There are a few 90’s comic books as influential as Superman #75, and fewer logos as iconic as the bloody S of the Superman emblem. It was the first thing a whole generation saw when they picked up their polybagged copies back in 1992.
ComicConnect is bringing some of that excitement and nostalgia to fans and collectors of the Man of Steel with their upcoming Death of Superman Event Auction, which ends this April 12th. All but 3 original art pages from Superman #75 are up for bidding, including the triple-gatefold spread that features the actual death of Superman. It also includes the memorial Funeral for a Friend poster, original art of the main cover, and original art of the bloody S logo that was on the front of the polybagged Superman #75 books.
The Beat was able to sit down with ComicConnect’s very own Harry Kassen, as well as the owner and seller of the bloody S emblem original art, Keith Veronese, to discuss how the piece of original art was bought, and get some background on the creation of the logo.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Javier Perez: How did you come about buying this specific piece? When was it, and what was the price?
Mike Sellers w/Ed Bolkus art; Bloody ‘S’ Logo; 1992; image size 11″ x 10″
Keith Veronese: I’ve had a strange path. I did a couple of books, but I’ve collected original art for about 22 years. I started pretty young, about 24, right in grad school. In 2016, I haunted the eBay buy-in listings pretty frequently. Probably checked them out about 10 times a day for original art-adjacent stuff.
We had just come back from my mom’s house. I had twin girls who were two at the time, and they wanted some ice cream. So at the Dairy Queen drive-thru, I decided to just check the eBay buy-in aisles, and it popped up.
I had been searching for a Death of Superman page. I once owned an Action Comics #684 page—the one where Doomsday watches TV, sees the DC version of Hulk Hogan, and gets a bit mad. I had sold it a couple of years earlier. As a big Death of Superman fan, I regretted that decision. This opportunity was perfect. I matched the pictures to the logo; the listing was around $1,500 or $1,400. It felt worth the risk, and I actually purchased it before we got our ice cream at the pickup window.
It was only available for about three minutes—definitely not long.
Perez: Wow, I don’t think we would see something like that nowadays
Harry Kassen: The market back then and the market right now have very little in common price-wise. The most valuable stuff has changed. The price range from the lowest-value to the highest-value items has changed drastically. We still see many people buying art directly from artists. Where prices were once $50, $100, or $200, now we see significantly higher prices upfront.
All these changes reflect growing enthusiasm and momentum in the hobby. There’s a sense that items like these hold lasting value, comparable to other collectibles, and are now recognized both for their artistic merit and their historical significance.
Veronese: Yeah, even in 2016, that was extremely undervalued. It would not have made it another five minutes on the ‘buy now’ option.
So I bought the cover, and my first thought was, This isn’t Dan Jurgen‘s signature. The seller said he got the logo from Ed Bolkus, who was reportedly a director of graphic design, or a similar role, at DC Warner Brothers at the time confirming its in-house origin.
It’s not by Jurgens or Breeding. So, I started investigating the provenance—checking previous owners and available documentation—to learn more. I didn’t show anybody the logo for about 4 years because I wanted to gather as much background information as possible.
There are two artists who handled it: Mike Sellers, who worked for DC and Marvel in the early nineties before going in-house. And then Bolkus, who had a really cool career in design and advertising, worked for several different companies.
I talked to Mike Carlin, who kind of came up with the original idea, and apparently, he thought of it at a dinner and drew out what he wanted for the logo on a napkin. And that kickstarted everything. So yeah, I like a good detective story.
Kassen: I highly recommend taking a closer look at the image on our website and zooming in to see the whiteout and the added ink, which shows it’s a different shade of black. There’s really a story being told, even without the work that Keith did to find out where this came from and who worked on it. You can see a story just there on the page of how this came to be.
It just gives you a whole new level of appreciation for the amount of work they put into it. You could see the work right there in front of you. It’s incredible.
That’s what I love about original art collecting, and I’m sure it’s the same for Keith, that you can see the work and the thought and the technique and the years of study that go into all of these things that, when you look at a comic book, can kind of feel seamless and effortless at times. And then when you look at the artwork, you actually understand all of the effort that’s going into it.
Javier Perez: Was this artwork something you’ve long considered your grail?
Veronese: Anything really from that storyline, I’m more of a hunter-gatherer. I don’t really hunt out individual pieces.
It’s more like- okay, this pops up. I like it, that fits. The whole opportunity and preparation equals luck.
Kassen: There is a dedicated subculture of art collectors seeking artwork inspired by these important 90s storylines: Death of Superman and Knightfall. There are a handful of people who have really made that their collecting project.
And for the people who collect Death of Superman, it’s been known for a long time that the majority of the artwork from Superman #75 is not on the market.
