlined the dinosaur and filled in the bones. What it lacks in anatomical correctness, it more than makes up for in skeletal and fossil vibes. Also, there is a hint to his future Gertie the Dinosaur animation! The drawing also *feels* like a fragile clattering problem waiting for the tiniest excuse to fly to bits, which it admirably does in the fifth panel. This is also a seemingly rare strip where a Winsor McCay hero is not being lectured or beaten for their misdeed. 

$5,200 in September 2024 from ComicLink Auctions

Speaking of McCay’s work as a pioneer animator, it’d be cool to have a Gertie piece, too, while we’re looking. Several of these have come up for sale in the past couple of years, but I like this pose best for some reason.

$5,148,000 – $274,700 = $4,873,300 remains to spend.

Did you miss Part 1 of this series? Go back here for my first post and watch me spend nearly $1 million on the art of Bill Watterson!

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About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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Bernie Mireault’s The Jam: A Superhero Story Rooted in Reality

My copy of The Jam in hand. Photo by author

Comic writer and artist Bernie Mireault died this month. He was 63. I was not familiar with him or his work, but my friend and collaborator Nat Gertler,  wearing his About Comics publisher’s hat, worked with Mr. Mireault to get his much-lauded comic, The Jam, back into print.

In the remembrances that followed Mireault’s passing, his work was praised and cited as being too little known for how well-regarded it is. He was described as a cartoonist’s cartoonist. About Comics made their reprint available at cost for about a week, so I grabbed a copy to see for myself what everyone was talking about.

The story opens with our would-be hero, a mere mortal, getting the upper hand in a mugging about to go very wrong. That’s something I really loved here — The Jam is about a superhero who is not superhuman. He’s a guy who wants to see some good in the world and has realized he can be part of that good. But, darker forces are gathering. Disillusioned young men are being drawn to a leader with a plan, and soon enough, the Jam has pissed off the Devil himself. So, if you read The Tick and thought, I wish this had a dash of Sandman, well, you’re in the right longbox.

Mireault’s The Jam is great! The writing and art are a lot of fun, and very well done. It’s a grownup comic, but not quite what modern marketing people would call “gritty.” There was also something really charming about the art that reminded me of, well, The Tick or old concert posters of the era. That late-1980s indie comic feel, from the black-and-white explosion. But story also felt rooted in a very real vision of a real city. There’s also a ton of technical know-how and thought going into each panel, each word balloon. I realized I was analyzing the lettering at various points, and thinking about how crazy it is, but still really well done, really fun. Reading The Jam made me think, “Yeah, comics are good.”

If you like the sound of that, The Jam is available in print through About Comics.

But, I should note that comics are rarely kind, or just. If you are having thoughts of suicide, you can reach out for support by texting or calling 988. The helpline is available 24/7 across the US and all of its territories.

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Inside pages of The Jam comic book, featuring black and white comic art with action throughout several panels.
Sample pages courtesy AboutComics.com

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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$6 million Comics Shopping Spree, part 1

Action Comics Number 1, sold for $6 million

In which I go on a $6M Comics Shopping Spree

Action Comics #1 (DC, 1938) sold recently for $6M, breaking all previous records for a comic book sold at auction.

Action Comics Number 1, sold for $6 million
Action Comics Number 1, sold for $6 million, image courtesy Heritage Auctions

$6M for one comic book? That’s *a lot* of money for a comic book. It is nearly double the previous record set only a few years ago in 2021, which I think has since been regarded as funded through someone moving crypto around.

Granted, this most recent purchase is perhaps *the* comic book. If there is one comic book to own, one of these copies would be it.  I’m not begrudging the auction result. $6M is a small number in the world of fine art auctions. Even for rare books, $6M wouldn’t crack the top 10 of record auction results. But for comics, it’s enormous.

But, for $6M, you could buy something absolutely unique—not just one of a handful. Totally. Unique. And if you want to stay with comics, you can buy *a lot* of original comic art for $6M. Not just a piece or two, but an incredible collection. Original comic art is still among the best art bargains in the world, and perhaps if we play a game, I can show what I mean. 

Let’s say we’ve hit some kind of Brewster’s Millions scenario1 where we must spend $6M, and must be spent on original comic art. And not $1M in comic art and $5M on a really nice house and estate for it all. All $6M of it on comic art. I will buy stuff I like, not things as “an investment,” and talk about my selections. Art I want to hang on my walls and live with and enjoy. After spending $6M on original art, conservation funding, gallery space, and state-of-the-art storage will be added as a reward, so I don’t have to worry about it as I’m splashing out for big-ticket items and don’t let my museum curator brain get too distracted about planning and worrying about caring for it all longterm. I’ve worked in museums for over twenty years now, so I can’t help but think about these things.

