Is this Dave Sim's signature?

[Bronty]

waaaaay more than that, I would think.. Remember it's going to be tax deductible too (this top copy is going to be auctioned for charity if I recall correctly). That should bring out some stupid bids. $7500 maybe? I would say 5k if not TD.

[Bronty]

gaaaah youre kidding!??

they didnt leave ONE of them alone? thats criminal. Now there STILL arent any high grade copies because these sre now IMO ruined . Its ironic too because this thread started with a query about the legitimacy of Daves signature in a book and it was agreed that he ALWAYS signs on the INTERIOR - - - and here, inexplicably (except to get teh almighty yellow SIGNATURE SERIES imprimature, now Dave has defaced the last best un-damaged copies of #1!!!

 

Im reeling in pain..

 

Not necessarily true.... don't forget Deni Loubert got file copies of Cerebus #1 as part of the divorce proceedings. Needless to say, those ten copies haven't been signed by sim and if loubert stored them properly, will be just as nice as dave's copies. Besides, the creator's signature defacing the book? I'm not big on sigs either but I could definitely make an exception in this case.

[Kevin Boyd]

Stan Lee signed his File Copies on the front cover as well for authentication.

 

Try to find a copy of Cerebus 1 that doesn't have Dave's signature on it (interior page or not) and you run the risk of purchasing a counterfeit. My own copy of #1 was signed by Dave to a fan (and dated) 1978.

 

Since these are all his personal UNREAD copies he decided to sign the cover instead of the front page for MANY reasons but one very good one was that opening the books to sign on the first page would have exposed them to possible risk of damaging/lowering the grade.

 

Kev

[joe_collector]

gaaaah youre kidding!??

they didnt leave ONE of them alone? thats criminal. Now there STILL arent any high grade copies because these sre now IMO ruined .

 

I agree, and this is just stupid. People comment on "authenticity issues", but come on, Dave Sim submitted these books to CGC, and putting a "Sim File Copy" on the label would ensure provenance. Plus, it's not like we hum and haw over other CGC books and call them counterfeits.

 

What bothers me most about this, is that in the future, cover signatures may well be frowned upon even more than today, and it's sad that Sim felt compelled to "deface" every one of the copies. You can always add a sig later, but we can't take these off.

 

This is just sad.

[Kevin Boyd]

There's not much point in debating this, as it has already been done. And I'm not surprised to see you pipe in with a negative.

 

This was Dave's way of making sure that the books will always be identifiable.

 

Do signed baseball cards get frowned upon? How about signed baseballs? If authenticated properly they are prized by fans of that player.

 

One segment of the market will likely frown on it as you do, but a much larger segment of collectors and fans of Sim's work should be able to see this as a unique collection of books - right up there with the Gaines File Copies and the Stan Lee File Copies.

 

Kev

[joe_collector]

There's not much point in debating this, as it has already been done. And I'm not surprised to see you pipe in with a negative.

 

Hey, I'm a purist at heart, and I think it's reprehensible for the best know copies of this important comic to be defaced in such a way. Just from a historical preservation POV, I would have liked to see at least some of them left in their "original condition" rather than being "upgraded" for speculator resale.

 

And yes, if Stan Lee owned the only run of CGC 9.8 Silver Age #1's, and he scrawled his name over them, I'd be royally ticked as well. This is a different scenario entirely from Stan's "Bathroom Books", as Sim's file copies stand at the very top of the heap in terms of condition.

[Solar]

Do signed baseball cards get frowned upon?

 

Actually, yeah, if they're something of this caliber. A 52 Topps Mantle PSA 8 is going to be worth at least twice that of a signed 52 Topps Mantle in the same condition. You get a random 10th year card autographed, not the friggin holy grail.

 

Then again, it's Sim's book and he can do what he wants. I wouldnt buy it though.

[Aman619]

sorry. Kev. I understand you were there and it was getting done that way no matter if you stood on a table and screamed bloody murder.. But I gotta agree with JC and Solar. While your eright that many people will love the sig on the cover, many others lik eus are no longer interested in the these copies. (Well Im not anyway)

 

Also, you must agree that itshighly ironic that Dave concluded that opening the books to sign them would have done more harm to them than scribbling on their covers.... Seems like Dave got caught up in another "ok Ill do whatever pleases others" mood again. He sounded so down in his letter to his lawyer about the chances of CEREBUS 's future recognition....

 

So now we gotta wait for Denis copies! If she still has them. After she sees what these sell for Im guessing they'll surface, one way or another.

[Timely]

Perhaps he should have signed the back covers instead!?!

 

Timely

[Aman619]

no signatures on covers!! and no wire hangers either!

[localshop]

Actually - he did clarify a couple of things.

 

On average there were 20 copies of each issue in the files - some he had only 18 or 19 of, others 21, 22, or 23 copies. Most were in NM, with some exceptions.

 

 

Kev, as far as the #1s are concerned, do you know if the 9.4 shown here is uniquely the highest graded, joint with a couple of others, or is there even a higher than this, say a 9.6?

 

Also, for the more budget limited (ahem), what is the lowest graded #1 File Copy?

[NewtSamson]

[Kevin Boyd]

As far as I know this is the only copy that has been graded. Paul Litch did a pre-screen to find what he thought was the best #1 and they graded and encapsulated that one copy before the LA crew left on Thursday morning so it couple be displayed at the CGC booth.

 

The remainder will be graded later, so it is possible that there might be another 9.4 - it isn't too likely that there will be a 9.6 or a 9.8.

 

Kev

[comicwiz]

Just from a historical preservation POV, I would have liked to see at least some of them left in their "original condition" rather than being "upgraded" for speculator resale.

 

I spoke with Peter about this (and Kevin might have been there too). My preference too (if I could hypothetically obtain a file copy) would be to NOT have the covers signed. I have to believe Kevin and Peter did what they could, and gave serious thought to the aspect of historical preservation, and in the end, it was Dave's decision that reigned supreme.

 

And as much as your historical pov appears to be consistent with my own, in this situation, its a lot like telling your boss at the company picnic that you all "ought" to be playing tag football, when he's made it prefectly clear that a baseball games going to be played on diamond.