All I want for Christmas is...

 November 13, Artcurial, the auction house that gives you the chance to bid live online on their goodies, is selling another high profile comic art collection and they've got some fine things over there that make your heart go poom-poom.

The comic strips department of Artcurial was launched in 2005 by Francois Tajan and Eric Leroy and their World record still stands with the selling of a small Hergé original ink and Gouache. It’s 32 X 32 cm and yes, it was sold in 2008 for
€ 764.218,- Euro’s. Check it out on the left, now that’s what a million dollars looks like!

ORIGINAL FRANQUIN FOR € 40.000,- .

Well, that’s the estimated price. It’s the original page in inks (below) from Spirou issue 4 ("Spirou and the heirs"). There’s also a Spirou by Franquin for one of the magazine covers. Who said you couldn't getting rich drawing comics? Ehm.. that would be my father.

FIRST EDITION FRANQUIN.

Among all the goodies, there’s not only original art. There are also first prints of every major European comic book. The Tintin’s are going for an estimated € 7000,-.There’s of course also the original first Spirou by Franquin (featuring his story “The Tank” from 1947) in excellent condition if I might say. It’s only € 3000,- Euro’s... Who said there was an economic crisis?

If you’re interested in first print editions and your money’s tight there are still some cheaper interesting pieces though. There are some great issues of “Johan and Peewit” from 1954 by Peyo (known for his popular Smurfs, which actually first appeared in Johan and Peewit’s ninth album “The Flute with Six Holes” from 1958). They start at € 300 euro’s a piece and go on to € 4500,- for the hard covers, but if you would actually like to read any of these then you better start practising your French, ‘cause these are the original editions. Equally great are Peyo’s “Steven Strong” comic books, which go for € 150 - € 1200 Euro’s. (remember these are estimations, if you run into another collector who’s eager to get his hands on specific book prices will run higher).

ORIGINAL COMIC ART HERGÉ.

From Hergé (George Remi) there's also first draft sketched page from “The Castafiore Emerald”, Tintin’s 21st book from 1963. It's going for € 35.000,- and a beautifully finished piece from 1943 for "The Secret of the Unicorn" ,Tintin's 11th comicbook. It's inked and colorised with watercolors personally by Hergé and it's inside the first edition of the comicbook itself! Going once, going twice.... it's € 20.000,- Euros.

A lot less pricy, but still very nice, are Hubinon’s pages from Buck Danny, for merely € 800 euros they can be yours. And there’s also a very small piece of a page by Edgar Pierre Jacobs from his Blake and Mortimer story “The Necklace affair” from 1967 for only € 150 euro, There are also some original colorings from the 1950’s for several books by Jacobs going for € 150 - € 200. Absolutely awesome!

Also some nice original Lucky Luke illustrations by Morris, and again, some work by Peyo (originals for the Smurfs). Several original illustration by Maurice Tillieux for his Gil Jourdan series, which recently inspired Daan Jippes for his new series “Havank”and some great original artwork and comic pages by Uderzo hand lettered in Dutch (Asterix and others stuff).

There are also some original original pages by Greg (Michel Regnier), who also worked for Hergé and was the man who wrote “Le Thermozeró”, a Tintin comicbook that was never made, except for a few pages. If you buy everything, you could start your own comic museum right there! Anyway, check it out here for yourself. If you want the PDF it's this way.