Feelings on Unpublished Pages? 3 3

[Twanj]

2 hours ago, awayne83 said:

 

I bought this Defenders #10 cover from David not long after i saw it solicited. Between then and the release, Bendis had announced his departure for DC. The series was wrapped early and this cover was replaced with what would've been the cover for an issue #11. 

So the lesson here is, the early bird may get the worm, but he might end up overpaying for it 😆. Still, love the image of Daredevil, and the cover has been archived so hopefully it may end up published elsewhere someday.

Nice artwork!

Who is David?

[malvin]

4 minutes ago, Twanj said:

Nice artwork!

Who is David?

I only took a glance, but is it a Finch cover? In which case I would assume David Finch.

Malvin

[thethedew]

2 hours ago, Blastaar said:

I bought a complete penciled unpublished story Alan Kupperbeg did for Green Lantern Quarterly for pennies on the dollar. It was cool to be the only one with the story. 

...as if the story was created just for you!  

[awayne83]

1 hour ago, Twanj said:

Nice artwork!

Who is David?

 

1 hour ago, malvin said:

I only took a glance, but is it a Finch cover? In which case I would assume David Finch.

Malvin

David Marquez 

[Rick2you2]

3 hours ago, awayne83 said:

 

David Marquez 

Doesn’t he only do digital now?

[awayne83]

1 hour ago, Rick2you2 said:

Doesn’t he only do digital now?

Afaik he's always been digital with the exception of covers and select pages. He'll do digital layouts of those and finish traditionally with inks, time permitting I would assume 

[Will_K]

David Marquez @ Cadence   https://cadencecomicart.com/artist.php?artist=98

[timguerrero]

My examples of unpublished art:

 

Ed Benes Red Lanterns Issue 01 page 09. This page wasn't the one that was published.

 

Book of Lost Souls Issue 07 cover. This one went unpublished as the title was cancelled in issue 06.

[BookofStrange]

I have another late entry. I got the news  (Aug 5) that Doctor Strange Surgeon Supreme was cancelled with issue 6. I bought the cover a couple of months ago so now I have an unpublished cover.

Doctor Strange Surgeon Supreme #7 cover
Artist: Max Fiumara (All)

 

 

[BuraddoRun]

I now officially have an unpublished piece myself, and a research story to accompany the artwork's story. So...Story Time!

I started this thread because I had been looking at some unpublished pages available on some of the big sites online. They kind of fascinated me. I mean, serious effort, time, and money were spent to make these, yet they weren't ever used? Why? I wanted to hear other collectors' opinions and see examples they had and hear their stories. Anyhow, just recently I found a piece on eBay that was inexpensive and looked interesting. The seller listed it as "unpublished?", with that question mark. Here is the piece:

 

(to be continued in the next post, for dramatic effect)

[BuraddoRun]

...Continued

The listing also had this as "Uncanny Origins, page 4" which is written on the piece itself at the top. But what issue # was this supposed to be from? The seller also stated that the artist was unknown, but at the bottom of the listing it said it was signed by the artist, despite me not seeing a signature on the picture. I decided to watch the auction, which had a Buy it Now option, and do a little research. I looked up all the Uncanny origins comics, and the art style did look like the art here. After looking through each issue, only 1 seemed to match up with this in any way: issue # 5, with the Hulk. Two of the characters in the bottom panel were almost certainly Bruce Banner and General Ross, but this page was not in that book anywhere, nor did it seem to match up with what went on in there in any way. Uncanny origins retold origin stories. What the heck does a woman (or statue?) in a transparent egg thing have to do with the Hulk? I had no idea, but I was further intrigued!

The next time I logged into eBay, the seller had offered me a discount. I could buy this piece for $41 and some change, and that included taxes and shipping. Even though I didn't love the artwork itself, the mystery of it and general appreciation I have for any fully pencilled and inked page, plus the extremely generous price pushed me to pull the trigger. I planned to hold back my research until the piece arrived. I could look at the art closer and maybe make out the signature once it arrived and go from there.

And today the piece arrived. Excitedly, I opened up the package. And like all comic art, it looks much nicer in person that it does in the scan. The inks particularly caught my attention. I'm no expert at this stuff, but they look tighter and less rushed than some of the other pieces I have. Anyhow, unlike what was said in the listing, there were no signatures on this piece. Rereading the listing, it looks like that part of it was a copy/paste job that the seller likely listed on other original art they sold. Really, the title information was accurate: "unknown artist." For the price I got it for and the obvious care taken to make the page, it didn't bother me. But it was a little setback to my research.