The artists each kept a page, and the editor kept one, which may have been sold for charity at some point in the late 90s. So those two pages are accounted for, and nobody knows where that one went that was sold for charity. Jurgens has one, Breeding has one, and the rest sold in 1993. It changed hands in this sort of complete form from one person to another in the early 2000s.
So that’s all been sort of locked away, which has made the other sort of surrounding issues, the death and return of Superman, very desirable because the real Death of Superman has been off the market for 30 years. And so the bloody S logo that Keith is selling has been really the only piece of art used for that book to change hands within the last 20 years.
Veronese: Harry’s exactly right about that. Anything adjacent pops up, it’s snatched up immediately for almost crazy amounts of money. And for Superman #75 to actually pop up is amazing. I don’t know if anybody ever thought that was gonna come back on the market.
Javier Perez: Could you describe how you contacted ComicConnect and the steps you took to list this for auction?
Varonese: I saw the Bloody logo they were using for the with the bloody C for the auction, and I had been kicking around possibly selling it for a little while.
So I had emailed Vincent Zurzolo, and I have talked a couple of times over the past 20 years. I was like, hey, I’m thinking about maybe selling it. Do you want to see, you know, put some feelers out for, you know, brokering a deal or doing something private?
This was last Wednesday, so he called me about an hour later and said, “Hey, you want to pop in the auction?” I literally packed for 6 hours. I was just grabbing whatever I could to pack it up and FedEx it the next morning.
Perez: To clarify, what specific parts of Superman #75 are being put in this auction?
Kassen: When the pages were first sold back in the nineties, they were auctioned complete back in 1993. The artists, Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, each kept one, and the editor, Mike Carlin, kept one as well. So there are three interior pages not present and not part of the auction, but we’ve got every other interior page, including the triple gatefold spread at the end that features the actual death of Superman, with Lois crying and the tape on the stick in the background. It also included the poster, the memorial poster with all of the heroes carrying Superman’s legacy, and Superman’s coffin that was included as well.
SUPERMAN #75: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN – FUNERAL POSTER ART Poster Dan Jurgens pencils/Brett Breeding inks; collector’s edition poster; 1992; image size 18″ x 22″
That one’s very large. It’s an 18″ by 22″ image size. Just a huge, huge board with all of these heroes and villains from across the DC universe at Superman’s funeral. It was used as a poster that was included in the polybagged edition of the book. And we’ve got the cover, which is similar to the bloody logo.
One of the most iconic images from this whole storyline. It’s just Superman’s cape tattered, flying on a stick like a flag, and then sort of sad characters gathered around it. And at the bottom, it just says ‘The Death of Superman’. It is about as striking an image as anything this book produced.
SUPERMAN #75: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN – ORIGINAL COVER ART Cover Dan Jurgens pencils/Brett Breeding inks; cover; 1992; image size 10″ x 15″
They drew it so that, on every page, the first issue of the story had six panels. And then the next one, every page had five panels, kind of counting down to the final issue, where every page was a splash page, which is just boom, full image after full image. The whole story is only 24 panels long, which is a really difficult thing to pull off.
And so it leads to these freeze-frame-style images of these huge impacts, just dynamic punch after dynamic punch. It’s all just excellent moments. Every image is fantastic on its own.
You can sort of cut from one to the next, and you can follow the story, but it all takes place really, really quickly, which contributes to the sort of immediacy of the story. There’s no time to sort of dwell on the moments.
It’s just boom, like fight after fight. It culminates in this massive triple spread that unfolds at the end of the book, showing Lois cradling the dead Superman. That commands a sort of stillness.
You get to the end, and you have to kind of sit with it for a second.
SUPERMAN #75: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN PAGES 25, 27-28 Triple Gatefold Splash Dan Jurgens pencils/Brett Breeding inks; pages 25, 27-28; 1992; image size 30.5″ x 15.75″
Perez: You mentioned that this was one of those books you always wanted to be a part of. With that in mind, is there anything exciting being auctioned off from the other pages being auctioned?
Veronese: Oh my goodness. I was bidding on some of the pages before I consigned this. So, I still might get back into it. That triple spread is classic and the cover, of course, and then the large splash during the funeral, because it was used in posters leading up to Funeral for a Friend. All three of those are amazing. I love that triple splash gatefold.
Perez: Is there anything else you guys want to add to it?
Veronese: I am so grateful for what y’all done at ComicConnect. The amount of effort and work y’all have put into this, especially in a short time, is mind-blowing.
So if anybody has any thoughts on consigning anything for future auctions or anything like that, ComicConnect, they’re going to put the work in. This is pretty great.
Kassen: All I can say is that we’re really excited that Keith offered us the opportunity to sell this logo. We’re thrilled to present it alongside the art from the actual issue.
And we’re excited to see what this does. The auction closes at 6 p.m. Eastern time on April 12th. We hope that you’ll all check it out.
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