This week I’m going to take a break from my series on pulp collecting in order to report on some of the actual sales of notable REH collectibles over the last month or two. This is something Leo has done in the past and I would like to make it regular feature.

Of course, the biggest news in recent weeks was the November 11th sale of Frank Frazetta’s painting “Berserker” for $1,000,000, as reported here by Deuce Richardson. This original oil painting is perhaps better known to REH fans as the one used for the cover of Conan the Conqueror in the Lancer/Ace paperback series. It is almost a certainty that this is the most money ever paid by anyone for any REH-related collectible of any kind. Ever. It’s hard to imagine any other REH item topping it, except of course for another of Frazetta’s Conan covers.

This seven-figure sale puts Frazetta in rare company. Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth are, to my knowledge, the only other modern commercial illustrators to have cracked that million-dollar barrier. To put this Frazetta sale in perspective, only last week the original Wyeth painting for the cover of Robinson Crusoe sold at auction for $722,500.

Barry Windsor-Smith page from Conan #9 sold for 6,572.

While not in the seven-figure range, other REH-related original art has been selling strongly as well. Heritage Auction Galleries’ 2009 November Signature Comics and Comics Art Auction featured several nice pieces. A Barry Windsor-Smith panel page from Conan the Barbarian #9) went for $6,572.50.The page is from the adaptation of “The Garden of Fear” which Roy Thomas converted into a Conan story. Another Smith piece, this one an unpublished pencil sketch of Conan sold for $2,868.00

Splash page from SSOC #5 by Buscema and DeZuniga.

John Buscema’s Conan art is always a hot seller as well and there were several of his pieces in the Heritage auction. Most notably, his title splash page for “A Witch Shall Be Born” from Savage Sword of Conan #5 (inked by Tony DeZuniga) fetched an impressive $3883.75. A Buscema panel page from Conan the Barbarian #43, inked by Ernie Chan and featuring Red Sonja, sold for $1015.75.

On eBay, a stunning Buscema page, inked by Alfred Alcala from the “People of the Black Circle” adaptation in Savage Sword of Conan #19 sold in mid-November for $2125.00. Many fans and collectors consider Buscema and Alcala’s combined work on the early issues of SSOC to be some of the finest Conan comic art ever done.

One last piece of art that I would like to mention is the cover for the Dark Horse Comics Conan and the Jewels of Gwahlur hardback by P. Craig Russell, which sold at the Heritage auction for $1434.00. Russell’s art has a different look than some of the other better-known Conan artists and perhaps he is an acquired taste, but I have been a fan of his style since I first encountered it in the early 1980’s with his work on Roy Thomas’ Elric comic adaptations.

A copy of Always Comes Evening sold for $1250.

In the world of REH book collecting, the three volumes published by Arkham House are certainly some of the most sought after, and of those three the rarest and most expensive is the 1957 collection of Howard’s poetry, Always Comes Evening. In early November, a beautiful fine copy in a near fine dust jacket sold on eBay at the Buy-It-now price of 1250.00. This copy, one of only 636 printed, also had a signed, typed letter from Glenn Lord tipped in. The three Arkham house books, which also include Skull Face and Others (1945) and The Dark Man (1963) are usually very good sellers in high grade, but examples in lesser condition or absent the dust jacket can be tough to move.

This copy of Night Images sold for $250 on eBay.

Two copies of Night Images, the 1976 limited edition collection of Howard poetry illustrated by Frazetta and Richard Corben. The nicer of the two sold for $250 and the other, which had some damage from improper storage, sold for $74.

The Gnome Conan volumes have been slow sellers, even in high grade, unless priced at a discount or sold in an auction format. The Donald Grant editions sell fairly well if reasonably priced, most of them fetching prices in the $30-60 range for nice copies. The exceptions to this are the Conan volumes which are difficult to sell unless heavily discounted.

A high grade copy of Weird Tales from December 1935 fetched $537 at auction.

The Wandering Star editions continue to be sluggish sellers, despite the pending publication of the long-awaited third Conan volume. All of the editions, with the exception of The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, can usually be acquired for less than cover price. And even the Solomon Kane volume usually sells for a good deal less than it did six or seven years ago.

Pulps with REH content are usually strong sellers, particularly the Weird Tales issues with Margaret Brundage covers. A high-grade December 1935 issue of Weird Tales sold at the Heritage auction for $537.75. This issue contains the first part of “Hour of the Dragon” and the cover is one of only three that depicts Conan himself (albeit possibly one of the worst depictions of the Cimmerian ever published). Heritage graded this copy a Very Fine 8.0, but they use comic book grading standards for pulps; this would translate to approximately Fine in pulp grading terminology. In any case it is one of the better copies of this issue to come up for sale in some time.

Flagellation is always a hot seller. This issue went for $317.

Another Weird Tales with a REH cover story, the September 1933 issue, sold on eBay for $317.77. This highly sought-after Brundage cover depicting the flagellation scene from “The Slithering Shadow” (better-known today by Howard’s original title, “Xuthal of the Dusk”), is one of her best known and most notorious works. Judging from the descriptions and photos, the issue appears to be in approximately Good to Very Good condition, with a small amount of glue repair at the base of the spine.

Also on eBay, a nice copy of the April-May 1931 issue of Weird Tales sold for the strong price of $250. This issue contains the REH story “Children of the Night”, but much of the interest in this issue comes from the classic “Yellow Peril” cover with the stereotyped Fu Manchu-style villain. A Very Good copy of the June 1936 issue of Thrilling Mystery, containing the Howard yarn “Black Wind Blowing,” that had sat on eBay for a number of months with a BIN of $225, finally sold when the price was reduced to $200. Another copy of Thrilling Mystery, the February 1936 issue with “Graveyard Rats,” sold for $125.

This CGC 9.6 Conan#1 went for $1000 at auction.

In REH-related comics, the only issues that are seeing any real increase in value are the first 24 issues of the original Marvel series Conan the Barbarian (with art by Barry Windsor-Smith) and only high grade certified examples at that. Last September saw a record breaking sale for a Conan comic book – a CGC NM/MT 9.8 Conan the Barbarian #1 sold for an unprecedented $8,300.00. That same book had previously sold in May of 2007 for $3,983.00. Someone made a tidy profit on that sale, more than doubling their money in a little over two years.

If an original Frazetta is not in your budget you might consider this Conan statue as an lower-priced alternative.

A CGC NM+ 9.6 Conan the Barbarian #1 sold in November in the Comiclink Featured Auction for $1000.00. This was actually a low final price; other examples in the same grade had been selling in the $1400-1600 range for most of the year. A CGC NM 9.4 copy also sold in November for $510.00, which is about the average price for that grade. (Source for comic sales data: GPAnalysis)

Other issues in the BWS run range from about $400-1000 in CGC 9.8, $175-$225 in CGC 9.6, and $75-125 in CGC 9.4. The early issues, the two square-bound issues (#10 and #11), and the two Red Sonja issues (#23 and #24) tend to sell at the higher end of that range. Issues #17 and #18, which have no BWS art, sell at the low end. The two Red Sonja issues had been hot books for the last couple of years, after the launch of the new Dynamite! series and with the upcoming Rose McGowan movie, but they seem to be cooling off as of late.

Finally, I’d like to close with an item that should give some hope to those of us who do not have the descretionary income required to purchase an original Frazetta Conan painting. The C. S. Moore studio has produced a outstanding statue based on Frazetta’s “Berserker” painting, one of which sold this month for a mere $249 – a steal at 1/4000th of the price of the original.

Next week, I’ll continue my series on pulp collecting, but until then good luck and good hunting!