Sharkey

That is beyond awesome. Was that a recreation of the cover by Kirby? Just signed by him? I need to know!!! Yeah, that's the official pencil recreation by Jack that was commissioned and sold by Sotheby's in the 90s before his death. It's a sweet piece of art, and one of the core pieces of my collection. Actually I did have a high grade copy of TOS 39 but sold it in 1993 to buy my wife's wedding ring. We often refer to the ring as the TOS 39,

I don't have a copy of the book, but I do have this. Can I be in the club?

"I spent midnight with the Thing on Bald Mountain!" I think she was my prom date....

Jimbo I'm not knowledgeable of the variants for this issue...is there a 3rd 10-cent issue that was distributed that didn't have the black-out? Here's a 9.0 currently up for grabs on eBay... http://cgi.ebay.com/1962-Journey-Into-Mystery-76-CGC-9-0-Silver-Age-Comic-/180532504967?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a08936987 And here's my "non-variant?" copy... Thanks for posting these -- it's not often you see these two "variants" side-by-side!

AWESOME! Love to see people posting their pre-hero OA

Thanks I put up a couple detail pics from the Thor page too.

Here are some detail pics from the FF40 pages. Enjoy!! You can see additional panel detail pics on my FF 40 CAF gallery here: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=56830 -Steve

Here's a few more, including some art done by a friend of mine (he likes to use whales as vessels), a Cuban animated film poster, and some of Michel Gagne's Insanely Twisted Rabbit originals.

Here's a few goodies reframed and recently re-hung. Everything is back in order, just a bit over 1 year since the house fire. I can't tell you how excited it makes me to have all these up again.

THAT is a killer presentation piece. Absolutely stunning! Your wife deserves a special award!

No, I believe he uses your tailor, as he does amazing things with various colors of Depends.

