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The one that got away
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38 posts in this topic

On 3/22/2017 at 1:47 AM, Brian Peck said:

I have just one story of art that got away but found it years later.

I was a poor collage student back some 25 years ago. Phillip Anderson of Booksource (how many remember that) now Artworkworld offered me a two f nice pieces by Bob Layton, one was unpublished X-Factor #1 cover (one of 7 produced and rejected) and what looked like an original X-Men pin-up. Unfortunately I could only afford one and choose the unpublished cover, Phillip included a xerox of the X-Men Pinup along with the unpublished cover. I was never able to get that pin-up, Phillip ended up selling it. 

So I had been searching ever since for that pin-up. About 10 years ago it popped up on ebay and I ended up being the high bidder. Found out the owner lived south of me in LA. Its up in my CAF:

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=229715

 

 

I own about half of the unpublished penciled pages to X-factor #1...think they are drawn by sal B??  But i havent looked at em in a while. Got em from a marvel staffer who said how jim shooter kept getting upset because of deadlines and he was throwing pages away making artists redraw everything over and over again...just like the covers...LOL

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On March 22, 2017 at 0:46 AM, Flambit said:

Almost positive it was 1986, but it *could* have been 1985.  That would make more sense as to why the prices were so insanely low - right before DKR came out and spiked Miller prices.  I have no memory of seeing any DKR pages whatsoever.  

Cool memory you got of that. 

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The one that got away for me is the Daredevil #208 cover by David Mazzucchelli and Bob Wiacek.  It was one of the most memorable comics from my youth; it came out during the first year of my collecting comics (I started reading DD with issue #206) - I still remember riding my bike to a local gas station/convenience store and buying the issue off the rack.  The cover was available a couple of times at auction...I have no idea why I passed on it the first time, but I was the underbidder the second time around.  I think I was looking at it more rationally than emotionally - it was personal to me, but not really what most would look for in a Mazz example (I believe it was his first DD cover, his pencils were overpowered by Wiacek's inks...not really a standout in any way - the issue is really only memorable for the Harlan Ellison and Arthur Byron Cover story), so I just wasn't willing to pay much beyond FMV for it.  Also, given that it had bounced around a bit, I didn't think that anyone else was going to step up big for it, so I just put in my max bid and forgot about it, only to see the next day that I had been outbid by one increment.  Obviously in hindsight, I should have bid more!  I later approached the owner about a potential sale or trade, but, as he would only consider it if I let go of one of my true blue chip pieces, I crossed it off my list.  Hence, it will forever be the one that got away...

I've had a lot of other near-misses (and a couple of regrets/computer-freeze up mishaps that I was later able to acquire anyway), but, for the most part, I have very few regrets about the art that's gotten away (I'm even relieved in hindsight that I narrowly missed out on a number of those pieces).  As an OA friend recently remarked to me, "there is loads of art for everyone out there", and, as such, my only regrets are/would be regarding a very narrow slice of art that was very memorable/nostalgic/important to me from my first year or two of collecting comics.  So far, it's only been the DD #208 cover that fits the bill.

Edited by delekkerste
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There is only time that I was the underbidder that has even a halfway decent story associated with it. Here's that story.

To help you understand the emotional impact of this tale, you should understand that The Legion is my favorite set of characters (Superman is my favorite single character) and Curt Swan is my favorite comic artist. I got my first Legion (Adventure 326) while in the hospital at age 8 for six weeks due to pneumonia. I have no doubt that my young mind was deeply impressed by the books that my dad brought me and the artists featured in them.

Anyway, my "grail" has been a Curt Swan piece featuring a lot of Legionnaires inked by Curt or George Klein for quite sometime.

In 1986, ICG published The Official Legion of Super-Heroes Index. Either of the first two covers would qualify as the Swan/Legion "grail" for me. Those covers are:

3861292-img_losh1.jpg3861293-img_losh2.jpg

Look at all that Swan/Legion goodness!

 

I didn't see these issues until long after they were published because I had a comic collecting hiatus. It wasn't until I started buying comic art (2005-ish) that I saw those images and thought how great it would be to have one of them on my wall. Since I had no clue as to where they were, I didn't really worry about it too much.

Not long after that (2008), Brad Meltzer decided to raise money to save and restore Jerry Siegle's boyhood home - the real birthplace of Superman.

One of the pieces placed for auction was this one:

Legion Index #2 Cover Comic Art

You can probably imagine how excited I was. When the auction came around, I bid not just stupid (for me) money, but horrific (for my wife - we had three daughters in college) money  to try and get it. 

I felt pretty good about the bid and was sure that I'd win it and then - wham - I was beaten. I had time to raise the bid, but not the stomach.

