Den of Geek and eBay Live’s Summer of Superman Culminates in DC Original Art Auction

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Five years ago, the world stopped. Things ceased moving—people, goods, money—and we all needed some help. For bookstores and their employees, one organization was there for them.

When the pandemic hit, a group of comic pros, some of whom had been working with the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC) on their first foray into helping comic shops during that year’s hurricane season, got together with the foundation and started putting their collections and talents out there to raise money for shops forced to close. A few months and 60 Jim Lee sketches later, BINC had raised and distributed almost $5 million to comic shops. And once that relationship was built, it never stopped.

Flash forward to now, and the relationship between BINC and comic shops is stronger than ever, with DC and much of the comics industry backing them up. And what better way to celebrate that relationship than with a big, huge, mega-charity auction? Just in time for the new Superman movie, you can grab a piece of original art from one of DC’s talented team of artists, featuring Big Blue and supporting all local comic shops when they need it most.

“BINC is run by a bunch of superwomen, so having Superman lead the charge was a natural fit,” BINC president Chris Morrow said of the partnership when we sat down to chat about the auction.

Den of Geek and eBay Live are collaborating on this auction, with 14 artists (and counting at time of publication) on board to donate their art. It’s got some big hitters, too—Rafael Albuquerque, Cully Hamner, Scott Koblish, John Timms, Eddy Barrows, Ian Churchill, Daniel Sampere, Joe Prado, Clayton Henry, Tony S. Daniel, Kenneth Rocafort, Ivan Reis, and Dan Jurgens are all in, so there’s a great range of white-hot current artists like Sampere or Albuquerque, backed up by the man who killed Clark Kent himself, Jurgens.

In fact, we’ve had a peek at some of these pieces, and Kenneth Rocafort’s piece is an absolute banger: it’s a polyptych with various parts of Superman’ life represented across the four pictures, along with some members of Superman’s family. Rocafort infuses his art with so much futuristic, sci-fi energy (his Ultimates 2 is an underrated classic), and this polyptych is full of that energy.

The Summer of Superman DC original art auction takes place at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Thursday, July 24 on eBay Live. In case you miss the live online auction during SDCC, you can scan the QR code throughout our collector’s digest section to access our upcoming schedule to set reminders, or view our Den of Geek Live store, where you’ll find unique and rare comics and collectibles, with portions of the sale proceeds benefiting BINC.