Why is Roy Krenkel’s art so undervalued (not underrated) 0

[Blastaar]

Going through heritage and just current going rates, Roy’s art seems to be way undervalued compared to his contemporaries. Anyone want to take a stab on why this might be? Lack of notable characters outside the ERB characters?

 

 

[Mighty Hal]

Krenkel is an amazing talent, but I only remember seeing his ERB-related work. In a nostalgia-based hobby, an artist will command the highest prices if he's worked on popular characters that achieved wide distribution. I haven't followed Roy's career, so I don't know how many "Greatest Hits" he's had. I do know it's tough to be nostalgic for material I've never seen. 

[J.Sid]

Correct. He never drew X-Men or Spider-Man.

Edited August 10, 2022 by J.Sid

[tth2]

On 8/11/2022 at 4:39 AM, J.Sid said:

Correct. He never drew X-Men or Spider-Man.

Neither did Frazetta. 

I just don't think Krenkel is all that good, and he works in a genre where people like Frazetta set a very high bar.

Also, and I could be wrong about this, but I don't get the impression that a lot of Krenkel's work was published, which is critical for most illustrated art. 

[Bronty]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:28 PM, tth2 said:

Neither did Frazetta. 

I just don't think Krenkel is all that good, and he works in a genre where people like Frazetta set a very high bar.

Also, and I could be wrong about this, but I don't get the impression that a lot of Krenkel's work was published, which is critical for most illustrated art. 

I’m not unsympathetic to Krenkel but I can’t name a single cover of his without googling it.     I suspect many are in the same boat.    That’s a major problem.  

[vodou]

On 8/13/2022 at 6:41 AM, Bronty said:

That’s a major problem.

Only for those that require such validation before carefully tiptoeing outside the (hobby-defined) box  

OP - Why ask "why"?...consider it a gift that you like the work (as do I) and can make a run at it without a general cattle call going out for every example 

[aardvark88]

On 8/13/2022 at 3:41 AM, Bronty said:

I’m not unsympathetic to Krenkel.  That’s a major problem.  

I thought the problem was that Krenkel did thousands of illos and sketches that are available in the comic or pulp original art market?

[Bronty]

On 8/13/2022 at 12:28 PM, aardvark88 said:

I thought the problem was that Krenkel did thousands of illos and sketches that are available in the comic or pulp original art market?

I defer to your experience Allan. 

So then if he has thousands of illos and sketches on the market, AND he's not as well recognized as his peers, the values lagging the peers makes sense to me.

What's the most famous cover he ever illustrated?

I just googled "Roy Krenkel cover" and went through dozens if not hundreds of Image hits without coming across a single comic book that he actually did the cover for.   

In today's market, I think an artist needs some notable and relevant works (career highlights so to speak) to have significant value for his overall ouevre.    The ERB stuff is cool and guarantees a minimum value, but its also pretty stale at this point, not directly comic related, and not as relevant as it was.

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Bronty

[vodou]

On 8/15/2022 at 12:17 PM, Bronty said:

...without coming across a single comic book that he actually did the cover for. 

Good point. After 50 years of research I have yet to find a single Pablo Picasso published comic book cover 

I'm going to keep looking though; people say his art is nice, they wouldn't say that if there wasn't a published cover...somewhere?!