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Let's try this... the Golden Age ORIGINAL ART Thread
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Started by exitmusicblue,

276 posts in this topic

Bronty

Bronty

Posted
Posted

Lovely Renee.    Is it just coincidence that the splash pages seem to be unmarked (no coloring notations?).    They look great without the notations but I find the ones that are marked do lose some eye appeal IMO.

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Ameri

Ameri

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On 3/20/2017 at 6:41 PM, MrBedrock said:

Page 2 from the Sub-Mariner story in All Select #2, by Dan Barry. Kind of random and boring since there is no Subby, but it is a page of Timely art which is kind of neat...

timelyart.jpg

Used to have page 6 from the same Submariner story. No Subby on that page either 

20160611_151927_zpstnnlxm2h.jpg

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Readcomix

Readcomix

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Ameri said:

Metro has a Cap 5 page for sale

http://www.metropoliscomics.com/load_bookDetails.php?id=718331&set=0

Wow....wonder if it's an outlier ... I used to work with a guy who was Roz Kirby's niece. He did say the family had lots of stuff, but he did not know exactly what. 

Last I knew, Joe Sinnott had the last complete drawings Kirby did. They were cover recreations of Avengers #4 and FF #49. It was years ago and I cannot remember the exact story of why they were recreating these two, but they were with Sinnott to be inked when Kirby died. He pulled them out to show to me (I was interviewing him for CBM) and he pointed out the uncharacteristic shakiness in the lines in some places. He said he could not bring himself to ink them and was leaving them as they were.

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Ameri

Ameri

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Readcomix said:

Wow....wonder if it's an outlier ... I used to work with a guy who was Roz Kirby's niece. He did say the family had lots of stuff, but he did not know exactly what. 

Last I knew, Joe Sinnott had the last complete drawings Kirby did. They were cover recreations of Avengers #4 and FF #49. It was years ago and I cannot remember the exact story of why they were recreating these two, but they were with Sinnott to be inked when Kirby died. He pulled them out to show to me (I was interviewing him for CBM) and he pointed out the uncharacteristic shakiness in the lines in some places. He said he could not bring himself to ink them and was leaving them as they were.

Wow, thanks for sharing that great story. I saved these scans. Outside of these, and the Cap 5 page, that's all I know that's out there 

cap%206%20original%20art2_zps4qk4kusd.jp

cap%206%20original%20art_zpscvi5qtci.jpg

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Readcomix

Readcomix

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Posted

Did you have those pages? I don't think there's much early stuff out there, as I said.

I posted my Boys' Ranch earlier in the thread; guide does disservice of saying #6 is Kirby splashes and center spread only, rest is Meskin. But well-known art dealer (I bought it in the 90's) swore it was Kirby, and every vet I've showed it to agrees. Meskin finishing Kirby layouts sure, but it looks nothing like straight Meskin.

Sinnott said the foolproof test would be the ears -- said Kirby could not draw them, and he was always fixing them. I may for my own satisfaction take it off my wall one day and show it to him. :preach:

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Ameri

Ameri

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Just now, Readcomix said:

Did you have those pages? I don't think there's much early stuff out there, as I said.

I posted my Boys' Ranch earlier in the thread; guide does disservice of saying #6 is Kirby splashes and center spread only, rest is Meskin. But well-known art dealer (I bought it in the 90's) swore it was Kirby, and every vet I've showed it to agrees. Meskin finishing Kirby layouts sure, but it looks nothing like straight Meskin.

Sinnott said the foolproof test would be the ears -- said Kirby could not draw them, and he was always fixing them. I may for my own satisfaction take it off my wall one day and show it to him. :preach:

I don't have those pages (I wish). The Cap 6 splash may have come from a Kirby personal scrapbook. The other page was in an auction. I kept the announcement:

CAPTAIN AMERICA 6 ORIGINAL ART

 

This auction is for nothing less than the most significant piece of Jack Kirby Original Art to reach the market in at least 20 years. From the pages of Captain America #6, Timely Comics, 1941, this very recently discovered lost Kirby Original is Page 8, the penultimate page from "Meet The Fang - Arch Fiend of the Orient". To call the action on this page spectacular would be understating it. Cap and Bucky are both nearly beheaded. But they recover and turn the tables, in action that can't be contained by the panels, with arms and legs spilling into 2 panels, almost 3. This story was reprinted in the easy to find Fantasy Masterpieces #6. We will include a free copy of that issue as a bonus. In searching through auction archives to find something to compare this to, we came up empty. We didn't find a single Kirby Timely page. The only thing we saw of a similar magnitude was a Bill Everett Sub-Mariner page from Marvel Comics #1, 1939 which sold for over $86,000 5 years ago. All the significant reports we saw of Kirby Originals were from the Silver Age: a splash page from Tales to Astonish #27 sold for $65,000 in 2002. An interior page from X-men #1 went for $54,000 in 2008. Even Fantastic Four pages from the late 60's sold for big prices - a page from FF 63 sold for $23,000, and a page from FF 55 sold for$39,000. We normally list auctions with no Reserve Price, but for this very special item we have set a very reasonable, modest Reserve. This Reserve Price will NOT be revealed, the auction will NOT be ended early, and it will NOT be sold off ebay. If the Reserve Price is not met, it is likely we will relist this page at some future date with No Reserve. But don't wait, get it now.

