Nate Hartz

On 6/8/2024 at 12:22 AM, 1classics said:

Yeah I’m a fan of Sal Spec Spidey throughout his tenure, but I thought he adapted a unique style during the post Mcfarlane era Spider-Man that was well received at the time. Maybe I’m just biased cuz I was a young teen at the time of this run, but the cover was a memorable one and just surprising it fell far short of expectations. Either way I think you’re right, as just about any Sal Spec Spidey cover of this era at a $15k purchase will be a wise investment over time. 
 

On a side note, doing some more research Bechara that same auction day in 2022 bought Sal Spec Spidey #145 (chained spidey) for less than this one at $20.4k vs $22.8k for the #205 and then resold it recently for $32k. I guess the moral of the story is for the current buyer to not re-auction over the next couple years and instead continue to hold or perhaps sell privately! 

I've always loved this cover. I remember seeing in on the spin rack at the local Book Emporium and bought it on the spot. Man, I loved Sal's Spidey!

I entered this hobby in the late 90's early 2000's as a fan that had no idea any of this existed or purchased for that matter. I lived in a small town in the Midwest and when I found Ebay it became my main source of art. I only attended one convention every couple of years and would grab some sketches or, if I saved enough, a page from one of the artists or a friendly art dealer that took time to explain things to me. Sure prices were high for some stuff but I didn't have want/funds/need to have the older artists' pages. I think for the most part, original comic book art started out as a niche market that's slowly growing into higher demand, but doesn't have more supply. Each page is one of a kind(1 of 1) and some will never leave the collector's portfolios in my lifetime. When any collectible market meets, in-between this "Sweet spot", it always is a recipe for opportunity/money. Are the prices out of control? That's subjective but the market will adjust until it can't. People are currently willing to pay high prices for art and will remain until the desire or want disappears. It was like this for Kirby, Buscema, EC artists, Byrne, whatever in demand artists, etc. until the supply dries up. I am just glad I was/am able to own some art from my favorite artists and that for me is enough. 

That was such an interesting auction. It was great to see a piece of history like that go up for auction. I always enjoy seeing Ditko's Spider-Man art and to get the chance to see the pencils and inks is just icing on the cake.

Great! I love hearing stories like this! Really nice to get one of your big wants in your collection.

I had a house fire. Everyone got out safe and only the upstairs was badly damaged. Most of my original art made it through unscathed.

Luckily, the place where I work just purchased me a new flat bed scanner (13 x 20) and I was in the process of re-scanning all of my pages. 

I want to make sure I have it all insured and am slowly getting some information on the subject. Anyone have any good references? 

What do you use to protect your artwork or have for insurance. I know that Heritage does an appraisal service. Anyone else?

Does anyone have original art from any of these. I know there were a lot produced and always love seeing originals.

I have the three page origin sequence from The Man From Krypton. I loved getting a couple of these records/comic combos as a kid. 

I have quite a few.

Lady Death cover prelim by Ivan Reis

A couple of War of Superman pages by Eddy Barrows

Wonder Woman prelim by Ben Caldwell

Batman Confidential page by Kevin Maguire

A Green Arrow page by Mike Mayhew

Couple of prelims by Alan Davis (Cap and X-Men Schism)

Hawkman prelims by Ryan Sook

and finally a Cover prelim by Kevin Nowlan.

I too am a long time fan of Steve's. I love his Fearless Dawn and other work. 

Here's mine.

I really don't see this actually happening anytime soon. It doesn't seem to be a market for it. Encapsulation of original art I can see happening but grading the art is going to be a waste. It is a one of a kind piece of artwork and giving a grade to a one of one is kind of silly. Just like the grading of the WOTC Lord of the Rings ONE RING. It is a one of one. Getting it encapsulated is fine but that is the only one in existence, so the grade is secondary on so many levels.

I always like to see what a different inker does to a piece of art. I thought the Gallery Edition of DKR was so interesting. 