So I compared the page to the art in Uncanny Origins 5. Yes, that was definitely Banner and Ross, and while they style was similar, it looked a little different. There were more lines on my page, especially in the faces, than in the published pages. The noses looked a different shape. The vehicles looked very close in style, but the tire tread had different designs. Overall, it didn't quite look the same, but it was close, and I didn't have any other leads so I set to looking up the creators who did Uncanny Origins 5. The artist of that issue was Pablo Raimondi, the inker was Bill Anderson, and the writer was Glenn Greenberg. So I searched online for contact info.

Pablo Raimondi was easy. He has a website with his email address on it. I simply emailed him and sent him a pic of the page. Keep in mind that I don't have a Twitter or Instagram account, and I rarely use my Facebook. Basically social media, outside of forums, are last resorts for me. Anyhow, I found a blog for Glenn Greenberg, but no direct contact info. I considered posting a comment on his last entry, but that was from December and about Star Wars, so it seemed a weird place to try and describe a page of art. Finally, there was Bill Anderson. Actually, I thought about the editors as well, but Mark Gruenwald had passed at the time that issue was printed I believe, so I decided to just start with the 3 people I mentioned for now. So back to Bill Anderson, I couldn't find much on him either. But I did find an add for a Con he went to and it mentioned he had a Kickstarter campaign at that time. I do Kickstart sometimes, so I logged in there and found his latest campaign...from 2018. Still, I used the contact form there and gave some details about the page and gave him my email address, asking him to contact me through Kickstarter or email me directly.

It didn't take long at all for Pablo Raimondi to respond to me. He was very friendly and helpful, suggesting I check with the assistant editor, who he couldn't recall, of the book. He said it was not his art and he was actually curious about the girl in the egg as well. He wished me luck and that trail ended.

But not long after that, I got an email from Bill Anderson with the subject line, "mystery art." Bill knew exactly what it was! The page was drawn by his good friend Dave Hoover (whom I discovered has sadly passed away), and inked by Bil himself. He said it was for a Doc Sampson origin story that was going to be an issue of Uncanny origins. He and Dave had finished 7 (or maybe 8) pages total before the issue was canned and a new creative team brought on. The series had been drawn to emulate animation, probably since this was the 90s (1997) and superhero cartoons had been popular then. I looked him up, not being familiar with him myself, and Dave had worked on animated shows as well, so he was a perfect choice for the look Marvel was going for with this series. Before Bill concluded his email, he remembered that he had actually made a post with the Doc Sampson pages on Facebook. He found 7 of the maybe-8 that existed and scanned them in, along with some other cool pages he inked from other comics that never made it into a book. Here's the link to that. The 1st 7 images are from the Sampson story. And yep, page 4 is my page 4.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10202318372255319&set=a.10202224491468358

And I guess that about sums things up! I had a little adventure researching this "unknown artist" from an "unpublished issue" of Uncanny Origins. I got to chat, via email, with a couple of cool creators. I was able to identify my piece, learn the history of it and why it wasn't published, and find out that, sadly, the artist has passed away. For that alone, I will cherish this even more. But the whole thing means something to me now, more than it did when I first saw a simple "unpublished comic interior" listing on eBay. Oh, I forgot to mention that the glass egg girl is Betty Ross, the General's daughter. She got a blood transfusion from Sandman that turned her into crystal. Sampson had an idea to siphon the radiation from Hulk to cure her, and then used that siphoned radiation to give himself big muscles and green hair. Yep, that's the origin of Doc Sampson. Yeah, I'm sure many of you knew that, but I didn't, OK!? Thank you Google and Wiki for filling in the final missing pieces of this puzzle for me. And thank you all who made it through my long-winded post as well! Hopefully you enjoyed the story.

[vodou]

8 hours ago, BuraddoRun said:

And I guess that about sums things up! I had a little adventure researching this "unknown artist" from an "unpublished issue" of Uncanny Origins.

