Valuation - John Hicklenton artwork

[Martin Howe]

Hi All

I was bought these as a Christmas present years ago; they were sold as signed original artwork by the late John Hicklenton at one of the regular antiques fairs in the old drill hall on the Quay in Sandwich, Kent. Please note that the thumbnails below are 400x640; the full size images are 1536x2048.

Dated 1990:


Dated 1993:


Now I have no idea how to validate the originality claims and no idea what the pictures are worth if genuine, so any help in that area would be gratefully appreciated.

Any ideas?

[Jim_Campbell]

I have a feeling that both these pages were coloured by someone else, meaning that the line work is probably supplied to the colourist as a high-quality photostat of the original Hicklenton B&W.

The lettering on that second page very much looks like a 'stat to me — once 2000AD and the Meg went full colour, the lettering was usually done on a separate acetate overlay. If it was part of the artwork, it would have created on a separate sheet of adhesive-backed paper and been stuck on to the art. Lettering of this kind almost always discolours over time, which this doesn't appear to have done...

However, someone more knowledgeable in the mysteries of original art will doubtless be along shortly with a more definitive answer!

Cheers

Jim

[Link Prime]

I'm definitely no expert, but I'd say Jim is spot on.

Very likely Hicklenton stats, coloured by Gina Hart.

[Jim_Campbell]

Very likely Hicklenton stats, coloured by Gina Hart.

Which isn't to say they don't have value, of course. These are effectively hand-coloured, one-of-a-kind prints, and they're also the only original versions of the pages that actually saw print. However, what I'm pretty certain they're not is the actual art board to which Hicklenton applied ink and process white (in extraordinary quantities, I'm sure), I'm afraid...

No idea what sort of price tag one would put on them.

Cheers

Jim

[Link Prime]

Pricing is subjective as always, but going by what I've paid in the past (Tyranny Rex hand painted by Gina Hart) and seen other such pieces for sale, it'd likely be around STG £50 - STG £100.

[hippynumber1]

It's between 3 artists who coloured these: Dondi Cox , John Burns or Gina Hart (probably the last). John rarely coloured his own work and never allowed anyone to do his originals so these are definitely coloured photostats. Value wise you're probably looking at £75 - £125 but more likely the bottom end. They are very nice by the way!

[Greg M.]

According to Barney, the colours on the second page (from 'Monkey Beat') are by Keith Page. The first page is from 'Black Widow' - no info on Barney about that, though it looks like Gina Hart.

[Frank]

According to Barney, the colours on the second page (from 'Monkey Beat') are by Keith Page. The first page is from 'Black Widow' - no info on Barney about that, though it looks like Gina Hart.

The credit is for Gina Hart, and it's obviously Gina Hart's palette.

[Martin Howe]

Fascinating stuff - thanks to all for the replies so far

I'll wait a while and by then I'll know how to describe them properly when I sell them. I never realised just what went into a panel of 2000AD.

I'm just a regular reader, not a comic expert geek

[Martin Howe]

So let me see if I have this correct...

These are photostats of John Hicklenton artwork, coloured by Keith Page or Gina Hart; they would have been used to make the masters for printing the comic.

So where did the longhand signatures on the right-hand side come from? Did John sign them after Gina and Kieth coloured them?

[Jim_Campbell]

These are photostats of John Hicklenton artwork, coloured by Keith Page or Gina Hart; they would have been used to make the masters for printing the comic.

Spot on, as far as I can tell. Not sure what the 2000AD/Meg production process was at that time, but those pages would have been scanned or camera-ed to make the negatives for the four-colour printing plates.

So where did the longhand signatures on the right-hand side come from? Did John sign them after Gina and Kieth coloured them?

I imagine someone who'd bought them asked John to sign them at a convention or other personal appearance.

Cheers

Jim

[Martin Howe]

Thanks Jim, that's very helpful

[Link Prime]

Our plan to snag a few Hicklentons for fiddy quid has almost come to fruition.

[Martin Howe]

Well, for anybody following this thread who doesn't check the board as a whole that often, they are now on sale:

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,41178.0.html

Anybody interested?

[Large48]

I think I also have the second one that you listed at the top of this thread...........

I'd have to check but I do seem to remember they were available at various cons at the time?

Anyone else got one?