JACK KIRBY- original art - X-Men 1 truth unearthed on the OCAL!

[glenbru]

Here is the REAL TRUTH about how the original art to JACK KIRBY'S complete X-MEN 1 story was found and purchased in a local comic shop in Manhattan in the 1980's. In an interview with comic art dealer Bechara Maalouf, I'm presenting the entire story on my comic art blog in 3 exciting parts. the first installment can be found here:

 

http://originalcomicartlocator.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-real-story-how-original-art-to-x.html

 

I hope you enjoy this absolutely true, and until now--unknown history of this rare historic comic art.

 

Best,

Glen Brunswick

[buddymagoo]

[Ferran Delgado]

I feel sad about Kirby and Ditko, the legit owners of the stolen art of the tale. What a twisted way to show gratitude to the founding fathers of the Marvel Universe.

[Dr. Balls]

I feel sad about Kirby and Ditko, the legit owners of the stolen art of the tale. What a twisted way to show gratitude to the founding fathers of the Marvel Universe.

 

I don't have a expert understanding of the missing Marvel art from the silver age, but I am under the impression that - yes - a lot was stolen, but also that plenty of it was discarded, lost, given as compensation and given away as promotional freebies - and that by the time the 80's rolled around, there wasn't much idea to what happened with what specific art. Is there any information regarding those Spidey and X-Men pages you can link me with?

 

I feel sad for the artists who didn't get their work returned, but I think the article is interesting, I'll definitely be reading it!

[Terry Doyle]

An interesting thread!!! Thanks for sharing . . .

[Bronty]

$400 for the whole book! wow

[Catwoman_Fan]

Great story! Especially how the Amz Spidey 1 sold so fast.

 

Is Brad Savage still active?

[Yellowism-migration]

Comic shop in Manhattan around 28th street in the 80's ...

 

anyone venture a guess ? or do I have to pull out my old price guides

[glenbru]

I've seen Brad's picture attending the recent comic art cons.

 

I'm pretty sure that comic shop is fresh out of vintage comic art by now.

[Ferran Delgado]

I feel sad about Kirby and Ditko, the legit owners of the stolen art of the tale. What a twisted way to show gratitude to the founding fathers of the Marvel Universe.

 

I don't have a expert understanding of the missing Marvel art from the silver age, but I am under the impression that - yes - a lot was stolen, but also that plenty of it was discarded, lost, given as compensation and given away as promotional freebies - and that by the time the 80's rolled around, there wasn't much idea to what happened with what specific art. Is there any information regarding those Spidey and X-Men pages you can link me with?

 

I feel sad for the artists who didn't get their work returned, but I think the article is interesting, I'll definitely be reading it!

 

These particular issues, X-Men #1, X-Men #2, X-Men #5, SpM #1, SpM #2 and SpM #4 were in Irene Varatnoff's inventory done at early 80s.

 

You can see the complete list here:

http://imageshack.us/f/221/vartanofflisttcj105pg18.jpg/

 

And this is a comparison of the inventoried stuff and what Kirby got from Marvel:

http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com.es/2011/04/marvel-worldwide-inc-et-al-v-kirby-et_04.html

 

As seen, Kirby didn't get a single page of the X-Men early issues. From Brad's tale, this sounds to me like 100% stolen stuff.

 

I'm aware that original art was given away as freebies, but by mid 80s Kirby was actively fighting to get his art returned and his fight was echoed in magazines like Comics Journal. Brad had to know perfectly that it was STOLEN stuff.

 

Nowadays things are different, and even Neal Adams threw the towell because many of the art traded hands many times, but in mid 80s, you could be certain that it came directly from the source.

 

In spite of the original art market wasn't evolved like nowadays, $2,000 was lots of money back in the 80s for a single issue, enough for crooks to steal the art from the Marvel vault.

[Unca Ben]

Great, great article. Thank you so much.

 

It would be interesting to find out who the "two young men" who brought the art into the comic shop were.

 

I will be very surprised if anything more than "Marvel interns" or "employees" is used to identify them, if they are mentioned again at all. This is not to imply that I expect anyone with the knowledge to reveal it, and in fact I understand why these facts will remain undisclosed.

 

Just saying, that for me, that is the million dollar question (or in today's market, 20 million dollar question)

[clemso]

Its nice to know that ASM 1-4 are out there. I guess they are with the same owner. Does Ditko have ASM 5 then?

[Kal-El]

Great read, when can we expect part two?

[glenbru]

Its nice to know that ASM 1-4 are out there. I guess they are with the same owner. Does Ditko have ASM 5 then?

 

That's the rumor that I've heard. It's hard to know for sure. But no pages from 5 have ever turned up in the marketplace. No pages to 38 either.

[glenbru]

Great read, when can we expect part two?

 

Thanks! Part 2 will be sometime next week as my schedule allows.

 

Glen

[clemso]

I can't remember who it was, but someone told me a similar story involving someone offering up the complete original art to Hulk 1 on the corner of Central Park.

[glenbru]

Great, great article. Thank you so much.

 

It would be interesting to find out who the "two young men" who brought the art into the comic shop were.

 

I will be very surprised if anything more than "Marvel interns" or "employees" is used to identify them, if they are mentioned again at all. This is not to imply that I expect anyone with the knowledge to reveal it, and in fact I understand why these facts will remain undisclosed.

 

Just saying, that for me, that is the million dollar question (or in today's market, 20 million dollar question)

 

The real question that I wonder about is was the art really stolen? Or did Marvel actually create a condition for the art to be stolen. At a certain point the art was moved from a secure location to the Marvel break room, across from the elevator, where any Marvel staff member had access to it. DId Marvel actually want the art to walk out of the office so they wouldn't have to return it to Kirby or Ditko? Marvel was very concerned that if they returned the art that they were making a statement as to who had ownership regarding their characters. They wanted Kirby to sign an 18 page release before returning anything, while other artists simply had to sign a one page release. After the art went missing, Marvel never filed a police report stating the work was stolen. I assume they were happy it was gone and didn't have to deal with that sticky issue anymore.

[lb jefferies]

http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/03/mystery-of-missing-box-of-marvel.html

 

[AKA Rick]

I wonder if the reason no collector or collectors who are holding some of the artwork are refraining from showing possession of the art in fear the legitimacy of their ownership claim of potentially stolen property might create legal (and financial) problems, so those pieces won't see the light of day?

 

I know Heritage sold the X-Men #1 pages years ago through their auction, and don't think there were any issues with those sales over the course of many auctions they released them through.

 

So, maybe that's the green light for the owners of the other art to come out with it comfortably to either share or possibly even trade/sell.

[vaillant]

I don't have a expert understanding of the missing Marvel art from the silver age, but I am under the impression that - yes - a lot was stolen, but also that plenty of it was discarded, lost, given as compensation and given away as promotional freebies

 

Just to know, the same thing happened to a great quantity of italian comics original art of the 1930s and 1940s, while some of the artists were almost starving in the 1960s and 1970s.