Ecclectica

Seeing the content, maybe he just destroyed it.

Flash #5 (V2 - 1987) pages lot 

Sold for 408 USD on Aug 21, 2022 :

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134196046952?nma=true&si=NpLx8BwLcnskATi4gUnqncsn1fM%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Already offered now, splitted, for various prices :

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_ssn=ninmm98&store_name=ninmm98&_oac=1&_nkw="guice+flash"&_sop=16

(this version of the Speed Demon is the second one - the first one appeared in 1956)

Interestingly, the least interesting page of the original lot is not for sale. Maybe the seller kept it to himself ?

Just saw another Ebay ad.

It seems the original velum returned to the original crook :

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334547408163

He probably never sold it or he got it returned (Comic Connect is even used in the ad...)

The strange destiny of this velum continues...

...as what seems to be a crude copy is displayed on an Ebay seller's store :

- with a Canadian location : https://www.ebay.com/itm/185559235581

- with an Australian location : https://www.ebay.com/itm/185559261241

... but with the same "stock  number"...

On 8/29/2022 at 5:15 PM, lobrac said:

I believe they were speaking Latverian.

You would have to be glad they didn't bring Servo-Guards to the con.

On 8/28/2022 at 4:18 AM, cloud cloddie said:

Didn’t he just decide he was done with Elsewhen?

Unfortunately, yes. :sad:

On 8/25/2022 at 7:04 PM, Rick2you2 said:

Go look at it, and compare it to, say his Superman or X-men work. It should be apparent if you look at it. 

For my part, I wouldn't try to compare Byrne's WW run and his Superman run. There is too much distance in time between the two. The visibles differences are the results of the common, natural evolution of the artist's artwork with time.

When you said "he consciously picked a different style for that work", I thought Byrne, maybe, had adopted a specific approach for this WW run I should know of. I suppose you wanted to say "he was drawing this way at this period of time", because when I compares the start of his WW run with something he did just before (Babe 2), or when I compares the end of the WW run with something he did just after (New Gods), and inking his artwork himself (important point too, IMHO), I see no differences.

But IMHO, I see differences between the START and the END of his WW run. His artwork improved.

On 8/26/2022 at 2:01 PM, Rick2you2 said:

Albert knows his stock

His stock, not always, and not always the components of his stock -> proof below.

When I asked him by mail if he had still this page, he told me "No" (page already sold), but didn't remove it from his website at the time. Stayed like this for months.

And about the page content :

On 8/25/2022 at 1:27 PM, Rick2you2 said:

he consciously picked a different style for that work

I would not like this thread to derail, but if you could elaborate (or point me where to find to explanations elsewhere), I would happy to read about it.

On a sideline, not a bad idea to write a full name in a dedication after all...

On 8/22/2022 at 4:48 AM, tth2 said:

[...] he's got way more to lose than me!

Just a reaction, reading just the small part above :

When one really love the art, beyond than its potential resell value, whatever happens, one never lose.

On 8/21/2022 at 10:54 AM, crnbrd said:

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1846727&GSub=228206

This was either $1200 or $1500 on Albery Moys earlier this year.

I just checked : it was $1500.

On 7/26/2022 at 5:19 AM, Race said:

I am having trouble understanding why people keep paying big $$$ for the same B&W, left side Hellboy pose and expression (with the only variants being amount of body drawn, i.e. head/upper torso/three‐quarters). Aside from those created at the very start of the character's life, I fail to see how the rest of these Xerox copies have anywhere close to what sellers are asking these days.

I completely agree with you, but I suppose several factors are playing here...

First, buyers buy what they can if they're Hellboy fans... After all, Mike Mignola doesn't produce a lot of drawings these days and his Hellboy pages, covers are even more expensive. So they grab what they can.

Second, buyers are blinds... or youngs (or the 2 in the same time). Many fans see only Hellboy. You have to take into consideration that Hellboy started a looooooong time ago, and perspective matters. Consider the younger fans. I suppose some of them don't even know about all the things MM did before Hellboy... If you were there, like me, an active reader in the 80's/90's, we know that MM did several masterpieces in what is, for me, his "ten best years" (reference to "The wind rises" by Hayao Miyazaki) from 1987 to 1997. The MM paradox is that he concluded his "ten best years" period with a masterpiece on Hellboy, "The corpse", showing in some panels, alas, the root of the simplification path he has entrenched himself in more and more with the years. "Think, simplify"... Okay... but, on my side, I wouldn't exchange a page from Gotham by Gaslight, Triumph And Torment, The Jungle Adventure, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Eddy Current, Fires of the Revolution, ... for a recent MM Hellboy page.

