MARVEL COMICS # 1 PAGE,....any predictions ?

[DESTRO-migration]

Hari,

 

Any insights into how the piece fell into his lap,..it really seems,..like it did just that,..fall into his lap.

 

One day it didnt exist,..then next,..it did.

 

It was a New York guy I wonder whom,...and I wonder what else this person has

 

Maybe he has the Cover,...now THAT would be something !!!!!!

[aardvark88]

The Bill Everett painted prototype cover to Marvel Mystery #2 was on the front cover to the 1st Sotheby's comic bk auction catalog. Back then, I think they called it the prototype to Marvel Comics #1 (1939).

[DESTRO-migration]

AAdvark,

 

I think you'd have to be CrAzIeR Than a loon to by something like a protype Cover (ie: Marvel Mystery # 1 Cover). I mean,...if its not published,..its so easy to fake,..and that piece,..to me,...always had the ring of being not what it claimed to be.

 

I love the description of that piece in the catalogue:

 

"Bill Everett - Marvel Comics # 2, Protype, Cover (1938/39/ Craft tint double tone # 206, water color & gouache, signed lower right corner, dated December, upper right corner). The original is of great historical significance because it was undoubtedly done by Everett when the Marvel Comics title was being created. Why it was never used after the November #1 issue is not clear."

 

UNDOUBTEDLY ??? Geez,...that convinced me !!!!

 

Nonetheless,....if the provenance on the piece could be vrified,...it would assuredly be a true treasure.

[heartened]

Hari,

 

Any insights into how the piece fell into his lap,..it really seems,..like it did just that,..fall into his lap.

 

One day it didnt exist,..then next,..it did.

 

It was a New York guy I wonder whom,...and I wonder what else this person has

 

Maybe he has the Cover,...now THAT would be something !!!!!!

 

Mike hasn't told me the story personally, but I do know that he bought the guy out. This was by far the best piece that was in the collection, and he had to buy everything just to get it. I do not know who the New York guy is, though.

[aardvark88]

Destro,

That Bill Everett prototype cover also made it onto the back cover of Geo Olshevsky's (?) Submariner/Tales to Astonish b/w Marvel Index. It is an exact blow up of an interior craft-tint Everett page from the Subby story in my copy of Marvel Mystery #2.

[DESTRO-migration]

But do you REALLY think it was done in 38' ?

 

If I was paying the type of $$$$ that the piece would get nowadays,...Id want more provenance than exists on it. Perhaps its just me,..but I wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole.

[markseifert]

Mike hasn't told me the story personally, but I do know that he bought the guy out. This was by far the best piece that was in the collection, and he had to buy everything just to get it. I do not know who the New York guy is, though.

 

I swear I read a news story at the time with a little bit of background about the find but I can't seem to track it down with google now. I thought it might be in Diamond's Scoop newsletter but I don't think that's the one. Something about finding the page in a stack of relatively unremarkable art and being totally surprised by the find... the implication being that it was sitting there for years without anybody knowing what it was.

[DESTRO-migration]

I dont think this is how it went down.

 

But I could be wrong.