MBFan

Astounding and very thorough! Gotta love the Internet. 20 years ago, it would have taken weeks, maybe months, to come up with all of this info. On a personal side bar, Alice was born 18 days before and just 30 miles up the road from my own beloved mother, who turns 82 next weekend.

Call me crazy, but the cheekbones, eyes and teeth make me think she's on the cover of Teen-Age Romances #5, too! She's kind of holding back on the smile and the light is at such an angle that dimples aren't obvious, but really, how many girls had those eyes and that face structure...and more importantly, GREAT TEETH back then? Here's a pic from comicbookplus.

The family has some wondrous original art work mainly from the men's magazine illustrations, which are amazing in themselves. From what I understand, they've shown basically most of the artwork they have. I'm betting a lot of the artwork was destroyed in some kind of flood or housing accident in St. John's son's house. I read this many years ago so I could be mistaken. But, I'm thinking he might be a good source of information. St. John's son should have a wealth of information, but considering the circumstances of his father's death, he may have conflicting emotions about his father's work. I expected to see an interview with him in The Art of Glamour, but apparently he contributed so little to the project that he didn't even rate being named in the list of those who were thanked on page 34. It's possible that he and his mother saw the business as the thing that took the family patriarch from them and eventually wanted no reminders from that period. They certainly did turf the family business. There's a quote somewhere in which Matt Baker complains that he didn't understand why they let him go, because he didn't even know Archer had a girlfriend on the side. Had the St. John family saved and preserved materials from St. John Publications, they would be sitting on a platinum mine today.

Thanks for the head-up on that. All of my dealings with Metropolis have been great, but it's reckless to claim an unslabbed remainders book contains Matt Baker work without checking...and to not modify the listing after checking and seeing that there is no Baker art is downright false advertising. I expect Metropolis to be an authority on comics, but I wonder how knowledgeable they are when I see their listings for 2 different copies of Batman #23 say the cover art is by "Batman co-creator Sprang". Sprang didn't receive his first Batman assignment until 2 years after Batman first appeared. Bill Finger has a legitimate claim to "co-creator" credit, but not Sprang, whom I still admire greatly. (In previewing my post, I notice the forum subs "spoon" for the nickname for "Richard", but you know who I mean.)

It's sad that so much great Matt Baker work has gone missing, especially the St. John stuff. I'm very curious as to how the 3 lone St. John pages that went through Heritage survived...and why there's not more to go with them.

After realizing that I just needed to search the Heritage site better than I had before, I found another. http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=826&lotNo=43024 Notice the note to the "code examiner". Have any St. John/Baker pages or covers sold via other auction sites, etc.?

That is certainly a new high, but the other Matt Baker Tiger Girl page (http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7093&lotNo=92226) went for over $3000 less than the one with partial hand coloring. That seems a little strange, since the coloring looks like something done after Baker and Fiction House were finished with the piece. The leafy green look of the bushes in the last panel does not match the coloring of the actual printed comic. Since the partial colored page was apparently tampered with by someone other than the original artist, I'm surprised it's the one that went for the biggest bucks. Regardless, the scarcity of Baker OA means we'll probably continue to see these kinds of prices from here on out. Has even ONE piece of Matt Baker St. John work ever turned up?

The cover of The Saint #4 is not credited to Matt Baker in Overstreet or The Art of Glamour. To me, it looks only slightly Baker-ish. From what I can tell, Matt Baker never did any work for Avon, who published The Saint. It's risky to trust what you see on the internet about Baker. Here's a site where an author has included the cover of The Saint #4 in a collection of "samples from Matt Baker's career". http://www.tallguysgearguide.com/my-blog/2012/12/matt-baker-the-art-of-glamour.html The cover of Zip Jet #1 is also shown, and it is DEFINITELY not Baker's work.

I've just started to come here to lurk & learn about Baker books, but I must say that the turtle discussion has been very interesting. Great photos, too. It's amazing that 3 of the main contributors to this thread are all serious turtle-people. Here in Oklahoma, we encounter vicious snapping turtles at the lake and the kids find a box turtle wandering through the yard about once a year, but I've never put the time and devotion into raising turtles like you folks. I guess the turtle talk is off-topic, but I'm not bothered.

First of all, I appreciate the Matt Baker inspiration insight! Other artists could have used the same source material, but their work would never compare to Matt's. Now, some "value" discussion. There are 2 sales of what is apparently the same copy of Teen-Age Romances #3 on eBay during the past couple of months. Compare pics from both listings, and you'll notice that the wear and scratches are exactly the same, the most distinctive evidence being the scratches at the top center, down through the middle of the title logo. Auction 1: Teen-Age Romances #3 closed for $151.45 (143.50 plus 7.95 shipping) on 2/5/14 http://www.ebay.com/itm/BARNYARD-FIND-GOLDEN-AGE-TEEN-AGE-ROMANCES-3-MATT-BAKER-GGA-COVER-1949-NICE-/121265511444?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item1c3bfcdc14#ht_3305wt_1226 Auction 2: Sparkle City listed what is apparently the same book, newly-slabbed with a 5.0 grade, to end 3/26/14. It sold for $192.50 to i***n (who had bid on the book the 1st time but lost). http://www.ebay.com/itm/Teen-Age-Romances-3-CGC-5-0-Matt-Baker-Cover-art-St-John-Golden-Age-Comic-/201056096476?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item2ecfe090dc#ht_3920wt_1168 The $ 41.05 difference barely paid for having the book CGC graded and shipped back-and-forth. In this example, at least, slabbing didn't result in the book suddenly multiplying in value. In light of all the talk about soaring Baker prices, what do you think about this?

As a newbie who just wants to build a decent little Matt Baker collection, my observation is that the high prices on recent eBay Baker books are being driven by just a few people. A quick look at the bid history on a few recent eBay auctions shows that most bidders drop out at just barely above guide...and then 2 or 3 people push the bidding to multiples of guide. This makes it tough for someone like me to build a collection. And people hoarding multiple copies of certain issues doesn't help, either. I don't know about everyone else here, but one reason I collect Matt Baker's work is that he has been overlooked and should be exalted. Whenever I'm lucky enough to get a new Baker book, I share the art with everyone I know. Even my friends who don't collect comics think Matt Baker is cool. WIth that same thought in mind, as I gain better-condition copies of certain issues, rather than horde multiples, I plan to put my lesser-condition books up for auction so others can collect and enjoy Matt Baker, too. It appears that Baker books are at a high right now, due to a certain few people. If those people are bidding on books they need for their collection, that's great. If those people are simply speculators, trying to hoard great books that others could enjoy, that's not cool.