The Voord

Totally agree. Personally, when it comes to an auction scenario I'm actively participating in . . . I just write a figure down on a piece of paper in front of me that's my absolute top bid I'm willing to go. If I lose out, at least I can walk away and take some comfort in the fact I gave it my best shot . . . and not be plagued by 'would have . . could have . . should have' niggling doubts once the results are in.

Ah, right, makes sense, thanks. I can see that for single panel/title pages . . . but would you agree that dealers have pounced on the idea to exaggerate things a bit with descriptions such as, 'half-page splash', etc.?

I'd meant this as a kind of joke example, Brian, and I'm surprised you took me seriously. Too many collectors seem hung up on the idea of what constitutes a 'slash page', so I thought I'd post something with water effects (splashes, geddit?). I think most people here got the joke. Personally, I'd never quite got where the term 'Splash page' came from. For me, it's always been title page (usually a page 1), with (some) interior pages having large panels . . . or single panel pages. I think this is more of a dealer mentality . . . trying to hype their inventory with interior pages that have larger panels than the norm.

THIS is a splash page!

Can't go wrong there, lol!

Impatient type, huh? Seriously, horror stories about commissions that take years (and years) in the making (if at all) seem all too commonplace. Eleven freakin' years, and still no sign of completion, is totally inexcusable.

It's still early days on the bidding, so we may well reach, or exceed, your guesstimate on this one. I would imagine that any BSDs pursuing this artwork will be saving their best bids until the closing moments of this auction. Wonderful (and historical) piece of art . . . I'd place this one (on the desirability front) after any surviving covers or (most) key splash pages . . . and ahead of most interior pages, with the exception of AF # 15 or ASM # 1...

I used to own the Weird Science # 2 cover but got that in trade some years later. Another early EC Horror cover I bought directly from Russ was Vault of Horror # 3. Got that one for, I think, $640. VoH was Craig's Horror title . . . he defined the look of the Vault Keeper. . . . same way Ingels defined the Old Witch, and Jack Davis the Crypt Keeper . . . even if artists like Craig and Feldstein did the early covers.

I only date women. Terry Doyle aka Voord

Well, I'm not that active in the marketplace these days, so don't really scrutinize sales trends. When I'm seeing artworks I'm not even aware of, never heard of, or even care for going for nutty prices, I can no longer make an informed opinion on such matters! For me, Ingels will always outshine Craig on Horror covers. Yes, Craig was responsible for things like the notorious covers you mention, but those are exceptions due to graphic content. You may well be right about # 1 covers carrying a premium these days, but at the time of the Cochran EC art auctions most collectors were hip to the quality of the art, not the issue number.

When it was originally sold by Cochran, the Haunt of Fear # 1 cover by Johnny Craig (numbered # 15) didn't actually go for much (about $800, I think). Generally, the strongest prices were for the Ingels covers. I was the first-time buyer of Haunt # 6 by Craig (who did most of the early covers), for $650 . . . and later got the Haunt # 13 cover (Ingels) in trade with another collector.* * Both covers long gone from my collections.

Personally, I will never sell art at a loss . . . nor will I unrealistically price things up way-too-high during those times I'm actively looking to sell anything. I think that, maybe, when collectors do post 'wishful thinking' prices on their art . . . they're taking their cue from the major dealers (What's good for the goose)?

I agree.

. . . or up to something!

All vegetables and no meat, lol!

This.

It does. I've seen it in person on my first trip to Florida from the UK. Ken Danker owned it at the time, and I'd made a side-trip to visit him along with my friend, Lloyd Braddy (who did the driving) . . . something like 20 years ago. Impressive piece of art though I seem to remember there being some noticeable glue stains along some of the edges.

Verily.

Heros the Spartan now finished.

I like both artists though if pushed for an answer lean more heavily towards Kirby. Kirby's work spanned something like five decades and, for me, he pretty much defined the look of Marvel in the 1960s and became the house-style for other artists to follow. Stan Lee knew he was on to a winner, which is why you see lots of Kirby covers for books he may not necessarily have produced any interior artwork for. For me, Jack's work leaned more towards cartooning, while Neal Adams was grounded in a realistic illustration style. Jack's artwork was an (imaginative) explosion of ideas likely dashed out very quickly while lingering in his mind . . . with Neal, the work seemed more controlled/planned and precise. As such, I'd consider Kirby's work to have the greater overall impact. I don't see any of this as a competition . . . I like lots of different artists for different reasons and rarely obsess over such things. In a similar way, this thread reminds me of two EC greats, Jack Davis and George Evans. Davis was a very fast spontaneous type of artist leaning towards cartooning, with Evans a more illustration type of guy. A Davis Horror story would often be quite grisly, but the cartoonist's style would often soften the Horror impact. When someone like Evans handled similar material, the illustrative style became more disturbing to look at. For example:

Blade Runner was an amazing movie adaptation for Marvel. Some of the location filming for the movie took place in downtown Los Angeles's historic Bradbury Building . . . same as (earlier) the 1964 OUTER LIMITS teleplay for 'Demon With a Glass Hand'. I've visited the Bradbury maybe half-a-dozen times from trips to LA from the UK. I think the Internal Affairs division of LAPD occupy most of the upper floors. Visitors are certainly allowed free access to the ground floor . . . where the following plaque is on display:

It's an interesting phenomenon. I have something like 80+ Movie Poster original paintings, and the most viewed is this one: It's a decent painting, but this and a few others (showing a bit of flesh) are the top hitters. Nekkid (or semi-clothed women) seem to hit that (ahem) sweet spot for some people. ;) Diffedrent strokes for different folks?* *Think I'll stop there before I 'milk' this further!

Pages from the MCG adaptation of Blade Runner seem to do pretty well. I own about 45% of the DC adaptation of Harlan Ellison's teleplay for The Outer Limits episode, 'Demon With a Glass Hand' and would welcome new additions! 2001 was an iconic movie . . . and Kirby an iconic artist . . . and he expanded beyond his movie adaptation with a series of books that morphed into Machine Man. How about Star Wars, which turned into a long-running book? Planet of the Apes magazine . . . which spawned new stories? You get the picture (no pun intended, lol!)? To be fair, MCG produced a lot of cr@p movie adaptations . . . but in-between the dreary stuff, some were pretty good.

Vampirella, and the way she influenced swimwear, has a lot to answer for . . .