What`s the cut-off date for OA being systematically saved?

[tth2]

What would be the approximate cut-off date after which OA started being systematically saved, and therefore there`s a really high probability that the OA for a particular book still exists? In other words, when did OA start getting saved as a matter of standard practice, either by the artist or the publisher, rather than being destroyed or dumped somewhere? Sometime in the 1960s?

 

I`m always amazed at just how much SA OA, and even GA OA, is still in existence. Did the OA start getting systematically saved much earlier than might be commonly believed?

[adamstrange]

It depends on the publisher. There is substantial material from much earlier for publishers like Harvey and EC.

[comicartcom]

Jerry Iger saved Fiction House religiously and started selling in teh 1960s when he needed cash

 

Obviously Bill Gaines kept everything except a few pieces that escaped

 

Marvel it was obviously later found saved all or most in the warehouse that was robbed

 

DC obviously never kept anything. golden age art was routinely destroyed and silver age art was given away unless the artist himself saved it or someone else in the business saved it

 

I was party to buying out the contents of the Fawcett & Standard warehouse where we got almost all of the Standard books from 1951-1954 and some material later and Fawcett material from the 40s and 50s

 

the early Fawcett art that I had - including almost the complete Captain Marvel #2 - came from a different source

 

Quality+Fox art only existed for the most part in artist's hands which is where the Lou Fine covers came from (but not from Lou himself)

 

Ace, ME and other companies seemed to have kept material that came out from diverse sources

 

ACG & Charlton both kept the art as did Warren

 

beyond that, I don't think there is anything much to speak of

for instance, only a few Timely pieces exist

I'm not sure if anyone has any MLJ art but I do recall a friend having some interior advertising pieces for MLJ books

I don't think any Avon art exits

 

the Fred Guardineer art from early Detectives was found in the storage area of an old apartment building in NYC. I remeber the kid who found it showing it to me some 30 years ago. Man did he have a hard time selling it

[r1982rhoads]

Holyoke/Helnit - never seen any pieces from this publisher

 

Prize Comics - I've only seen a few humor pieces, and a few unused pages

 

 

[skypinkblu]

This is very interesting...I just saw a Fiction house story, that had been saved by Iger, and I bought a few strips from the owner. I was wondering about Fawcett, because I've had a page from the Adventures of Captain Marvel #4 for a long time...and someone asked me if that was one of the oldest pieces, I guess not, .

I have a few GA Wonder Woman panels, not sure if they were published.

[*paull*]

Jerry Iger saved Fiction House religiously and started selling in teh 1960s when he needed cash

 

Then I wonder why Jerry didn't save the Farrell/Ajax artwork. I have never seen a page from any of those books. Perhaps Farell/Ajax didn't return the pages and they were destroyed, lost, succumbed to fire, flood, locusts, etc...

[comicartcom]

Jerry Iger saved Fiction House religiously and started selling in teh 1960s when he needed cash

 

Then I wonder why Jerry didn't save the Farrell/Ajax artwork. I have never seen a page from any of those books. Perhaps Farell/Ajax didn't return the pages and they were destroyed, lost, succumbed to fire, flood, locusts, etc...

 

it's simple - Ajax/Farrell were not companies owned by Iger and the art was useless to him

 

don't forget, he reprinted Fiction House stories ad-nauseum within his own books and there are some stories that were reprinted 3-4 times

 

Ajax/Farrell was material done on contract, so Iger had no copyright ownership in it

[*paull*]

Have you ever seen any Farrell/Ajax pages?

[comicartcom]

yes, but it was at least 20+ years ago

there is probably a bunch but you realize that it was looked at as garbage as at that time, we really didn't care about those artists very much

 

don't forget, alot of it was reprinted in those magazines like Witches Tales in the 60s-70s, so it had to be somewhere

 

[*paull*]

You're talking about Farrell/Ajax and not Superior pages, correct?

 

I have never seen one, and I've asked around and no one has told me that they've seen any recently.

[comicartcom]

oh. you're correct. I'm thinking Superior pages

 

ask Roger Hill.. he would know I'm sure

[adamstrange]

Jerry Iger saved Fiction House religiously and started selling in teh 1960s when he needed cash

 

Then I wonder why Jerry didn't save the Farrell/Ajax artwork. I have never seen a page from any of those books. Perhaps Farell/Ajax didn't return the pages and they were destroyed, lost, succumbed to fire, flood, locusts, etc...

 

it's simple - Ajax/Farrell were not companies owned by Iger and the art was useless to him

 

don't forget, he reprinted Fiction House stories ad-nauseum within his own books and there are some stories that were reprinted 3-4 times

 

Ajax/Farrell was material done on contract, so Iger had no copyright ownership in it

The Iger shop produced art for Fiction House. I'm not sure if there were any comics actually published by Iger.

[comicartcom]

Iger owned FH

[adamstrange]

Iger owned FH

FH started in the 1920s and I've not heard that Iger ever bought them.

 

http://www.chs.org/comics/fictionhouse.htm

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiction_House

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Iger

[comicartcom]

Iger had some sort of ownership interest starting in the mid 40s when the publisher stopped paying Iger on time for art. Later he was the full owner, but this only goes for the comics end. I'm not sure who was leader of the pulp division

[tth2]

Marvel it was obviously later found saved all or most in the warehouse that was robbed

Great stuff, thanks!

 

So for Marvel SA OA, the starting assumption should be that the page/cover exists, rather than it does not? Even back to 1961/1962?

 

DC obviously never kept anything. golden age art was routinely destroyed and silver age art was given away unless the artist himself saved it or someone else in the business saved it

Is there a cut-off point after which DC (or the artists) systematically started keeping everything?

 

[143ksk]

I'm not sure if anyone has any MLJ art but I do recall a friend having some interior advertising pieces for MLJ books

 

I have seen a few MLJ covers and some very early Archie interior work from Pep Comics. IIRC all of the MLJ stuff I've seen has been by Montana, so it may have been him who saved it.

[comicartcom]

Marvel it was obviously later found saved all or most in the warehouse that was robbed

Great stuff, thanks!

 

So for Marvel SA OA, the starting assumption should be that the page/cover exists, rather than it does not? Even back to 1961/1962?

 

DC obviously never kept anything. golden age art was routinely destroyed and silver age art was given away unless the artist himself saved it or someone else in the business saved it

Is there a cut-off point after which DC (or the artists) systematically started keeping everything?

 

I doubt it.. obviously Jerry Robinson saved stuff by himself and by others as he was a fan

Joe Kubert saved as much of his own work as he could, but I don't think he saved much before the late 50s or early 60s work.

 

Other people who worked at DC in different capacities from editors to office boys saved some stuff, so it would be hard to say DC people saved anything systematically