Real or Fake - Kirby Kublak sketch 1 1

[vodou]

On 1/23/2020 at 1:23 AM, grapeape said:

Hang tight I reached out to Genesis West to get more info on this piece. I’m waiting to hear back. Then I’ll share what I find out.

grape ape

 🍇 +   🦍 

Are we still waiting for clarification as to "when" and "who" for OP's Kublak win? I mean, it's pencil...either it's Kirby that did it or something else, even if Kirby's signature is real.

[grapeape]

1 minute ago, vodou said:

Are we still waiting for clarification as to "when" and "who" for OP's Kublak win? I mean, it's pencil...either it's Kirby that did it or something else, even if Kirby's signature is real.

Crickets 🦗 

[vodou]

4 minutes ago, grapeape said:

Crickets 🦗 

The silence is deafening...as I suspected. Good on you for trying though. That's what never makes it into the auction catalogs.

[RBerman]

On 1/24/2020 at 4:50 PM, glendgold said:

To the OP's question: do you have the Kirby Checklist? https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=123_139_145&products_id=640&zenid=fea62e08e65dd7d5b4415b9b2d6e6b23

I find that it really helps track down oddball work.  If you want to make the bigger investment, get the update: https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_97&products_id=1361&zenid=fea62e08e65dd7d5b4415b9b2d6e6b23

Professor Kublak - including this sketch - shows up there. I don't see anything to make me suspicious about it (though I'm not 100% sure what's going on at the bottom - is he turning invisible? Did Jack just not finish?Did something get erased?).  It's a cool piece. I know some long-time Kirby fans who were interested in it.

Kirby Checklist acquired in print form. It has this to say:

It's placed in the section "unpublished work" rather than "unverified work." I guess someone thought its provenance was verified, by means unknown.

[RBerman]

Update: A user on CAF saw the sketch on my wall and pointed out this very similar sketch which appeared in Kirby Collector #21. It's a character named Rahmin described as a concept drawing for some animation project. The pose is the same as my Kublak piece. The lines are essentially identical from the ankles down, and the face as well, minus the Kublak mask. Would Kirby have copied himself in this way, or is it more likely to be someone else lifting different details from different Kirby drawings to make a new forged composite?

Here is the Kublak sketch again for easy comparison of the lines.

[PhilipB2k17]

On 1/21/2020 at 11:32 PM, RBerman said:

New collector here, just getting my feet wet in the last couple of months. The thread about the fake Shuster got me a little spooked. Last month at the Profiles in History action of "a distinguished collector," I picked up a pin-up purported to be by Kirby of his late (late 80s/early 90s) character Kublak. It came without CoA or details of its origin. The page is 14x7.75 inches; I cropped the white sides off the image below. I assume that at this point it would be impossible to prove that it is Kirby's work, but does anything about it cast doubt?

 

Definitely looks like Kirby to me. But I’m not an expert. 

[drdroom]

On 4/11/2020 at 11:32 AM, RBerman said:

Update: A user on CAF saw the sketch on my wall and pointed out this very similar sketch which appeared in Kirby Collector #21. It's a character named Rahmin described as a concept drawing for some animation project. The pose is the same as my Kublak piece. The lines are essentially identical from the ankles down, and the face as well, minus the Kublak mask. Would Kirby have copied himself in this way, or is it more likely to be someone else lifting different details from different Kirby drawings to make a new forged composite?

Here is the Kublak sketch again for easy comparison of the lines.

Huh. Up to now I had no doubts about the Kublak sketch being authentic, but that apparent copy of the leg fade seems troubling. Jack almost never repeated a pose, certainly not as exactly as this.

[RBerman]

Yup. The leg fade makes perfect sense in the context of the Rahmin drawing since he seems to be entering through some dimensional portal with bright light obscuring. Not so much for the decontextualized Kublak sketch. The line-by-line similarity of the knees is another giveaway, unless other drawings show this was a Kirby stereotype or something.

[drdroom]

I'd like to know more about the development of the Kublak character. It seems very composite-y, like the arms of the Thing with the legs of Triton, and a sort of Asgardian shoulder fur situation. I wonder if this was a case of Kirby's assistants or the young Image artists who were around helping Jack along or something. I'd have thought the Kublak was earlier than the Rahmin, but as you say, the Rahmin makes sense in a way the Kublak doesn't, which suggests it came first.

[glendgold]

2 hours ago, drdroom said:

I'd like to know more about the development of the Kublak character. It seems very composite-y, like the arms of the Thing with the legs of Triton, and a sort of Asgardian shoulder fur situation. I wonder if this was a case of Kirby's assistants or the young Image artists who were around helping Jack along or something. I'd have thought the Kublak was earlier than the Rahmin, but as you say, the Rahmin makes sense in a way the Kublak doesn't, which suggests it came first.

Yes to all the above.

Also - I don't know what to make of the Kublak underdrawing.

[alexgross.com]

On 4/17/2020 at 11:02 AM, RBerman said:

Yup. The leg fade makes perfect sense in the context of the Rahmin drawing since he seems to be entering through some dimensional portal with bright light obscuring. Not so much for the decontextualized Kublak sketch. The line-by-line similarity of the knees is another giveaway, unless other drawings show this was a Kirby stereotype or something.

i agree that this seems fake due to the very obvious tracing of the leg lines. if i put the original art on a lightbox and traced it this is what i'd get for the legs, and the sig looks traced too. as a professional artist who has done a fair amount of tracing, i have some experience in this.