Some parameters:
The budget must be respected — I will only spend $6M and get as close as possible to spending all $6M.

In the interest of transparency, I will only shop publicly. Gotta show those receipts. No bidding up the next cool thing to $6M and be done. No deals with a wink and a nod to pay $6M for something not worth anywhere near that and split the difference on the back end. Let’s keep this as above board as high-end art buying can be. [cough]

And let’s make the prices recent. No buying Jack Kirby art from a fanzine auction in 1972 and owning every piece by Jack Kirby to cross into private hands. So, let’s say anything purchased must be from any 2020 or more recent public sale. Also, no buying a whole comic shop for $6M.

And lastly, as curator of the Schulz Museum, it’d be a conflict of interest for me to buy any Peanuts art, so there will be no Charles M. Schulz art on this list, though it’d be a dream come true to own anything by him.

Did I forget anything? Write me and let me. Ok, let’s go!

FIRST UP!

Bill Watterson

$480,000, sold Nov. 2022

This particular Calvin & Hobbes Sunday has so much going for it. We get the stars of the strip doing the classic “ride downhill in a wagon” theme having a fun conversation.

I grew up in the 1980s and ’90s, so Watterson hooked me early on and was the “cannot miss” comic strip each day. Calvin & Hobbes was the strip we talked about on the playground of Ruth Hill Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska. I begged for the reprint paperback book collections when they came out, added them to Christmas wishlists, and celebrated the arrival of each one like a long-lost treasure. I wish I would have clipped them out of our newspaper (the Lincoln Journal-Star)! The strip is still hilarious today, even though my perspective has shifted from that of the adventurous, yearning kid to that of the beleaguered and baffled Dad. My 9-year-old has discovered Calvin & Hobbes, too, and I’ve had to do *a lot* of explaining. But it’s been a lot of fun. Still, repeat after me: Calvin sometimes makes *really* bad decisions.

Bill Watterson’s originals are incredibly rare in private hands. He kept most of his originals and has since donated the collection to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University. So, the above strip is the only Calvin & Hobbes original Sunday sold since 2020. After working with Charles Schulz’s original artwork for Peanuts for a few years, I finally got to see some of Watterson’s originals for Calvin & Hobbes, and I was shocked to see they were so small! He packed a lot of fine work into that small space. His art is even more impressive now than when I first saw it growing up, though even then, I knew it was something special.

$216,000, sold Sept. 2022

Yes, I’ll have this one, too. Watterson’s dinosaurs and monsters have always been so much fun, but after I saw somewhere that Schulz admired how Watterson drew furniture, I look at that too, and admire it.

$156,000, sold June 2023

This daily, originally published on 12/30/1987, was sold at Heritage Auctions, and even in the photos they posted, the condition looks a little concerning. It’s heavily toned, and I have seen them sweeten the photos before, so I don’t quite trust it 100%, which gives me pause. However, with the promise of conservation funding at the end, I feel good diving in.

$6M – $852.000 = $5,148,000 remains to spend.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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  1. Which has a comics connection, by the way. ↩︎
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Maud the Mirthful Mule – F. Opper

Maud the Mirthful Mule by F. Opper spins in reaction to being pinched by crabs and lobsters.

I made a free mini-zine for the Santa Rosa Zine Fest this past weekend at the Northwest branch in Santa Rosa, California. This post basically includes all the contents of the zine for you. I gave them away when anyone asked about swaps, or if we just visited, or I bought a zine from them. The selection of comic panels are what I used for interior pages, and if you unfolded the whole thing, you’d see the full-color Sunday strip, like a mini poster. I had a blast seeing everyone, enjoying a little sunshine, and swapping with everyone, too.

A few favorite panels from F. Opper’s Maud the Mirthful Mule, from 1907. Frederick Burr Opper created an entire Opper-verse on newspaper comics pages in the early 20th Century. Different strips with characters as popular then as any pop culture favorite today, like Happy Hooligan, Alphonse and Gaston, Maud, and more. The dynamic drawing found in his comic strips inspires artists today.

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See below for the full strip for this panel.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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RIP Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins speaking at the 2023 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia

I did not know Trina Robbins very well, but she has impacted my thinking and my work. She was the kind of person that, after hearing her stories and reading her work, I have a deep appreciation for what she accomplished, and I wish I could have gotten to know her more and talked with her about something we share — a passion for the work of comics history.

