Records Fall for Vintage Comic Books in Bruneau and Cos Online Comic Book and Toy Auction Held April 4

Offered were over 400 lots of rare graded comic books, key book lots, Marvel and D.C. comics and a fine collection of tin key wind, friction and battery-op Japanese robots and tin toys.

Cranston, RI, USA, April 23, 2020 -- Record prices were shattered in an online-only Spring Comic Book & Toy Auction held April 4th by Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, based in Cranston, along with Altered Reality Entertainment and Travis Landry, Bruneau & Co.’s Director of Pop Culture. Three copies of the comic book Tales to Astonish all brought record prices, for a combined $9,500.

The top lot of the auction was a copy of Tales of Suspense #39 (Marvel Comics, March 1963), graded CGC 4.5 out of 10 for condition and featuring the origin and first appearance of Iron Man. The comic book had cream and off-white pages and came housed in a 12 ¾ inch by 8 inch CGC case. It went to a determined bidder for $9,250 – a record – falling just shy of five figures.

The record-setting copies of Marvel Comics’ Tales to Astonish included Tales to Astonish #27 (Jan. 1962), featuring the first appearance of the Ant-Man, graded CGC 3.5 ($3,875); Tales to Astonish #13 (Nov. 1960), featuring the origin and first appearance of Groot, graded CGC 5.0 ($3,750); and Tales to Astonish #1 (Atlas Comics, Jan. 1959), featuring a Stan Lee story and cover art by Jack Kirby and Christopher Rule, graded CGC 4.0. The book gaveled for $1,875.

The auction was loaded with hundreds of graded rare comic books, generous key book lots, many Marvel and D.C. comics and a great collection of tin key wind, friction and battery-op Japanese robots and tin toys – 430 lots in all. Some nice original comic art also came up for bid.

“Absolutely phenomenal, that is the only way I can describe this auction,” Travis Landry said. “The bidding action for all the major key comic books was intense, with several records being broken. The first Iron Man, Ant-Man and Groot were all show stoppers. The results proved that.”

Kevin Bruneau, the president of Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, added, “Even amid a poor global economy and the insidious COVID-19 virus, the Pop Culture market stood strong. While stocks may be falling, people are investing in other tangible assets. We can’t wait for our next auction.”

Following are additional highlights from the auction. Internet bidding was facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com, Bidsquare.com and bidLIVE.Bruneauandco.com, plus the mobile app “Bruneau & Co.” on iTunes or GooglePlay. Phone and absentee bids were also taken. All prices quoted include the buyer’s premium (20 or 25 percent, depending on the platform).

Illustrator Dan Green’s original artwork for the graphic novel Doctor Strange: Into Shamballa was a single panel featuring Dr. Strange in Shamballa, surrounded by wisps of red wind with surreal biomorphic faces towering over him. The circa 1986 watercolor, with an image size of 13 inches by 5 ¼ inches, proved to be the ultimate Dr. Strange collectible. It hammered for $2,750.

Anything having to do with Spider-Man is a surefire crowd-pleaser. A copy of Marvel Comics’ Amazing Spider-Man #8 (Jan. 1964), featuring the first cover and appearance of the Living Brain, plus an appearance by the Fantastic Four, graded CGC 9.2, changed hands for $3,240.

Two highly desirable comic books sailed past their $2,000 high estimates. One was a copy of DC Comics’ Detective Comics #168 (Feb. 1951), with the first appearance of the Red Hood identity and origin of the Joker, CGC 2.0 ($2,040). The other was a copy of Marvel Comics’ Incredible Hulk #181 (Nov. 1974), featuring the first full appearance of the Wolverine, CGC 7.0 ($2,400).

Due to the Governor of Rhode Island’s orders regarding COVID-19, all Tuesday Appraisal Days and Thursday DiscoverIt auctions, normally held in the Bruneau & Co. gallery in Cranston, have been postponed until at least May 1st. Also, the planned May 2nd on-site estate auction and May 7th Pokémon and trading card auction have both been postponed. Watch the website for details.

Nevertheless, Bruneau & Co. is still accepting quality consignments for all future auctions, with commissions as low as zero percent. Now would be a perfect time to clean out your attic. To contact Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers about consigning a single piece or an entire collection, you may send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Or, you can phone them at (401) 533-9980.

To learn more about Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, please visit www.bruneauandco.com. Updates are posted often.

About Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers:
Established in 2015 by owner Kevin Bruneau, Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers is an energetic and young auction house built on the backbone of over fifty years of combined experience in the antiques and auction world. Bruneau & Co. believes in bridging the gap between antique and contemporary utilizing modern day methods to market history in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. We take pride in orchestrating specialty and single owner catalogs giving proper and factual representation of any and all “cool” items of value. As a multifaceted company our expertise goes beyond the traditional antique; we follow market trends and bring to light what the public calls for. From its beginning, Bruneau & Co. has been partnered with Altered Reality Entertainment, parent company of Rhode Island Comic Con in organizing toy, comic, and collectible auctions bringing Pop Culture to a live auction environment. Our focus on emerging markets extends to contemporary and urban art, modern design, and Asian arts. To learn more, visit www.bruneauandco.com.

Media Contact:
Travis Landry
Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers
63 Fourth Avenue
Cranston, RI 02910
401-533-9980
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.bruneauandco.com

Shannons Online Spring Fine Art Auction April 30th Features American Modern and Contemporary Art

Shannon’s recently postponed their Spring catalog and opted to proceed with an Internet-only sale. The catalog is now available on shannons.com and via Invaluable.com.

Milford, CT, USA, April 21, 2020 -- Shannon’s recently expanded their online auction program in response to the developing “stay home, stay safe” public health initiatives, postponing their Spring catalog and opting to proceed with an Internet-only sale. The online auction will take place Thursday, April 30th at 2 pm Eastern. The catalog is now available on shannons.com and via Invaluable.com.

There is no shortage of quality in Shannon’s 185-lot online auction. The sale is led by a Daniel Ridgway Knight painting titled Summer Afternoon, Seine Valley. The painting is of a young peasant woman in a colorful garden, with the Seine River visible in the background. Purchased in New York City at John Levy Galleries, the painting descended in one family for generations and is now being offered at a $35,000-45,000 estimate.

Other highlights in American Impressionism include a watercolor Ravine at Arkville, New York by Walter Launt Palmer, Horse Drawn Carriage by the Shore, Florida by Gifford Beal and Preparing the Boat by Anthony Thieme among others.

Two large-format Abstract Expressionist paintings by Milton Resnick are being offered from the collection of a private non-profit institution. Each measures over 50 inches in height and both are in original, unrestored condition with provenance from Poindexter Gallery in New York City. Ulysses was painted in 1956 ($10,000-$15,000) and Apparatus in 1958 ($12,000-$18,000), both have been in a private non-profit collection since. Also in the modernist category are paintings by Konrad Cramer, Romulo Maccio, John Little and Lester Johnson.

Quality prints have been a staple of Online Auctions at Shannon’s and this sale is no exception with two prints by David Hockney, Celia - Adjusting her Eyelash and Joe McDonald, two by Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled for ROCI and Piece for Tropic and seven silkscreens with baked enamel on steel plates by Jennifer Barlett. Fine prints by John Sloan, Reginald Marsh, Jimmy Ernst and Louise Nevelson will also be sold.

“We are fortunate that Shannon’s has the technology in place to proceed with online auctions. We are doing everything we can to continue to serve both our buyers and consignors and have found that with a few adjustments, we have been able to continue doing business. For this auction, we will be posting additional photos to our site and offering video previews by appointment. As usual, our specialists are available by phone or by email to answer any questions,” commented Sandra Germain, Managing Partner at Shannon’s.

Other highlights in the auction include a charming John George Brown, Shoeshine Boy, Three Girls on the Boardwalk, by Reginald Marsh, Morning Hunt by Eric Sloane, Marshes and Dunes at Ipswich by Arthur Wesley Dow and a Barbizon landscape by Paul Trouillebert.

The auction will start promptly at 2:00PM ET via Invaluable.com on Thursday, April 30th. A link to the sale will be available on the Shannon’s homepage. Bidding will take place live online through Invaluable.com. Absentee bids arranged by request through shannons.com or by contacting the gallery.

To learn more about Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers and the Thursday, April 30th auction, please visit www.shannons.com or follow them on social media. Updates are posted frequently.

About Shannon's:
Consignments for auctions at Shannon’s are accepted year-round. To consign a single piece of artwork, an estate or a collection, please call (203) 877-1711; or, send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The website is www.shannons.com.