All that for $41 and change....you #won huge here. So much better, isn't it -the entirety of your experience- than simply purchasing a similar random published piece (that 90% in the hobby would only go for to begin with). You have an experience, one you largely defined for yourself by the way, making your effort a part of the piece's history. The other guys chasing only published...they "wrote a check" (metaphorically). Big deal. Anybody can do that

[Carlo M]

I am not dogmatic about it but I don’t recall ever  being interested in unpublished pieces. Maybe a Giffen Defenders tryout story that trickled through various channels a few years back. But I seem to remember it being pencils only and that is a major no go for me, being inks such an integral part of the Comic OA concept itself (at least, to me) 

[JadeGiant]

11 hours ago, BuraddoRun said:

...Continued

The listing also had this as "Uncanny Origins, page 4" which is written on the piece itself at the top. But what issue # was this supposed to be from? The seller also stated that the artist was unknown, but at the bottom of the listing it said it was signed by the artist, despite me not seeing a signature on the picture. I decided to watch the auction, which had a Buy it Now option, and do a little research. I looked up all the Uncanny origins comics, and the art style did look like the art here. After looking through each issue, only 1 seemed to match up with this in any way: issue # 5, with the Hulk. Two of the characters in the bottom panel were almost certainly Bruce Banner and General Ross, but this page was not in that book anywhere, nor did it seem to match up with what went on in there in any way. Uncanny origins retold origin stories. What the heck does a woman (or statue?) in a transparent egg thing have to do with the Hulk? I had no idea, but I was further intrigued!

The next time I logged into eBay, the seller had offered me a discount. I could buy this piece for $41 and some change, and that included taxes and shipping. Even though I didn't love the artwork itself, the mystery of it and general appreciation I have for any fully pencilled and inked page, plus the extremely generous price pushed me to pull the trigger. I planned to hold back my research until the piece arrived. I could look at the art closer and maybe make out the signature once it arrived and go from there.

And today the piece arrived. Excitedly, I opened up the package. And like all comic art, it looks much nicer in person that it does in the scan. The inks particularly caught my attention. I'm no expert at this stuff, but they look tighter and less rushed than some of the other pieces I have. Anyhow, unlike what was said in the listing, there were no signatures on this piece. Rereading the listing, it looks like that part of it was a copy/paste job that the seller likely listed on other original art they sold. Really, the title information was accurate: "unknown artist." For the price I got it for and the obvious care taken to make the page, it didn't bother me. But it was a little setback to my research.

So I compared the page to the art in Uncanny Origins 5. Yes, that was definitely Banner and Ross, and while they style was similar, it looked a little different. There were more lines on my page, especially in the faces, than in the published pages. The noses looked a different shape. The vehicles looked very close in style, but the tire tread had different designs. Overall, it didn't quite look the same, but it was close, and I didn't have any other leads so I set to looking up the creators who did Uncanny Origins 5. The artist of that issue was Pablo Raimondi, the inker was Bill Anderson, and the writer was Glenn Greenberg. So I searched online for contact info.

Pablo Raimondi was easy. He has a website with his email address on it. I simply emailed him and sent him a pic of the page. Keep in mind that I don't have a Twitter or Instagram account, and I rarely use my Facebook. Basically social media, outside of forums, are last resorts for me. Anyhow, I found a blog for Glenn Greenberg, but no direct contact info. I considered posting a comment on his last entry, but that was from December and about Star Wars, so it seemed a weird place to try and describe a page of art. Finally, there was Bill Anderson. Actually, I thought about the editors as well, but Mark Gruenwald had passed at the time that issue was printed I believe, so I decided to just start with the 3 people I mentioned for now. So back to Bill Anderson, I couldn't find much on him either. But I did find an add for a Con he went to and it mentioned he had a Kickstarter campaign at that time. I do Kickstart sometimes, so I logged in there and found his latest campaign...from 2018. Still, I used the contact form there and gave some details about the page and gave him my email address, asking him to contact me through Kickstarter or email me directly.

It didn't take long at all for Pablo Raimondi to respond to me. He was very friendly and helpful, suggesting I check with the assistant editor, who he couldn't recall, of the book. He said it was not his art and he was actually curious about the girl in the egg as well. He wished me luck and that trail ended.

