Just to end this on an up note, Newsarama has a really nice story about an auction to benefit a scholarship founded in honor of Sam Loeb, the late son of Jeph Loeb.

“I was thinking maybe $25,000,â€? Jeph Loeb said on Sunday when asked by Newsarama about how much he figured the Sam Loeb Charity Auction of the original art from Superman/Batman #26 would bring in. “If I didn’t have to be conservative in an estimate beforehand, I would’ve thought maybe $40,000. I figured we’d sell the Jim Lee piece; we’d sell the Arthur Adams one – the obvious ones. But the Mike Kunkel page went for $3600 dollars. We could never have guessed that.â€?

By the time it was all said and done, a member of the audience, who’s been keeping track of all the pieces and the cumulative total handed Loeb an index card with all the final prices on it, along with the grand total: $72,050.