drdroom

Is the idea here that Burma is printed and the other art is original? She doesn't look cut out as Miss Lace is on the other one.

That right there is a classic post.

Production really worked it over! I wonder what it looked like to start?

I remember seeing the SS 2 cover at auction--had a lot of paste-up/ re-positioning, surprisingly for such an elegant end composition.

I mean actually this is genius. Machine Boy! Machine Girl! Bolty, the Machine Dog!

This might be the prelim of the prelim, but its for a memorable cover, so I'll take it. It's either Romita (who did the final) or Buscema (who drew on the other side of the board).

Thanks, that's super helpful. Lemme just rustle up one or two of those high-six pieces... where did I put that Itoya...?

This is a truly a wacky turn of events. DC should immediately start publishing a Machine Man comic in the style of Weisinger-era Superman comics. Just to mess with Marvel.

OK, that's interesting. What niggles me though, is 2001 is an important FILM property, created by Clarke and Kubrick. The much later comic adaptation? That seems kind of trivial (much as I like the series). Kamandi is much less known of course, but it's Kirby's own creation. So I'm still puzzled, but the market has spoken. Shoulda bought a bunch of those caveman pages back when the getting was good!

Thanks, you too! And for anyone else reading, Voord is 100% right. Fourth World pages are quite unnecessary. BE LIKE VOORD.

That makes sense (and I've been following that page around too), but I really thought the price was around where I expected. Kamandi pages are plentiful and he doesn't wear spandex, so there's an inherent limit on the price of those pages, no matter how good. For me, that DPS is exquisite, but I've also known collectors to not like it at all. It's the upward pressure on the 2001 page that puzzles me.

You didn't use the word, but, I mean, saying you'd pick a 4-panel 2001 page over, for example, this...?

Yep. You've got to bring more value. There might be some existing relationship advantages--maybe?

Seriously? You hate the Fourth World that much? I mean, I'm glad, I wish everyone did so I could have it all, but those DPS's are pinnacles of Kirby's career.

Scuttlebut I've heard is HA is getting tougher in these negotiations, & I believe they've recently doubled the minimum consignment value from 5k to 10k (?). All which suggests they are not hurting for merchandise.

I was presenting this as a ridiculous no-brainer: panel page with no one on it vs DPS featuring title character at lower price!? But maybe I'm missing something. The 2001 page has Kirby's variation on the famous bone-to-spacecraft cut--does that seem valuable? I'm just really trying to understand this result ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Which Kirby deal would you choose? Left: 18,750. on Heritage. Right: 16,250. on Comiclink.

Yes, what the actual f-----? I would have predicted 4500.

This is totally baffling to me. It looks like a $300 con sketch.

Arnold as King Conan is not a half-bad idea. Sorry I'm not a powerful studio exec (how many times have I said that?).

It's a tricky page to value and I get why it's had such a rollercoaster ride at auction. Conan + Elric (first app storyline), great, but they're bit players on the page. The top splash panel is really most of the ballgame here, and it's a knockout example of Smith just hitting his artistic stride--but that seems like just the place where his market is weak? Collectors seem to want his fully realized pages, which probably fully starts with Conan 24. What would a panel page from Song or Red Nails go for?

Good point. Or a page from one of William Blake's books, which are in fact broken up, and which I recently had the pleasure of seeing several examples at the The Getty. So age seems to help (and, shallow as it may seem, I think color helps). If we step away from the modern/contemporary art world, so vigorously skewered by Dr Balls above, and think about the future gallery market for historical popular art, I don't doubt our grandchildren will be seeing exhibits of Herriman, McKay, Gould, Tezuka, Kirby, Crumb, etc., as, on occasion, we already do. The true originals. But just as we don't much recall the names of guys who were influenced at the time by, say, Blake or Hogarth, I'm not so sure about the swath of superhero art following in Kirby's wake, or the bulk of manga post-Tezuka.

Quadruple! It's the climatic page of of one of the top five or so greatest 4th world issues. In FF terms, it's a whole team splash from #52 or something.

I mean, that's fair.

Back to the topic at hand, Comiclink results: Glory Boat splash: 48,262 hammer. Kamandi 16 DPS: 16,250 hammer. What do we think? To me Glory Boat was a good deal for the buyer, Kamandi about right or a little low.