Will Rare Early Stage Art Of Deadpool’s Debut Shake Up The Comic Art Market?

Since the start of the pandemic, prices for original comic book art sold at auction have gone through the roof, but as the economy has cooled, will the demand continue? Heritage Auctions is about to find out with unique offering of historically-significant items by a highly-collected artist making their debut at the company’s November comic and comic art event.

The items in question are the preliminary designs that artist Rob Liefeld drew for the pages introducing Deadpool in 1990’s New Mutants #98. Deadpool was an instant breakout hit for Marvel and Liefeld, and has since become the title character in a film franchise whose first two installments grossed $1.6 billion worldwide. A third film starring Ryan Reynolds, currently in development, just announced the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

The pieces check all the boxes that make for record pricing. Pages introducing important characters are highly collectible, and Deadpool is in the elite tier of franchise characters from major publishers debuting in the past 35 years. Liefeld is one of the most commercially successful artists in recent comics history, with a huge cohort of fans in the big-spending 30s-50s collector demographic. Very few original pages from his early peak era drawing the best-selling New Mutants and X-Force comics ever come up for sale, and experts estimate the art to the published cover of New Mutants #98 would likely realize over a million dollars if it came on the market.

But the art going up for auction November 16-17 are not the final originals drawn on Bristol paper in pen and ink. These are preliminary drawings that Liefeld uses as part of his process, where he stages out the scene panel-by-panel, solves storytelling problems, figures out placement of text balloons, and maps out the overall flow of the page. They are drawn loosely in pencil, finished with ink, then blown up on a light table where Liefeld executes the final illustration on a new board, applying his trademark rendering and other flourishes. For those who only know Liefeld’s highly-stylized finished work, these process pieces are an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at how he approaches composition, anatomy and pacing.

“I’ve been working this way my entire career,” said Liefeld. “I have piles of these preliminaries and sketchbooks full of material that I draw before doing the finished pages.”

Liefeld said he discovered these particular pages when going through old sketchbooks. He had received private offers but decided he would put them up for auction and see what happens. “I wanted to let the market decide their value,” he said.

Their value is an open question because the market for comic art can be very particular. Unpublished pieces do not usually carry the same cache as finished work. For a character as popular and significant as Deadpool, Liefeld’s original concept sketch – which was previewed in a comic called Marvel Age shortly before New Mutants #98 hit the shelves – would likely command a giant price, but the piece on offer is not that original sketch (Liefeld says he is keeping it in his safe as part of his legacy to his family), and is also not the final page art. Will that matter when the bidding opens?

Dinesh Shamdasani, publisher at Bad Idea Comics and a serious collector of original comic book art, believes interest will be high. “A bunch of my friends saw the announcement on the Heritage site and lamented that ‘prelims’ are an overlooked part of the hobby by traditional collectors. This piece will publicly set off everyone’s radar, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it hits six figures.”

“We’re seeing much greater diversity in terms of approach and interest beyond only final, published art,” said Heritage Auctions VP Todd Hignite. “This feels like a continued maturing of the market, and preliminary and concept sketches are gaining a lot of momentum.”

Liefeld himself says he has lower expectations. “I’m a pessimist. My stuff doesn’t make it to market very often. A lot of those pages are buried in ‘black hole collections,’ sitting in vaults. I’m hoping this shakes the trees. It’s a roll of the dice.”

Asked whether he’d pay top dollar for comparable preliminaries from some of his favorite artists, Liefeld – himself a collector – thought for a moment. “They have historical significance,” he said. “They are process art. I collect a lot of art, primarily stuff by John Byrne and Terry Austin. When a Superman concept sketch by Byrne from 1980 went on sale, I bought it immediately. Yes, it was a preliminary piece, but at the end of the day, it’s art, and I’m a huge fan of artists.”

The preliminaries for pages 14 and 15 of New Mutants #98 by Rob Liefeld will come up for auction November 17-18 at the Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction conducted by Heritage Auctions.