Tim Burton (1958)

The Genesis of Gothic.
Before he became the patron saint of the macabre, Tim Burton was an anomaly inside the Walt Disney Company. Hired in 1979, he was granted a rare freedom: a year to simply "draw."

This concept piece for the 1985 cult classic The Black Cauldron is a snapshot of that incubation period. The Burtonesque DNA is already undeniable here: the spindly limbs, the grotesque charm, the delicate balance between the eerie and the endearing. It documents the exact moment Disney realized Burton's talent was too idiosyncratic for standard animation and unleashed him as a concept artist.

Why it matters: A signed original from the birth of a visionary. You are not just buying a sketch; you are buying the early draft of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands. At this estimate, it is an accessible piece of cinema history.