May Heritage Auction

[Terry Doyle]

Also . . .

 

 

 

[Terry Doyle]

And . . .

 

[Bill C]

Don't remember seeing the #64 before Terry, cool. Only other one I remember seeing is the pencil only rejected version of #20

[delekkerste]

while we wait for a pic, here's what I dug up on google

 

 

Based on this colored-in pic, I'm going to suggest Colletta, not Sinnott for the inks.

 

Doesn't look anything like Colletta to me.

[drdroom]

Apologies for crappy scan . . .

 

 

Okay, based on this crappy scan, I think inks are Sinnott except the Panther figure, though I can't figure why it would be different. Doesn't it look more like Klein or someone? & How come nobody is really looking at the Panther?

[suspense39]

Yeah, I have to agree Aaron, the panther inking seems a bit different from the rest....also the arm in the upper left (panthers right) has got some weird bicep action goin on

[suspense39]

It kind of looks like someone else blackened the suit

[Jamie.Merwin]

Its a beauty

[glendgold]

Apologies for crappy scan . . .

 

 

Okay, based on this crappy scan, I think inks are Sinnott except the Panther figure, though I can't figure why it would be different. Doesn't it look more like Klein or someone? & How come nobody is really looking at the Panther?

 

Looking at the Taschen book, the scan looks more like Sinnott on the Panther -- except for the way the suit is delineated. Maybe that's Romita? Or maybe it's Sinnott being really faithful to some weird Kirby design that didn't quite work? I guess we'll be able to tell more when HA puts up a good scan. There will be whiteout on the hands, and redrawing there.

[Dick O.]

the asm 151 cover will get close to...or go over 100k i feel.

 

Best spidey cover image in quite a while....... plus this was buried until Heritage got a hold of it..so its quite fresh to the market.

 

I do however think this cover was cleaned (because its SO WHITE) and normally..all of those classic Romita razor cut action lines on a cover would have some soiling in them........ but i'm not sure a cleaning should affect the value.

 

Going by the price of that bleached X-Men #137 pg.14 in the last HA auction, I'd say cleaning won't negatively affect the value of this cover.

[bluechip]

It will be a very interesting auction result. Lee/Kirby Prime FF, 1st appearance of significant character................... but....... unpublished.

 

that's one big butt.

 

As was pointed out this is a part-published piece, and the final published piece would have an altered stat of the panther image from this one.

 

But I would love it if everybody took the "unpublished" to heart so much that it could go for a price I'd be able to pay without guilt that I was robbing from my family.

 

I was hoping that such attitudes would rule the bidding on that unpublished ASM 97 cover, which was not only unpublished but the main character (spidey) was a stat. But it went for something like 8K.

 

I have found in recent years that people generally underestimate the value of the cultural history of a piece, forgetting that it's a big part of why comic art is considered valuable in the first place (and forgetting that comic OA was until somewhat recently considered more of a production item because it's not the finished image you see in the published piece). But the ASM cover belied that somewhat and I suspect this one may do the same to a greater extent.

[delekkerste]

Looking at the Taschen book, the scan looks more like Sinnott on the Panther -- except for the way the suit is delineated. Maybe that's Romita? Or maybe it's Sinnott being really faithful to some weird Kirby design that didn't quite work? I guess we'll be able to tell more when HA puts up a good scan. There will be whiteout on the hands, and redrawing there.

 

Aside from the Panther's suit, everything else (the rest of the Panther, the FF and the backgrounds) is all clearly Sinnott. In the absence of hard evidence to the contrary, I'm inclined to go with Kirby & Sinnott experimenting with this new character's design as opposed to someone else inking the suit. Even if the inking on the suit looks a little bit different, to me it's still within the range of what we could expect from Sinnott inking a new character as opposed to any of the other names that have been mentioned.

 

Regarding Romita, was he doing much in the way of art corrections and finishes to other peoples' work in July 1966? He didn't become art director until 1973 and, off the top of my head, I can't remember too many instances of him doing finishes and such until a bit later in the '60s.

[jjonahjameson1]

It will be a very interesting auction result. Lee/Kirby Prime FF, 1st appearance of significant character................... but....... unpublished.

 

that's one big butt.

 

As was pointed out this is a part-published piece, and the final published piece would have an altered stat of the panther image from this one.

 

But I would love it if everybody took the "unpublished" to heart so much that it could go for a price I'd be able to pay without guilt that I was robbing from my family.

