Original comic book artwork, from the boy adventurer Tintin to the cowboy Lucky Luke, is breaking into the European fine art market, fetching ever higher prices at auction, experts say.

   A 1932 oil painted for by the Belgian author Herge for the cover of "Tintin
in America" is the star item at a one-off sale of 650 comic originals Saturday
in Paris, with a starting price of 280,000 euros (440,000 dollars).

   "A museum piece. Sublime," writes the Artcurial gallery and auction house,
which is organising the sale, in its catalogue.

   The Tintin is expected to beat the world record set last year by
Yugoslav-born French science fiction artist Enki Bilal with an illustration
from his 1994 work "Blue Blood", which sold for 177,000 euros.

   "It's a booming market, we've got buyers from all over Europe. People are no longer ashamed to say they collect BD," said Eric Leroy, expert at the gallery.

   With some 4,300 "Bande Dessinee" albums (or BD -- literally, drawn strip)
published last year, France and Belgium see themselves as the art form's creative centre.

   According to the organisers of the annual Angouleme BD festival, the leading Chinese, Koreans, and North American comic artists all cite French and Belgian BD as key influences -- boosting their cult status and value in the art world.

   World leader in the field, Artcurial's annual spring auction of original BD
artwork has become a diary date for collectors.

   Comic book first editions have long been sought after at auction: in the
United States, a 1962 Amazing Fantasy comic -- featuring the first-ever
Spider-Man strip -- sold in October for 227,000 dollars, the highest ever for
a 1960s comic.

   The United States also has a vibrant market for original comic art, from
little-known artists to the big names.

   Prices for European BD artwork started to take off early this decade, with
works by Herge or the French artist Jean Henri Gaston Giraud, known as
Moebius, who created the Blueberry western series, snapped up by collectors.

   Comic book auctions attract a different type of art lover, aged 35 to 50,
many of them life-long BD fans, experts say.

   "The market is a lot more accessible than for contemporary art. It's a
collector's market for people who want to treat themselves," said Leroy, who
said public museums had yet to show a serious interest in comic artwork.
  
Other treasures up for auction on Saturday include an original ink drawing of Lucky Luke, by the Belgian cartoonist Maurice de Bevere, or Morris, at a starting price of 10,000 euros.

   A portrait of the sailor-adventurer Corto Maltese, by the Italian comic
artist Hugo Pratt, is estimated at 30,000 euros, while two original pages from a 1972 Blueberry album by Moebius are estimated at 8,000 euros each.

   But another French-based auctioneer, Millon and Associates, which opened a
BD division last year, says many top artists are still reluctant to part with
their originals.

   "Finding customers is the easy part, it's the works that are becoming hard
to find," agreed Leroy of Artcurial.

(AFP - expatica 2008)