Ted_L

Dave Cockrum for me for both #1 and 2. (This includes several X-Men pieces not currently up on comicartfans).

They don't look right to me. Some of Dave's later work wasn't so great, due to his health issues, but I'm skeptical. Dave would also typically sign somewhere with his trademark signature -- so unless there's a signature or note on the back, I wouldn't bet on these being his work.

That Dr. Strange page is amazing! Any idea what Bechara was asking for it? I'm guessing around 100K.

I have several commissions that I love, but this is probably my favorite, because the execution far exceeded my expectations. Bob Layton was having a commission sale back in 2007 and I just asked for a drawing of the Starjammers facing forwards. He delivered this publication worthy piece with title stats and tons of background detail. I was a very happy camper when this arrived!

That Xenozoic #13 cover is amazing!!! Here's my one example -- the alternate cover to Fantastic Five #2 from 1999. I believe this may be Mark Schultz's only Marvel cover (not counting Xenozoic reprints), but let me know if that's not the case.

Nice! Thanks for posting! I skipped the show, but will hopefully be at the art con in April.

You're right -- I missed the Titans link the first time around: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/11237574@N07/sets/72157642895409823/ These are really cool! I've only ever seen the original art for about 2-3 of them. Hopefully more will turn up.

Very cool! It looks like those were penciled by Steve Stiles and inked by Frank Giacoia. The FF splash was published in Super Spider-Man #174: https://www.comics.org/issue/536511/ That series reprinted American Spider-Man stories with some occasional new art, such as this piece. You can see a picture of the published splash on this website: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/11237574@N07/sets/72157642901275784/ The Captain Marvel art was most likely published in The Titans #14, another British reprint comic: https://www.comics.org/issue/537074/ Unfortunately, I couldn't find a scan of the centerspread, so I can't confirm for sure that it was published, but it seems very likely.

Jim Sherman and Tom Palmer were there last year too. It was a good show from my perspective -- not too big, but still enough dealers and artists to be well worth the trip.

Hi All, I just wanted to let people know that I have a full week of 6 daily strips up on Heritage ending tomorrow from Joe Kubert's first month on the Winnie Winkle comic strip. The price is crazy low right now, so someone is going to get a bargain even if it jumps up a lot. Link below: https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/joe-kubert-andamp-the-joe-kubert-school-winnie-winkle-daily-comic-strip-original-art-group-of-6-chicago-tribune-ny-new-total-5-original-art-/a/121906-12107.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 There's a great interview in the Comics Journal that discusses Kubert's work on the strip. You can read it here if interested: http://www.tcj.com/the-joe-kubert-interview/4/ Strips from the first month are only signed by the writer, Henry Raduta. After that, they were also signed "JKS" for Joe Kubert School. I have a second week of dailys with the JKS signature in next week's Heritage auction. I'm also selling a Tom Raney Avengers cover which was used for a giveaway web comic from Pop Secret: https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/tom-raney-avengers-pop-secret-cover-original-art-marvel-c-2016-/a/121906-12157.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 Th It ties into the Captain America Civil War movie and features Hawkeye vs. the Black Widow. You can read the story online at this link if interested: http://lalalorhen.tumblr.com/post/144896515202/hawkeyed-archer-pop-secret-special-edition/amp Raney did the pencils on computer and then inked on the board over a blueline printout. This is the only original art. Please let me know if you have any questions. Normally I don't bother posting about Heritage auctions, but these items are a bit unusual and warranted further clarification. Thanks, Ted

Glad you got it. I gave up on communicating with them again. I'll consider buying from them in person at a convention, but that's about it. If I were one of their artists I'd be pretty pissed about their level of customer service (or maybe disservice).

Yeah -- definitely not Robin Snyder. He lives in Washington and he and Ditko probably didn't see each other in person for the last 20+ years. I used to help him with his website back in the early 2000's and he had left New York well before then. I'm guessing one of the following: Marvel Staffer -- I don't want to guess at names but there's a limited list of people who were at Marvel during the 60's Family of Marvel Staffer -- maybe someone donated it after their family member passed away Someone else who had access to Marvel's offices -- guest/visitor with some knowledge of comic art or their heirs. Gil Kane is known to have taken some artwork and I'm sure other creators did as well.

Maybe I'm having a memory lapse, but I never heard of Ditko having an assistant on Mr. A or any of his other independent work. It would really be out of character for him. The only close partnerships I'm aware of were with artist Eric Stanton, who he shared a studio with in the 60's and Robin Snyder, who was his publisher for many years. There have been various discussions about art returns over the years and all evidence points to the fact that Ditko never received the art back from Marvel. I think he changed his tune a bit in later years, but he used to contend that the art was owned by Marvel and therefore not his place to claim ownership. Hopefully we'll find out one day who really donated the art, but I guess it could have been anyone who worked at Marvel at the time (or even visited on a regular basis).

Spencer usually sets up at the New York Comic Con in October. My strategy is to look for art that I'd like, but think is slightly overpriced, and then make a note of it until the holiday sale. I just put an order in for a page that I saw at the last NYCC and it was worth it to me at 30% off. I've done that successfully a few times over the last few years. I totally get the frustration with Spencer as the site is ridiculous and he's often super slow in getting in touch. If I were an artist, I would have left him long ago. Having said that, I'm personally in the pro-Spencer camp as I've been dealing with him since 2000 and have always found him to be very honest and above board. There's a lot of flaky people in this field who'll think nothing of disappearing with your art or money, but he's not one of them. On the few occasions that there were issues with a deal, Spencer has always come through eventually, sometimes even throwing in extra pages to make up for a delay.

