Who owns grail original comic art?

[Mister Trent]

Cool topic and hope to see some cool stuff...The cover to FF 72 was in San Diego this year...Thanks, Mr. Maalouf, for the display.

 

I am a big Everett fan and was fortunate enough to be able to purchase my grail for a fair but suitably outrageous sum a while back:

 

 

 

I have other pieces I would never part with...but from the general populace perspective, this is most grail-like!

 

Everett's work is timeless. This is a great cover!

[Jeffro.]

Those Dan Dare pages are stunning. Were those stories collected into hardbacks or TPBs?

[MedicAR]

Those Dan Dare pages are stunning. Were those stories collected into hardbacks or TPBs?

 

My next question, exactly!

[Brian Peck]

The submariner #57 cover is mind blowing one of the best covers from the series. I remember voting for it in the Lowry Best of a few years back. A gem in anyone's collection.

[comicartfan]

I agree....The detail and craftmanship on that piece is stunning.....True it was probably "aggressively priced", but well worth it.....

[batman_fan]

Cool topic and hope to see some cool stuff...The cover to FF 72 was in San Diego this year...Thanks, Mr. Maalouf, for the display.

 

I am a big Everett fan and was fortunate enough to be able to purchase my grail for a fair but suitably outrageous sum a while back:

 

 

 

I have other pieces I would never part with...but from the general populace perspective, this is most grail-like!

 

I would DEFINITELY classify this cover as GRAIL, no -like needed!

[buyatari]

So what is a Grail?

 

When I think of grail I am thinking top 5 or top 10 pieces in the world not top piece in each persons collection. Or is the top piece in each person's collection their grail?

 

 

[Claudio]

So what is a Grail?

 

When I think of grail I am thinking top 5 or top 10 pieces in the world not top piece in each persons collection. Or is the top piece in each person's collection their grail?

 

I definitely think the term "grail" is overused. I think I have some really nice pieces that I really like but I don't have a "grail" yet. ;( I think of a grail as not being your top piece but the top piece you have ever wanted. There are definitely more than 5 or 10 pieces out there because every person can have a different grail. Heck, I am not even sure what my grail is yet!

[Bronty]

I wish thinking the same thing when I read this thread..... talk about overused. For me it would be major (100k up) SA marvel covers/splashes. Probably whatever FF covers exist from my favorites like 1,4,5,12,16,25,50,55,82,etc. Not that I would/could collect them at 100k+ each.

[Bronty]

sweet subby cover btw

[mtlevy]

The Grail debate is a long one.

 

I feel you know your grail when you see it--it is the last piece you will ever sell--and then only if it is life-changing. Also you would not trade it--even for a piece with a higher market value. These aren't comic books, there is only one and once a piece has left your collection you may never see it again...

 

It is tough to separate the $$ from the grail debate but personally don't think $$ is the critical element. A grail could just be a particular panel page from an average artist that resonates for a particular person. Of course, if a piece is your grail it is likely others will like it enough to drive price up so grails tend to be $$.

 

Let's see some more "grails"

 

 

[Bronty]

Yeah for sure...... this is an old beaten horse, but a masochistic one, likes more punishment and somehow not dead yet

 

I have to say wolverine limited covers would also be grails for me (#2 was the first US comic I ever owned) and dark knight cover #2 as well. Cerebus #4 cover would be sweet too. I still laugh every time I look at that cover.... something about the "face-to-waist" blurb cracks me up. oh and anything frazetta.

 

actually...... that's one problem I have with the "last to sell" definition of grail. Out of the stuff I mentioned the cerebus 4 cover might be the last one I'd sell and yet it would also be last on the totem pole in terms of how I rank these pieces. But even still I would sell it last because I feel it would also be a bit "underappreciated" by the market. I.e. I feel like there is a chance I would like it more than the market likes it. No such worries for the other pieces.... while they are drop dead pieces there would also be people killing themselves to throw money at me if I had them and wanted to sell.

 

I.e. I can envision scenarios where my 'last to sell' piece is not my favorite piece.

[MedicAR]

I've never read any of the grail debates, so I didn't know we were beating a dead horse.....

 

 

To me, a grail is long-wanted or long-searched-for item. Sometimes it's specific pages or covers like some of the ones mentioned above, but mine are always more general....like the characters by their creators that I always chase down. I looked for years for a Shuster Superman and almost as long for a Wrightson Swampy. I always thought of "grails" as being tough to find which usually translates into $$$$, but not always. Sometimes it's just being in the right place at the right time.

 

If you want to get specific on these, I'm looking for a specific John Wayne page by Williamson and Frazetta. I can't tell you the issue number or page, but I'll definitely know it when I see it. The final panel is one of couple of cowboys at each end of a street "high noon" style, but more at dusk becasue the shadows are amazing.......

 

Sorry, I got distracted thinking about it. Where was I?

 

So anyhow, this page has been on eBay several times and I always lost in the closing seconds. It was back before I learned about sniping programs, so I watched this piece move time and again. It would pop up every six months or so and I'd lose again. Then it sold again and.........nothing. It has not resurfaced again yet. That's been upward of five years, I believe.

[buyatari]

I've always thought of grails as ones you wouldn't trade for anything else.