Which was the point of my initial post (which was totally lost on Rhino). A $7,000 stat is not a reasonable price. Instead of continuing the discussion in a reasonable manner, Rhino chose to go the route of aggression and insults. By calling me an S.O.B., he drags the memory of my late mother into the equation, by calling her a B.I.T.C.H. Terry, a couple things: 1. I certainly wasn't intending to insult your late mother. That's the last thing I'd do. I lost mine last year and would agree that my flippant use of of the term S.O.B was absolutely unwarranted. If you really and truly took my post as an insult toward your mother, then I truly and sincerely apologize for that. 2. Now, as far as your post goes, I do think it was presumptuous. First, becuase you contend that $7,000 is too high a price for a stat cover. If somebody bought that stat cover - and apparently someone did -- then the price was ok and the piece was worth it to them. You also go on to say it was an unreasonable price. So, who appointed you to be the judge of what's reasonable and what isn't? Romitaman can ask whatever he wants for a piece. If somebody pays it, then it's not unreasonable, whether it's a stat or not. It was apparently reasonable to someone because the piece is sold. 2B. I posted a pic of one of my stat covers. You then questioned what I'd be willing to pay for such a piece, alluding to the price of Romitaman's TOS cover. I said I wasn't really thinking about value, and you launched into a soliloquy deriding stat covers compared to "true OA", stat covers not being OA, blah blah blah, and it was in response to my post, and rather patronizing at that. I consider this thread as an opportunity to celebrate pieces of art shared by collectors on these boards. Seems to me you were disparaging stat covers and I had just posted one. So my response to that is "Screw you". I will apologize for calling you an S.O.B and invoking the memory of your dead mother. I'm not a complete lout. But I won't apologize for getting riled by your post which I thought was negative toward stat covers in general. Celebrate other people's art, don't pizz on it. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program of appreciating people's art. I apologize for derailing the thread further. Okay, let me summarize by repeating some elements of earlier posts of this thread - and append my interpretations of them . . . RHINO: "There has also been a lot of discussion of stat art and stats used in covers, especially since Romitaman sold that TOS cover that was a shrunken stat of a larger page." Here, you open a dialog on stat cover art and refer to an earlier thread where much of the focus was on the $7,000 price-tag of the TOS stat cover. So, why should you be so surprised when the same price discussion is re-visited? TRENT: "Nothing wrong with stat covers. For display purposes, they look fine. But would you want to pay $7,000 for one (i.e. the TOS cover)?" So . . what part of me saying, "Nothing wrong with stat covers. For display purposes, they look fine", is it you didn't understand? TRENT: "One of the allures of OA, for me, is the fact that one day out of the distant or recent past an artist sat in front of a blank illustration board and (with skill and imagination) transformed that area of nothingness into a work of art . . . be it a painting, illustration, comic book cover or continuity-strip. Owning that original is, for me, a kind of snapshot of that artist's career . . . a piece of his life, if you like. Looking at the artwork, I study the tell-tale signs of how the artist worked (traces of pencil lines . . . nuances of the inking, etc.). It gives me a warm feeling inside, knowing that the artwork I'm looking at was the fruit of the artist's creativity." Here, you seem to think that all of the above was solely for your benefit? Please don't flatter yourself; it wasn't. I was merely elaborating on what pushes my buttons on collecting OA. RHINO: "I get it. You don't particularly like stat covers. You'd obviously never own one yourself. But it certainly seems to me you have more of a disdain for them than just Mike's asking price for that TOS stat cover." No, you don't get it . . . Here, you try to put words into my mouth . . . despite me saying (above), "Nothing wrong with stat covers. For display purposes, they look fine." TRENT: "If a stat gives someone pleasure . . . I'm very happy for them. I certainly wouldn't pooh-pooh the idea of collecting such things. And if someone wants to pay $7,000 for a statted cover . . . there's nothing for me to begrudge. My disdain (referring back to the TOS cover stat thread) was for the $7,000 asking price - which was (and is) outrageous." And later: "I was recently the underbidder in Scotty Moore's eBay auction for the production cover to EXTRA # 2 (EC) . . . and I also have first-refusal to the production cover to MARVEL TALES # 17 (owned by a friend). So when you jump to conclusions about me not liking stat covers, or ever wanting to own one . . . you're obviously talking out of your azz! " So . . . if I competed in Scotty's eBay auction . . .and have asked for first-refusal on my friend's MARVEL TALES stat cover, that hardly makes me a stat-hater, does it? And in answer to your present post . . . Apologies accepted about your S.O.B. remark. I mean, would you like it if I referred to you as a S.O.W (Son of a W.H.O.R.E.)? I'm sure you wouldn't. And as for me having an opinion on Mike's $7,000 price-tag for the TOS stat cover . . . it's just that . . . an opinion. I take it you've never looked at a piece of art (or stat) on a dealer's site and thought, "That's an outrageous asking price!"??? And, finally, where about in any of my posts to I deride stat covers? I don't. I make a distinction between a piece of OA and a stat, that's all. Before you launch into tirades against anyone, you ought to read things through properly and digest . . . but, sadly, you seem more interested in mis-representing anything I say. You don't want to offer me any apologies beyond the S.O.B. business? That's fine. It takes a real man to acknowledge his mistakes. I don't class you as that type of person. Wow, it's like Monty Python in the OA forum now! "Look, I came here for an argument." "No you didn't, you came here for an argument!" Terry, I appreciate your attempt to deconstruct our posts and prove to me that I'm wrong. I think you're taking this WAY too seriously. Here's the deal: You posted and addressed me in response to my post. Typically that means you're talking to me. But apparently now you weren't talking to me -- rather, you were philosophizing and opining about OA and stats for the benefit of all of comic-art-fandom. I CLEARLY misinterpreted your post as thinking you were talking to ME (because, as you say, it's all about me. And it is! ). However, I flippantly called you an S.O.B, which was absolutely incorrect. I know nothing of your lineage. I should have called you an S.O.V (Son of Velcro) because it's obvious you're incapable of letting things go. I think what you conveniently omitted, in your quite impressive deconstruction, is this quote of yours -- the one that got me bristled the most in the first place: MR. TRENT: "A stat is not OA. The uniformity of the printed blacks (which nearly always fail to capture the delicate line-work of the original) is not as good a representation of the original as you'd perhaps like to believe." Which, as I mentioned in a previous post, says "as you'd perhaps like to believe". As I noted before, and responded about, is that your response seemed to be addressing me, and saying I believe something that I don't believe. Never did. I never implied, said, or otherwise contended that a stat cover in any way is as good a representation as the original. So I told you not to put words in my mouth. I found that statement presumptuous, and I still do. No apologies for that will be forthcoming. In addition, your whole post in general came across to me as condescending and patronizing, as though you were trying to explain to me in painstaking detail why stat covers are inferior to original art. My mistake. I'm clearly wrong. I now realize that, according to you, you weren't talking to me. So I guess you were actually trying to patronize the art collecting public as a whole. (thumbs u Now, it seems I did make incorrect statements about your opinion of stat artwork. Based on your original initial post, it is quite surprising to me to find out that you bid on a stat cover because the tone of your post seemed to indicate to me that you don't hold stat covers in particularly high regard -- particularly because you qualify the statement quite clearly with "for display purposes." You know, they don't have nuances of the original artist's artistry and all that waxing poetic that you so eloquently stated. They don't reproduce the integrity of the original line work as I would believe -- oops, as somebody, apparently not me, would believe. But the bottom line is, you like stat covers after all (but only for display purposes, if I understand your post correctly). I'm wrong about that! I admit it! Maybe you're the one who should go back and digest your own posts, and see how I could have taken umbrage at that statement, and acknowledge that your tone came off a wee bit holier than thou. You also seem to take offense at me not agreeing with you about Romitaman's prices on that Stat TOS cover. You absolutely have every right to say you agree or disagree with the price. I think your problem is that I don't share your outrage. You say the price is outrageous, that it's not reasonable. But clearly it was reasonable to someone, just not to you. So what? Lastly, I really couldn't care what you think of me. Insulting my manhood would seem to be a cowardly and cheap last resort in an argument. If that's what a real man is, well, you can go ahead and be one. I will apologize anytime I think I've done an injustice, and I'll admit I'm wrong if I think I'm wrong. In fact, I've admitted I'm wrong about certain things I may have incorrectly interpreted from your posts. And I apologized for insulting your mother. However, I still don't think I'm wrong in thinking that you made a pompous and condescending post in response to mine. So here we are. That's what I think. You can and probably will disagree. Whatever. I have better things to do with my time than continue to argue over this, especially on the internet where it seems quite easy to misinterpret and get offended by things. And I won't stoop to insulting your manhood if you don't agree with me. --Steve Oh, I also don't carry a grudge. So if we ever meet up a convention, don't be surprised if I say, "Let's go have a beer, you bloody brush-stroke nuance-appreciating stat-hater."

