Captain America Comic Collector Lands Original Art Depicting the Reimagined Character -ComicConnect.com Auction

Houston's David Chao aims to preserve non-digital works for possible future museum display.

HOUSTON, TX, UNITED STATES, June 17, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In 2012, Marvel Comics made history when one of its longtime Avengers, Sam Wilson aka the Falcon, succeeded Steve Rogers as Captain America, an event depicted in Captain America #25 (2012) and the 2019 film, “Avengers: End Game.”

To prepare, Marvel entrusted Carlos Pacheco, a legendary Spanish comics creator, to develop concept art for a new Captain America, incorporating elements from the Falcon’s uniform. After Pacheco died in 2022, his son Alejandro began sharing his father’s artwork with the world, including an art museum in southern Spain.

And now, a Houston-area comic enthusiast, David Chao, is the proud owner of a set of original concept art and preliminary sketches by Pacheco, acquired from ComicConnect.com, the nation’s premier comic book and collectibles auction site, which also brokers private sales.

He likes to collect “interesting moments in comic history,” such as the first modern Two-Face appearance, a nemesis of Batman, during the Silver Age of comics, and art by artists such as Jim Lee, Frank Miller and Tim Sale. “I’m interested in comic art that has historical significance,” Chao says. “The first redesign of Falcon into Captain America – that to me was interesting and collectible.”

“My father was incredibly proud of being the artist responsible for giving the Falcon his new powers,” Alejandro Pacheco says. “We were fortunate enough to track down the original sketches for the Falcon design, and seeing them – both from a fan's perspective and as a son – was an incredible experience.’’

Vincent Zurzolo, president of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles, inquired after the artwork when the movie “Captain America: Brave New World” was released earlier this year. “We handle millions of dollars in private sales every year,” he says. “We've enjoyed over 25 years of getting to know a range of buyers and investors, but this is the kind of sale that gets to the heart of being a comics fan.”

Original comic book art is an emerging field for collectors, says Stephen Fishler, CEO of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles.

“Artists create fine art to be displayed in galleries, sold to collectors and hung on walls,” he says. “You could make the argument that comic art has more importance and value because it was not meant to be marketed to the public.”

Much original comic artwork was tossed after publication, but enough of it still exists to be accessible to collectors at many different price points. While valuable comic books can go for hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars. Pages can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on the characters and the action on the page.

In the arena of original comic art, Fishler says, “a spot of correction fluid is not a flaw, it’s a sign that the artist was trying to make the work as good as possible. The artwork lived with its creator for as long as it took to create.”

Zurzolo agrees. “It's always gratifying to bring together a serious collector and a seller who wants to know that this art will be carefully preserved,” he says.

It is this hand-crafted quality that most attracts Chao. “So much of the traditional comic-making method is getting lost,” he says. “Many artists are now going digital, and things like coloring are being done more on computers.”

He adds that he would like to someday collaborate on a museum wing that will preserve original work so people can see how artists used tools – for example Zip-A-Tone, an adhesive screen that added texture to black-and-white drawings.

“There’s quite a lot of empty office space around here, so I was thinking it would make sense to procure one of those smaller spaces and make it into a comic museum,” Chao says. “I don’t think we have something like that in Houston, and there’s a pretty big fan base here. It would be fun to do something like that.”

Joanne Levine
Lekas & Levine PR
email us here