OOPS - MAN UNKNOWINGLY MAKES PAPIER MACHE SCULPTURE USING COMICS WORTH OVER $30,000

via CBR:

When Andrew Vickers discovered some old comics in a dumpster, he transformed them into a man-sized (and -shaped) papier maché sculpture. And then he learned those comic books could have been worth nearly $30,000.

The sculpture, called “Paperboy,” on display through Thursday in Sheffield, England, includes the first issue of The Avengers, which on its own might’ve been worth as much as $15,000 on its own. Y’know, before it was torn apart and pasted to a chicken-wire frame.

World of Superheroes owner Steve Eyre recognized the cover of 1963’s The Avengers #1 on “Paperboy’s” inside-right leg.

“I’ve got a copy of that, which was published in 1963, that is worth well over £10,000,” the retailer tells BBC News. “Then I started looking and there are six comics on this that together would be worth, even in the condition you can see, £20,000. “I lost sleep thinking about the sculpture and he built it up from lots of different layers so I dread to think what is underneath... It would have been cheaper for Andrew to make this out of Italian marble because the raw materials that have gone in to it I could have sold for a lot more than he is going to sell this statue for.”