Which was the point of my initial post (which was totally lost on Rhino). A $7,000 stat is not a reasonable price. Instead of continuing the discussion in a reasonable manner, Rhino chose to go the route of aggression and insults. By calling me an S.O.B., he drags the memory of my late mother into the equation, by calling her a B.I.T.C.H. Terry, a couple things: 1. I certainly wasn't intending to insult your late mother. That's the last thing I'd do. I lost mine last year and would agree that my flippant use of of the term S.O.B was absolutely unwarranted. If you really and truly took my post as an insult toward your mother, then I truly and sincerely apologize for that. 2. Now, as far as your post goes, I do think it was presumptuous. First, becuase you contend that $7,000 is too high a price for a stat cover. If somebody bought that stat cover - and apparently someone did -- then the price was ok and the piece was worth it to them. You also go on to say it was an unreasonable price. So, who appointed you to be the judge of what's reasonable and what isn't? Romitaman can ask whatever he wants for a piece. If somebody pays it, then it's not unreasonable, whether it's a stat or not. It was apparently reasonable to someone because the piece is sold. 2B. I posted a pic of one of my stat covers. You then questioned what I'd be willing to pay for such a piece, alluding to the price of Romitaman's TOS cover. I said I wasn't really thinking about value, and you launched into a soliloquy deriding stat covers compared to "true OA", stat covers not being OA, blah blah blah, and it was in response to my post, and rather patronizing at that. I consider this thread as an opportunity to celebrate pieces of art shared by collectors on these boards. Seems to me you were disparaging stat covers and I had just posted one. So my response to that is "Screw you". I will apologize for calling you an S.O.B and invoking the memory of your dead mother. I'm not a complete lout. But I won't apologize for getting riled by your post which I thought was negative toward stat covers in general. Celebrate other people's art, don't pizz on it. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program of appreciating people's art. I apologize for derailing the thread further.