Media Contact:
Sandra Germain
Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers
49 Research Drive
Milford, CT 06460
203-877-1711
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.shannons.com

New Book by Edward Daniel Hunt Penance

ADELAIDE BOOKS is proud to offer the latest work by Edward Daniel Hunt Penance hitting stores everywhere on February 24th, 2020.

PENANCE is the first book in a series of crime novels featuring retired Boston homicide detective John Gilfillan. This story is about the race to find Lori Doyle. Ten years ago, Lori, as a teenager, witnessed a killing. Today, she has established a new life for herself and her daughter in Maine under an alias. Unbeknownst to her, all that’s about to change, as some are seeking her out to do her harm and some to do her good. A page-turner to keep you in suspense until the end.

Edward Daniel Hunt’s short stories have appeared in the Scarlett Leaf Review, Down in the Dirt Magazine and Adelaide Literary Magazine. “Hit Men Have Feelings Too” was named a finalist in Adelaide Magazine’s 2018 Literary Award Contest for Best Short Story. He lives in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, within walking distance of the ocean.

 

Available on Amazon

 

For information regarding this title and its Author, or any other title by Adelaide Books, or to receive ARC reviewers copy of this book, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

New Book by Eugene Christy Arrivederci New York

ADELAIDE BOOKS is proud to offer the latest work by Eugene Christy Arrivederci New York hitting stores everywhere on February 16th, 2020.

 

It's 1899. An illegal immigrant, Tony LaStoria, just ten years old, an unaccompanied minor, lands in New York and has to make his way in the world's greatest city. Overcoming every obstacle, Tony finds a partnership to last a lifetime in his friend Harry, whose family are Jews from Vilna in the cloth trade. Manhattan, the island, is the Bangladesh of 1905.Together, in the wide-open, unregulated garment industry of that explosive time, the boys manage to become teenage businessmen by the time they're 16. Harry plays the entrepreneur, Tony, his trusted floor-manager, and the only thing that can ever come between them is--a girl named Laura.

 

Eugene Christy is a novelist, poet and musician currently enjoying retirement in his home in the Berkshires. His maternal grandparents Antonio Scioscia and Giuseppina Fabrizio came from Alta Villa Irpina, near Avellino, in the South of Italy. He has studied under Sean O’Faolain, James Dickey, and Larry McMurtry. Appearing as Gene Christy, he was previously known around the Berkshires as the singer-songwriter and accordian-player who led The Dossers, the Irish-themed pub-band trio featuring Bill Morrison and Rick Marquis. His current project, six years in the making, is called The Twentieth Century Quintet, five novels telling the saga of Antonio LaStoria and his descendants through three generations in America from 1899 to 1972, to be published by Adelaide Books, New York, in 2020 and 2021.

 

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New Book by Gregor Piatigorsky Mr Blok

ADELAIDE BOOKS is proud to offer the latest work by Gregor Piatigorsky Mr. Blok hitting stores everywhere on March 14th, 2020.

 

In the author's own words:

"YOU who read best sellers and wear standard size shoes. YOU who never take unscheduled flights and never share views of the few. YOU who spit on a chess table and don't eat Snails Provencal. YOU wasters stuffed with timetables and self-importance -- YOU will never belong to Mr. Blok's admirers. But You who are capable of seeing your own ridiculousness; You, the spirited and the ones undiscouraged by your own futility -- You, readers, will find Mr. Blok a likable fellow, who will not mind in the slightest being put aside, should he not succeed in holding your attention."

 

Gregor Piatigorsky (1903 - 1976), the famed Russian cellist, was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), Ukraine. After leaving home as a little boy, he became the principal cellist of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater at the age of 15. He escaped from the Soviet Union in 1921 in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, crossed into Germany and became the first cellist in the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler. Subsequently, he concertized extensively, married the French Jacqueline de Rothschild, had a daughter, Jephta, and came to the United States when France entered the war in 1939. He settled in Elizabethtown, New York, had a son, Joram, and became an American citizen. Renowned as a teacher, he taught at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before moving to Los Angeles in 1949; he ran a master class at the University of Southern California and turned out many of the leading cellists of the time. Piatigorsky died in Los Angeles in 1976; he is considered a legendary cellist of the 20th century.

 

Available on Amazon

 

For information regarding this title and its Author, or any other title by Adelaide Books, or to receive ARC reviewers copy of this book, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.