Sideshow Bob

2 minutes ago, Taurus Auctions said:

Thanks for the input and critique - we're certainly not error-proof and have made corrections where necessary. Anything else?? 

In the future, maybe don't lead with "As far as the signed illustrations and original art, we have only named and specified works and artists where we are absolutely certain will hold up under the highest levels of scrutiny and certification standards" and then claim you're "certainly not error-proof". 

On 1/3/2019 at 7:06 PM, Taurus Auctions said:

Steve here from Taurus Auctions. I'd like to address some concerns raised on this thread - first and foremost by acknowledging that they are completely legitimate and understandable. We have been dealing in the antiques and collectibles market for many years, but are relatively new to the world of online auctions. Our first auction was held in October of 2018 and was hugely successful with only outstanding reviews and feedback. The comic art and graded books found in our current auction on Live Auctioneers come primarily from one collection. We have thoroughly reviewed and investigated the entire collection and stand by the integrity and authenticity of each and every item 100%. The CGC books speak for themselves. As far as the signed illustrations and original art, we have only named and specified works and artists where we are absolutely certain will hold up under the highest levels of scrutiny and certification standards - including PSA, JSA, etc. 

We're excited about participating in the comic art community and welcome any and all questions, comments, feedback, concerns, etc. Please don't hesitate to call our office during regular business hours at (551) 775-1336 or reach us anytime via info@taurusauctions.com, Instagram, Facebook or our website. (Our site is a work in progress so please bear with us

Check out our current auction - Sunday, January 6th at 1pm. Now available for viewing and pre-bids at - https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/132943_2019-galactic/)
 

Hard pressed to believe this is a Mike Grell illustration... I'm looking specifically at, say, the signature. Or the art.

If you're looking at the inking on the arm as your Mike Grell signature, that's just texture on the arm. Find out who wrote the APR under the arm. Mike's signature would look more like this: 

11 hours ago, Oddball said:

OK, I absolutely LOVE this page.

The frozen hat in midair in the foreground is a nice touch. Plus, living in NYC, seeing a well-drawn rooftop water tank warms my cold heart.

Don Newton - Detective #520, pg 3  $59 (2018)

On 12/6/2018 at 2:33 PM, mister_not_so_nice said:

But what if it's "gone but not forgotten"?  (Oh that irks me) 

 

CAF is for your collection. If it is in your collection, feel free to share if you choose.  If it is not in your collection the jpg belongs in a folder on your computer. I have dozens of scans of art I don't own, but no one knows that because I don't post them to CAF 

I have a "sold but not forgotten" folder that is not public. When I sell a piece, I move it to that directory. In the couple instances where I have re-acquired a piece, I just move it back to the active directory. 

9 hours ago, BCarter27 said:

At risk of picking on Bob further... In some cases it could be "box-ticking". Some people were discussing a few months ago how much weight generic pages from a first appearance issue can carry. Or when does the historical factor kick in over the aesthetics of a given piece? Opinions varied. Nyx 3 cover, for example?

I loved that Ten Nights of the Beast mini-series, and remember being blown away by Zeck's cover work. Its firmly in the peak nostalgia zone for me, and I was only a DC-only kid back then so Batman (and Aparo) were IT for me. I like the idea of a first appearance, and in particular this page with KGBeast; the first in-costume page is a couple pages later in the same issue. So I paid up (sorry, underbidder), and the bidding history reflects there were just two of us over $800. It only takes two fools...

For the Aparo side of it, you definitely have some pent up Aparo demand from people like me who are hungry for the Batman pages that might surface from that run, but also those Spectre fans that love the Adventure series (myself included). I don't think that Aparo hunger is going to go away with this or the next couple auctions, but if its a deluge of Aparo at every auction at HA and CL, then (like everything in this hobby) the cream will rise and you'll see middling results for the generic pages. 

And I passed on the Newton Deadshot page...there was an oddly drawn leg/arm in the top panel that I just couldn't get past, even though I have the preceding page from that issue. Its a great fight scene regardless, and worthy of the $1200 price tag.

7 minutes ago, BCarter27 said:

 

And Aparo KGBeast might be suffering from 1st appearance-itus. Too pricey, imo.

Haha. That KGBeast was my too pricey buy. It goes into my collection alongside a Zeck cover recreation on #420, and two other production covers from Ten Nights. Excited to see it pop up. 