 

So if you like Frazetta than even a good Frazetta it isn't a grail unless you would turn down every other Frazetta for it.

 

If you like FF then you would turn down the cover to 1 and 48 etc. Because if there is a FF piece you would want more then your piece can't be a grail.

[Mister Trent]

Those Dan Dare pages are stunning. Were those stories collected into hardbacks or TPBs?

 

My next question, exactly!

 

The DARE stories are currently going through a series of h/c reprints by (Britain's) Titan books. The format is slightly smaller than the original EAGLE comics and the reproduction isn't always as good.

 

A search of eBay should point you in the direction of US sellers, and the books shouldn't be too expensive.

 

From an artwork point of view, Hampson's artwork began to really shine with the advent of the mid-1950s adventure, "The Man From Nowhere" (so if you do have an interest in trying out a DARE story, "Man From Nowhere", "Rogue Planet" and "Reign of the Robots" are peak-period Hampson).

 

I've contributed several written features to these books (in collaboration with my friend, Alan Vince, who was perhaps the only person ever to get close to Hampson during his 'wilderness' years).

 

Here are some scans, taken from the third volume of the h/c Titan reprints, of the cover and one of our written features:

 

 

 

 

 

The photograph, on page 3, shows Frank Bellamy (holding his RADIO TIMES cover art that was used to promote the BBC's TV listings, with a focus on the then new DR WHO adventure, "Day of the Daleks").

 

This particular volume also includes a two-page introduction by Chris Claremont.

 

I have quite a few DARE originals (and scans of other written features) on display in my CAF, by the way.

[buyatari]

Yeah for sure...... this is an old beaten horse, but a masochistic one, likes more punishment and somehow not dead yet

 

I have to say wolverine limited covers would also be grails for me (#2 was the first US comic I ever owned) and dark knight cover #2 as well. Cerebus #4 cover would be sweet too. I still laugh every time I look at that cover.... something about the "face-to-waist" blurb cracks me up. oh and anything frazetta.

 

actually...... that's one problem I have with the "last to sell" definition of grail. Out of the stuff I mentioned the cerebus 4 cover might be the last one I'd sell and yet it would also be last on the totem pole in terms of how I rank these pieces. But even still I would sell it last because I feel it would also be a bit "underappreciated" by the market. I.e. I feel like there is a chance I would like it more than the market likes it. No such worries for the other pieces.... while they are drop dead pieces there would also be people killing themselves to throw money at me if I had them and wanted to sell.

 

I.e. I can envision scenarios where my 'last to sell' piece is not my favorite piece.

 

Then none of them are grails. If you have a grail I think you'd sell all others at a loss before you sold it. I've heard collectors finding that one rare item saying "I could never sell this. If I did what would be the point of collecting." and "This is why I collect" There should no other piece in the world you would rather have.

 

NOW THAT is a grail.

 

If you don't feel that way about a piece its not your grail.

[Mister Trent]

Has anyone got any grail original comic art?

 

. . . If anyone has any pictures or information/anecdotes of any key/historic original comic art please share them!

 

I agree with some of the ensuing remarks that the term 'grail' is often over-used and mis-used.

 

Which is why I've gone the route of focussing on your last request.

 

However, the three DARE pages I posted are (for me) BOTH historically-important AND grail-like items.

 

Anyone with a deep knowledge of, and interest in, the original DAN DARE stories will know of their importance.

 

It took me quite a few years (and tough negotiations) to put my hands on these pages . . . and it's only recently that I was finally able to acquire the page 2 to Frank Hampson's last DARE episode.

 

Similarly, it took me something like 25 years to finally acquire a Wally Wood WEIRD SCIENCE cover (which, for me, is something I still have to pinch myself over - to make sure I didn't dream it up!).

 

I was more fortunate tracking-down a Graham Ingels HAUNT OF FEAR cover (which only took me a mere 17 years . . . ).

[Mighty Hal]

Your Wally Wood WEIRD SCIENCE cover? For me, that is a grail....

[Bronty]

I've heard collectors finding that one rare item saying "I could never sell this. If I did what would be the point of collecting."

 

I hear you, but there is so much nice art in the world. I think what it comes down to, realistically, is not "I would NEVER sell it" but rather "I would never sell it UNLESS" (I was able to buy an even better piece with the proceeds, I got an offer of 20x FMV, I was dead strapped for cash, fill in your particular blank).

 

I just don't see how its even possible to have a single favorite piece of art in the world. For me it would change every week/month anyways. So if somebody made me an offer on a killer frazetta that would enable me (and I had the contacts to) buy two killer frazettas that I like just as much (say they are my three favorite pieces in the world), how can I say no?

 

I think of grails as those pieces in the top .000001%, the killer, unbelievable, drop-dead pieces of the entire history of the medium. But there's more than one piece like that. How would you choose between the action 1 cover and the tec 27 cover? (or whatever, for you, represents two mind boggling, must have at all costs pieces).

[Brian Peck]

I agree with the term grail its not just one piece over all others that if I got it would make me content and stop collecting. Grail me me is a piece when I get it I don't see any reason I would ever part with it. My X-Men #8 pand Cockrum Uncammy X-Men #153 fall into that category.