June 2023 Heritage Signature Auction #7340 4 4

[Rick2you2]

On 4/24/2023 at 2:24 PM, batman_fan said:

Frank certainly is no Sal but who is?

Jon Gnagy?

[Bronty]

On 4/24/2023 at 5:45 PM, comix4fun said:

Needs more pouches. 

I bag on Liefeld’s art as much as anyone but to give him his due,  on the OA Facebook group he’s an active collector and always happy to be there.   If his real life persona is like his online one he’s probably quite likeable. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Bronty

[KirbyCollector]

On 4/24/2023 at 6:15 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

If Cap was battling Dragon Man on both pages, then yes, it would be a good basis for price comps.  However, the other page is vs Machinesmith so not really the best comp

I believe this comes down to what your personal collection looks like. If you have some top tier Byrne and are looking to add, the distinction is important. If you are looking for Byrne in his prime, and you don't own one or are strictly an investor, the distinction between one tier 3 character and another is less b/c owning a Byrne Cap is the single goal. As to what % of collectors belong to what camp, and whether this mix is shifting toward the latter group b/c the original readers of the 60s-70s-80s books are aging out, is a source of curiosity for me.

[comix4fun]

On 4/25/2023 at 7:26 AM, Bronty said:

I bag on Liefeld’s art as much as anyone but to give him his due,  on the OA Facebook group he’s an active collector and always happy to be there.   If his real life persona is like his online one he’s probably quite likeable. 

He's had some memorable dust ups there. Like any of us. 

[Bronty]

On 4/25/2023 at 10:36 AM, comix4fun said:

He's had some memorable dust ups there. Like any of us. 

Fair enough.   Guess i haven’t seen those but as you say, who hasn’t had one at some point. 

[comix4fun]

On 4/25/2023 at 12:40 PM, Bronty said:

Fair enough.   Guess i haven’t seen those but as you say, who hasn’t had one at some point. 

Yeah we all have. He's got a bit of a hair-trigger on certain topics it seems. Again....don't we all? 

[wurstisart]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:22 PM, grapeape said:

I was talking to a new friend about the Frazetta Molly Hatchet album covers just this week. Than I saw Sienkewicz' Frazetta version (yours) on Twitter. Than my new friend informed me that Dark Victory was now at HA. Now you post here. 6 degrees of Frank Frazetta.

🤣 cool - my Sienkiewicz gets posted on Twitter, not sure by whom as I have zero social media stuff but it’s cool.

 

[grapeape]

On 4/25/2023 at 1:53 PM, wurstisart said:

🤣 cool - my Sienkiewicz gets posted on Twitter, not sure by whom as I have zero social media stuff but it’s cool.

 

For posterity. A screen shot.

[Grendel72]

On 4/24/2023 at 12:56 PM, grapeape said:

“When I painted Death Dealer and Silver Warrior back to back, I had been sitting on my laurels, just going through the motions. Then there was a rumor that really disturbed me. People were saying I was washed up and that I hadn’t produced anything in years. That was the loyalty I got? It made me decide to crush them and show them the old spirit. I sat down and bam, Death Dealer and Silver Warrior were born. They were both better than anything I had ever created before. It’s a crazy game I like to play” - Frank Frazetta .
Death Dealer 1 (1973) oil on masonite

Whatever this would auction for, say 5 years from now, there is nothing in the fine art world I would desire more at the same price. Nostalgia sure. But I can't think of a better cultural representation then this one. This one will be remembered for centuries to come. It's that damn good and it will speak to the people of the future. Death comes for us all. This image is the last thing we'll all see before moving on to our place in eternity .

I'm sure of it. No I can't prove it. Don't ask me to. 💀 

 

⚰️ 🍇 🦍 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know who owns the original death dealer painting ? Is it still with the frazetta family? 

[The Voord]

On 4/25/2023 at 6:41 PM, comix4fun said:

Yeah we all have. He's got a bit of a hair-trigger on certain topics it seems. Again....don't we all? 

What's his stance on that barrel-chested Captain America abomination?

