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A curated $6 million shopping spree, part 4 – Syd Hoff

In which I continue my $6M Comics Shopping Spree

As you may recall, Action Comics #1 (DC, 1938) sold for $6M not long ago, breaking all previous records for a comic book sold at auction. The sale got me playing a fun “What if?” game in my head, like you do when you hear about big lottery winners. We all do that, right? You can grab a reasonable facsimile of Action Comics #1 to enjoy this comic at home and come along with me as I “spend” $6 million on one-of-a-kind original comic art. The kind of thing that museum curators (like myself) call you up to borrow. I’ll explain in more detail at the end of this post if you’ve started at this point for some reason.

Syd Hoff

Syd Hoff’s work is among some of the most recognizable and enduring illustrated comic work of the 20th Century. You’ve read Danny and the Dinosaur, right? What about the one where they visit a museum? His book about a circus elephant who is forced to make his own way in the big city was a bigger hit at our house, Oliver.

His remarkable collection of cartoons, The Ruling Clawss, which he did under the name A. Redfield for the “Daily Worker,” was recently reissued by the New York Review of Books for the first time in almost 100 years. It’s a hilarious collection, and though a few cartoons perhaps do not carry the bite they did when they were first published, it is still filled with cartoons that give me a knowing, grim grin. I should write a full review of this book, as I don’t think I’ve seen much on it in the year or so it’s been out.

So, now that we’ve acknowledged the Socialist communicator and said nice things, let’s take out the fantasy checkbook fat enough to please a budding oligarch and go shopping.

$159, sold December 2021

It feels completely out of reality that Syd Hoff’s original cartoons and illustrations can be had for less than $200. I have *seen* uninteresting art made by unknown people sell for far more. And not very many of Hoff’s drawings seem to have been sold. Perhaps because the price has been (too) low? I loved his illustrations when I was a kid, and my kid loves them today. Syd Hoff’s work is still widely recognized and beloved. If I saw something in real life that really clicked with me, I’d be very tempted to pay my real money for his work.

$60,  sold October 2020

$60, sold October 2020

Hoff sold hundreds of cartoons to the New Yorker and hundreds more to other prestigious magazines.

$2,250, sold October 2024

My name is Benjamin, so … yes, I need this one. But of course, it’s also the most expensive by far. Just my luck.

$350, sold December 2022

No, that price is not each, that’s total for the lot.

$600, sold December 2022

Another bargain, perhaps. There are apparently seven more drawings in this lot, but we’re only shown five. More examples of Syd Hoff’s work that was not for children. These also have some rather alarming condition issues with the water damage/ damp staining, but a top-notch paper conservator could probably get that cleaned up and looking a lot better, and better conserved for future preservation.  Again, I’m not worrying about that now.

If you’ve loved Syd Hoff’s work and want to learn more about his cartooning, grab that book at the top of this post and a few others of Hoff’s books, The Art of Cartooning, and The Young Cartoonist: the ABC’s of Cartooning can be found on Amazon and archive.org,

$4,755,800 – $3,480 = $4,752,320 remains to spend.

All that gorgeous Syd Hoff art would cost less than the buyer’s premium for some earlier entries. Just astonishing. To sum up the situation I have put myself in, here is a little recap:

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 upon a 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 — all $6M on comic art. I’ll throw in a Blu-Ray of the excellent Richard Prior/ John Candy movie.

I will buy art I like, not things I only see 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.

The Rules:

  • The budget must be respected — I will only spend $6M and must spend 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.
  • Lastly, as curator of the Schulz Museum, it would 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. This adds more wiggle room to my budget because Schulz’s art is not cheap! 

Did I forget anything? Write me and let me know.

Did you miss the beginning of this series? Go back here for my first post and watch me spend nearly $1 million on the art of Bill Watterson! Or maybe you’d like Part 2, where I threw a pile of money at the work of Winsor McCay!  Part 3 was dedicated to the original artwork of Edward Gorey. This post contains some affiliate links.

SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER

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

A curated $6 million shopping spree, part 3 – Edward Gorey

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 playing a fun “What if?” game in my head, like you do when you hear about big lottery winners. We all do that, right? You can grab a reasonable facsimile and enjoy this comic at home, and come along with me as I “spend” $6 million on comic art. 

