The Voord

Subtitles are a must for me on most things, lol! My hearing's definitely deteriorated as I get older and my wife doesn't like me turning up the volume so I can hear WTF I'm supposed to be listening to . . . so subtitles (and lower volume) make a nice compromise!

Some years back, I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase five interior story pages from SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON # 1 (1962), via Dan Spiegle's art agent, Dave Karlen. For some reason, Dan had retained all of the interior art to # 1, with the bulk of that 1st issue art owned by an American friend who bought his pages directly from Dan. The book was later re-titled, SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON, LOST IN SPACE. Very little of Dan's interior pages from the series is known to exist . . . apart from the first issue, I've seen a smattering of pages from late in the title's run. Issue one contained two SFR stories . . . 'The Challenge of Gorko' (22 pages) and 'Rescue on Asteroid 48' (10 pages). Here are the pages I own (pages 3, 21, 27, 28 and 30), positioned in order of book appearance:

I think it depends on who you're dealing with. As I'm in the UK, I get hit with extra charges buying from or selling to USA residents. F&F eliminates the extra charges, so if I'm selling I either request F&F or a top-up-charge to cover the extra costs involved with G&S . . . and if I have absolute trust in the seller (through solid reputation) will pay F&F.. But, yes, F&F is generally not a good idea when dealing with complete unknowns.

Back in the 1960s, in my home town of Liverpool, England . . . I used to scour all the local newsagents for the latest American comic-books. Although I had a preference for the Marvel titles, I was quite open to try anything that looked interesting (regardless of publisher). One weekend, during a systematic search of the neighborhood, I came across the # 24 issue of a title I'd not seen before . . . SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON, LOST IN SPACE. The dramatic (painted) cover depicted a daring rescue bid to save a sacrificial victim from an imminent fiery death, atop of the hands of a gigantic statue in the ancient mythical land of Atlantis. On the strength of the cover painting alone (see below), I bought the comic-book and was duly hooked on the adventures of the Robinsons (which have no bearing on the TV series of the same name). The interior art, by Dan Spiegle, was deceptively simple. His story-telling, in comparison to the superhero stuff of the time, didn't go in for the heightened sense of drama most of us had become accustomed to. Spiegle's story art was a gentle, refreshing change of pace . . . allowing the strength of the writing not to be overshadowed by flashy macho-posturing characters. A month or two after buying LOST IN SPACE # 24, I bought the follow-up issue of this two-part adventure. The cover image to SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON, LOST IN SPACE # 25 was, to the 10 year old boy I was at the time, even more spectacular!. For over five decades I'd been enamored of George Wilson's stunning # 25 cover painting - and it had remained high on my 'Wants' list of nostalgic favorites. Some years back, when I decided to scale-down my collection to a core group of cherished favorites, I'd abandoned all hope of ever finding my LOST IN SPACE cover grail. Out of the blue, I received an e-mail from the (then) owner - expressing an interest in releasing the cover to me in trade. Through several weeks of looking at trade options (for artwork outside of my own collection that I could possibly buy as trade-bait), the alternative idea of a straight cash sale was agreed upon - and many, many years later, the original artwork for a much-loved and long-admired painting found its way to me.

Nice, but if it's a Liefeld, Cap's chest needs to be of gigantic proportions! Cap's shield looks a bit wonky, though the feet are showing signs of improvement ;)

He goes to the same menswear as The Hulk and The Thing . . .

Ha, ha, ha! Since when did they start grading OA? I always thought a general condition report should suffice, instead of going the route of slab mentality!

I'd probably rank them 10, 4 and 5, in that order. I get that you much prefer 5 and 10, but no guarantee either of those will become available in the foreseeable future (and if they did, you might be eclipsed in the bidding)! As such, if you need an example for your collection, I'd say # 4 is not too shabby an option (and better than no examples). Not trying to convince you either way but, as I said before, you asked for feedback.

I'm not forgetting, and am balancing the two. You did ask for feedback, quote: "So, if you have something really good to say about it, please do so. If not, by all means comment anyway." Where you asking for feedback to argue the toss or hear a different perspective? I'm no Phantom Stranger-guy, so can only react to what you're displaying in terms of an illustration, which I thought was an intriguing design. Good cover designs should intrigue . . . and make you want to buy the book. If it's not for you . . .

At first glance, in R2Y2's post, I thought I was looking at some kind of illustration of 'The Shadow', lol! Yeah, the final cover presentation makes more sense . . . and I actually quite like this!

Fixed.

At one time I owned three 1950s (pre-Marvel) Atlas covers, so there are examples out there . . . though probably not too many.

Good work, Lee, but I think it might be better if final results were in on your auction comparisons, as opposed to current bid status?

Highly unlikely.

From what I recall, it went unpublished.

If it ain't broke, don't try to fix . . . or replace, lol!

Who won the fight?

Work-in-progress of my sculpture of the beastie from Night of the Demon, 1957 (known as Curse of the Demon in the USA). This is a working copy . . . with a base yet to be added. The background shows a scene from the movie.

A resin cast of a recent sculpture, a 14" tall waterline version of the Kraken from CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). For this one, I altered the angle of the shoulders at about 45% to achieve the effect I wanted of the Kraken lunging towards you, arms outstretched in a threatening pose. I'll paint him up soon, add the fangs, and replace this photo with one of the painted statue . . . This will shortly be made available as a collectors resin kit edition rom Killer Kits UK. Screen-capture from the movie included for comparison.

Clearly (ahem) 'excited' by this auction! ;)

Yeah, Heritage should definitely be taking a more proactive role in safeguarding artwork shipments to them. Reading this thread, I'd now be a bit wary of sending them anything in the mailing system, so it is in their interest to build-in tighter security measures to help protect customers. I've also read about a few packages they sent out to buyers that went missing.

Metropolis has (or had) the cover art to TTA # 67. I also seem to recall the Bothers D having the TTA # 70 cover.

Good response that makes sense. Personally, I don't set myself any limits on what I buy but do need to justify to myself future purchases on a sort of, "Do I really need this?" basis (and affordability) whenever something of potential interest comes my way. I'd class myself as a collector, not a hoarder!

Jury's out for me on this one . . . though it does seem a bit of a stretch of the imagination that targeted art shipment thefts would end-up in some kind of bargain bin? If the eBay seller's on the level, he shouldn't have a problem co-operating fully with investigators following the audit trail . . . so, yeah, this needs further action.

You've probably answered your own question. Just because you like (or love) the character, it doesn't mean that you should automatically be a fan of every SS drawing ever produced . . . though it does sound as though you've been 'bulk-buying' most SS art floated your way, because your OA collecting habits have been character-driven. I can see where you're coming from but, if it was me, I'd just concentrate on the stuff that connects emotionally and aesthetically. I mean, I'm a huge Ditko ASM fan (and, to a slightly lesser extent, JR, Snr. working on the title). Outside those two artists, I have little or no in interest in most artists who followed. If I were you, I'd place all the SS art in front of me and start weeding out those examples I don't really feel passionate about . . . and distill a collection of the best examples I couldn't do without. Sometimes Less is More. There are a range of auction houses you could go with . . . or you could always try being your own seller.