The images were darling, these action figures drawn from a comic book’s page and in a child’s hands. The boy who drew them had written his name neatly and cleanly on each page of the single-sheet images lying on the trays at the auction house.
Eugene.
They were the drawings of any child who has ever been enamored with comic-book action heroes and their super powers – done in vivid color and with grand imitation.
Green Lantern in green. The Flash in red. Hawkgirl in black mask. Thor in blue. A green Tyrannosaurus rex devouring the Flash. Captain America.
The drawings seemed a little out of place among the cigarette lighters and other adult items until I saw two trays with Boy Scout pins and badges. I assumed they all had belonged to Eugene.
Although precious, I wondered if anyone would buy them. Any parent with a child has seen these drawings before, even slapped them on the refrigerator with a magnet. They were usually done at an age when children still believed in good over evil, and counted on their action heroes to save the day. Or when they thought they were talented enough to copy the figures from a DC Comics or Marvel Comics page.
Eugene wasn’t much different from the adult artists whose works dot the walls of most of the auction houses I attend. Even on this day, the back wall held several canvases by a woman whose name I was not familiar with. She was someone who expressed herself in pastels and likely painted just as much for herself as for anyone else.
At auction, even the most amateurish of works are sold for a couple dollars – and sometimes even more because some of the artwork is actually good. The bidders – who are primarily resellers – have learned that art is relative: You never know what message or image will strike a buyer.
I wondered how Eugene’s drawings ended up at the auction house. And how old were they? Most of the items I see at auction are vintage and straight out of someone’s estate. Was Eugene the child who gave the drawings to a parent who’s no longer around? Or was Eugene that parent?
One of the trays contained a drawing of O.J. Simpson as a Buffalo Bills running back, along with illustrations of the helmets and logos for the Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and a few other teams.
Exactly how old were these drawings? I Googled to try to figure out the date:
Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkgirl have been around since the 1940s, and Thor a decade or two later.
O.J. was picked up by the Buffalo Bills in the 1969 draft and traded to the San Francisco 49ers about eight years later. These obviously were done when O.J. was extolled for his prowess on the football field and not later when he was on trial in the murder of his wife in 1995. I’d say these images were more than 30 years old.
Once they came up for auction, the drawings, understandably, didn’t create much interest. The auctioneer could barely give them away. Finally, some brave soul – probably in an effort to move the auction along – bought the trays at $2 each.
To us at the auction house, they may have seemed valueless, but once, I’m sure, they were priceless to Eugene.