On 7/25/2022 at 2:59 AM, grapeape said:

Likely one bidder going for all of them

Probably.

On 7/21/2022 at 2:35 AM, modelmaker said:

Stan Lee signing in his prime:

Ouch !

For one second, I thought somebody had stolen my card from my collection, and I rushed to check if it was always here ! It is.  

I have exactly the same card, coming from an UKCAC edition in the 90's (probably the 1992 or 1993 one, don't remember)

Excellent !

I knew the inker was familiar to me, but I couldn't put a name on it.

So a sequel, or whatever is it, to the "Danger Trail" MS was on the work.

Many thanks !!!

Hi all,

In Russ Cochran last auction, I stumbled on this page labelled :

"Infantino - Unknown Title #?, Pg 2, DC, Original Comic Book Art (1994)"

https://russcochranauction.auctionanything.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&auction_uid1=6303715

At reverse, there is a label : "Carmine Infantino - Possible 'Flash' art"

What surprise me is the year of the DC stamp at the back : 1994, and the fact it should come from a #2.

I thought the lastest major contribution of Infantino for DC was the "Danger Trail" MS done in 1993, his last DC work DC Comics Presents: Batman #1 in 2004, and nothing, in sequential mode, in the decade between (except some pin-ups).

Does somebody know something about this art ?

It seems to be from Infantino indeed, but somewhat downplayed by the inker (?)

Too bad a pencil mention under the "Shot for code" is mainly erased because there aren't many signs on the page to tell for where it comes from, except the fact it was probably done indeed around 1994.

A new series of the time ? A Flash MS ? Unpublished ?

(or simply an error in the listing maybe, with somebody emulating here a bit of the Infantino style - that would be the first time at DC -, so it would explain why I don't find where it comes from. I says this because the R.C.'s guys aren't usually very careful to check for the creators on their pages to sell. There is another page in this auction lot, from a Superman issue, with inks by a "Schuktz" or "Mark Schultz", for inks done in fact by Tom Nguyen...  I sent them, for their last batch, a mail to make them correct another mistake like this one and they didn't even bother to reply or do something...) 

So, the opinion from Infantino's specialists is welcome !

Many thanks in advance !

On 6/20/2022 at 2:58 AM, Bill C said:

w..t..f..

I'm only half-surprised.

One of the most powerful drawing from Lee from his Image era.

When this drawing came out, I thought he had made a good use of his Miller inspiration, and that is was a good occasion for him to show his range of abilities outside the pure superhero stuff.

ROM #19 p 1 (1981)

Sold 750$ on Romitaman (pic référence : January 26th, 2021) :

Now offered at 1400 € (1465 $) on this french website :

That's quite an increase, just for a Neutralizer under the snow...

I'm very sad to see this news.

Met Tim in a french convention 25 years ago. A very nice guy. He took the time to make me a very beautiful drawing I still cherish today. I will cherish this drawing even more now.

A giant.

On 6/13/2022 at 6:43 PM, Race said:

Does anyone know? Is the family still holding on to it? He drew the strip for over a year, so I would expect to see more on CAF or for sale...

Same situation than for the Williamson/Garzón ones maybe... (same buyer)

On 6/9/2022 at 2:16 PM, AlexG_art said:

I'm trying to remember how much it was going for on Moy's site. Maybe between $25,000 - $30k.  

I confirm : $25,000 when it was sold on Moy's site on August 16th 2021.

On 6/8/2022 at 1:52 PM, Michael Browning said:

That piece was up on eBay for several weeks. The seller - not one of the Bros. - would put it up with a starting bid of $1 and then would take it down and relist it the next day. He had two or three other pieces that were also done the very same way - list and end, relist and end… At one point, he had a Buy It Now on it that was in the high five digits and had posted a harsh message to the description about people trying to lowball him and he knew what he had.

Indeed.

What you're describing add to what I described between his initial purchase of the velum on eBay and the CC ad.

Nice to see almost nobody fell into the trap...

CC changed their ad a little bit. That helped, but they should do their homework better next time before endorsing this kind of item...

The final price will probably not discourage the trickster to do again this kind of setup in the future, but at least, he had only a small ROI for all his pityful efforts.