ComicConnect is proud to announce a record-breaking sale of original art from Action Comics #686, featuring an image of Superman’s dead body from the classic 1993 comic “Funeral for a Friend, Part 6.” The story was originally published as part of DC Comics’ notorious “Death of Superman” event, with the Man of Steel losing his life while battling to save Metropolis from the alien Doomsday. The rare double-splash artwork—featuring the storyline’s most prominent depiction of Superman’s corpse—sold for $80,000. This sale by the world’s premier auction house for
original comic art marks the highest amount ever paid for work done by penciler Jackson “Butch” Guice, with inks from Denis Rodier.
ComicConnect had earlier completed a $25,000 sale for a page from Adventures of Superman #498, featuring the first chapter of the “Funeral for a Friend” crossover epic. That classic comic came out just one week after Superman #75 featured the Man of Steel’s fateful final battle. The original art from penciler Tom Grummett and inker Doug Hazelwood portrays doctors attempting to revive Superman after the hero’s end at the hands of Doomsday. While initially derided as a publicity stunt, DC Comics’ decision to kill off Superman has endured as one of the 1990s’ most beloved comic runs. Much of the artwork from the “Death of Superman” stories has since been acquired by collectors, with original pages rarely coming up for sale.
“Every generation has storylines or events that become watershed moments that stick with them as readers and collectors,” said ComicConnect’s Original Art Coordinator Micah Spivak, “whether that’s the introduction of the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four, the Green Lantern/Green Arrow run by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, anything that becomes part of the history of the medium and sticks with you. For many readers in the early 1990s, it was the ‘Death of Superman/Funeral for a Friend/Reign of the Supermen’ saga that crossed titles and engaged readers at a level that is rarely seen. More than just a stunt, the story became national news, and the books followed through on their promise. These stories carried real emotional weight, and became the kind of comics that were seemingly read by everyone, collector or not. In the ensuing decades, affinity for the books, and especially the original artwork that was used to create them, has only grown, with readers who were young at the time looking for examples to represent something that had become an important part of their lives. This has made the demand for the art especially strong, commanding extraordinarily high prices seeing that much of it has been locked away in collections for years.”
Despite the scarcity of these acclaimed issues, ComicConnect continues to offer original art taken from the pages of the “Death of Superman” tale. Pieces featured in ComicConnect’s ongoing Event Auction 57 include Tom Grummett’s work from Adventures of Superman #502 (featuring the new Superboy fighting his first supervillain),
Dan Jurgens’ pivotal panels from Superman #81 (with revelations about Cyborg Superman’s evil nature), and
Guice’s Action Comics #693 page where the Eradicator takes on Superman in one of the revived hero’s earliest battles.
These rare original pieces will almost certainly maintain their place among top collectibles from the Modern Age era of comics. The legendary DC Comics—which introduced the character of Superman in 1938’s Action #1—made global headlines in 1992 with their controversial “Death of Superman” announcement. The story of Superman’s demise was ultimately told as a crossover story between Superman, Action Comics, The Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Man of Steel, Justice League America, and Green Lantern. (The storyline covered three parts, with 1992’s “Doomsday!” featuring Superman’s death, while “Funeral for a Friend” addressed the tragic aftermath; 1993’s “Reign of the Supermen” featured Superman’s return to the living.) DC ultimately sold so many “Death of Superman” comic books that copies have little value to collectors. The original art, however, remains cherished as artifacts from one of the most successful comic events of all time.
Butch Guice
