cesium_7

Not to divert from the topic at hand too much, but Don Vaughn was an artist who had one story published for Warren, and also worked for Continuity Associates in the mid 70s (worked on the Charlton Black and White magazines). He was a mentor for guys from the Detroit area, like Arvell Jones and Keith Pollard, and some of his work appears in their old fanzine, Fan Informer. He collaborated on a few British covers and pinups with Arvell, Keith, and Aubrey Bradford, while he was living with them in NYC. Here's an example of his work from the British books. But, you are correct, I think just about all the "DV"s on the British covers/splashes are Duffy's. I suspect he probably inked that particular (non-Starlin) cover on the DB's site since he assigned job numbers to all of his work (and apparently kept records about it, though I have never seen them).

The latest case was a downgrade from Mooney to Dave Hunt, but to be fair, they still keep "Mooney's" name on it as the inspiration. They have other British covers/splashes misidentified as Starlin, Graham, and Andru (when the actual artists are Don Vaughn, David Wenzel, and Ron Wilson) , so I see everyone's points. Plus one they got Romita Sr to sign, though he didn't have anything to do with it (other than being the artist who drew the original cover the British one was based on).

Not to defend their practices, but they do correct misattributed 70s British Marvel art, when I have taken the time to inform them about it (they still have several other misatributed pieces on their site). The same cannot be said for many of the other art dealers out there.

Was looking at some of Romita Jr's early work, and now thinking he could be a strong possibility for this as well. Take a look at these pages from his first published story (1977). Anyone else think the SM figures look familiar? I've identified many British splashes by him (about 60 so far), but not many covers.

I'll check with Ron. He isn't the best at recognizing his old work, nor the speediest at replying, but it is worth a shot. As for Hunt, he drew about 25 British covers (and many more splash pages and pinups). The list complied in Lee's book is impressive! I have scans of the OA for about seven of these, mostly provided by Dave before he passed away. Several of them have been up for auction on Heritage recently. I will post them at some point for everyone. Also, just a reminder, if anyone has any British Marvel art, please let me know. I can either help you identify it, or else it can help me to verify our identifications, or even help solve some of the remaining mysteries!

It’s not David Hunt. He did pencil many British Spider-Man covers (forgot to include him on my earlier list), but Lee Benaka let me see all of Dave’s British Marvel art records supplied by his son, so I know all the British covers he worked on (which were many!). Not this one though. Could make a nice thread showing off Dave’s work in the future, if anyone is interested

You’ve got it. This one (232) is by Lieber and Giacoia (have seen this on CAF before, maybe your gallery?). Always wondered if Lieber did the Captain Britain inset as well? I have never seen any evidence of a Ross Andru British cover, though there is one Spider-Man cover misatrributed to him on a dealer’s website (it was actually drawn by Ron Wilson, confirmed by Ron himself). Al Milgrom did several British Spider-Man covers around this time as well. Steve Stiles, Jeff Aclin, David Wenzel, and Howard Bender did a few also. Jim Starlin, Ayers, Rick Buckler, Ed Hannigan, Arvell Jones, Keith Pollard, Gary Brodsky, and even Gil Kane and Romita Sr, worked on some of the earlier British SM covers, Gene Colan did a later one (probably leaving out a few artists). Many are still unidentified.

Hadn’t considered Wilson. While he certainly drew many UK covers (about 200 of them), including many Spider-Man ones around the time of your cover (Spider-Man Weekly 122), the primary Spider-Man cover artist around this time was Larry Lieber, though there are some exceptions. Sal Buscema did a handful of Spider-Man covers in 1974 (this one was published in 1976). The nice thing about seeing the original art is that it often provides definitive answers about the artists, though sometimes it just creates additional questions.

Thanks for checking Michael. For many of these British Marvel “art mysteries” the only sure answer will be found in the original art. I’ve noticed you have several British Marvel pieces in your CA gallery. I’ll PM you about it.

Hi all. Was wondering if anyone has ever seen/owns the OA to this British Marvel cover? Would like to confirm the artist. Almost everyone attributes it to Sal Buscema...except for Sal himself, who thinks it's someone else's work. I still assumed it was Sal's, but while researching another British Spider-man cover coming up for a February Heritage auction (often attributed to Sal, but Ron Wilson says he drew it...but again I suspect it is actually Buscema), Jim Salicrup told me he didn't think this cover was by Sal either. A bit of a shot in the dark, but maybe someone has seen it? Thanks Jason

You should try Facebook. He responded to a message I sent him recently.

