Wizard OA Article Sept 2000 0

[Drewsky]

I found this and thought it would be fun to share. I was into comics then, but only 15 and did not buy my first published page until 2006 or 7.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Drewsky

[Doc McCoy]

1 minute ago, Drewsky said:

I found this and thought it would be fun to share. I was into comics then, but only 15 and did not buy my first publish page until 2006 or 7.

@Drewsky  Nothing shared here in your post.  Was there supposed to be a link to the article?

[Drewsky]

Yes, having trouble getting the scans to load.

My scans are to large to post. Had to shrink them to get any to load and now they are to tiny to read. I had 5 from the mag that I wanted to share. Just thought it would be fun. If someone has ideas, let me know. If not, this thread can RIP.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Drewsky

[Twanj]

nice, I see it now

[vodou]

I remember these from when they first were published, Wizard did a little OA feature every several issues or so (but not every month). I got a kick out of them and -at the time- thought it would be cool to get one of the pieces shown in one of the articles. Actually the one that really caught my eye was the Buscema/Sienkiewicz Wolverine #10 cover. Later I realized all the art was from Shamus' collection and wouldn't be for sale anyway and moved on (in art, in life). Thanks for sharing, if I bump into my old Wizards someday will add other features to the thread...

[Flambit]

On 2/12/2017 at 8:09 AM, vodou said:

I remember these from when they first were published, Wizard did a little OA feature every several issues or so (but not every month). I got a kick out of them and -at the time- thought it would be cool to get one of the pieces shown in one of the articles. Actually the one that really caught my eye was the Buscema/Sienkiewicz Wolverine #10 cover. Later I realized all the art was from Shamus' collection and wouldn't be for sale anyway and moved on (in art, in life). Thanks for sharing, if I bump into my old Wizards someday will add other features to the thread...

That's right, they did!  I recal they would have a little sidebar periodically showing sales now and then.  I vividly remember the Cockrum UXM 160 cover making an appearance because a childhood friend bought it many, many years before.   

[vodou]

2 minutes ago, Flambit said:

I vividly remember the Cockrum UXM 160 cover making an appearance because a childhood friend bought it many, many years before.   

UXM160 cover by was Brent Anderson. Do you mean Anderson or maybe 158 or 161? (UXM159 was Bill Sienkiewicz cover.) If it's UXM160, very cool...your friend still has that cover art?

[Flambit]

1 minute ago, vodou said:

UXM160 cover by was Brent Anderson. Do you mean Anderson or maybe 158 or 161? (UXM159 was Bill Sienkiewicz cover.) If it's UXM160, very cool...your friend still has that cover art?

You are correct. I knew I should have looked it up the number before I posted.  It was 161 - "Gold Rush," with Magneto.  He bought it at SDCC in the 80s for, like, nothing - if he spent a hundred bucks I'd be surprised.  We hadn't spoken in years - Hi Robert! - and I flipped open that Wizard and saw it in the sidebar as a recent sale.  I remember thinking, and this would have been at least 15 years ago, "wow, he just made a big mistake!"  

[vodou]

UXM161 cover...iirc Albert Moy had it maybe 8-10 yrs ago for $4k, long gone and I don't know where it is today. But I do wish I'd bought it!

[Flambit]

Tell me about it.  I never saw a Cockrum  UXM cover for sale back in the day.  First time was a few years ago - Moy had the UXM 124 for 22k at SDCC and I seriously considered it - now even at 22 I wish I'd bought it!

On an unrelated note, at the same time my friend had the 161 cover, he had acquired the Alpha Flight 7 cover.  Always wondered where that one went!

[vodou]

For a long time 2nd run UXM Cockrum was very cheap, overall but also in comparison to first run. It was and is nostalgia for me though. (I guess a bit like my 2nd run Kirby Cap reply to you in the other thread!) That made things easier for many years, what I wanted was cheaper and 'better' (nostalgically), a perfect combination. Ended up with many panel pages, splashes, even dps, but never a cover. Somehow. So I guess that's still a want but not going to happen for less than 10k these days. Another one that was offered to me was UXM164, also for 4k, around 1999 or 2000. And then there was UXM158 (first Rogue UXM) that HA bought on eBay for about 7k and then flipped in their own next sale for (iirc?) essentially the same 7k, maybe 500 more or something. That was a long time ago. The rest is recent history and much bigger $ of course. The other covers, 146-164, that haven't popped up the last few years...wonder where they are, likely in very strong hands.

[Flambit]

Well, I hope you get one!  I know all about chasing that nostalgia grail.  If it was "only" 10k, I'd probably try and get one myself, but I suspect even the weakest Cockrum 2nd UXM cover would be pushing 20k at this point (at auction - I don't know much about private sales).  And I just went and had a look at a gallery of Cockrum 2nd UXMs, and there really isn't a "weak" one among them, honestly!    Maybe when he was really pushing the Starjammers, but even those covers are pretty good.

