The Russ Cochran Comic Art Auctions - a 30 years Retrospective 2 2

[stinkininkin]

 

Terry, even though I had started to collect art in 1980, by 1987 I was a dirt poor struggling artist and paid absolutely no attention to original art or art prices. Did the 12k for the Wood ISF #33 cover seem like a huge leap of art pricing at the time? It's an iconic cover for sure, but it doesn't seem that there were many examples of EC covers breaking well into the five figure territory. What was your opinion of the trajectory of art prices at that time?

 

Scott

[Terry Doyle]

 

Terry, even though I had started to collect art in 1980, by 1987 I was a dirt poor struggling artist and paid absolutely no attention to original art or art prices. Did the 12k for the Wood ISF #33 cover seem like a huge leap of art pricing at the time? It's an iconic cover for sure, but it doesn't seem that there were many examples of EC covers breaking well into the five figure territory. What was your opinion of the trajectory of art prices at that time?

 

Scott

 

As I joined Russ's Art Auctions at Catalog # 11, I'd missed out on the sales of the Weird Science art.

 

As such, the Woody (Weird Science) s-f covers had already gone, so I don't know how they had performed in auction.

 

As these auctions progressed, and the few Woody cover examples from the Weird-Science Fantasy and Incredible Science Fiction titles came up for sale, the opportunities to acquire an example (for collectors) diminished.

 

The ISF # 33 cover was the last opportunity to buy a Woody s-f cover in a (first-time) auction scenario and it's also a very strong example to finish on (Scott Dunbier used this particular cover to front the first printing of his Woody book).

 

The price does seem exceptionally high (for the time), and I can only imagine that two collectors got locked in a bidding frenzy to secure this last great s-f cover by the 'Dean of Science-Fiction'.

[r100comics]

As I mentioned earlier on, these auctions took place every three months. In between, I was busily working overtime to build-up funds to buy something.

 

Sometimes, if I needed to stretch funds, I would simply take out a bank loan.

 

This shows an amazing level of foresight.

 

What I'd have given though to be a fly on the wall hearing you explain to a 1980's UK bank manager that you'd like to take out a loan to buy comic book art.

 

 

[Terry Doyle]

As I mentioned earlier on, these auctions took place every three months. In between, I was busily working overtime to build-up funds to buy something.

 

Sometimes, if I needed to stretch funds, I would simply take out a bank loan.

 

This shows an amazing level of foresight.

 

What I'd have given though to be a fly on the wall hearing you explain to a 1980's UK bank manager that you'd like to take out a loan to buy comic book art.

 

 

I was always very vague and evasive when the 'loan arranger' asked me what art I was buying. "Illustration Art" was always my answer.

 

I was earning good money at the time, and the loans rarely topped £1,000, so I don't think I posed any great risk to the lender!

[r100comics]

 

As I mentioned earlier on, these auctions took place every three months. In between, I was busily working overtime to build-up funds to buy something.

 

Sometimes, if I needed to stretch funds, I would simply take out a bank loan.

 

This shows an amazing level of foresight.

 

What I'd have given though to be a fly on the wall hearing you explain to a 1980's UK bank manager that you'd like to take out a loan to buy comic book art.

 

 

I was always very vague and evasive when the 'loan arranger' asked me what art I was buying. "Illustration Art" was always my answer.

 

I was earning good money at the time, and the loans rarely topped £1,000, so I don't think I posed any great risk to the lender!

 

Awesome ! The anecdotes are nearly as good as the scans.

 

We all look back and wish we'd made more of the opportunities that have come our way in life, but you must have some satisfaction to know you really grabbed the bull by the horns here.

 

Particularly admirable residing on our sceptred isle, at a time when the OA community was a continent away. (thumbs u

 

 

[Terry Doyle]

As I mentioned earlier on, these auctions took place every three months. In between, I was busily working overtime to build-up funds to buy something.

 

Sometimes, if I needed to stretch funds, I would simply take out a bank loan.

 

This shows an amazing level of foresight.

 

What I'd have given though to be a fly on the wall hearing you explain to a 1980's UK bank manager that you'd like to take out a loan to buy comic book art.

 

 

I was always very vague and evasive when the 'loan arranger' asked me what art I was buying. "Illustration Art" was always my answer.

 

I was earning good money at the time, and the loans rarely topped £1,000, so I don't think I posed any great risk to the lender!

 

Awesome ! The anecdotes are nearly as good as the scans.

 

We all look back and wish we'd made more of the opportunities that have come our way in life, but you must have some satisfaction to know you really grabbed the bull by the horns here.

 

Particularly admirable residing on our sceptred isle, at a time when the OA community was a continent away. (thumbs u

 

 

Thanks.

 

To reverse things a little, several years ago I had a big sell-off of OA to help fund an expensive house-move.

 

Over a period of about fifteen months, as art sold, I would have rather large amounts paid into my account. One wire transfer was for about £29,000 (about $46,000 by today's exchange rate). That payment came courtesy of Mike Burkey, acting on behalf of a fellow CGC boardie (I had stuff on consignment with Mike).

 

The look on the bank clerk's face was a picture when I asked her if any payments had been made into my account and she had a look on her system (the same woman who had been serving me for many years and had been arranging IMOs for my American art purchases).

 

 

[Terry Doyle]

 

Comic Art Auction # 31 (September 29 and 30, 1987), comprising of 20 pages.

 

Selected highlights as follows . . .

[Terry Doyle]

 

 

[Terry Doyle]

 

 

From this auction I bought item # 10, "Frank Luke!" by George Evans, which I later traded-away (though, at one point, a collector named Keif Fromm tried to con me out of the art).

[Terry Doyle]

 

I placed a $1,400 bid on item # 16, "Whupped!" by Jack Davis, which is my all-time-favorite Davis story.

 

I was quietly confident about winning the art, as Davis stories rarely broke $1,000.

 

To my (huge) disappointment an earlier bid (for the same amount) secured the art.

 

In recent years, I discovered Anthony Smith bought the story. He's a good guy with impeccable taste (another Fortunino Matania fan), so I no longer feel too badly about this!

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[Terry Doyle]

[alxjhnsn]

 

Cole?

 

I was under the impression that all the Plastic Man are was systematically cut up as the books were printed to keep "others" from reprinting.

 

The thing that always struck me as odd about that is that if reprints were valuable why not save the art so you could reprint and if they weren't valuable, why spend the time cutting up the art?

 

Anyone know more / better?