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Dave Sim Cerebus and Glamourpuss Original Art to Be Auctioned

Published Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:30:44 -0600

Dave Sim's original artwork does not come up for sale very often. But he is selling some of his Glamourpuss artwork for a new comics artwork sale at Heritage Auctions. Glamourpuss saw him take a less cartoony and more photorealistic style, as he began working on The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond, which mirrored Raymond's own approach to work. Here are some examples of the original artwork up for auction right now, with more pages, including the original art for the cover to Cerebus #15, to be revealed over the next few days. Here's what he has up so far.

Dave Sim glamourpuss #18 Page 17 Illustration Alex Raymond Original Art (Aardvark-Vanaheim, 2010). We auctioned the 5-11-46 Rip Kirby strip from "The Hicks Formula" storyline — which was featured in the 8-20-46 LOOK magazine article "Cartoonist at College" — in 2009 for a record Rip Kirby price of $5,675.00. So, it's interesting to offer this piece done by Sim, adapted from one of the "Cartoonist at College" photographs. Dave Sim writes: "This is when it started to get more intense. The 37-year old, married with five kids Raymond visiting Connecticut University to draw various co-eds for the second Rip Kirby storyline, 'The Hicks Formula'. Jeanne Decker, the student 'model' doesn't look remotely like Honey Dorian who Raymond could draw in his sleep. But who is understandably pleased to be photographed for LOOK magazine. This is, I think, a lot of what led to Alex Raymond's death. You can't fool what I've come to call 'Comic Art Metaphysics'." The art is pen and ink on 11" x 17" S-172 Bainbridge illustration board. Signed by Sim in the upper right. In Excellent condition. Current bid $575

Dave Sim glamourpuss #18 Page 14 Illustration Alex Raymond Original Art (Aardvark-Vanaheim, 2010). Adapted from a photo accompanying "A Modern Jules Verne" (1941) of Raymond with 17-year-old model Patricia Quinn, Dave Sim wrote in glamourpuss #18: "Had Raymond borne a closer resemblance to his self-portrait (seen here) which was how he envisioned himself six years later, his right forearm might have had better success (i.e. invading Quinn's personal space) …Alas, a mansion, Citizen Kane-sized fireplace and a pile of fan mail (one of the photos depicts Raymond sprawled on the floor reading his fan mail) doth not, of a pudgy, middle-aged suburbanite cartoonist, Errol Flynn make." Ten years later, Sim writes for Heritage Auctions, "It took me a long time to render any photorealistic image, so an unexpected side effect of that was seeing different layers of meaning the longer I worked on a picture. On a surface level it's exactly what it appears to be: a cute, period-piece Hearst newspaper 'pretty girl' photo, but Raymond's body language relative to Quinn's is sincerely creepy." The art is pen and ink on S-172 Bainbridge illustration board with an 10" x 16.5" image area. Signed by Sim in the upper left. In Excellent condition. Current bid $290.

Dave Sim glamourpuss #15 Page 21 Illustration Bob Lubbers Original Art (Aardvark-Vanaheim, 2010). We're finding that almost as interesting — and sometimes more interesting — than what's in The Strange Death of Alex Raymond is what isn't in The Strange Death of Alex Raymond . Dave Sim explains: "One of my favorite sequences in glamourpuss was documenting over six pages in Issue #15 all my detective work in figuring out which 'Heart of Juliet Jones' strips Drake had been working on when Alex Raymond interrupted him to go and get his new Corvette on 9-6-56. I decided it was 10-26, and 10-17. That will be in the online annotations, but I couldn't afford six graphic novel pages for that. Or this capstone page where I enthused about Bob Lubbers' ability to do a very creditable Stan Drake imitation on short notice while keeping his own work, ghosting Secret Agent X-9 (as Bob Lewis, bottom panel), on schedule (although he's better known for his work on Tarzan, — see top panel — from 1950 to 1954). For which, evidently, Stan Drake rewarded him with a set of hand-made golf clubs. I was very happy with my portrait of Bob Lubbers both as a likeness and as an illustration. Lubbers passed away at age 95 in 2017, so I've added his birth and death dates to the piece." This piece is pen and ink on S-172 Bainbridge illustration board, with an 10" x 15" image area. Signed by Sim in lower right. In Excellent condition. Current bid $575.

Dave Sim glamourpuss #1 Page 15 Illustration Gandhi Original Art (Aardvark-Vanaheim, 2008). We're huge fans of comic art photorealists (Raymond, Drake, Williamson, Adams, et al) so we're definitely looking forward to Dave Sim's The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Vol. 1 from IDW. Here's where it began, with Sim's fashion parody title, glamourpuss. Dave Sim writes: "This is basically me asking back in 2008, Okay, how good IS digital reproduction these days? Gillott 290 Neal Adams style cross-hatching on Gandhi's cheek and far denser Al Williamson-style cross hatching on glamourpuss' outfit than Williamson would ordinarily use, to see how much of the detail would fill in to solid black. None of it, as it turned out. Which set the 'detail bar' very high for my informal 'History of Comics Photorealism' which later became 'The Strange Death of Alex Raymond'. Ten-plus years later, I'm about ten pages into Vol. 3 with no end in sight. All of the folks at Heritage have been big supporters all along, so I'm glad to offer these 'story behind the story' pages to help finance the painstaking work which continues at roughly a page a week pace." The art is pen and ink on S-172 Bainbridge illustration board with a 10.25" x 15" image area. Signed by Sim in the lower left corner. In Excellent condition. Current bid $575.

Dave Sim glamourpuss #11 Double-Page 14-15 Illustration 1979 Corvette Original Art (Aardvark-Vanaheim, 2010). Another two-page spread from Issue 11's humor feature "Classic Corvettes in Crisis". Dave Sim writes: "This was the second of the three red Corvettes in that issue. Here on the 1979 Corvette, I had learned from inking the 1959 to do less rendered detail on the upper part of the hood — just leave that white — and greater emphasis on the solid black reflections on the side of the car and a black contour area defining the front of the car. That made it look to me like a red car rendered in black and white." The art is pen and ink on S-172 Bainbridge illustration board, with a 15.5" x 10" image area. Signed by Sim in the lower left. In Excellent condition. Current bid $975

Dave Sim glamourpuss #11 Double-Page 10-11 Illustration Classic Corvette Original Art (Aardvark-Vanaheim, 2010). Like all of the Dave Sim work offered in this section, this illustration from The Strange Death of Alex Raymond Vol. 1 from IDW was originally published in Sim's comic glamourpuss. This is a two-page spread from issue 11's humor feature "Classic Corvettes in Crisis". "Much too fast; No one could tame these little red love machines" read the cover copy. Dave Sim writes: "I thought Prince's 1980s hit 'Little Red Corvette' was, metaphysically, about the September 6, 1956 car accident that claimed Raymond's life. 'I'd better teach myself how to ink a red 1950s Corvette.' It was a couple of years later that I saw from the news photo of the crashed car that it had actually been white. D'OH!!!" Sim's mistake is some lucky Heritage bidder's gain as there is an incredible amount of detail in the red metallic textures translated into black and white. The art is pen and ink on S-172 Bainbridge illustration board with a 15" x 10" image. Signed by Sim in the lower left. The art is in Excellent condition. Current bid: $975.

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