Bob

2 hours ago, Mr. Machismo said:

I’ve already hit two of my 2019 goals, and will take delivery of those in 2019. The first is a series of covers while the other is a piece from my favourite artist. 

The remaining goal would be a Curse of the White Knight cover, I suppose.  

Outside of acquisitions, trimming the fat.

 

 

Without trimming any fat, it is an impressive and focused collection creating a greatest hits OA list of the modern-era Batman (Tim Sale/Greg Capullo/Jim Lee/Jock/SGM). Drool-worthy. 

18 hours ago, NicoV said:

That's exactly his target, so yes when you know it it makes sense 

Regarding the Master Race pages, here is what he said on a French board (I won't translate it, it would probably not be accurate, so either you speak French or you'll use an online translation service)

 

Courtesy of Google Translate, which I hope gets the gist of it: "I did not know anything about Master Race myself, whereas I've been a fan of short comics and short stories since I was a teenager, and I had discovered the exact copies by chance over a year ago. the Paris exhibition "Shoah and comics" at the Holocaust Memorial.
Absolute love for this story and the way it is told! The specifications of this kind of publication implies an effective twist and there I was trapped as a beginner! The specialists and the media will mainly remember the historical interest of the subject of the story told, but it is reductive. If we love comics, this story is magical and the opportunity to acquire it was unexpected in the context of my future activities."

5 hours ago, malvin said:

Man, those Zeck Punisher cover recreations went relatively cheap! (considering that he said he won't do them again).  If I had known these 4 would be up for sale, I would have saved my money for one of these rather than winning the #5 recreation that I go! (based on all the prices they went for)

But, saying all that I'm still glad I got at least one of them.

Malvin

Picked up the first one. It’s stunning! Thought about going for the rest, but was content at that point. I remember selling my mini-series in 1991 to help pay for a limo to prom, so to say this is peak nostalgia is an understatement!

38 minutes ago, Bird said:

I think the Winsor McCay 3 editorial cartoons were strong at slightly over $10K after BP. I have one and was considering getting another in the $5-$7K range so these surprised me. I don't think that they were especially strong pieces either compared to others I have seen.

It says something that although I have been in the game for 25 years or so that my interests are mostly going off tomorrow! 5 figures is where I draw the line, but still!

Yeah, I thought they were strong too; between taxes, risk-taking and education, he hits on some universal appeal but some of the pieces from a year or so ago were superb in comparison. A Rarebit Fiend at $19,200 was another firm performance for Little Nemo's younger brother.

I might. There are two Black & White statues where I also have the art, and that is pretty cool to put side-by-side. I don't collect Risso's art, or I'd be telling others to back off right now!!! GLTA!  

Very cool! 

Batman and Spectre commission, by Patric Reynolds. Lots of great communication during the process, including multiple thumbnail layouts. -Bob

[Note: Randy Bowen sculpture used as reference on the Batman.] 

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1506578

12 minutes ago, malvin said:

As some might remember, I was the one who consigned it to comiclink.  I can't add too much more, I was buying art from someone, and asked what else they had for sale and this item was one of it.  That comic itself was before my collecting period and when I asked my friends (who is a boardie) what the stat cover was used for, one of them suggested it might be for a UK reprint since the seller was from the UK.  The seller had it or awhile, I think at least 10 years, but I don't recall if he said where he got it from, but it could have been from the US (and therefore it's a US reprint).

I can't add much more, hopefully others are more knowledgeable.

Thanks Malvin. I appreciate you giving me the green light to discuss this on the boards, and as well for the extra info. Its starting to look more like it was sourced in the US as part of the initial production process, given the date stamp on the back. I'm definitely leaning toward the text within the oval having been corrected on the fly, probably with another stat. Maybe the stat that fixes the "In" is sitting on the acetate overlay with the rogues. I'll add a picture of the date stamp and see if anyone can place it as standard DC protocol in 1982.

Posing this to a wider audience than my CAF page. I picked up a stat cover to Detective #526 (published May 1983) in the recent ComicLink auction. Not a huge deal since its a stat, but I really like that issue and to me its Don Newton's magnum opus. Anyway, the description was that it was likely used in a UK reprint. I accepted that at face value (again, its a stat), but when I got it home, it got more complicated. 