That Avengers splash is definitely Golden. I've been researching/identifying Marvel British Department art the past several years, and many people who workejd there (Bob Budiansky, Howard Bender, Jay Boyar) have told me Golden got some of his first assignments from them. This one is dated March 77, so was when he came back to NY that winter to break into the field for good. He got a few other Marvel fill-in jobs at the same time, most of which were published years later in Marvel Fanfare and Bizarre Adventures. It was really fortuitous that this came onto the market, since I hadn't been able to confirm any of his British work until this point (Golden (and his agent) is not very responsive to inquiries). The "DV" inker was Duffy Vohland, who inked a ton of British work. If anybody has any British work from 1974-1978 they want identified, feel free to send me a message. I've got 80% coverage (of 2,000 new art pieces from that period), and if not already identified, we can probably figure it out from what's written on the front or back of the art. I've mainly worked with the artists to identify things, but OA is the best source by far. Jason

Thanks to everyone who's contacted me so far. Every bit of information is useful. Anyone else have anything they could share with me? Don't know how many people know this, but John Romita Jr. got his start in the British Department, while going to college and afterwards, when he became a production assistant at Marvel. While his interviews say he mainly did preliminary sketches for covers and pencils, it seems he did a fair amount of full pencils as well. I have several example of his preliminary sketches, penciled by Howard Bender, but original art for the full pencils is harder to find. Below is one from a Hulk reprint, as well as an example of his preliminary sketches, penciled by Howard Bender (from his personal collection). I also include the published versions for comparison purposes, both inked by Mike Esposito.

Thanks Mike. I find the cover artists a bit easier to identify since "bigger" names tended to get those assignments, as opposed to the splashes, at least after Larry Lieber became editor of the British line in May 1976. They also weren't forced to adapt to the style of the original artists from the reprinted story. I use a variety of methods to identify the art, including signatures on the art (sometimes hidden), style analysis, historical analysis (e.g. when the artist was doing known work for the British Department), and expert opinon. But my main method is by asking the artists themselves (if still alive) which does introduce error at times. The best source for identification is usually getting to see the original art, which can include names, initials, dates, and even handwriting to analyze (e.g. Ron Wilson and Keith Pollard have distinct styles) Ultimately, I use as many of these methods as I can to make the attributions, and it's been pretty successful so far (misidentification rate of 5-10% based on a few primary sources I've recently found documenting some artists work). I'll send you an email to see if you can help out. Jason

Thanks Lee. I definitely have a bunch of scans of original art I could share, many of them sent to me from the artists. Here are a couple from Al Milgrom's personal collection (which he is interested in selling). Captain Britain 13 and Mighty World of Marvel 22, which has Starlin layouts, Milgrom finishes, and Esposito inks.

Hello everyone! I have an appeal to make. For the past couple of year I've been working on a project to identify art produced by Marvel's New York-based British Department (often called Marvel UK), who drew new covers, splash pages, posters and pinups for weekly reprints published in the United Kingdom between 1973-1979. During this period over 2,000 new pieces of art were produced for the British market, usually uncredited (new splash pages were used to split reprinted US stories, and kept credits from the reprinted story). The British weeklies served as a starting point for many artists trying to break into the industry, including John Romita Jr, Marshall Rogers, Jim Starlin, Ed Hannigan, Keith Pollard, Mike Nasser/Netzer, Michael Golden, Bob Budiansky, and many many others (80 artists have been identified so far). Mainly through the input of the artists, but also from initials or names on original art, we've been able to identify over 80% of the new art. At this point I've pretty much exhausted (both literally and figuratively) the artists, so my last resource is original art from the period. I've seen much of what's posted on Comic Art Fans (if I can find it conducting searches) and auction sites like Heritage, but I suspect there is fair amount of additional art in personal collections. I'd like to ask for your help identifying this art using original art from your collections. There are three possible benefits to this 1) we can identify previously uncredited art, 2) I can help you to identify artwork in your collection (maybe you have an earliest work of JR JR:)), and 3) it can be used to verify art identifications which have already been made (given this art was drawn over 40 years ago, artist memories are often...hazy). Recently I've made some exciting discoveries provided by original art collectors, such as access to Dave Hunt's personal records detailing all his paid work (including for the British Department), and 6 months' worth of preliminary British Marvel splash pages in a sketchbook by David Wenzel. Any other documentation similar to these would by amazing resources! If you do have any original art from the British weeklies, and would be willing to help out, please let me know at jps171@gmail.com A scan, photo, or even a description would be very helpful (artist initials were often printed on the back of the page). Or if you have an interest in knowing some of the identifications let me know. Some of this research will be appearing in future issues of Back Issue, as well as a few other possible venues, and I will certainly credit everyone who has helped. Best, Jason