The Shoveler

Couldn't a well-designed storage plan with regular facility inspections just as easily mitigate the potential risks? Casting it to the four winds to be nibbled by silverfish, baked in the sun on collectors' walls, cultivate mold in closets, get burned in house fires, used as beverage coasters by hipsters, or just plain lost simply replaces one risk locus with multiple elements. As long as they keep it away from Mosul's Museum then the risks should, in theory, be manageable. Would the art really be any more vulnerable at RISD than at any facility on the east coast (MOMA, Boston Museum of Fine Art, etc)? I don't know how decrepit their facilities are or how stringent their oversight is... Would the Simonsons sell to any fans who live in Houston, Miami, NOLA, Tornado Alley, earthquake-vulnerable Cali, the Mississippi River flood plains, or any large metropolitan region (or anyplace in-between) where fire/flood/weather has already destroyed art or likely will in the future? Hurricane Sandy showed us that all the art in NY/NJ ain't safe. There's gotta be a lot of art that's one tsunami wave away from sleeping with the fishes. Maybe if we all chipped-in, we could qualify for a group discount in a Cheyenne Mountain vault.

Great news on some very cool pages! "To your stations, all! We have found Galactus!!" "I do laud thy valor...!"

Super!!

Already spending that $39K you saved, eh? And I agree with you on WVG. He does some good inks...makes for a really good team with Immonen.

You're welcome, Mercury Man. And thank you for the very kind words! I'm glad the tix went to a true fan.

I've got an extra ticket for Friday through Sunday, all 3 days (a "Deluxe" Ticket). Available for free. First come gets it so send me a PM if you can go. Ticket claimed. Enjoy the Con!

Cool Immonen cover!

Yer welcome, Shaun. It looks like the top of the "7" in "174" was simply trimmed off during the original production process. So, I understand how this could have easily been confused by anyone. If the Overmind story arc wasn't so ingrained in my psyche, I probably wouldn't have caught this either. More trivia: FF#114 was also an issue that was inked by Frank Giacoia, not Joe Sinnott. However, Joltin' Joe did ink the #174 page in the auction.

For anyone interested in the John Buscema Fantastic Four #114 page currently on eBay, please note that this page is actually from #174. Here's the auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/JOHN-BUSCEMA-OPIGINAL-ART-FROM-FANTASTIC-FOUR-114-WITH-REED-AND-THE-THIING/202057771044?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 The seller has been notified. However, the listing remains unchanged as of this posting. Not sure what, if any, difference this would have in the page's value at auction*. But if you're looking for some sweet Overmind action, this isn't it... * My guess would be that it would be a minor difference. Consult your professional art advisor for their opinion.

I still fondly remember Len Wein's run on Amazing Spider-Man. One of my favorite moments of that period was Spidey returning the thrashed Spider-Mobile to the Madison Avenue 14th floor offices of Carter & Lombardo at the end of ASM #160 ("And good riddance!"). I wonder if they got a crane to get the car down before the webbing evaporated. And my older brother remains a life-long Hulk fan after growing up with Len's run on that title. Thanks to Len for all of his contributions to the comic industry during his career. RIP, Len Wein.

At that time, Buckler was often aping Kirby (which seemed to be Marvel's policy), and Kirby was of course a big influence on Simonson too. And regarding the inks, you have a great point: Sinnott inks add his own touch of Kirby/Marvel house style to almost any artist's pencils. A few modifications were made to the published version, including shifting the position of Thor's face, putting the thrown hammer in a different spot, and removing the texture from Loki's shirt. Looks like the rocky ground under Thor's feet may have been simplified a little bit too.

Well, living in the limelight is the universal dream. Mama always told me not to look into the eye's of the sun. But, mama, that's where the fun is.

What do the dealers use for their DPS pages when displaying at cons, etc? Some storage solutions, including BCarter27's DPS option (with some photos), are discussed in the following thread from March of this year:

Boxing practice?? Man-Thing's giant-size proboscis has been beaten red. But the Zombie's schnoz has been beaten clear off. Cool, colorful piece by Alcala, who did some great inks on DC's swamp monster...

Everything about your story is pretty damned cool! It's always inspiring to hear those stories where talent, luck, timing and perseverance all converge. Biggest Congrats!!

Very cool B&B cover!

From the item's description copied in DickO's article: The penciler of this splash was verified by the artist, and signed by him in the upper-left corner. If I had any doubts after that, then the Thor figure on the page would convince me. Especially the perspective and creasing of the circle designs on Thor's shorts. I can't think of any other artist (mostly journeymen/newbies doing these fill-in pieces for the Marvel UK reprints) from that period who would have done it that way. Additionally, Thor's hair, face and silhouette also lean Golden. Although there's almost none of his signature style here, there's enough to convince me that it's one of his very early pieces when he was still working some things out (while having to comply with editorial mandates to match the style of the original artist). And, somebody originally penciled "MG" in the upper right above the inker's initials.* My rationale for the lower-than-expected price would be that it lacks that distinctive "Golden" touch. However, it's still a nice piece for that period, has good character inclusion and seems like it would present very well. Disclaimer: I'm not the consignor or the winning bidder for this item. * DV maybe? I wouldn't be surprised to see Dave Hunt or John Verpoorten here...

