This is a good one:
eBay: Neal Adams BATMAN #232 ORIGINAL ART, FIRST Ra's Al Ghul
Winning bid: US $27,300.00
Seller: greenarrow2000( 717)
Here's the Description:
"Here it is, the legendary original comic artwork for Batman #232, page 4-the very first panel appearance of the classic villain Ra’s al Ghul- by the great Neal Adams. Ra’s literally walks into Batman’s life for the first time, with his guard Ubu, a photo of his daughter Talia, and a mystery for the Darknight Detective. Published in 1971
"Batman’s “rogues’ gallery” (to borrow a term from the Flash) is widely considered to be the best in all comics, with Ra’s, Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler, among others. Only the Joker, however, could be argued to have as deep significance to the Batman mythos as Ra’s. When the Batman movie franchise was relaunched, Ra’s Al Ghul was chosen to propel the legend into a new millennium. In terms of Batman continuity, then, this page stands as one of the greatest moments you will ever see offered. Read the dialog, look at that portrait—it is a perfect character introduction page. We can only wonder if the original pages for the first appearance of the other great Batman villains even exist!!!
"As for the artist, Neal Adams, his stature and influence are unsurpassed. His innovative page design and his dynamic photo-realistic style shook up the comics’ scene- and now make his originals the “Holy Grails” of comic art.
"Adams art rarely turns up for sale, important pages more rarely still. This one-of-a-kind original has been in my private collection for decades; once sold, it may not surface again for a generation. As the image shows, it is in excellent condition, with only minor, standard flaws typical of age and origin. The first, second and last panels have lettering edits held in place by tape on the reverse side.
"I purchased this page over 20 years ago from a reputable comic shop that has been in business for decades, in fact it was the first piece of original artwork I had ever bought. The shop had 2 pages from the same issue. A fellow collector, which I still keep in contact with, purchased the other, and years later, showed it to Neal and he offered to sign it. My page was offered on eBay previously in November 2005, but was removed due to questions over its ownership. All pages from this issue are listed on Neal Adams’ site as among the hundreds of the pages that were discovered “missing” from the offices of National Periodicals Publications (now DC Comics) in the early 1970’s when they were in the process of returning artwork to the artists. It was speculated that these hundreds of pages of artwork, mostly by Neal Adams, were “misplaced” during an office move. For years Neal claimed that this artwork was stolen, and listed it as such on his website. The April 14th 2000 edition of “Gotham Weekly News” published an article titled “Neal Adams Calls Off Hunt”. In the article it quotes a statement posted by Neal on his own website two days prior. The quote is as follows “It has become apparent to me that after a reasonable but incomplete investigation, that my artwork has passed through enough hands that the guilty are now so far from my originals and the innocent have now acquired them honestly. To go through this process any further would be bad for everyone, so I herby call off my attempts to retrieve my once stolen artwork. If you have any, as far as I am concerned, you may keep it.” In an interview he gave Wizard for Wizard #0, 2003, he reiterated his stance stating “By now, the art’s changed hands so many times that the people who own it obtained it through legal channels.” He says “They aren’t responsible… I can’t just take it back from them. Bless them.”"
Here's the page:
