grapeape

That's spot on, no doubt! Love that.

You're smarter than me. I saw most of the prelims around $800 and passed them up waiting for a published page I could afford Very cool to see your prelim. Always dug Ed Hannigan's work on Batman. I hope you find what you're looking for.

My brother is a supreme collector of all things Spider-Man. He has the original web shooters, you name it he's got it. There was a big hole however. The 6ft poster, which he looked for year after year with no luck. I made it my personal, private mission to fill that hole. There was a convention in Los Angeles, about 4-5 years ago. I met a friend there and took my wife along. The week before I took my time showing my wife what the poster looked like and the size. She goes antiquing here and there and you never know. At the convention, my wife was taking a breather when my pal and I met up with her. We were going to have lunch, but my wife asked me, "can you watch our stuff while I take a look around for 5 minutes." Ten minutes later she comes back. "You need to come with me. I think I found something." I followed her down an aisle, and she pointed to a booth. Behind the seller I could see the colors, so familiar, but was it the one? I asked to see it fully and once he started unrolling it I knew the search was over. Those two images I sent a few clicks back in this thread are of the actual poster my wife found. What did he want for it? $1500 What was the wiggle room? Okay, $1300 cash money. Great except I was only carrying $500. I'd come to sell more than buy. I would have to leave the convention, go to a bank and get the money. The guy was cool though, as he was selling it on consignment. He kept looking at me and he said, "you bought something from me in 98. I remember your face." That blew me away. He asked, "did you bring a check?" I did. The last hurdle, "the seller is here, let me call him over." The consignee showed up ten minutes later. Would he accept a check? Yes, because this guy remembered me from 20 freaking years ago. "I'll vouch for him. It's a good check." I wrote a check for $1300 and took the poster home. My brother had given me discretion many years ago to act on his behalf. I wanted to find a way to make it free for my bro but I couldn't quite get there. I sold $800 worth of art to recoup some of what I paid. A week later I drove many, many miles with my wife to surprise my brother. Boy was he excited and surprised. I have a video of the moment he unfurled it with his girlfriend on the living room carpet. The joy was electric. We celebrated with a homemade spaghetti dinner with a fantastic gravy (nowhere near the poster mind you). My brother only had to pay me $500. He did the right thing and invested in a beautiful fitted frame of high archival quality. I can't find a pic of that at the moment. Speaking to my brother, yesterday I was telling him about your excellent CSI like breakdown of the poster and the unpublished Ditko giveaway. The talk turned to the poster specifically ,and my brother, the fanatic, a guy who once watched Stan Lee drink coffee for an hour, waited for him to leave, paid a busboy $5 to take the cup, and have Stan Lee sign it. Stan said, " I think you might be nuts" haha. Anyway, my brother says the 6ft Spidey poster is the quintessential holy grail for serious Spidey collectors, as far as collectibles are concerned.

Maybe Ms. Keller did her own grading, and bidding.....

Yep. The prelim and the printed comic art add up pretty, pretty....good!

"youth is wasted on the young." I couldn't agree more. Brunner and Kaluta master artists. My man Steve Rude has talent flowing out of his ears. Nexus is a gift that keeps on giving, and I love to watch him work. There's a magnificent documentary about Steve that came out in 2014. I believe it's still showing on TUBI. https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrjW6NZhORlGF4Nm.pXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzYEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1710684506/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2ftubitv.com%2fmovies%2f633889%2frude-dude-the-steve-rude-story/RK=2/RS=xvnx0ZeH3Wi0FY8BnObvyLEdOnM-

"Looming over the contest, we have the evil mastermind of the piece - me! (I've never looked better." ha ha. Just freaking awesome!! You never looked better Alex!

I remember seeing this when it came up. It's gotta be a thrill to have a piece of the production of a dandy "new" Marvel character in his first appearance stage. Worthy of display for historical content from the great world of original comic book art! And who knows.... maybe Deadpool will one day blow up and become a popular character.

I have a weakness for Kirby pencils sans ink. Excelsior!

I lived nearby, which makes this funnier

Kaluta the process. He's one of many artists I would've given anything to watch create at their drawing boards. Thanx for showing this

Excellent case made here. Your logic is sound. This is a special piece no doubt. My brother has the 6ft poster and I can see it. If only Stan were around to confirm it. If I could afford the piece at auction I would give my....ahhhh, Uncle Ben, you're a brave man then ole grapeape.

The motherlode jackpot of preliminary goodness. Thank you Twanj. Of course the SS cover knocks me over, but I'm also smitten with the quality of the 1602 art.

I purchased this directly from DOA at the SDCC in the nineties. Sent a message to Jim Warden and he very kindly has reached out to Mike Zeck. grapeape: Was this intended as a Punisher cover Is it the prelim to Bloodshot Last Stand cover Maybe started as Punisher then used as Bloodshot? Dying to know. I attached the cover to Bloodshot Last Stand it looks dead on to me. Mike Zeck responded to Jim Warden: • It was not originally created for any Punisher related project. Specifically targeted to that Bloodshot cover. Looking at it now is the first time I’m realizing how close the pose is to a Punisher pose from years prior. The ‘Plate One’ illustration for the first Punisher Portfolio! I wasn’t aware I was ‘homaging’ myself at the time :-)

I saw this prelim on Glen's Panel Page Art website. Got me thinking, who out there has prelim art in your collection. A "prelim" for ASM 302 by McFarlane recently sold on eBay, you can see it on Lee Benaka's brilliant thread Flip of the Day. What have ya got?

Thanx mike! 👂

I said that to emphasize NOT to risk money. I don't know the OP so I'm hoping to talk him/her out of making a mistake they can't live with.

Dr. Balls has my favorite avatar

I can't believe another page hasn't surfaced. Brutal. You have great pages, but at least a few more would make your collecting days sweeter. One has to show up Perservere my friend.

It's gross, but it's why I bid on it. I knew whatever it sold for, the relist value "ask" would be 2-3 times. Not to the likes of us who have trouble justifying the piece just on quality alone. This price is a trap set for the well heeled sucker who missed the auction all together.

Most likely you are correct. Still, I see an opening to the fine art world. It's small, just a crack. I believe some comic art would translate to a small, but influential network of art pimps. It would just take a few well heeled galleries to experiment in "Primitive pop culural expression." I can see that's not likely, but as Lloyd said in Dumb and Dumber, " so you're saying there's a chance."

These are tough Javier. Unless its dirt....dirt...cheap like twenty bucks, stay away. Is there any verifiable provenace for the piece? I'm not talking about COA's which are worthless in our hobby. Just provenance... like a chain of ownership to atleast see if the story matches the art.

Price protection is a precursor to somebody holding the bag. That's the shame of not letting the market find its own top. I'll be waiting if it all collapses

It's going to be interesting to watch. In most cases I would agree that an "iconic" published page is king. In this case though we have an iconic non published piece by a comic art legend, drawing the most iconic hero in comic history (with no disrespect to Supes and Batman). The quality, large drawn Spidey by Ditko....... published or not it's like finding an unbelievable treasure. The pin up I think matches or surpasses any page Ditko ever drew, and he displayed Amazing quality in his work in 1-37 and AF15.