Beat readers were divided over the $600k sale of recognized Pop Art master Mel Ramos’s painting based on a Gil Kane cover. So here’s a little cosmic balance: The art for the cover of WEIRD SCIENCE #16 has sold for $200,000:

A major, sophisticated collector of comic book art has paid $200,000 for the original cover art of a 1952 horror/science fiction comic in a transaction brokered by Heritage Auction Galleries, the Dallas-based firm announced. Wally Wood’s cover art for Weird Science #16 (EC Comics, 1952) had been the property of another private collector.

“This the highest price we’re aware of for a single comic art page,” said Jared Green, Vice-President of Business Development for Heritage, who negotiated the terms of the sale on the owner’s behalf. “Then again, this cover had everything the collector looks for: a highly collectible artist in the talented Wally Wood, rendering what is considered by many collectors to be the most striking cover scene of his entire career. EC’s publisher Bill Gaines reportedly said that their bestselling issues were the ones that showed boys in trouble, so this comic with its menacing aliens must have flown off the stands.”

When you put it that way, it’s quite the bargain. (Via Tom.)