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

Started by glenbru,

92 posts in this topic

glenbru

glenbru

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I think I was pretty typical of most collectors when I went to conventions in the late 70's and early 80's in NYC. I bought comic books. I saw original art on many tables. I assumed at the time it was all legit. At the Marvel convention in 1975 I saw art on tables by the artists that were guests at the show. In hindsight, those pieces had not been returned to the artists. But as an attendee at the show it seemed like the art must have come through the artist's hands if they were at the same show. None of the stolen art issue came to light for me until well into the 90's when I turned my main focus to OA collecting. The info was not as out there as you suggest. You had to look for it.

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Ferran Delgado

Ferran Delgado

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I think I was pretty typical of most collectors when I went to conventions in the late 70's and early 80's in NYC. I bought comic books. I saw original art on many tables. I assumed at the time it was all legit. At the Marvel convention in 1975 I saw art on tables by the artists that were guests at the show. In hindsight, those pieces had not been returned to the artists. But as an attendee at the show it seemed like the art must have come through the artist's hands if they were at the same show. None of the stolen art issue came to light for me until well into the 90's when I turned my main focus to OA collecting. The info was not as out there as you suggest. You had to look for it.

 

I'm talking strictly about mid 80s, when the X-Men and Spider-Man books were sold, as told in your blog. I'm trying to give context to the sale told in your post.

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Bronty

Bronty

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Ferran, I'm sure it was a hot topic *in the industry* but not necessarily for the fans. So they published some debate about it in a few issues of comics journal. Honestly, if articles about returning or not returning art were in a comics magazine I was reading in 1985, well, it would have been the first article I skipped over. It would have seemed at least to me at the time, like something that neither affected nor interested me at all.

 

While its strictly conjecture, my guess would be that Brad would have known since he was in the market. But your average comic collector wouldn't even be paying attention to a debate about returned art.

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MasterChief

MasterChief

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Back in 2007 at a Comic Book show in Yorba Linda, California a comic/vintage car collector named Bill Wheatly brought some original art with him in two portfolios. Myself and Jamie Newbold (owner of Southern California Comics) were astonished when he opened the portfolios and inside was the complete original art to X-Men #1, along with other key pieces such as the title splash and last page of Marvel Spotlight #5 by Mike Plogg featuring the 1st Ghost Rider.

 

We asked him how he obtained the art and he stated himself and another investor obtained the art from Kirk Hammett (lead guitarist for Metallica) who purchased the art from the Kirby estate in 1995. We didn't know if the story was true or fabricated, but the art was the real deal. I tried in vain to purchase a few of the pages, but Bill didn't want to sell them.

 

Approximately four months later the X-Men pages showed up in a Heritage auction and some of the other pieces showed up on CAF (Marvel Spotlight #5 pages) and Comiclink (Daredevil #4 title splash). Even though I was unable to obtain any of the pages I felt lucky to have been able to observe Kirby's original art for X-Men up close and personal.

 

Kirk Hammett is a bona fide geek.

 

A collectors' collector with darkened dreams of old days.

 

 

KH-GEEK.jpg

 

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Ferran Delgado

Ferran Delgado

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My point is to show that any art collector willing to pay thousand of dollars on original art had to know about this controversy and know the market. I'm not telling that any comic collector had to know about it.

 

In my particular case, Marvel comics were published with years of delay in Spain. Because of this and other reasons, I collected original USA comicbooks. Since I collaborated on a local fanzine at that age, I bought magazines like Amazing Heroes trying to get spanish readers informed about what happened in USA. So yes, I was aware of it, but this is not the point.

 

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Bronty

Bronty

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My point is to show that any art collector willing to pay thousand of dollars on original art had to know about this controversy and know the market.

 

well yeah as I've said above, I would tend to agree with that.

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clemso

clemso

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I remember Bill Wheatly also had the splash to Avengers 1, not long after it was all over the news as being reported stolen on route to Heritage and almost colored in crayon by the daughter of the parents who supposedly found it at a garage sale.

Brad traded the X-Men 1 book for some choice Kirby stuff including FF 3 book (san 1 page) during the great Tony Christopher sell off. Wow, what a time that was.

 

 

Back in 2007 at a Comic Book show in Yorba Linda, California a comic/vintage car collector named Bill Wheatly brought some original art with him in two portfolios. Myself and Jamie Newbold (owner of Southern California Comics) were astonished when he opened the portfolios and inside was the complete original art to X-Men #1, along with other key pieces such as the title splash and last page of Marvel Spotlight #5 by Mike Plogg featuring the 1st Ghost Rider.

 

We asked him how he obtained the art and he stated himself and another investor obtained the art from Kirk Hammett (lead guitarist for Metallica) who purchased the art from the Kirby estate in 1995. We didn't know if the story was true or fabricated, but the art was the real deal. I tried in vain to purchase a few of the pages, but Bill didn't want to sell them.

 

Approximately four months later the X-Men pages showed up in a Heritage auction and some of the other pieces showed up on CAF (Marvel Spotlight #5 pages) and Comiclink (Daredevil #4 title splash). Even though I was unable to obtain any of the pages I felt lucky to have been able to observe Kirby's original art for X-Men up close and personal.

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