Saturday, July 05, 2008

Bru's Captain America Notebook

I've been enjoying Ed Brubaker's Captain America run, and I'm totally fascinated by the writing process behind any narrative, but I can't imagine who's willing to spend thousands of dollars to own Brubaker's spiral-bound Cap notebook.

It's for a great cause--to benefit Gene Colan--and if you have the money, you should bid on this item like crazy. Raise some money for Gene!

But how high do you think this item will go? Eight days left, and it's already well over $2,000? Do you think it will crack $5,000? $10,000? What's the precedent for this kind of thing? It's the notebook that outlines the ideas for the death of Captain America, but it's not like the character is going to be dead forever.

Has any other recent comic book writer ever sold a notebook before? If this thing sells for $10,000, will other writers start supplementing their income by selling their notes just as artists sell sketches?

4 comments:

Marc Caputo said...

It would be interesting if this type of thing took off. I've gone to lots of exhibits of artwork and they were fascinating. Being more of a story man, this is more intriguing to me. I had all the Morrison X-Men in tpbs, but I bought the hardcovers because the first one included his "manifesto".

You and Chad must know how valuable this is, or you wouldn't have spent the time and energy dissecting the Superman 2000 proposal - and I'm damn glad you did! I wasn't aware of the document (but I knew of their intent); if I saw it or a facsimile/copy of it at a convention, who knows? I might have paid 25, 50 (75?) for it.

Hopefully, the winner is a real comics fan and will let it be available to a museum for exhibition.

I'd go.

seth hurley said...

Marvel could mine that thing for years, putting bits in every trade of Brubaker's run.

I hope it goes for a mint for Colan's sake.

Chad Nevett said...

I'm surprised this sort of thing hasn't popped up more. Like, really, Avatar hasn't begun releasing a series of Warren Ellis's notebooks? I know I would buy that in a second. As I've said before, one of my favourite resources is The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler, which provides some great insight into the man's mind and work.

David Uzumeri said...

Well, really, I imagine it's selling for so much specifically because of the Gene Colan thing - if I was sitting on a hell of a lot more money than I've got I'd certainly be in the bidding; it's a cool and interesting item. As to the fact that Cap might come back, whatever happens this run is going to be remembered as one of the highlights of '00s Marvel, and this is just a cooler piece of memorabilia than an old costume from the low-budget movie or whatever.