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PSA: Russ Manning Korak Fakes
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9 posts in this topic

Just a public service announcement that there are a lot of these fake Manning pages out there and more being sold on Ebay everyday. They are pretty good fakes at first glance. Large size 12 by 18 on thicker art board paper/board. I bought 2 a while back thinking I found hidden gems at great prices. Wrong category, vague and misleading story, etc. I should have know better after 15 years of collecting.  I am not naming names because I was able to get my money back and I debated on to post or not, but we need to all be aware. One piece was bright white board and the other was tinted yellow.  Both had whiteout applied at points to make them look more genuine. They are however just machine printed black ink copies and have no real pencils, no color variations, and no hand inking like an original would. They were made to deceive. You can see the ink was printed as one item on them and everything is the exact same black tone. Words, boarder, all of it. If you check WorthPoint dot com and search Korak "CAPTIVE OF THE VULTURE" or Korak "WARRIORS TEST" it will show you lots of what I am talking about. Just be extra cautious with all Manning Korak art and do your research. 

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Why make counterfeit versions of these ?

Just an hypothesis : maybe because it was... somewhat easy, and quick, to produce a counterfeit version ? And so make it on an "industrial" way ?

 

For example, assuming Heritage sold real ones here (look deep into the high-res versions of the page at the right in HA auctions) :

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/russ-manning-korak-son-of-tarzan-3-page-5-original-art-gold-key-1964-/a/7066-94740.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/russ-manning-korak-son-of-tarzan-3-page-6-original-art-gold-key-1964-/a/7063-94953.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

... I'm not familiar too much with Russ Manning art, but what surprise me is these originals are too much "perfect" :

- a blank page to work with, without any blue mark (why not... especially because we're looking here pages from the 60's)

- the art is too much neat (pencil traces perfectly erased, almost no corrections) as if Manning rendered the cleanest possible job and needed whiteout only on rare occasions

- almost no productions marks or editing marks from the editor and publishing house (mentions, stamps, etc...)

For me these kind of originals are the perfect candidate to be replicated, and then "enhanced" (add some whiteout, and maybe some china ink here and there to create variations in the blacks...)

We aren't here with a Klaus Janson inked page with many ink marks/tries on the borders, and large whiteout corrections if the penciler he was inking was not skilled ! (BTW I'm a huge Janson fan - it's just to give you the opposite image !)

 

After all, some of counterfeit money bills I've seen when I were young had a low value... but enough value to make them circulate easily...

 

Edited by Ecclectica
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On 10/29/2021 at 10:31 AM, pemart1966 said:
On 10/29/2021 at 8:36 AM, tth2 said:

Why would anyone go to the trouble of forging Russ Manning Korak OA?

It would be like deciding to counterfeit $1 bills.

Not if they're selling for near $100/pg...

But why not forge OA that could sell for $1000/pg?  Same effort, 10X profit.

Hence my analogy to counterfeiting $1 bills when you might as well just counterfeit $20 or $100 bills.

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On 10/29/2021 at 11:25 AM, Ecclectica said:

We aren't here with a Klaus Janson inked page with many ink marks/tries on the borders, and large whiteout corrections if the penciler he was inking was not skilled ! (BTW I'm a huge Janson fan - it's just to give you the opposite image !)

There are many artists with a relatively clean style that would be pretty easy to forge, whose pages command much higher pages.  Think about a Steve Dillon Preacher or Hellblazer page, for example.

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On 10/29/2021 at 6:53 AM, tth2 said:

Think about a Steve Dillon Preacher or Hellblazer page, for example.

But the fact that Dillon forgeries exist is known... I came accross 3 at the same time last year and, so, that didn't surprised me when I saw them.

 

And is copying in-demand artists a good way to go when you do forgeries ? (it's an open question)

For me, it's the 100 $ bill.

What happened to Drewsky here let me think maybe a good way to go (sorry for this expression) would be the opposite, as we can see in that case... it "worked" (the purchase was done, even if cancelled afterwards).

For me, it's the 10 $ bill (same value for the counterfeit bills I saw when I was young)

 

Edited by Ecclectica
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On 10/29/2021 at 12:52 AM, tth2 said:

But why not forge OA that could sell for $1000/pg?  Same effort, 10X profit.

Hence my analogy to counterfeiting $1 bills when you might as well just counterfeit $20 or $100 bills.

As the poster above said:  "quick and easy to do" ... and not likely to cause too much scrutiny - except in this case LOL. This was/is an electronic copy don't forget.

The higher the value, the more people start paying attention.

Not too many people scrutinize a $1 bill but they do when you reach the $50 and $100 mark.  You'll often see "We don't accept $50 or $100 bills" signs in stores.  I've yet to see the same sign for $1 bills.

Edited by pemart1966
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