Arnold, Jim :: ...The Goofs, The Banned, The Unpublished...dare you turn to...Page 23!!!

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 Cover

Artist: John Byrne (All)

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Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 Cover Comic Art

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Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 Cover THE FLIP SIDE DUDE!!!

Artwork Details

Title:	Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 Cover
Artist:	John Byrne (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Cover
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	968
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	3
Added to Site:	10/4/2010
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Today class, we will learn about three new words in comic art lexicon, opportunity, provenance, and stupidity, The first word, "opportunity", deals with whe you locate a piece of original comic art you want (like, need, can't like without) you had better take the opportunity to get it while you can. This featured page is by John Byrne. That's right, THAT John Byrne. This is actulally the cover to the first FULL comic he ever drew while he was working at Charlton Comics. Mr. Byrne came to fame in the early 80's with the continual revitalization of The X-Men up thru the "Dark Phoenix" Saga. The interesting items about this particular page, as most collectors know, old (or new for that matter) John Byrne art can go for several THOUSAND dollars in today's market. I paid $500.00 for this nearly 30 year old page a year or two ago. Guess it goes to show that characterization beats history every time in comic art pricing. The other interesting item about this page is, IT SHOULD NOT BE THE ONE FEATURED FOR THIS ISSUE OF PAGE 23 (DU...du...DUUUUUUUUUUU)!!!

The second word we learn for today is "provenance". In comic art terminology (or all collecting terminology), provenance refers to the buying/selling history of a particular page of comic art. Many collectors like to keep a list of the previous owner of a piece of comic art, or add themselves to the history of a particular famous page as it is bought or sold. So you are about to learn the provenance of Uncanny X-Men #108 pg 7 by John Byrne inks by Terry Austin � Marvel Comics 1977.
WAAAAYYYY back in 1987, I purchased this page from the comic book store The Great Escape in Nashville, Tennessee. Back in the 80's, this was one of the greatest comic book stores in existence in Tennessee. This place had rows and rows and tables and tables of quarter boxes. You could spend all day going thru the boxes and come out with hundreds of great comics for less that $20 bucks. It still exists today and still sells comics, but most of the quarter boxes have been replaced with rows and rows and tables and tables full of CDs. Anyway, back in 1987, I remember going to this store to purchase issue #1 of Superman. DC had hired Mr. Byrne to "revitalize" all the Superman titles after "Crisis on Infinite Earths". He was also given the honor (instead of being paid money, I guess) to start off a new run of Superman at issue #1. When I went to buy this comic, the above X-Men page was hanging on the wall, for sale, for a mere $125.00 (didn't seem so mere back in 1987)!!! So I purchased this page, and that is the provenance of how this ar was freed from the wall of a Tennessee comic book store a quarter century ago. This page is actually displayed at comicartfans if you want to look it up. The present owner never got back to me on how he aquired or it for what price. Although, as I close this issue of �Page 23�, we also close it with the third word, "stupidity". This page from X-Men #108 is from the VERY FIRST ISSUE of X-Men that John Byrne worked on. And remember, as I said, many old John Byrne pages, especially X-Men pages from the Phoneix Saga, go for several THOUSAND DOLLARS (I'm talking five figures here) today!!! Well, back in my early comic art collecting career, I had a bad habit of trading or selling pages soon after I got them, AND I TRADED THIS PAGE AWAY!!!!! AUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!! I don't remember where, I don't remember when, but sometime in the 80's, this page left my collection (probably for a bag full of magic beans). So, for the person who owns this page now from the first John Byrne issue of X-Men featuring the Phoenix, you can thank me for the "opportunity" I had to create a "provenance" for this page by freeing it from the wall of a Nashville comic books store 23+ years ago. You can also thank me for the "stupidity" of trading it away (beans didn't even work)!!!

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About the Owner

	Jim Arnold
Joined:	February 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Website:	http://www.grailpage.com
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TIM TOWNSEND
Member Since 2004

Posted on 10/5/2010

Several thousand dollars is entry level for "classic Byrne art", particularly X-Men related. There have been pieces that have broached the 6 figure mark. Cool cover, BTW!

Jim Arnold
Member Since 2005

Posted on 10/5/2010

Yes, I have seen a few page from Byrne's X-Men run started at $6,000.00 plus, and at least one page from the Dark Phoenix run listed for $45,000.00 plus, so as previously stated...AUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!! Not the stupidest thing Ive ever done in my life, but give it a few years for the price to go up, and it will be. The most likely senario is I sold it at the Atlanta Fantasy fair (may have been the precursor to Dragon*Con) to a dealer in 1990 to buy all the art from a complete issue of "The Question"...that I still have.

Eric Callen
Member Since 2005

Posted on 2/6/2012

This is AWESOME!! I still have my old copies of these issues. Thanx for the trip down memory lane!

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