 

I was hoping that such attitudes would rule the bidding on that unpublished ASM 97 cover, which was not only unpublished but the main character (spidey) was a stat. But it went for something like 8K.

 

I have found in recent years that people generally underestimate the value of the cultural history of a piece, forgetting that it's a big part of why comic art is considered valuable in the first place (and forgetting that comic OA was until somewhat recently considered more of a production item because it's not the finished image you see in the published piece). But the ASM cover belied that somewhat and I suspect this one may do the same to a greater extent.

 

Actually, went for just shy of $15K and nowhere near as impactful an image as the published cover.

[bluechip]

It will be a very interesting auction result. Lee/Kirby Prime FF, 1st appearance of significant character................... but....... unpublished.

 

that's one big butt.

 

As was pointed out this is a part-published piece, and the final published piece would have an altered stat of the panther image from this one.

 

But I would love it if everybody took the "unpublished" to heart so much that it could go for a price I'd be able to pay without guilt that I was robbing from my family.

 

I was hoping that such attitudes would rule the bidding on that unpublished ASM 97 cover, which was not only unpublished but the main character (spidey) was a stat. But it went for something like 8K.

 

I have found in recent years that people generally underestimate the value of the cultural history of a piece, forgetting that it's a big part of why comic art is considered valuable in the first place (and forgetting that comic OA was until somewhat recently considered more of a production item because it's not the finished image you see in the published piece). But the ASM cover belied that somewhat and I suspect this one may do the same to a greater extent.

 

Actually, went for just shy of $15K and nowhere near as impactful an image as the published cover.

 

You're right. I was remembering 8Kish prior to the live bidding but then almost 15 the day of.

 

I am sure the published version, which is a classic spidey goblin romita cover, would go for much more. Wasn't trying to compare those two. Was thinking about the relative value of the unpublished cover with the spidey stat in relation to prices realized on other covers and I know that not so long ago people would have assigned less value to the unpub 97 regardless of its import relative to any published cover,

 

 

[rotembk]

HA posted the scan of the FF 52 artwork. Can't figure out how to link to the HA pic directly so uploaded it to imgur first:

 

[Bronty]

Almost seems like the weird shading on BP was to try and make him look 'catlike' by suggesting the look of fur?

[vodou]

Almost seems like the weird shading on BP was to try and make him look 'catlike' by suggesting the look of fur?

The BP inking is so weird. I don't know what to make of it. The rest is clearly the Sinnott we all know and love...but the BP figure, so planted looking right to begin with*, and then the inking...it appears to match, if you look at individual brush strokes (zoom in), but then zoom out and you're right back to: weird, weird, weird. The figure as a whole, the inking as a subset (of weird).

 

None of this is a suggestion of anything 'fake', 'ginned up' or anything like that. A very nice piece, no doubt. JUST weird

 

*Is there some editorial backstory here? Maybe BP was not the original intended new character?? Who/what are the FF reacting to, as Kirby originally laid it out and Sinnott began inking toward? The eye wanders too much. I've not found that to be a problem Kirby had!

[stinkininkin]

Almost seems like the weird shading on BP was to try and make him look 'catlike' by suggesting the look of fur?

The BP inking is so weird. I don't know what to make of it. The rest is clearly the Sinnott we all know and love...but the BP figure, so planted looking right to begin with*, and then the inking...it appears to match, if you look at individual brush strokes (zoom in), but then zoom out and you're right back to: weird, weird, weird. The figure as a whole, the inking as a subset (of weird).

 

None of this is a suggestion of anything 'fake', 'ginned up' or anything like that. A very nice piece, no doubt. JUST weird

 

*Is there some editorial backstory here? Maybe BP was not the original intended new character?? Who/what are the FF reacting to, as Kirby originally laid it out and Sinnott began inking toward? The eye wanders too much. I've not found that to be a problem Kirby had!

 

+1

 

Scott

[alxjhnsn]

FWIW, I posted this to Joe's FB page. Don't know if he'll see it, but ...

 

 

[Bronty]

, so planted looking !

 

I didn't notice this at first but you're right! BP looks out of place with everything else going on. Almost like he was dropped/planted into a scene he was not originally intended for.

 

Like... the only white space they had remaining was on the left so they dumped him in there. The eyes of the FF all seem to look at each other instead of BP