But not long after that, I got an email from Bill Anderson with the subject line, "mystery art." Bill knew exactly what it was! The page was drawn by his good friend Dave Hoover (whom I discovered has sadly passed away), and inked by Bil himself. He said it was for a Doc Sampson origin story that was going to be an issue of Uncanny origins. He and Dave had finished 7 (or maybe 8) pages total before the issue was canned and a new creative team brought on. The series had been drawn to emulate animation, probably since this was the 90s (1997) and superhero cartoons had been popular then. I looked him up, not being familiar with him myself, and Dave had worked on animated shows as well, so he was a perfect choice for the look Marvel was going for with this series. Before Bill concluded his email, he remembered that he had actually made a post with the Doc Sampson pages on Facebook. He found 7 of the maybe-8 that existed and scanned them in, along with some other cool pages he inked from other comics that never made it into a book. Here's the link to that. The 1st 7 images are from the Sampson story. And yep, page 4 is my page 4.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10202318372255319&set=a.10202224491468358

And I guess that about sums things up! I had a little adventure researching this "unknown artist" from an "unpublished issue" of Uncanny Origins. I got to chat, via email, with a couple of cool creators. I was able to identify my piece, learn the history of it and why it wasn't published, and find out that, sadly, the artist has passed away. For that alone, I will cherish this even more. But the whole thing means something to me now, more than it did when I first saw a simple "unpublished comic interior" listing on eBay. Oh, I forgot to mention that the glass egg girl is Betty Ross, the General's daughter. She got a blood transfusion from Sandman that turned her into crystal. Sampson had an idea to siphon the radiation from Hulk to cure her, and then used that siphoned radiation to give himself big muscles and green hair. Yep, that's the origin of Doc Sampson. Yeah, I'm sure many of you knew that, but I didn't, OK!? Thank you Google and Wiki for filling in the final missing pieces of this puzzle for me. And thank you all who made it through my long-winded post as well! Hopefully you enjoyed the story.

Great story, thanks for sharing. I am intrigued by this art as well! Good stuff!

[The Voord]

Unpublished pre-code ACG cover from my collection. Issue range, for which this cover was intended, would have been #s 28 - 33 (1952).  Artist is Ken Bald.

How many pre-code ACG Horror covers are know to exist?

 

[Rick2you2]

1 hour ago, The Voord said:

Unpublished pre-code ACG cover from my collection. Issue range, for which this cover was intended, would have been #s 28 - 33 (1952).  Artist is Ken Bald.

How many pre-code ACG Horror covers are know to exist?

 

Wasn’t that one out for auction within the last year? Or something similar?
I love it, by the way.

[bluechip]

31 minutes ago, Rick2you2 said:

Wasn’t that one out for auction within the last year? Or something similar?
I love it, by the way.

Good example of comic art that you can enjoy whether or not you have any nostalgic connection to the comic it was created for.  Or even if you have no interest in comics at all.

 

[The Voord]

12 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

Wasn’t that one out for auction within the last year? Or something similar?
I love it, by the way.

I've offered it for sale a few times in recent years with no takers.  I tend not to leave For Sale stuff up indefinitely so after a few months it went back into my collection!

Edited August 13, 2020 by The Voord

[bluechip]

11 hours ago, The Voord said:

I've offered it for sale a few times in recent years with no takers.  I tend not to leave For Sale stuff up indefinitely so after a few months it went back into my collection!

If it was up for sale then it must be that nobody wants it because whenever a piece comes up for sale every person who might want it now or in the future sees the offering.   Which is also why the price something achieves when it sells is exactly what it's worth to every other person.

[The Voord]

11 hours ago, bluechip said:

If it was up for sale then it must be that nobody wants it because whenever a piece comes up for sale every person who might want it now or in the future sees the offering.   Which is also why the price something achieves when it sells is exactly what it's worth to every other person.

I don't necessarily agree with you.  I think that nowadays collectors are more focused on what the big auction houses are offering and the excitement that comes with the competition of bidding against other collectors.

To give you an example of this, at one time I owned a selection of Magic the Gathering paintings.  I decided to sell all bar a few examples I wanted to keep.  Over a period of months I drip-fed art for direct sale on one of the MTG FB groups and only a few paintings sold at my asking prices.  Later on I decided to re-offer the same paintings that no-one seemingly wanted to buy first time round on the same FB group . . . only this time in auction format.  Guess what happened?  All the MTG paintings sold at much higher prices than I was originally asking for them.