[Wolvie_Fan]

That's easy Voord, it was the Super Duper Soldier Serum

[adamstrange]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:20 PM, Bronty said:

On 4/22/2023 at 6:58 AM, KirbyCollector said:

There is no paradox. Frazetta was an accomplished artist, whose skill we can appreciate and acknowledge. He was,  however, not a very original artist -- by his own admission, he swiped everything from comic books to magazines to fine art paintings, and thus falls short of inclusion into the higher category of fine art.

With respect, that's just not true. 

He hardly has the originality of a Warhol or Lichtenstein.

[Rick2you2]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:52 PM, adamstrange said:

He hardly has the originality of a Warhol or Lichtenstein.

I’m not sure I agree with you there. Frazetta was an accomplished draftsman,  but that doesn’t make him an original draftsman. To take mundane images and recognize their artistic potential is a different sort of artistic skill. On a related note, I have always been a fan of Piet Mondrian. His earliest work was very well drawn, but what made his name shine was his ability to match boxes and lines to create tension and balance in a purely abstract form. The drafting of a wall of soup cans is pretty mundane, but through the layout on the wall, with their same colors and only slight different contents, results in a piece which is a little hypnotic while making a social commentary about industrialization. Do I like one better than the other? I appreciate them both.

[Bronty]

On 4/26/2023 at 5:05 PM, Rick2you2 said:

I’m not sure I agree with you there. Frazetta was an accomplished draftsman,  but that doesn’t make him an original draftsman. To take mundane images and recognize their artistic potential is a different sort of artistic skill. On a related note, I have always been a fan of Piet Mondrian. His earliest work was very well drawn, but what made his name shine was his ability to match boxes and lines to create tension and balance in a purely abstract form. The drafting of a wall of soup cans is pretty mundane, but through the layout on the wall, with their same colors and only slight different contents, results in a piece which is a little hypnotic while making a social commentary about industrialization. Do I like one better than the other? I appreciate them both.

I don't follow, or I don't agree I guess.   He more or less invented that 60s/70s fantasy aesthetic.    One can argue if that's a notable accomplishment or not, but there's surely originality there.

[delekkerste]

It was on display at Metropolis back in 2015 as part of a gallery exhibition/sale and it was with the family at that time. Last I heard (a few years ago), it was still with a family member but not sure if it moved since then. 

[Michael Browning]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:52 PM, adamstrange said:

He hardly has the originality of a Warhol or Lichtenstein.

How can you say that or even compare Frazetta’s originality with Warhol and Lichtenstein? They didn’t do sword and sorcery/fantasy and he didn’t do work even close to what they did.

[Legion of Goom]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:15 AM, The Voord said:

What's his stance on that barrel-chested Captain America abomination?

He regrets not taking it further. It's a few cargo pockets short of a Liefield, which also happens to be one of the notes on my psych evaluation 

[adamstrange]

On 4/26/2023 at 10:21 PM, Michael Browning said:

and he didn’t do work even close to what they did.

That's true even on his worst day.

[grapeape]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:21 PM, Michael Browning said:

How can you say that or even compare Frazetta’s originality with Warhol and Lichtenstein? They didn’t do sword and sorcery/fantasy and he didn’t do work even close to what they did.

Michael  Adamstrange has to be kidding right? I can't  speak for him, but it feels like the chosen examples of redundancy of soup cans, and Lichtenstein , who's taken a beating on the boards before, were chosen to troll the notion that Frazetta is not original.

 

 

[MyNameIsLegion]

At nearly 500 pieces posted so far - we are at least 60+% of the way though the total auction catalog:

if you subtract out 10 or so blue chip pieces - this looks like someone took the entire contents of several of the better performing weekly auctions circa 2016 and dumped them together. Even the blue chip pieces would have been at best top quarter of a Signature auction in 2007. You got 1 Frazetta catalog cover headliner and that’s it. This is one mangy dog of an auction. Consignments have dried up except for boomers hoping to pay the bills. If Gen-Xers sit this one out consignors are hosed. Nuthin here a millennial would ever want. 

Edited April 27, 2023 by MyNameIsLegion