Kirby DPS

[drdroom]

Kirby DPS from the seventies are remarkable & highly sought items. They change hands, but nearly always privately. My question is this: what are they worth?

[Speedy-D]

tree fiddy

[drewincanada]

Whatever 2 likeminded people are willing to pay.

[batman_fan]

Kirby DPS from the seventies are remarkable & highly sought items. They change hands, but nearly always privately. My question is this: what are they worth?

 

This is just based off some limited information I got a few years back when trying to pick up one of Kirby's splashes from a pretty popular 70s title (Demon). Based on what I was given, I would say in the $20k to $30k depending on exactly what the splash was.

[delekkerste]

This is just based off some limited information I got a few years back when trying to pick up one of Kirby's splashes from a pretty popular 70s title (Demon). Based on what I was given, I would say in the $20k to $30k depending on exactly what the splash was.

 

I think the quality/desirability of Kirby's various '70s work is so variable that a DPS could range anywhere from less than $5K to $30K depending on content. A pretty decent Demon page 1 splash sold at Heritage in May for $7,767.50; I'd guess a fair bit of the DPSs out there would fall in the $10-$15K range, though that is just educated guesswork.

[drdroom]

Thanks to batman fan and delekkerste, that makes sense, tho I'd bet the very best ones could command significantly more. Moderate thanks to Bill C and not so much thanks to Speedy-D and DrewinCanada .

Batman Fan, did you fail to acquire your dps in the end? Do you regret it to this day?

[drewincanada]

I know you didn't intend it to be, but it was a "how big is a ball of string?" question, and you seemed to be asking for a definitive answer.

 

Kirby was still doing FF and Thor in 1970, and DPSs from those books (if DPSes exist in those books) might go for mid-to-upper five figures. Or higher, if the spread was a prime example and there were at least two highly motivated bidders. These days, it's hard to predict the outcome of auctions for big ticket Kirby pages.

 

DPSes from some of his mid-70s DC work would be considerably cheaper, I would expect. Even then, some of his DC titles are in high demand. And then there's his later Marvel work on Cap, etc.

 

So... if you want an answer, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lesser example from the mid to late 70s go for $10K, and I wouldn't be shocked to see a prime 1970 Marvel DPS go for $100K.

 

$10K to $100K... that doesn't really help, does it?

[Bronty]

agreed although when I think of 70s kirby DPSs, I tend to think of that period in time from maybe 73? to about 77? when he was using DPSs with regularity, which we hadn't really seen him do before, for the most part.

 

In other words, personally, I basically think of 4th world stuff, and his cap run, when I think of that term generically.

 

So I would expect most of the DPS that exist would be in that 12-30 range because, at least from what I recall, most of the DPSs he did were on certain dates and certain titles. I would think there are exceedingly few, if any, DPSs from titles like FF although I've never reviewed the books with that in mind.

[batman_fan]

Thanks to batman fan and delekkerste, that makes sense, tho I'd bet the very best ones could command significantly more. Moderate thanks to Bill C and not so much thanks to Speedy-D and DrewinCanada .

Batman Fan, did you fail to acquire your dps in the end? Do you regret it to this day?

 

At some level I would say I didn't fail because even at that price level, I don't know if the owner would part with it. Also, since I didn't get it, I am still happily married (thumbs u

 

I was watching the page closely that delekkerste mentioned on Heritage and while a nice Demon splash, it wasn't an "A" piece from the series. I ended up settling for this splash which I got by badgering the heck out of a great board member

 

[glendgold]

Generally speaking, Kirby started doing DPSes during the Fourth World, though there are a couple in Thor (the Ego issues) and I can think of two in the FF. In the 1970s Marvel runs, he did a What If with an FF-themed paneled dps, but other than that, no Thor or FF spreads.

 

Not a lot have come up at auction, so it's hard to say what FMV is for them. For what it's worth I myself haven't seen one sell for over $20K. Yet.

[drewincanada]

I know there were quite a few full page splashes in those later FF books, but I'm not sure about DPSes. I understand, too, that the quality of the art was suffering in those issues - at least according to Mark Alexander in the Kirby Collector #58.

 

So perhaps my estimate of $100k is a tad ambitious.

[Bronty]

Not a lot have come up at auction, so it's hard to say what FMV is for them. For what it's worth I myself haven't seen one sell for over $20K. Yet.

 

what do you think they are worth though Glen? In light of recent kirby sales 20-30k for a real nice DPS like the one Forman has on his CAF seems downright reasonable, if not charitable:

 

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=268527&GSub=36306

 

I know you are saying its hard to judge, but best guesses?