Well, from what I recall, the Rhino was never the brightest of vilains . . . he just sort of charged around hitting things with his head - which was presumably (me being a presumptious S.O.B.) the thickest part of his body. Insults directed at my intelligence and anatomy? Wow, I'm in grade school again! MK, this isn't a fight. This is just a sad attempt at macho posturing by Mr. Trent that I have to laugh at. lol

Nothing wrong with stat covers. For display purposes, they look fine. But would you want to pay $7,000 for one (i.e. the TOS cover)? Would you have paid that for your MARVEL GREATEST COMICS stat cover? I don't really know if I'd pay $7000 for one. I certainly didn't pay that for mine. But if someone did, I wouldn't begrudge them that, especially if they loved the image and wanted to own a cover at a fraction of the price of a true OA cover. I wasn't really thinking about pricing when I made the post, just making the point that a lot of people pooh-pooh stat covers, which IMHO is unfortunate -- they can made a lovely addition to your collection! (thumbs u One of the allures of OA, for me, is the fact that one day out of the distant or recent past an artist sat in front of a blank illustration board and (with skill and imagination) transformed that area of nothingness into a work of art . . . be it a painting, illustration, comic book cover or continuity-strip. Owning that original is, for me, a kind of snapshot of that artist's career . . . a piece of his life, if you like. Looking at the artwork, I study the tell-tale signs of how the artist worked (traces of pencil lines . . . nuances of the inking, etc.). It gives me a warm feeling inside, knowing that the artwork I'm looking at was the fruit of the artist's creativity. That's why I'm prepared to indulge in this expensive hobby. On the other hand . . . A stat is not OA. The uniformity of the printed blacks (which nearly always fail to capture the delicate line-work of the original) is not as good a representation of the original as you'd perhaps like to believe. If a stat gives someone pleasure . . . I'm very happy for them. I certainly wouldn't pooh-pooh the idea of collecting such things. And if someone wants to pay $7,000 for a statted cover . . . there's nothing for me to begrudge. My disdain (referring back to the TOS cover stat thread) was for the $7,000 asking price - which was (and is) outrageous. Jeezus, Terry, you're a presumptuous SOB aren't you? You're making a lot of assumptions about what I think. Why? Because I own some stat covers? Go on with your bad nuance-appreciating self. I get it. You don't particularly like stat covers. You'd obviously never own one yourself. But it certainly seems to me you have more of a disdain for them than just Mike's asking price for that TOS stat cover. You don't need to lecture me on the differences between true original art and stat covers. I certainly DON'T make any assertions that they are OA. I have no idea why you would say "The uniformity of the blacks (which nearly always fail to capture the delicate line-work of the original) is not as good a representation of the original as you'd perhaps like to believe." I don't believe they are line-for-line or brush stroke-for-brush stroke representations of anything so there's no need to put words in my mouth or apply beliefs to me that I don't hold. I know what stat covers are. I'm not advocating that they are in any way the same categorically as an originally drawn piece of art. I have plenty of pieces of gorgeous, hand-drawn, delicately penciled and inked artwork with the artist's creative nuances oozing out of every pore of the paper. And I know the difference between them as originals, and a stat cover. But thanks for 'splaining it to me. (thumbs u

Nothing wrong with stat covers. For display purposes, they look fine. But would you want to pay $7,000 for one (i.e. the TOS cover)? Would you have paid that for your MARVEL GREATEST COMICS stat cover? I don't really know if I'd pay $7000 for one. I certainly didn't pay that for mine. But if someone did, I wouldn't begrudge them that, especially if they loved the image and wanted to own a cover at a fraction of the price of a true OA cover. I wasn't really thinking about pricing when I made the post, just making the point that a lot of people pooh-pooh stat covers, which IMHO is unfortunate -- they can made a lovely addition to your collection! (thumbs u

Here's a couple more I thought I'd share. Last year when we visited Papua New Guinea, my wife and I picked up some killer tribal masks including an absolutely HUGE one. My wife noticed the headdress of the Witch Doctor in my JIM 125 splash and suggested we put the two next to eachother. Below is a shot of them. You can see how enormous the mask is because that JIM splash page is a twice-up large art splash!!! There has also been a lot of discussion of stat art and stats used in covers, especially since Romitaman sold that TOS cover that was a shrunken stat of a larger page. I happen to like stat covers and have a few, which I've posted before, but below is an example of the Marvel's Greatest Comics cover that features a stat image of the classic FF 55 cover. When framed and on the wall, I gotta tell you it looks mighty sweet. And since I could never afford the actual cover to FF 55 nor would I ever be able to pry it out of the owner's hands, this is as close as I'm gonna get! Enjoy! --Steve

Ok, it took a while to get a pic, but here ya go....