I had the pleasure of meeting her a couple of times in the past few years. The first time I met Trina was when I joined her on a panel at FanExpo in San Francisco in November 2022. I remember it as the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and our panel topic was the centennial of the birth of Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Cartoonist and maze master Joe Wos, who organized the panel, invited Lex Fajardo, the editorial director for Schulz Creative Associates, and me (as curator of the Schulz Museum) to join him and Trina in a wide-ranging discussion of Schulz and his impact on cartooning. Trina was the only one of us to have really known Charles Schulz, bringing not only her stories of meeting Sparky (as he was known to those who knew him) but also her perspective as a Bay Area cartoonist and younger contemporary to him. It was fascinating and, of course, a lot of fun. Few people can tell the story about getting Charles Schulz to contribute a piece to a collection of cartoonists’ nude portraits.

Trina was in high demand that weekend, rushing from panel to table, signings, and other events that day. She joined us a few minutes late and had to leave the panel early for her next commitment, so I didn’t really get a chance to visit with her in that first meeting, though I got to basically sit next to her and hear her tell stories for an hour or so.

I’m so glad I remembered to bring my tape recorder with me, so I at least got audio of the panel—most of it, at least. The brand-new batteries I installed died, and I had to switch to my phone, but something went wrong—don’t try to talk on a panel and record yourself simultaneously if you can help it. At least I got a good chunk of our talk, which is now in the Schulz Museum’s archives.

The next time I saw her was at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2023, when we both had books nominated for an Eisner Award in the same category: Best Comics-Related Book. Attending the Eisner Awards is another story, but there’s a little time as people arrive and get settled in to say a few hellos. I saw her and said hello, and wished her good luck. I’m not confident she remembered me or even knew I was one of the other authors in her category, but she was very gracious. I was so overwhelmed just being in the room, so I don’t remember any other details, especially after Nat Gertler and I were announced as winning the category.

Though she was not awarded an Eisner that night (I thought she would win), her book about Gladys Parker is fabulous. Just as all of her historical work is not only well done but groundbreaking and essential reading. Comics is a rich field for study and enjoyment, enriching our lives as readers, thinkers, artists, and whole people. Trina brought that home, especially preserving, sharing, valuing, promoting, and shouting about women in comics from the rooftops.

After meeting Trina, hearing about her work, and finding her books, I looked at my own writing, my own thinking, and my own historical work and asked myself, “Where are the women?” In one project in particular that I’ve been slowly working on for a couple of years, a collection of short historical essays about the working methods of cartoonists, there were very few women initially. Now, it’s better, but there’s always room to improve. Thank you, Trina, for your work, for being wholly you.

UPDATE:

Andrew Farago compiled a wonderful collection of remembrances of Trina Robbins for The Comics Journal if you’ve not seen it yet.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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Eisner Award Nomination

Silver circle foil seal for a Will Eisner Nominee book. Features the comic signature of comic artist Will Eisner, a large letter E as the central figure, and the word Nominee at the bottom. In very small print at the outer edge of the circle seal, it reads Comic Con International Comic Industry Awards

The book I wrote with Peanuts fan extraordinaire Nat Gertler has been nominated for a Will Eisner Award by the people who bring you Comic-Con International in San Diego each year! Voting has closed for the comics publishing industry award, but it’s been a thrill just to be nominated. I’ve never won an award and tended to roll my eyes at the idea of being grateful for a nomination, but I get it now. This is a recognition of the hard work of *so many* people. I’m so proud and grateful to my team at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, our publishers Weldon-Owen, and all the fans of Charles M. Schulz, who have supported the museum and all do a part in preserving and sharing the legacy of Charles Schulz and Peanuts.

Of course, the book is still available everywhere that good books are sold, and proceeds support the Schulz Museum. You can also buy the book directly from the Schulz Museum, which is a way to support the museum doubly. You can even leave a note when you purchase to request that I sign it, and I’m happy to do that.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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Celebrate the Art of Newspaper Comics and Support a Great Cause at the North Bay Letterpress Arts — Saturday, April 22

If you’re a fan of newspaper comics and letterpress printing and live in the North Bay Area, you won’t want to miss a special event hosted by the North Bay Letterpress Arts organization on Saturday, April 22nd. The “Sunday Funnies” event will feature a conversation with Benjamin L. Clark (me), Maia Kobabe, and Andrew Mecum, the Executive Director of NBLA, about the relationship between printing, comics, and beyond.

Maia Kobabe, who was once a member of NBLA, is an accomplished author and artist who has created beautiful books. Eir graphic novel, Gender Queer, has been widely banned (boo!), bringing em major media attention, interviews, (and a new book deal).

In addition to the conversation, there will be a short movie about the subject, live printing demonstrations, and fundraising party tricks. All guests will be treated to coffee from Retrograde, tea, donuts, and other fun snacks throughout the event.