I shudder to think, but i suspect the days of the 1st run UXMs for 20k/2nd run UXM for 10k might be gone...!

[vodou]

I agree Flambit, the comparison would be 1st run to 2nd run (to keep the Kirby comparison alive). I think we'd all agree 1st run quality overall is much higher than 2nd run, artistically and content-wise not just nostalgically (which I think is highly subjective and a matter of perspective, not really quantifiable).

The ratio of 2nd run interiors to covers has moved from (imo) 20:1 to 15:1 or maybe even lower, over the last twenty years. That favors those that hold more interiors and less covers (luckily me), it also has something to do with the Law of Big Numbers. So I guess I just need to figure out if I'd like to move a large stack of interiors out for one or two covers. Dunno. That's a choice I've already made several times for other things though, and no regrets so far. You get to a certain age and hobby experience level...maybe you haven't seen it all but you've seen a lot...and that handful of trophies -conceptually- seems to trump the massive stack(s) of nice 'stuff' art more and more every day. The moves I've made so far, no regrets so far. Chalk it all up to delayed gratification (finally) becoming...gratification?

[Flambit]

I agree that nostalgia is totally subjective, of course.  I went back and looked at Cockrum's UXM run, and yeah, it's hard to beat most of those 1st run covers.  But I think historical value really props that 1st run stuff up; these are the shoulders that the fame of the X-Men stands on.  Of course there's the Byrne stuff - but I think most agree that's on an entirely different level altogether.  There are few comic book runs in history that can be compared to, randomly, say issues 133-142. Those sort of transcend "X-Men" history, in a way, or Cockrum pricing.  

But those 2nd run covers are beautiful!  At the time they left me a bit cold - like Miller DD, how can you follow Byrne/Austin X-Men? - but there really ain't a bad one; it's almost like Cockrum was drawing the covers for the OA market!  Almost every single one has a pin up quality character front and center in some full body dynamic pose, and most feature the entire team in the background.  

I have a big soft spot for Alan Moore's Top Ten, because that stuff is modern and reasonably affordable, and really resonated with me, but outside of that, I agree - I'm more interested quality over quantity any day.  I think my collection is decent, but it's definitely not like some of the people here who have binders and binders and binders of fantastic art.

Do you have stuff up on caf?  

Edited March 23, 2017 by Flambit
missed a word

[comiconxion]

On 3/22/2017 at 8:39 PM, Flambit said:

 

I shudder to think, but i suspect the days of the 1st run UXMs for 20k/2nd run UXM for 10k might be gone...!

I think most of the Cockrum X-Men covers are locked away at this point.  Realistically, you're probably looking at $50-100k for a 1st run cover and $25-50k for a 2nd run cover (likely more for the #145 and #153).  The #162 seemed to go cheap when it came up a few years back, but after seeing the amount of restoration to that one (from the urine stains), I can see why some people may not have bid that one up as much as it should have been worth.  It would be hard to find a 1st run Romita Jr. X-Men cover for $10k these days.  Those typically sell in the $15-25k range and the nicer ones go or even more (as was evidenced by the #211 sale last year). 

[Flambit]

Just now, comiconxion said:

I think most of the Cockrum X-Men covers are locked away at this point.  Realistically, you're probably looking at $50-100k for a 1st run cover and $25-50k for a 2nd run cover (likely more for the #145 and #153).  The #162 seemed to go cheap when it came up a few years back, but after seeing the amount of restoration to that one (from the urine stains), I can see why some people may not have bid that one up as much as it should have been worth.  It would be hard to find a 1st run Romita Jr. X-Men cover for $10k these days.  Those typically sell in the $15-25k range and the nicer ones go or even more (as was evidenced by the #211 sale last year). 

Jeez... what happened to the 162 cover??

[comiconxion]

Just now, Flambit said:

Jeez... what happened to the 162 cover??

Got soaked in cat urine and had to be restored.  Some of the red ink washed off (as well as Claremont's signature) when they did the restoration and it was missing the surprint.  Still looked much better after the restoration than before.  You can see before and after here:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1344871

[Flambit]

4 minutes ago, comiconxion said:

Got soaked in cat urine and had to be restored.  Some of the red ink washed off (as well as Claremont's signature) when they did the restoration and it was missing the surprint.  Still looked much better after the restoration than before.  You can see before and after here:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1344871

Good grief!  

It's amazing what resto can do now, though!  It's funny, about six months ago, someone posted a 70s/80s Flash splash that also had similar resto and it washed off red ink, and i saw some 80s marvel cover that washed off Shooter's signature.  I wish i could remember specifically which ones they both were, though!

I think that was my first ever X-Men issue I bought off the stands, too!  

But, back on topic - I totally agree.  No Cockrum X-Men cover will ever sell for less than 25k, maybe 30k at this point.  Just because of the historical value of the X-Men title from that era alone.  

Edited March 24, 2017 by Flambit
added much text