Hey Rhino, I know it's a few pages back, but I LOVE this page. Kudos to you for landing it. I agree that the white matting was a smart move, and it doesn't compete w/ the art. Can I ask how long you've had it and how much it was (just curious how much Kirby pages are, you don't have to answer if you don't want to - I'm just very impressed!)? Thanks tilleycs! Actually just this weekend we moved back into our house after being out since May 10 due to a house fire. I got all my art back from the framer (had to have a lot of it reframed due to smoke, water, and soot damage to the frames -- but all my art was OK). I'll take some updated pics and post some things in the next week or so. Regarding the Avengers 3 page -- I picked it up in 2002 I believe, or somewhere around that time. I did not pay a lot for it -- nice Kirby pages were not selling for much (ie a few grand each) because a large collection had flooded the marked a few years before that and prices were still depressed, but they were starting to rebound and I wanted to get some stuff before prices went up much more. It was on a consignment site and I had considered pulling the trigger a few times and finally just went for it. I've never regretted it either. Today that page would probably pull $15k or thereabouts. But it ain't for sale, so it doesn't really matter.

Congrats on finding one of your "ghosts"! Thanks Felix -- I guess I better update my GHOST LIST! 1 down, 3 to go....

Jumbo Extra-Large Kudos going out to: shiverbones: For buying a big lot of GI Joe accessories! KorvacSaga: For super fast payment on a pre-hero slab! (thumbs u Buried_Alien: Also for lightning quick paypal for a pre-hero slab! JazzMan: Super buyer of a quality FF slab, browned to crispy perfection! I hope to post more stuff in the coming few days, including comic-related toys and maybe non-comic related toys!

Thanks everyone for the kind words. TMNTerminator, I agree a black matte would look good against that nice colorful cover. What a beaut!

Here's the cover to Marvel's Greatest Comics 42, which reprinted FF 55. This is the original cover, but the image is a gigantic stat of the cover of FF55, with some additional art drawn in the margins to fill the cover, and then the comic title and the Torch and Thing mechanicals are paste-ups. I though it was a pretty cool piece. A lot of people thought I was nuts to buying a cover that was mostly stat, but it's as close to owning the cover of FF 55 as I'm ever gonna come. Of course, when it's framed and sitting on the wall, you can't tell it's a stat...

Here are a few of my framed pieces. I started out using fancy frames on some things, but realized that for most comic pages I like a very simple black metal frame with a white matte and black edging. I have also done black matte too but for whatever reason I really like the white matte. The Crow by James O'Barr. One of the earliest pieces of OA I ever bought -- I started collecting art in the very early 1990s. I bought some O'Barr Crow sketches, a couple Iron Man pages from John Romita Jr., and a painting from Dark One. My wife really liked this piece so we gave it a nice fancy frame -- I think the framing might have cost more than the art! Avengers 3 page by Jack Kirby. Here's the plain white matte mentioned above. I think I like the white because it doesn't compete with the art for attention. TOS 84 featuring Cap vs Super Adaptoid. I framed this with a copy of the page as printed in the comic as well as with the cover of a TOS 84. It's one of my favorite stories from childhood so I gussied up the presentation a bit. Journey Into Mystery 125 splash. I thought about using a big fancy frame for this splash, but decided again that less was more. The images of Thor and the witch doctor just jump off the page. I wonder sometimes how it would look with a black matte.

Kudos to: Greggy for selling me some sweet, sweet Jack Kirby Collectors in the original envelopes! MutantKeys for buying the Astro City trade! rarturo for buying some nice Silver Age JIM/Thors! Cap_FFreek for buying some Silver Age JIM/FF books! Old Man for buying some trades! Monkeyman for buying some trades! arexcrooke for buying some trades! Thanks guys!