Seeking Steve Ditko

[Red Hook]

Hi Nam....this ought to jog your memory.....here is some material from the Phil Seuling shows that I posted on the boards last December in.....

 

Grandpa Opens the Scrapbook: A Bit of Collecting History

 

I traveled down from the Bronx to the shows,.....guess I was 14 or 15 at the time.

[Red Hook]

One can only imagine how he feels about his co-creation today becoming a humongous movie star.

 

BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if Ditko's state of mind is far removed from all the hoopla about Spider-Man. He always seemed to be on another entirely different wavelength. Don't know if it's genius or madness.

 

I would have assumed that if any of this bothered him he would have launched a legal strike against Marvel long ago. To my knowledge that hasn't happened. He is definitely one of the unique personalities of the comics field. He's the J.D. Salinger of comics. The fact that he went on to work for much lower pay at Charlton for many years still intrigues me..... was it a grudge, or did he really want artistic freedom? If a bio of him ever gets written, I'll be first in line.

 

And in tribute, I am posting a scan I was showing to Deatlok last night. Not too many artists could have carried entire anthology books by themselves as well as he did with the eight issues of Amazing Adult Fantasy. I think it's brilliant work.

 

 

I also have come to think of the Ditko Spider-Man and the Romita Spider-Man as two different characters. I don't think any comic character has been more blessed with having two artistic Godfathers like that from initial launch to well into the run.

[Red Hook]

Here's another before I run off to see the Mets/Yanks makeup game. Go Mets!

 

[namisgr]

RH, thanks for the heads-up about the thread for the old NY comic shows. I was at the shows in 74 and 75, and was able to find my '75 program. Since I don't want to hijack this thread, I'll post later today photos and info from this program on your prior thread - there is an interesting interview with Stan Lee, who describes negotiations with Universal for a Spiderman movie...

 

[Red Hook]

Nice Program.....I had already gone into collecting hibernation for the first time by then. And please, add some more material to the other thread! Thanks!

[FFB]

Why do you feel that the sigs would be no good unless CGC verified them? If this is your grail, and don't plan on selling, who cares if CGC authenticates it? If CGC is not involved, does it make your book worthless?

 

While I agree with you on this in principle Tom, the fact remains that some day the book would get sold. (Not until long after I died if it were my book, but eventually someone would sell it.) There is something cool about having the book's signatures "verified" so that in 100 years, no one will question whether the signatures are legitimate as happens with so many autographed baseballs, baseball cards, etc. For this reason, I think it would be worth having it done via signature series.

[Red Hook]

I agree that the signature series would be the ideal way to acquire an autographed piece, but what did folks do before 2000? Isn't there some way to authenticate a signature without CGC? The alternative would be to invalidate every signed piece in the entire history of comic collecting before CGC arrived. I don't think that was their intention. What to do?

 

How does someone validate a Jack Kirby signature? Handwriting experts?

[Mr. Zipper]

I agree that the signature series would be the ideal way to acquire an autographed piece, but what did folks do before 2000? Isn't there some way to authenticate a signature without CGC? The alternative would be to invalidate every signed piece in the entire history of comic collecting before CGC arrived. I don't think that was their intention. What to do?

 

How does someone validate a Jack Kirby signature? Handwriting experts?

 

Kirby signed a good deal of material through commercial signings, so it's very easy to build a library of known authentic exemplars with an approximate date of signing. From there it's a simple matter of analyzing his signing characteristic and comparing to unverified samples.

 

I don't suspect Jack Kirby would be a ripe suspect for a convincing forger as Kirby's signature commands far less than $100. Good forgers tend to focus their efforts on high dollar material that sells quickly -- Presidents, Movie Stars, Sports, etc. That said, there are always hack forgers on ebay faking $20 signatures, but it's easy to detect their fakes.

[howardhallis]

I actually had a possible Kirby signature on a Sandman #1 that I asked the boards to verify... Here's the old thread... (I think they pulled some of the pictures on the old ebay auction)

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=comicgen&Number=412254&fpart=&PHPSESSID=

 

In my opinion, CGC's reputation with various auction houses and collectors willing to shell out top dollar for graded comics has to also count for something when it comes to their signature series promising authentic autographs. The fact that someone needs to witness the signing before a book can get a yellow slab is good because of all the possible forgeries there are out there. Still, that's not to say that my Sandman #1 wasn't actually signed by Jack. What it tells me is that any signature series comic claiming to be signed by Jack Kirby would be a forgery since he died before CGC started slabbing books.

[blowout]

If a bio of him ever gets written, I'll be first in line.

 

Second.

 

And thanks for posting the covers.

[ft88]

Here's a nice little grail of FF48, though I wouldn't mind a similar sig book like Spidey 33 since I'm a Ditko fan as well. Too bad Artie Simek has passed (not only for the signature, but you know what I mean). I just did get this back from Joe Sinnott who also wrote a nice note stating that I needed to take care of this book as "there probably aren't too many around with all three signatures"

 

I think I'll take him up on it. A real nice letter from him, class act. With the '75 date by Stan Lee I think it lends credibility to the Kirby sig ( I didn't get those two personally) Kind of funny having the dates signed 30 years apart.

 

I have no question all three are original and I don't need the yellow CGC label to make me proud to own it. The book's not in bad grade either.

 

[howardhallis]

[FFB]

That's just freakin' cool.

[Red Hook]

Beyond friggin' cool. DY-NO-MITE!

[blowout]

I just did get this back from Joe Sinnott who also wrote a nice note stating that I needed to take care of this book as "there probably aren't too many around with all three signatures"

 

Ain't that the truth. Nice work and thanks for posting.