Action Comics 1 - Cover Color Guide 2 2

[sfcityduck]

1 hour ago, pemart1966 said:

Kind of makes me wonder why someone would save this but not the original art 

This was "saved" because the publisher of DC, Harry Donnenfeld, hung it on the wall of his office back in the late 1930s.  I have never read of Donnenfeld hanging any b&w original art on the office walls, which is understandable because they don't much resemble fine art (b&w, with paste-ups, corrections, printer marks, etc.).  Donnenfeld did, however, hang a great painting of Superman on the wall behind his desk that was done by H.J. Ward in 1939.  So Donnenfeld had a theme going in his office. 

That painting, which which was subsequently touched up by an airbrusher to bring it current with Superman's post-1940 look, was donated by Donnenfeld's family to Lehman College in the Bronx, and can now be seen in its library:

 

The touch up may have been done so it could be used as a promotional image for the Superman radio show:

Edited September 20, 2017 by sfcityduck

[PhilipB2k17]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 8:40 PM, sfcityduck said:

I've wondered what happened to this thing.  It was auctioned in one of the original Sotheby's auctions, I believe.  It is super cool.  The original (rejected?) color guide for Action 1.  A hand colored cover proof.  It used to hang in the DC offices. 

Now being auctioned on Comic Connect as part of the "Hidden Valley Collection" (cue salad dressing jokes):

http://www.comicconnect.com/bookSearch.php?searchType=advanced&listing_type=event&auction_id=402

Hard to value. Predictions?

May I suggest cross posting this thread on the Original Art forum, as well?

[jgallo]

On 9/19/2017 at 7:41 PM, bluechip said:

I bid on this when it was offered and regretted that I heeded the advice of people who talked it down.   If it went for only 20 or so I would be happy to bid that and get it.   All that said, I think the seller deserves not to have his item dumped on and I think it would be unfair if he ends up selling it for the low price I would pay just because people come on sites like this and trash it.   Maybe I've just seen too many examples of this from you, interspersed with other posts that tout the investment potential of the likes of some "rare" issue like a Sandman 17 dealer inventive variant, but I just think it's not fair and a little petty to chime in with remarks like "small with a 'story;'" when it happens to be the earliest known printed image of Superman.   

Umm not sure what the heck you are talking about with your sandman 17 comments above.  I think you have me mixed up with someone else.

the fact is the piece is small in size smaller then a golden age comic and that is far less appealing to me.  Much like large art brings more i think this would be far more appealing if it was full size and done by the cover artist as opposed to an out sourced color seperator. 

I highly doubt my meager opinion is going to impact the sale price one way or the other but this whole board is made up of people expressing there opinions so not sure why your calling me out.....???

 

James G

[sfcityduck]

37 minutes ago, jgallo said:

 

the fact is the piece is small in size smaller then a golden age comic and that is far less appealing to me.  Much like large art brings more i think this would be far more appealing if it was full size and done by the cover artist as opposed to an out sourced color seperator. 

 

The art was by an artist.  The color was by a colorist, here the color separator for Photochrome who would go on to be employed by DC after the war.

Edited September 21, 2017 by sfcityduck

[sfcityduck]

This thing has now disappeared from ComicConnect.

[r100comics]

Not sure why it's been taken down ? Maybe someone made them an offer they couldn't refuse....

Very cool piece and probably the most important hand-painted color guide in existence.

The Sotheby's auction also had original final cover proofs for AC #7 & AC #9.

 

[Pickie]

9 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

This thing has now disappeared from ComicConnect.

 

6 hours ago, r100comics said:

Not sure why it's been taken down ? Maybe someone made them an offer they couldn't refuse....

So what's the point in this "Hidden Valley Collection", partly hiding again ...

I understand it's not a Pedigree, it's not OO. Items range at least from 1911 ("Daffydils") to 1974 (ASM 129) ...

Would someone be kind enough to share a bit of background info, if that's appropriate?

Edited September 21, 2017 by Pickie
typo

[jgallo]

7 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

The art was by an artist.  The color was by a colorist, here the color separator for Photochrome who would go on to be employed by DC after the war.

Yes i am aware of all that but as far as i know nothing was done by Shuster who is the artist on the cover. And i am aware it was done by a colorist who would later be employed by dc but it was outsourced at the time.  Maybe its semantics but to me all that matters.  

I am not saying its not a historical piece or not cool i am just saying all things being equal I would rather have the comic.

 

James G

[adamstrange]

On 9/18/2017 at 8:40 PM, sfcityduck said:

The original (rejected?) color guide for Action 1.

While it is part of the story of getting the Action 1 printed, it was not the color design that was used.