Is it my imagination or is there even more amazing art than usual? It took me forever to decide. I didn't have the energy to document my votes, but I do recall voting for several great Tigra pieces across multiple categories. Congrats to everyone on the great pick-ups this year! Thanks again to Brian and Bill and hope everyone hurries up and votes in time. Regards, Ted

This is probably the happiest I've been with my Fave 5 for at least several years. I had to sell a lot of other art to fund this, but it was worth it to me. You can click the icons to see the full scans. Entries: 1) Covers - Legion of Super-Heroes #275 by Dave Cockrum Cockrum is my favorite artist and apart from X-Men, the Legion is what he's best known for. I'm pretty sure Dave only drew 2 Legion covers (not counting fanzines) and this is the second, done between his two stints on X-Men. I had missed the chance to own this in previous years and was thrilled to finally get it. 2) Interior Pages -- Superboy #89 page 18 by George Papp Keeping with the Legion theme, this is a page from the first appearance of Mon-El, my favorite Legionnaire growing up. This page features the cover image as well as the fateful decision by Superboy to paint lead balls to look like Kryptonite, which would result in Mon-El being stuck in Phantom Zone for a thousand years. 3) Splash page - Marvel Universe: The End (2003) #5 pages 19-20 by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom I stumbled onto this art on eBay and fell in love with it. As you can see, Starlin was doing quality work well into the 2000's, particularly when inked by Al Milgrom. I'll have to try and identify all of the characters one of these days. 4) Covers - Earth X #9 by Alex Ross I've been a fan of Alex Ross since Marvels, and his art is beautiful to behold in person. This cover features an alternate future version of the Inhumans royal family. 5) Covers - New Avengers #25 variant cover by Kevin Nowlan This is the "Deadpool 75th Anniversary Photobomb Variant cover". This is another piece that I wasn't specifically in the market for, but couldn't resist when it came up for sale. It's a great homage to the classic Kirby Avengers #16 cover. Honorable Mentions: Not easy to choose, but here are 5 favorites: 1) Marvel Two-In-One #5 page 26 (2nd Guardians of the Galaxy) by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito This page retells the origin of Vance Astro and also features the first meeting between Vance and his idol, Captain America. Vance would go on to wield Cap's shield in the 90's Guardians series. 2) Defenders #28 page 30 by Sal Buscema and Frank Giacoia Here's another great Guardians of the Galaxy piece, from the first full appearance of Starhawk. 3) Alias #19 page 22 by Michael Gaydos While I mostly collect older art, I became a big fan of this series after watching Jessica Jones on Netflix. A lot of the artwork includes stats, but this splash page (featuring Jessica Drew) is all original. 4) Black Panther #14 cover prelim by Dave Cockrum I collect Cockrum cover prelims and this one is my favorite due to the great image and level of detail. The published cover by Bill Sienkiewicz is very similar. 5) Imperial Guard by M.C. Wyman The first comic I purchased for myself was X-Men #107 and since then I've loved the Sh'iar Imperial Guard and Starjammers. I was very happy to pickup this commission at the beginning of 2018. You can see some other 2018 favorites in this folder: https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=194951 Thanks to Brian and Bill for organizing and hosting! I'm sure I'll have fun (and a challenge) picking entries to vote for! Regards, Ted

Thanks! That's good to know. I remember when the Tony Christopher collection when on sale and people were trying to sell their Kirby art in a panic before prices dropped. Of course apart from a minor dip, Kirby prices rose to new heights shortly afterwards. I don't think Ditko's collection (when and if it does appear) will hurt the market long term, if at all. Regards, Ted

Wow! I wish I had an extra 250K to spare! This didn't come from Ditko's personal stash did it? If so, I can't wait to see what else is going to turn up!

Published -- Laugh Comics Digest #57 cover by Dan DeCarlo.

I guess this is technically unpublished. This it the cover prelim to Black Panther #14 by Dave Cockrum. It's the most I've ever paid for a prelim, but still under $400. Hope you all like it.

Anyone have any luck? I was e-mailing with Paolo on the 29th and he was supposed to send me an invoice. I sent two reminders and still no response...

I love #18, but it's drawn on vellum, so that could impact the value. I don't recall any other time that Cockrum used vellum. Maybe it was a one time experiment?

Those pages Brian posted are amazing! Buscema must have been feeling really inspired by that story! I sold the few pages I had from this series, but I still have an inside front cover from issue #29 by Gil Kane. Grey tones were added prior to publication.

I'm really wondering if Ditko's returned artwork will appear on the market at some point or if the family is planning to donate it somewhere. Even rarer than Dr. Strange would be art from Shade, the Changing Man. I've never seen a page in 20+ years of collecting.

I actually found an identical Hawkman piece on Heritage when I took another look: https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/al-dellinges-golden-age-hawkman-illustration-original-art-1977-/a/121240-12785.s?ic3=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115