This year, the month of May is also a memorial tribute to Dennis Renault, a political cartoonist and letterpress printer who sold Eric Johnson his iron hand press. Unfortunately, Renault passed away last fall. Examples of his work will be on display at the event, showcasing his life and legacy that perfectly embodies the spirit and wit of the “Sunday Funnies” event.

The event will take place at the North Bay Letterpress Arts studio, located at 925-D Gravenstein Hwy S, in Sebastopol, California. Doors will open at 4:00 PM, with the event ending at 6:30 PM. Sliding scale donations will be accepted in person at the event, or you can donate ahead of time online. Be sure to leave a note that it’s for the event or email the organizers.

All proceeds from the event will support the mission of NBLA, which is to democratize letterpress, lower the barrier of entry, and create more access for a wider audience, especially youth in the community. This year, NBLA is generously supported by a grant from the California Arts Council, along with support from local sponsors such as Sonoma County Libraries, the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, the Cartoon Art Museum, Blackwing pencils, and Retrograde Coffee.

Join us for an afternoon of fascinating insights into the world of newspaper comics and letterpress printing while supporting a great cause. We hope to see you there!

NB: This post was partially written with ChatGPT tools.

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I have a new book out! The Art and Life of Charles M. Schulz in 100 Objects

Charles M. Schulz: The Art and Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects

It’s hard to believe, but I had a book come out on November 1st! You can get it anywhere good books are sold, but if you buy it from the Charles M. Schulz Museum, it will be signed by none other than Jean Schulz!

Working with Jeannie on the book was a very special experience. I get to work with her quite a bit developing exhibitions for the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, and for Snoopy Museum Tokyo, and she’s always happy to pitch in with research — connecting me to contacts, making ID’s in photos, and sharing memories. But this was different. We got to reflect on Sparky as an entire person together and dig into various parts of his life and personality we’ve not done a lot about at the museum for whatever reasons.

The book is almost like a visit to the Schulz Museum — 100 Objects from the museum’s collections are featured in gorgeous detailed photos, and a bit of history is shared about each, often with other supporting images of other objects that help tell the story. We also asked 50 contributors, from cartoonists, celebrities, politicians, friends, and members of the Schulz family, to share their own stories and remembrances related to these objects.

Interior spread from 100 Objects

All of us are very proud of the book, and I hope you will like it, too. It’s out just in time for the holiday gift-giving season, so if you know someone who loves Peanuts (and who doesn’t?), this is something a little different and totally new they will love. If you do buy a copy, be sure to rate and review it wherever you bought it, as it helps other fans find the book. Thank you!

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

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It’s A Podcast, Charlie Brown

It's a podcast, Charlie Brown

Good grief

So, I’ve had a drastic move in my day job: It’s been about a year since moving to California for a dream job: I’m now the curator of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. Yes, that makes me the official historian of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the whole Peanuts Gang. It’s been fantastic, but it’s been hectic in my first year here and it’s not left any time at all for much creative writing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m writing constantly … for work. We have six exhibitions per year, and I write all of them, and there have been special projects that were waiting as well, so it’s been crazy but the end is in sight.

We’ve also been busy as a family getting to know our incredible new home. Sonoma County and the Bay Area, in general, is just a very special, beautiful place, and as people who love the outdoors, it’s easy to put the notebooks aside for the weekend and just go. The beach, the mountains, the Redwoods, several hundred wineries, world-class dairies with their specialty cheese shops — it’s a lot to take in for a family of midwesterners who are used to holing up for the winter and not seeing true warmth and daylight until May.

Also, (back to work), I’ve had a lot of reading to do. Like how to do you become an “overnight” expert on a man who has had a handful of biographies, has given hundreds of interviews, and wrote and drew a daily comic strip for nearly 50 years (to the tune of 17,897 strips!) — A lot of reading. A lot, lot of reading. And to read his influences. And his acolytes. And I’m not done, by a long shot, but I think I’m starting to see the margins of life reforming where I can slip in a creative word or two outside my journal.

I’m a blockhead

It's a podcast, Charlie Brown

In the past year, I’ve been learning a lot about comics and how they fit into pop culture in the 20th Century and coming forward to now. So, in an effort to keep my bona fides current, and to be a good creative person, I’m showing my work (#showyourwork) as a sort of disciple of Peanuts fan Austin Kleon has taught in his wonderful books which really kicks off with Steal Like an Artist, his follow up Show Your Work, and the just-released Keep Going.

So, on that front, of being a good museum curator, here is my recent-ish interview for the podcast It’s A Podcast, Charlie Brown. It’s something of a monthly audio magazine for the true Peanuts fan. My interview begins around the 36:30-minute mark or so.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a museum curator.

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