On 8/16/2023 at 2:52 PM, stinkininkin said:

I was actually offered these pages that Heritage is offering maybe 6 years ago. I was tempted, since it was such a key scene from the books, but the fact that it wasn't the published version ended up tipping the scale for me to pass. Still cool and historic pages. I actually like the published all Miller re-drawn, re-inked pages better, and would have been extremely motivated to add those into my collection.

I think it's been said before that Frank received all the art for issues 1 and 4 while Klaus got 2-3. Frank would re-draw and ink pages that he disagreed with. I had also heard that Todd McFarlane even inked some Dark Knight Returns pages, but were these the Frank/Klaus pages or the Frank/Frank pages?

Storytime.....

Albert Moy interview with Felix.The Felix Comic Art Podcast: The Felix Comic Art Podcast (Episode 1): Albert Moy (libsyn.com)

After speaking to Klaus at a convention, he had Albert Moy head over to his apartment and gave him the complete art for books 2 and 3. When he got the artwork back from DC, Klaus was mad that Frank didn't like the inks and had placed redrawn stats all over the artwork. Klaus even took some stats off of the pages. (like the pages above). The rumor was that after Frank had seen the artwork, he thought the issues were coming out too fast and wanted to slow the release down. 

Albert had the pages for #2 for about a month and a half. He said that the panel pages sold for about $65-250 each and the splashes for $650-900.

Issue # 3 Albert purchased outright and sold all but 2 pages. Those # 3 pages sold as a quick flip.

On 8/16/2023 at 4:21 AM, tth2 said:

Thanks Eric. 

So in reading the description in the Heritage listing just now, am I understanding correctly that these pages being offered, which were the original Janson inks, are not the pages that were ultimately used in the published version, which were pages that Miller re-inked? 

Yes, I had read or heard somewhere that Miller re-inked panels that he was not happy with. You can see the inking in Batman legs vs the actual panel, etc.

Here are two more pages I picked up. 

Amazing Spider-Man # 47 page 6 and Peter Parker Spider-Man # 44 page 2

Congrats! It is amazing to see someone achieve their collecting goals. Glad you finally got your Churchill page. 

Two new pick-ups

Drax page by Scott Hepburn. CM Punk wrote the issues and cool art throughout.

Amazing Spider-Man page by Humberto Ramos, From one of my favorite issues. Boomerang takes roommate Peter Parker to a Spider-Man quizbowl with his villians. Of course Peter wins.

Cool! I have been following this thread since the beginning. I hope you get there soon!

Jason, 

Do you still need an Ian Churchill X-Men page?

Uncanny X-Men | Ian Churchill Original Art (ianchurchillart.com)

On 7/9/2023 at 2:10 PM, MIL0S said:

I’ve got one more Jim Lawson turtle page that I’m trying to identify. Anyone know where this one was published?

I believe it is Tales of the TMNT #45 Rocks story by Laird and Lawson and art by Lawson. I don't have the issue in front of me.

I won this at a small comic convention in Illinois. They were handing out raffle tickets to everyone that entered the show that day. I was the super lucky winner of the Manhunter trade paperback. Inside the front cover was this Walt Simonson sketch. 

Nic Klein Deadpool page from when Skottie Young was writing it. Just picked it up from the Post today.

I just stopped by my house and found this delivered. 

A Nic Klein Deadpool page from Skottie's run on the character. So happy to have a Klein page. I usually just miss getting other pages from Nic.

Here are my two new additions:

Andy Kubert -Walmart 100 Page Giant # 6 page 1. I really liked this series for the most part. This page was from one of my favorite issues from Tom's 12. It's signed by the creative team(Tom King, Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope). It features Superman on every panel and it's the title page as well. Really happy to get this.

Second one was a recreation of All-Star Superman # 10 page by Greg Woronchak. I have loved this page since I first read it. I know that Chip Kidd owns the entire issue and made his own Artist Edition of it as well. I know that I would never own the original so i went with the next best thing. I have it framed in my classroom at school.