hmendryk

Black Magic #3 (1951) art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Just the fact you use the term "seminal" means you are judging based on the perceived importance of the comic book feature and not on the merits of the actual inking. And while it is true that Kirby did little inking during the silver age, he did a lot of his own inking during previous periods.

A list of the best inkers that includes many of Jack Kirby's inkers including Joe Simon, but does not include the Jack Kirby himself? Nobody inked Kirby better than Kirby!

Pocket Comics #4 (January 1942) by Joe Simon

Yes I bought it from Ron at a comic convention.

Yin and yang of my collection: Pocket Comics #4 (January 1942) by Joe Simon Captain America #2 variant cover (June 2018) by Ron Garney

I guess all such things are relative, but I feel I have spent a lot of money amassing my collection. I started in the mid to late 90's and have concentrated on Simon and Kirby art. That art was pricey but no where near the cost of Kirby's silver age stuff. Up to recently I never sold anything from my collection but lately I have been selling some of the less valuable art. The little I have sold went for more than I paid for it (although I am not counting inflation effects). I have retired recently and between that and the higher prices even for Simon and Kirby art, I no longer go after the same type of art that I used to. But I have not given up collecting, but now I concentrate on recent artists whose prices I can still afford.

Favorite artist(s) are Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. While I will conform with the specification that I can have only one favorite image, the truth is that ask me in a week or so and while the artists would remain the same the image may differ.

Well you did ask for Sandman! LOL

I never was able to afford silver age Kirby splashes or covers and now his panel pages are too costly for me. So these few are among my most cherished possessions.

I really cannot disagree. But even when I picked up my pencils version of Cap 105, the better Cap covers were way out of my price range. Still even though I would not claim Cap 105 to be one of the best Kirby Caps it still has a cherished place in my collection.

Considering the date that Jack did the art and the type of publication he did it for, it is very likely the original art no longer exists. At that time original comic book art was not considered valuable and Kirby was used to not having work returned to him. A publication like Esquire would not expect that they would reprint such a feature but would like to be sure no one else did. No certainty, but most likely the art was destroyed.

Simon and Kirby for both.

No convention prints. Joe was always concerned about Marvel's copyrights. Remember this was after Joe and Marvel reached an agreement about the copyrights.

I can see why some might not like to see the blue line, but for me there is no problem. Sometimes it even enhances the piece of art. I am very fond of Marvin Stein, an artist who worked in the 50's. He would use blue pencil to rough out the composition and then go directly to inking (skipping pencils entirely).

As a rule I only collect published comic art (and I agree with the definition that it means art that was actually printed in a comic for sale). I do not know the exact percentage but I would guess it to be about 95%. And most of the unpublished ones were clearly meant to be published but were abandoned at one stage or another before being accepted (from just pencils to fully inked). The only piece I can think of that was never meant to be published was this drawing by Mike Mignola.

The Pocket #4 image size is about 8.5 by 11 inches, the rest 10.5 by 14 inches.

Pocket Comics #4 (January 1942) Joe Simon pencils and inks. Champ Comics #20 (July 1942) Jack Kirby pencils, Joe Simon inks. Speed Comics #22 (August 1942) Joe Simon (using alias Glaven) pencils and inks. Champ Comics #22 (August 1942) Joe Simon (using alias Glaven) pencils and inks.

I am afraid this is a misleading comparison. Rembrandt and other fine artists used techniques like etching and lithograph to produce prints. These all required skill in printing, a skill not found in the so called "monoprint" comic art. And even with the fine artists the number of prints in an edition often had an effect on the monitory value of a print. Some modern fine artists have produced the equivalence of "monoprints" but with a mixed response from collectors for the same reasons of that from collectors of comic book art. Primarily the value greatly depends on the number of prints made. This depends on the honesty of whoever has a copy of the digital file from which the print was made. And since the prints are made from a computer, prints made years later are indistinguishable from the original edition.

Avengers #4 was the first return of Captain America to the Marvel Universe. At least for most people. For me it was always Strange Tales #114. I know it turned out it was the Acrobat pretending to be Cap but as a younger reader I immediately became a Captain America fan.

This has never happened to me with original art. But I learned my lesson early on with eBay bidding on a comic book. It was an issue of Young Romance with all contents penciled by Jack Kirby. I had been looking for it for years when it showed up on eBay. I caught a bad case of auction fever and ending up bidding up to $500. I still lost and was quite happy to do so. I knew I had made a stupid mistake. Especially two weeks later when I found a copy at a comic book convention, every bit as good as the eBay piece but priced at $15.

I am not saying you are wrong, but in all my selling on eBay, every time someone wanted to retract a bid, I received the request with eBay indicating I had to give my agreement. I have never had a bid retracted with out giving agreement.

Bids can be retracted if it is agreed to by both the buyer and seller. Shilling?

Some years ago I bought the cover art for Justice Traps the Guilty #38 (May 1952) by Marvin Stein. On the back he did a caricature of another artist from the Simon and Kirby studio, Mort Meskin.