Good point. I don't think Gambit appears on the UXM Annual cover (as far as I can see), but I could understand if story page #12 has some additional interest (Gambit tax?) associated with it. And he doesn't figure prominently in any of the Annual's panel pages or in the overall action of that story. Thank you for your reply, bisquit!

My peak nostalgia period is 1979-1982. Lots of favorite covers during this period by Perez/Austin; the Keith Pollard covers on Thor, FF & ASM; and Bob Layton's Iron Man covers. So many classic Michael Golden covers are in this sweet spot. And the "Hulk vs...Marvel Hero TBD" category is a separate list by itself --- Iron Man 132, Daredevil 163, Hulk 251, Captain America #110 cover (reprinted in a Fireside TPB in '79), etc. Kirby's Captain Victory #1 cover drew me right in...that was the first time I really got into a Kirby book. When I started collecting comic art, the first book I went thru to build my first want-list was X-Men/Teen Titans! But I'm settling for these three:

How does it affect the value of a first appearance page when that first appearance page did not appear first? Gambit first appeared in Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 in July 1990. Then he (later) appeared in Uncanny X-Men #266 in August 1990. The auction description for the FF cover actually includes an About the Characters section that defines the first appearance issue numbers for each of the characters (#1, #44, #48, etc). They haven't put one of those sections on the X-Men #266 auction yet. But it's still early and I'm sure they're still adding stuff and finalizing everything. FWIW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambit_(comics)#Publication_history

Didn't win anything this time, but I was very interested in the Cap #141 Romita/Sinnott page and the What If cover too. On the cover, you've got a great image of Cap vs his arch-enemy dating back to WWII. The 'movie poster' composition holds-up very well in the current era. It also benefits from the Sinnott inks as others said. Good luck to anyone looking for a better Cap vs Red Skull published cover at a better price. The Conan cover may have also been helped by the 'movie poster-style.' That was a strong price considering that there's a big image of the Barbarian, but...there is no Beast (unless you include the zombie-looking guys in that category) and no Babe (unless you include the zombie-looking guys in that category).

Coming soon, comic art default swaps... (Bitcoin = indictment futures)

What if the original five X-Men never walked away in X-Men #94 (August 1975)? "Professor, we're sticking around. So some of these new guys will have to sleep on the couches. Or double-up in a rented loft in Westchester" The O5's departure gave the necessary space for the All-New, All-Different X-Men to develop and become a phenom that fed into the 80's boom (and the eventual 90's bust). And before that, the original superhero resurgence (Silver Age) was driven by continuity-shredding reboots of Golden Age characters like the Flash and Green Lantern. Even Marvel's entry into the Silver Age was heralded by the Human Torch's reboot from an android cop into a punk teenage kid...a kick in the face to fans of the original android Torch . It seems as if a lot of the reboot action over the past several years is driven by reluctance to abandon the relatively small number of truly lucrative legacy characters (and their associated milieus) and give the space to a next generation of characters and stories to really take root. So, we have several dozen Young Spideys and young Bat-People gasping for oxygen within several clashing continuities while the original Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne continue to have the limelight. Kudos to the comic companies for allowing Parker & Wayne to take on some new roles as elders. But so far, they just can't figure out how to gracefully absorb the worthy bits of past continuities (or sideline them altogether) while clearing the deck so that a new generation can "take the field" as was successfully accomplished in the Silver Age (and later by the ANAD X-Men). Brainstorming here: 1990s: The Image Age (Doctor Dre). Art is characterized by a signature shift in design and storytelling technique, as well as the emergence of creator-owned publishing as a viable competitor to Marvel and DC. Maybe this period starts in 1988 with McFarlane starting on the ASM flagship title, or in 1990 with Lee (& Williams!) and Liefeld on the flagship X-books. This period constitutes the industry's boom and the speculator bust, as well as a growth in manga influences in American comics. 2000-2009: The Ultimate Age (MF DOOM). Expansion of the cultural presence of superheroes, in an unprecedented scope and scale, with comic book properties adapted into years of global blockbuster movies that are informed significantly by the Ultimate, Marvel Knights, Max and similar lines that often existed outside of the "current" mainstream continuity which is still rooted in the Silver Age. Includes the maturation of independent comic lines, expansion of non-superhero titles that successfully appealed to non-traditional comic audiences, and the zombie trend. Art is characterized by the rise of decompressed storytelling and the influence of cinematic wide-screen story boards. 2009-current: The Pre-Partum Age (Kendrick Lamar). The Big Two publishers experiment with repeated continuity reboots and re-shuffles, on a "Crisis" or near-Crisis scale, attempting to fold the milieus of the Ultimate Age into the legacy material of the Silver-through-Image Ages. Independents continue to prosper, and "indy" artistic sensibilities expand in comic titles published by the Big Two (the House style becomes indy). Traditional pencil and ink art production transitions into digital applications, so that a published page may be constituted from multiple physical pieces of pencil and/or ink art (or from no physical piece at all). Some art continues to be produced traditionally. This is an ongoing stage in transition, so further observation is required to place the trends into context. Oh, and the Original Five X-Men are back! My dabbling in current comics is somewhat limited. So feel welcome to shred this apart...