Just a few words on where this piece came from. In 1941, a young man worked at Lewis Artists' Materials, a store in Manhattan about 3 blocks from the Timely Studios. Part of his job was to make regular deliveries of illustration boards and other Art supplies to the Timely Studios. He did this at least once a week, possibly more often. The people at Timely got to know him and apparently liked him. At some point they asked him if he would like to have 2 pages of Captain America Original art. He gladly accepted, but didn't think it a big deal. 69 years later, his grandson was helping him clean out his home in upstate New York. He had long since forgotten that he had the 2 Kirby pages, and when the grandson found them, he gave them to the grandson as a gift. Neither realized exactly what they were or who the artist was. That brings us to this auction. The back of the other Kirby page that's up for auction now, ending 5 minutes before this page, shows the Lewis Artists' Materials store logo on the back of the illustration board. The back of both boards also shows the Timely Comics, inc. stamp.

We couldn't find a definitive answer on who inked this page. The possibilities are Syd Shores , Al Avison, Al Gabriele, or Kirby himself. We saw reports which said that Kirby's normal procedure was to give the pencilled pages to one of those 3, then apply finishing touches or make corrections himself. Perhaps some of you will know just by looking. Any comments from experts will be appreciated.

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Readcomix

Readcomix

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1 minute ago, Ameri said:

I don't have those pages (I wish). The Cap 6 splash may have come from a Kirby personal scrapbook. The other page was in an auction. I kept the announcement:

CAPTAIN AMERICA 6 ORIGINAL ART

 

This auction is for nothing less than the most significant piece of Jack Kirby Original Art to reach the market in at least 20 years. From the pages of Captain America #6, Timely Comics, 1941, this very recently discovered lost Kirby Original is Page 8, the penultimate page from "Meet The Fang - Arch Fiend of the Orient". To call the action on this page spectacular would be understating it. Cap and Bucky are both nearly beheaded. But they recover and turn the tables, in action that can't be contained by the panels, with arms and legs spilling into 2 panels, almost 3. This story was reprinted in the easy to find Fantasy Masterpieces #6. We will include a free copy of that issue as a bonus. In searching through auction archives to find something to compare this to, we came up empty. We didn't find a single Kirby Timely page. The only thing we saw of a similar magnitude was a Bill Everett Sub-Mariner page from Marvel Comics #1, 1939 which sold for over $86,000 5 years ago. All the significant reports we saw of Kirby Originals were from the Silver Age: a splash page from Tales to Astonish #27 sold for $65,000 in 2002. An interior page from X-men #1 went for $54,000 in 2008. Even Fantastic Four pages from the late 60's sold for big prices - a page from FF 63 sold for $23,000, and a page from FF 55 sold for$39,000. We normally list auctions with no Reserve Price, but for this very special item we have set a very reasonable, modest Reserve. This Reserve Price will NOT be revealed, the auction will NOT be ended early, and it will NOT be sold off ebay. If the Reserve Price is not met, it is likely we will relist this page at some future date with No Reserve. But don't wait, get it now.

 

Just a few words on where this piece came from. In 1941, a young man worked at Lewis Artists' Materials, a store in Manhattan about 3 blocks from the Timely Studios. Part of his job was to make regular deliveries of illustration boards and other Art supplies to the Timely Studios. He did this at least once a week, possibly more often. The people at Timely got to know him and apparently liked him. At some point they asked him if he would like to have 2 pages of Captain America Original art. He gladly accepted, but didn't think it a big deal. 69 years later, his grandson was helping him clean out his home in upstate New York. He had long since forgotten that he had the 2 Kirby pages, and when the grandson found them, he gave them to the grandson as a gift. Neither realized exactly what they were or who the artist was. That brings us to this auction. The back of the other Kirby page that's up for auction now, ending 5 minutes before this page, shows the Lewis Artists' Materials store logo on the back of the illustration board. The back of both boards also shows the Timely Comics, inc. stamp.

 

We couldn't find a definitive answer on who inked this page. The possibilities are Syd Shores , Al Avison, Al Gabriele, or Kirby himself. We saw reports which said that Kirby's normal procedure was to give the pencilled pages to one of those 3, then apply finishing touches or make corrections himself. Perhaps some of you will know just by looking. Any comments from experts will be appreciated.

Thank you for this! That last paragraph corroborates what the art dealer (and my eyes and others') tell me, that Meskin and Jerry Robinson did finishes over Kirby but he worked on all the pages. I hate that the guide calls this into question, not that I plan on selling it, but other than the Stuntman pages and the couple Cap outliers you showed, the Boys Ranch pages are the earliest Kirby left out there in the collecting community.

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