[Bird]

Not a lot have come up at auction, so it's hard to say what FMV is for them. For what it's worth I myself haven't seen one sell for over $20K. Yet.

 

what do you think they are worth though Glen? In light of recent kirby sales 20-30k for a real nice DPS like the one Forman has on his CAF seems downright reasonable, if not charitable:

 

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=268527&GSub=36306

 

I know you are saying its hard to judge, but best guesses?

 

That is one sweet dps! D. Bruce Berry on inks, eh? It shines in my opinion. I may have to go read these issues sometime, especially with the love I have for The Falcon.

[drewincanada]

Not a lot have come up at auction, so it's hard to say what FMV is for them. For what it's worth I myself haven't seen one sell for over $20K. Yet.

 

what do you think they are worth though Glen? In light of recent kirby sales 20-30k for a real nice DPS like the one Forman has on his CAF seems downright reasonable, if not charitable:

 

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=268527&GSub=36306

 

I know you are saying its hard to judge, but best guesses?

 

Wow. Spectacular spread. If the FF #88 pg 6 single page splash can jump from $22k to $34k in 9 months, then to my mind this should be at least equal in value, if not more. Especially if Kirby Marvel DPSes are as rare as Glen says.

[Bronty]

Well sure there would be very few. He didnt do alot of marvel work at this time. Youd be looking at Cap, 2001, black panther perhaps, devil dinosaur, etc. That era of his work. And while ive never counted I highly doubt there was more than one dps per bOok.

[drdroom]

Cap, 2001, Black Panther, Devil Dinosaur, you forgot Eternals & Machine Man: I'd call that a ton of remarkable work in about a 4 year span. I think most of those books have one dps.

[Speedy-D]

Thanks to batman fan and delekkerste, that makes sense, tho I'd bet the very best ones could command significantly more. Moderate thanks to Bill C and not so much thanks to Speedy-D and DrewinCanada .

Batman Fan, did you fail to acquire your dps in the end? Do you regret it to this day?

[drdroom]

I know you didn't intend it to be, but it was a "how big is a ball of string?" question, and you seemed to be asking for a definitive answer.

 

Kirby was still doing FF and Thor in 1970, and DPSs from those books (if DPSes exist in those books) might go for mid-to-upper five figures. Or higher, if the spread was a prime example and there were at least two highly motivated bidders. These days, it's hard to predict the outcome of auctions for big ticket Kirby pages.

 

DPSes from some of his mid-70s DC work would be considerably cheaper, I would expect. Even then, some of his DC titles are in high demand. And then there's his later Marvel work on Cap, etc.

 

So... if you want an answer, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lesser example from the mid to late 70s go for $10K, and I wouldn't be shocked to see a prime 1970 Marvel DPS go for $100K.

 

$10K to $100K... that doesn't really help, does it?

 

So as Glen has pointed out, the range is less wide than that and only involves a handful of Silver Age, which I think were done in '69 anyway. I should have said '72 to '79 for strict accuracy. Most of them are inked by Royer or Berry(similar styles) and feature relatively lesser known characters, and the art quality is pretty consistent throughout the decade. There are outliers of course, high and low, and tack on 50% for Cap maybe, but I think this body of work has enough consistency that a general FMV range could be established if data were available. My question was intended to root out any data that might be out there, to see if a ballpark could be established, & I have in fact found the results helpful! Thanks everyone.

[drdroom]

@Batman Fan, that Demon splash has pretty near got it all- congrats!

[glendgold]

This is a collection of Kirby DPS work:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65185095@N00/sets/72157623444242645/with/4610457903/

 

I don't think it's complete, but it has (apparently) 103 examples.

 

His first DPS was (anyone?) Captain America 4, I think? 5? Back in 1941 or so. He used them in the 1950s in Boys Ranch, but mostly as stand alone images rather than things that advanced a story. The first Silver Age dps is, I think, FF Annual 1 - the Sub Mariner calling his people home. There's a dps FF pin up in Annual 5. There's a mostly-collage DPS of the Negative Zone (FF 62) and one in Annual 6. Also, a couple in Thor, as I said.

 

The Fourth World DPSs were in all four of his titles, and inked by Colletta, then Royer. Royer and D Bruce Berry inked the later DC stuff.

 

Back at Marvel, it was usually Royer, Giacoia, Verpoorten (the Enternals stuff) and maybe some other people whom I'm forgetting.

 

I own a couple of them that I especially like.