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 upon a 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 — all $6M on comic art. I’ll throw in a Blu-Ray of the excellent Richard Prior/ John Candy movie.

I will buy art I like, not things I only see 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.

The Rules:

  • The budget must be respected — I will only spend $6M and must spend 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 would 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. This adds a lot more wiggle room in my budget, because Schulz’s art is not cheap! 

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

Edward Gorey

As we observe the 100th anniversary of the birth of Edward Gorey this year, I looked at my family calendar hanging in the kitchen, which is Edward Gorey themed, and I realized I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of his original art in person. I’ve seen so much of his work as book covers for all kinds of writers, as posters, and of course his own wonderful books, but not the original art. (The month of March on our calendar is the page from The Gashleycrumb Tinies, where “N is for Neville who died of ennui,” in case you were curious.) 

Granted, Edward Gorey is not a “comic artist” in the strictest sense, but his illustrations have influenced so many who have come since, and are so singular, and deeply funny, I cannot skip having him in my dream collection. And, as collecting is a deeply personal endeavor, I’m including him. So, into the auction rooms we go, paddle in hand. 

$7,500, sold October 2023

Apparently, there is not a ton of Gorey’s art in private hands. I know he was prolific, so I imagined there would be a lot of great work to choose from. Also, I am shocked at the low prices. Gorey is widely admired, and his work rarely comes to auctions. Even then, selling for very modest amounts is an eye-opener. Maybe because he is sold as “fine art” and not “comic art”? I sense that the comic art crowd would pay more for his art. I selected this piece because it makes me think of the swooning lady at the beginning of the PBS Mystery! series opening, which he also illustrated. I love that opening. 

$10,000, sold June 2021

I love boilerplate return letters from authors to fans. I’ve seen some wonderful ones over the years, and would have sworn I had a blog post about some of the postcard versions that have come to light over the years, but I can’t find it. So, I’ll put that on my idea list for another time. Gorey’s delightful return boilerplate reply is perfect. Visually clever and spilling over with details that fans would delight in, and a place for his signature. I’ve never seen one of the replies — were these made? Did he send them? 

$27,500, sold December 2021

The auction sales copy for this lot alone would have sold me on buying this piece without images of Gorey’s delicately drawn horrors and beasties. 

$20,000, sold December 2021

My very favorite Gorey project might have to be the opening for Mystery! on WGBH/ PBS. This is his drawing for a t-shirt they did for the show. According to the handwritten instructions at the bottom right, the logo goes in the rectangle. A few of these old t-shirts are available on the collector market and command premiums themselves. 

$21,250, sold December 2021

I love this piece. I love the linework, the suggestion of alternate dimensions/ realities around us all the time. That feeling you get when you wonder if you could look in a reflection and catch something unexpected. That’s part of why I love Gorey’s work. 

$10,000, sold December 2022

They’ve fallen in love, but if you squint from across the room, it also makes an evil face. Perfect for when I’ve not had my first cup of coffee and I’m not wearing my glasses yet in the morning. [chef’s kiss]

$21,250, sold December 2022

I’ve always liked a little bit of spooky fun around Christmas. It’s a moody, ghosty time of year when it feels like the barriers between here and there, and where and nowhere grow thin. Gorey’s art falls into this liminal time and space for me, and having a little pretty, bright-colored paper featuring a plant that people claim is deadly but is actually simply lovely to look at, seems about perfect. 

$4,873,300 – $117,500 = $4,755,800 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! Or maybe you’d like Part 2, where I threw a pile of money at the work of Winsor McCay!  This post contains affiliate links.

SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER

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

A curated $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 the beginning of this series? Go back here for my first post and watch me spend nearly $1 million on Bill Watterson’s art! Part 3 was dedicated to Edward Gorey’s original artwork. In Part 4, I buy everything drawn by Syd Hoff. This post contains some affiliate links.

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

A curated $6 million Comics Shopping Spree, part 1 – Bill Watterson

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.

Did you miss the beginning of this series? Go back here for my first post and watch me spend nearly $1 million on the art of Bill Watterson! Or maybe you’d like Part 2, where I threw a pile of money at the work of Winsor McCay!  Part 3 was dedicated to the original artwork of Edward Gorey. In Part 4, I buy up everything drawn by Syd Hoff. This post contains some affiliate links.

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. ↩︎