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| Cover to Amelia Rules: True Things (Adults Don't Want Kids to Know) by Jimmy Gownley, 11 x 14 |
(Yes, I know things are bad out there, but allow me the distraction to write about something that makes me happy.)
It's not an exact science, but there's a pecking order to how expensive a page of comic art will go for. Interior pages with no major characters and lots of panels tend to be the cheapest. Pages where major heroes appear and fight scenes are further up the pecking ladder. Dramatic splash pages can get big bucks.
At the top of that pecking order tends to be covers. It's not exact, but covers to even obscure indy comics can go for hundreds. Covers for a Marvel/DC comic go for over $1,000. Covers by a recognized name artist on one of those books can go for over $2,000. And the major artists, can get $5,000 or more. For example, this Supergirl cover by Amanda Conner, which I adore, is a little out of my budget range.
I own three covers. To reassure Cathy none of them come close to $1,000, let alone what the higher end ones go for.
(I showed Cathy an auction the other day for a Bill Sienkiewicz cover from his New Mutants issues, one of my all-time favourite comic runs. It was at $16,000 with two days left. I have no doubt it went for north of $20,000. I thought she was going to have a stroke when I jokingly asked if I could get it.)
I'm pretty sure this is the first cover I bought. Amelia Rules is one of those comics I bizarrely fell in love with even though I am clearly not the target demographic. I think I first found the comic in a Free Comic Book Day issue I picked up when I hit a comic book store during a trip to Edmonton in 2004.
I was blown away with just how great the book was. It had the rare ability to be funny to both kids and adults. But at the same time writer/artist Jimmy Gownley was also touching on some topics that would resonate with kids. The lead character is Amelia McBride, whose parents have recently divorced. She and her mom have moved from New York to rural Pennsylvania to live with her aunt, who used to be a semi-famous pop star (Gownley based "Aunt Tanner" on Liz Phair) before she quit the music business under mysterious circumstances.
The books deal with the fallout of the divorce, trying to make new friends, dealing with school, handling scary moments (one of her friend's dad serves overseas and gets injured), and being occasionally too smart or clever for her own good (she's quick, which means she sometimes says cutting things she regrets later. I can empathize). They're also hilarious.
For years I recommended the books to everyone. Cathy has a complete set in her classroom. This page is one of several pieces I have from the series, including a sketch from meeting Gownley at NYCC in 2008. This page was acquired simply by emailing him, gushing over how much I loved the book and asking if he had any pages for sale. This cover was one of the options, which I snapped up.
There's actually one last curious thing about the cover. Here's how it looks in colour when it was published.
You may notice that some characters were removed, and at least one was shifted. I'm guessing they wanted more of the focus on Amelia and for the background to be a little less busy. Either way, I have a pretty cool cover, to a great book. It's one of the centrepieces on my wall.
Last Five
1. Bleeding heart - Regina Spektor
2. Through the morning, through the night - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss*
3. Believe reprise - Sloan
4. New Scotland blues - Joel Plaskett
5. Keep your heart - TV on the Radio
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