Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: deadpool, rob liefeld

Was It Rob Liefeld Trying To Sell His Deadpool Cover For $7.5 Million?

Was it Rob Liefeld trying to auction his New Mutants #98 original cover artwork with the first appearance of Deadpool for $7.5 Million?

Last year, Heritage Auctions announced that it would offer for auction the original artwork to New Mutants #98, featuring the first appearance of Deadpool and Domino, pencilled and inked by Rob Liefeld from 1990, and the seller has an asking price of $7.5 million. If it sold for that amount, it would become the single most valuable piece of original comic book art ever sold. Beating out Herge, beating out Frank Frazetta, beating out Frank Miller, beating out Mike Zeck, beating out everyone. They also stated that this was the first time the artwork had been auctioned in almost twenty years.

In its press release Heritage Auctions stated that the unnamed owner "acquired the piece almost two decades ago and has received — and rebuffed — numerous offers ever since. But given the runaway success of Deadpool & Wolverine — already a $600-million-and-counting global smash hit pairing Ryan Reynolds with Hugh Jackman for a bloody, riotous romp through the Marvel Cinematic Universe — its owner approached Heritage about offering it for sale. Says the cover's owner, "The time is right.""

The piece didn't sell, it seems. Not at that price. Not on that auction listing at least. But as to who the owner was? Well, the Heritage post on X, was screenshotted and recently reposted by Rob Liefeld this week, one year after it was posted, with him saying "Anyone got a spare $7.5 million they can share?".

But if you look at Heritage Auctions' own reply to that original post, it was a bit more forthcoming saying "But given the runaway success of Deadpool & Wolverine — already a $600-million-and-counting global smash hit pairing @VancityReynolds with @RealHughJackman for a bloody, riotous romp through the Marvel Cinematic Universe — @robertliefeld approached #heritageauctions about offering it for sale. "The time is right," says Liefeld."

So was it indeed Rob Liefeld who, rather cleverly, re-acquired the page two decades ago and is now looking to sell it again. But only for the right price. And if that's right, it does mean that, for once, a comic book creator will benefit from the sale of their artwork decades later. Also, that Liefeld bet on himself. And came up trumps.

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