The concern I have is that the stat cover says "Batman's 500th Appearance" with some white-out on the edges of those words. Each of the words in that oval are pasted on. The published cover, however, appears with "Batman's 500th Appearance In", counting from Detective #27. The "In" appears on the US, US/Canada, and Canadian covers without fail, but for some reason, it is missing on this particular piece. With the "In" included, the B in Batman is flush up against the oval border; in this one, it has got plenty of room. In some ways, it almost like the initial design excluded the "In" as the spacing works with the font size, and then someone re-did it after once they realized it wasn't Batman's 500th appearance per se, but the 500th in Detective Comics. I lean towards this being the US stat that had the oval later fixed, and I say that because the ears on Batgirl are a stat on a stat here, and they are perfectly placed when compared to the printed copy. That's is a bit difficult to pull off perfectly for a reproduction (not impossible though), but it still leaves me with plenty of doubts. 

Helping this is the back, which has a circular stamp that says "DC IVT'Y __/__/8_" and handwritten in that is "12/29/82". Assuming that is real, that stamp and date predates the publication date and seems to work with my perceived timeline.

Three other small points: I have never seen the original art for this cover (anyone?), the faces of the rogue's gallery were likely a negative overlay so that is consistent, and the "Anniversary" stat was used in other issues so I will also rate that as consistent.

So, what do I have? Some stats on a period piece of DC stock paper with a back stamp (i.e. a forgery)? An early production mistake that was later corrected? A foreign reprint cover? Definitely not sure. If you know of a reproduction of this cover that drops the "In", do please let know! Or if you have any ideas, let me know or drop it in the comments. After writing all this, this seems like a lot of detective work for a stat cover...

Bob

As a plug, if I ever find the DPS from this issue (incidentally, the title page art also says "In"), it would make my year! If you know where that DPS is, I will make it worth your while for any productive info!!!!! 

Here is the CAF zoom-in option: https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1505057

Colonel Blimp. A one-and-done rogue...

On 10/6/2018 at 6:57 PM, Yurgo said:

 

Yurgo, do you remember who had the Bruce Timm pages? 

Thanks! Bob

8 hours ago, O. said:

IIRC none of the Adlard pages had Walkers in them. I have a feeling that solid Adlard Walker and key event pieces still retain most of their value; it's the blah pages which have fallen. 

The Moore #2 page 2 splash did take a huge bath, selling for $8.9k compared to $14.1k two years back. Moore WD OA prices are still stable though - this particular splash just had been shopped around too often.

 

That splash landed with me. With the "death of Shane" page, I am very happy with gathering these two prime Tony Moore pages from WD. I still read the book, and enjoy it, and could care less what happens on the TV show.

I got the Detective #600 pin-up. 

19 minutes ago, John S. said:

The Flash did not sell and although the auctioneer showed that he was taking floor bids (which raised the price up to the estimate), in fact no one was bidding in the room.

As always, if you know the OA market specific to the pieces you're interested in, you won't be deceived by shill bids. But on the surface, that is a bit shady.

Its well paced. And some pretty cool stuff. I picked up the Zeck Batman pinup at the reserve on an absentee bid, but the early Flash page had only three bids come through to GBP 42,500. That didn't make the low end of the GBP 45k estimate, and there was some mumbling so I couldn't tell if it sold or if it passed. But an Evil Dead II clapperboard from 1986 had an estimate of GBP600 and went for GBP 6k...wow. Lots of other great props and costumes. Entertaining and a well run auction.

There was an auction a couple years ago for the complete interiors of Batman #227, at Doyle's of all places. The pages started getting broken up last year. I expect the seller is going to do better with the individual pages than he would selling the book as a total. Even though its a Bats book, the attraction there is on the Adams cover, not the inside which is somewhat ho-hum. 

I was able to pick up the My Little Pony covers that I had sold as part of a package deal a year ago; got them back for a LOT less. My daughters were unhappy to say the least when I pulled them off the wall. Will be interesting to see the reaction when I bring them back out. 50/50 it's either tears of joy or "it's been a year, and we so much mature now that we're 8 and 10 and ponies are for babies and where's my iPad?". 

On 8/30/2018 at 12:47 AM, malvin said:

Mid auction bump with scans and current prices!  My items and current prices are:

1. Jim Aparo Brave and Bold #136 page -$722

2. Gary Frank JLA Pinup with everyone! Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more! - $705

3. Prohias early Spy vs Spy one page story -$1,700

 

 

Malvin

Thank you for looking and supporting my comic art addiction.

Malvin

I don't recall ever seeing Batman having the suit underneath and stripping down like Superman on the street. With the cowl, I suppose that would normally be impractical. Neat page...