[sfcityduck]

44 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

While it is part of the story of getting the Action 1 printed, it was not the color design that was used.

Well ... to be fair, it appears the only major change from the guide (which was a guide in this case) was the exterior color of the car.

[pemart1966]

2 hours ago, adamstrange said:

While it is part of the story of getting the Action 1 printed, it was not the color design that was used.

So could it mean that there was another one done with the colour combination that appeared on the comic?

[adamstrange]

That or the changes could have been communicated verbally or via memorandum.

[sfcityduck]

24 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

So could it mean that there was another one done with the colour combination that appeared on the comic?

The way Sotheby's told the story the custom was to prepare several options to be presented to DC, but Ed's recollection was that in this case the change of the car to green was a last minute change to create more contrast with Superman's cape.

Obviously, that this was the color guide that DC's publisher hung on his wall is strongly indicative that this was THE guide.  No others are known to have survived. 

[sfcityduck]

3 hours ago, jgallo said:

Yes i am aware of all that but as far as i know nothing was done by Shuster who is the artist on the cover. And i am aware it was done by a colorist who would later be employed by dc but it was outsourced at the time.  Maybe its semantics but to me all that matters.  

 

As far as I know, Shuster never, not once, colored a cover.  He was not a colorist.  So I'm not seeing your point here.

Nor do I understand the difference you percieve between a color guide done by an on-staff colorist as opposed to a color guide done under the earlier practice of outsourcing that task to the printer. 

These nitpicks may matter to you, but they make no sense to me.

 

 

[adamstrange]

27 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

The way Sotheby's told the story the custom was to prepare several options to be presented to DC, but Ed's recollection was that in this case the change of the car to green was a last minute change to create more contrast with Superman's cape.

Obviously, that this was the color guide that DC's publisher hung on his wall is strongly indicative that this was THE guide.  No others are known to have survived. 

It could be that this guide was rejected and another corrected one created. The rejected guide was superfluous and therefore not sent along to the printer and that's why it was available to be framed.

[r100comics]

48 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

It could be that this guide was rejected and another corrected one created. The rejected guide was superfluous and therefore not sent along to the printer and that's why it was available to be framed.

In my experience, they'd be more likely to change the color of the car at the proof level as it's much easier and quicker to generate an amended cover proof than having to request another hand-painted color guide.

 

[jgallo]

1 hour ago, sfcityduck said:

As far as I know, Shuster never, not once, colored a cover.  He was not a colorist.  So I'm not seeing your point here.

Nor do I understand the difference you percieve between a color guide done by an on-staff colorist as opposed to a color guide done under the earlier practice of outsourcing that task to the printer. 

These nitpicks may matter to you, but they make no sense to me.

 

 

My points were from a value standpoint.  If this was the inked line art and not a color guide we would be having a difference discussion.  My point is that the person who did the art/coloring directly coroalates to its value.  So a piece done by Shuster would have more appeal and more value then an outsourced colorest.

 

As for who did the coloring if they were all outsourced at the time then i would agree with you but to me there is a difference between someone in house at DC verse someone at a random printing company or in China doing the work.

 

James G

[bluechip]

1 hour ago, sfcityduck said:

As far as I know, Shuster never, not once, colored a cover.  He was not a colorist.  So I'm not seeing your point here.

Nor do I understand the difference you percieve between a color guide done by an on-staff colorist as opposed to a color guide done under the earlier practice of outsourcing that task to the printer. 

These nitpicks may matter to you, but they make no sense to me.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, sfcityduck said:

As far as I know, Shuster never, not once, colored a cover.  He was not a colorist.  So I'm not seeing your point here.

Nor do I understand the difference you percieve between a color guide done by an on-staff colorist as opposed to a color guide done under the earlier practice of outsourcing that task to the printer. 

These nitpicks may matter to you, but they make no sense to me.

 

 

According to internal DC memos Shuster did not draw the cover art.  The memo says it was based on a panel but done by another artist who was not identified.   I dont think that matters in terms of its value.  Until proven otherwise this is the earliest known extant printing of superman

[Bronty]

Its difficult to imagine the serious buyer that cares who the colorist was or is.   Its a historical artifact, nothing more, nothing less.    Its incredible that it exists for Action 1.    A color guide wouldn't normally excite most but this is no ordinary color guide.   Even as a vintage pre-production print of the cover, its exciting.     It would be more valuable if the coloring matching the final version, but its still pretty great and will be very interesting to watch.      Value is hard to determine on this one.

[bluechip]

In the day these proofs weren't printed in China.   So far as I know they were done locally, perhaps even within the building,

 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by bluechip