“I like the idea of spreading joy,” Neil Gaiman, the author of the Sandman series, said in an interview about why he is selling some of the original comic book art, toys and other collectibles he has amassed.
During the dark days of pandemic lockdowns, buying art provided a particular comfort, he recalled. Works would arrive and he would “just kvell,” he said. He remembered buying a drawing of Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet in the snow, by the British artist E.H. Shepard. “If someone comes to the house, I say, ‘Come and look at this,’ if they are the right sort of person,” he said.
He views art ownership as custodial. “It’s your job to keep it safe and hope the house doesn’t burn down while it is in your care,” he said. Then someone else can do the same, he said, and “hope their house doesn’t burn down.”
Gaiman said he was inspired by his friend Geoffrey Notkin, of “Meteorite Men” on the Science Channel, who auctioned part of his collection of meteorites and donated some proceeds to charity.
Gaiman will donate part of the auction proceeds to the Hero Initiative, which is an emergency fund for comics creators, and the Authors League Fund, which benefits writers in financial hardship; he will also give living artists whose work sells part of the proceeds. The items are on display at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, and bidding starts on Friday.
More than 100 pieces are up for sale, and Gaiman pointed to some highlights.
Watchmen Page, Original Art
Page 16, Issue No. 7 of the Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons has deep sentimental value: The creative team gave Gaiman the page to thank him for his research on the series. The page includes a panel of two skeletons embracing, now an iconic image, and a dream sequence. “It sort of presaged the fact that I would go and write Sandman, which would be the dream comic,” he said. In 1987, when this issue was published, a page would likely have sold for a few hundred dollars. Last year, a page from the series’ first issue sold for $115,625.
The Wake Test Page, Original Art
Gaiman teamed up with the artist Michael Zulli in 1995 on “The Wake,” for Sandman. “I loved Michael’s art and always felt a bit sad that nobody except me ever got to see the pencils.” (A typical page is drawn by a penciler, and then the page goes to an inker, who interprets and darkens the lines for production.) This page was used to test whether the comic could be reproduced from Zulli’s pencil drawings. It worked fine but had to be redrawn when Gaiman paced the scene differently in his final script.
Portrait of Death
This illustration of Death, one of the most popular characters from Sandman, is by Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, who died in 2012. “I’ve loved it and it’s been on my wall, but out there are people who would plotz seeing actual Moebius art and the one Moebius drawing of Death,” Gaiman said.
Swamp Thing Cover, Original Art
The cover of Swamp Thing No. 66 was given to Gaiman by Rick Veitch, who wrote the series from Issue No. 65 through Issue No. 87. His run, which told a story of Swamp Thing time-traveling, ended because DC Comics declined to publish Veitch’s Issue No. 88, which placed Swamp Thing at the crucifixion. Veitch resigned and Gaiman, who was to take over after him and had plotted stories covering three years, also quit. “Swamp Thing was the comic that got me back into comics,” he said. He added, “I was fairly convinced I was put on this earth to do Swamp Thing, and now I was resigning.”
A Christmas Card
As he considered what to sell, Gaiman tried to think of what would make others happy. “There were a few leftovers here and there from my Christmas cards over the years,” he said. This 1989 card tells a 100-word story about Saint Nicholas, with calligraphy by Dave McKean, who created the covers for the Sandman series. “I have no idea how you quantify the value of this,” Gaiman said. “But I know that it will make the people who get it happy.”
Sandman Statue
Gaiman is especially fond of his 1991 statue of Sandman (with his faithful raven Matthew on his shoulder), No. 10 of a production run of 1,800. It was sculpted by Randy Bowen based on a design by the comic book artist Kelley Jones, who worked on Sandman. “It felt like we kind of started something with these particular statues,” Gaiman said.