Sigh... At least, I helped raise a bunch of money for a good cause, right? :)

 

Not long after the auction close, the image was posted to the CAF. With that I discovered that I was bidding against David Mandel. If you've never visited his collection, click the OA image above and indulge yourself. It's clear that his pockets were deeper than mine; if I'd known I might have bid more just to help raise funds. :) (No probably not)

I also found out from David's description on the OA that David was involved in the auction and Mark Waid had offered this piece and one other to Brad for the auction. Brad asked David which to accept. David picked the Swan piece. David is smart!

This past year, Mark Waid was here in Houston for a signing and I talked to him about the auction. Turns out that he also had the other cover (#1) and that it was now in the possession of a friend of his. Sigh ... So, close.

Still, it's nice to know that both pieces have good homes.

Don't feel too bad for me. I do have a few pieces as consolation prizes. :)

This one I really like since the inker worked hard to give it the feel of the original story (click to embiggen):

Legion/LSH (1983) #306 Page 17, 18 by Curt Swan and Larry Mahlstedt Comic Art

and this wonderful pencil piece:

Superboy, Mon-El, and Shadow Lass (Legion/LSH) by Curt Swan Comic Art

I'm content. :)

Edited by alxjhnsn
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8 hours ago, NoMan said:

Cool memory you got of that. 

Yeah, it was pretty awesome.  And depressing.  Mostly depressing.  

I've been trying to use my "Vibe" powers and remember what else was on the table.  

I did forget to mention the covers to 187 and 159 were also there - I know that for a fact.  

And I do definitely remember seeing the 187 dps (pg 2 and 3), but Albert did tell me - or I overheard - that the entire 187 book was there in a stack.  I do seem to remember vaguely flipping though it.  

That's all I got.  But I was such a Miller fanatic at the time, that's all I was paying attention to at that age.  Miller had been off DD for a couple of years, and Ronin had sort of come and gone (I loved it - I didn't really understand it, but I loved pouring over the art and trying to draw like that!).  I honestly don't remember if DKR was out or not.  I suspect this was the summer before - 1985.

But the most amazing thing is that this area at the table I'm talking about was maybe a four foot section - two or three stacks.  He had a corner space, with tables - remember those old beat up wood tables that SDCC used to provide at the old convention center? - that ran at least eight feet or ten feet, turned, and ran another eight or ten feet.  And all of it covered with multiple stacks of art, each one maybe eight inches high.  No mylars or binders.  Just thumb though and pull stuff out.  -Shudder-

I was mentioning in another thread, I had a childhood friend - I was probably, maybe 15? at the time, my friend was maybe 14? - and I went over to his house right after that SDCC (or maybe the one after - memory is hazy now haha) and I walked into his room, and he had the covers to UXM 161 and Alpha Flight 7 just propped up on a chair.  "That's cool," I remember saying.  You could be a kid and own key covers.  So, message to the current owners: those two covers sat in a teenager's collection for a long time!

Back then, it was like buying a moderately expensive key book, like a GSXM 1 - and VF - not mint.  Now it's like buying a brand new Toyota Camry.  

 

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4 hours ago, delekkerste said:

The one that got away for me is the Daredevil #208 cover by David Mazzucchelli and Bob Wiacek.  It was one of the most memorable comics from my youth; it came out during the first year of my collecting comics (I started reading DD with issue #206) - I still remember riding my bike to a local gas station/convenience store and buying the issue off the rack.  The cover was available a couple of times at auction...I have no idea why I passed on it the first time, but I was the underbidder the second time around.  I think I was looking at it more rationally than emotionally - it was personal to me, but not really what most would look for in a Mazz example (I believe it was his first DD cover, his pencils were overpowered by Wiacek's inks...not really a standout in any way - the issue is really only memorable for the Harlan Ellison and Arthur Byron Cover story), so I just wasn't willing to pay much beyond FMV for it.  Also, given that it had bounced around a bit, I didn't think that anyone else was going to step up big for it, so I just put in my max bid and forgot about it, only to see the next day that I had been outbid by one increment.  Obviously in hindsight, I should have bid more!  I later approached the owner about a potential sale or trade, but, as he would only consider it if I let go of one of my true blue chip pieces, I crossed it off my list.  Hence, it will forever be the one that got away...

I've had a lot of other near-misses (and a couple of regrets/computer-freeze up mishaps that I was later able to acquire anyway), but, for the most part, I have very few regrets about the art that's gotten away (I'm even relieved in hindsight that I narrowly missed out on a number of those pieces).  As an OA friend recently remarked to me, "there is loads of art for everyone out there", and, as such, my only regrets are/would be regarding a very narrow slice of art that was very memorable/nostalgic/important to me from my first year or two of collecting comics.  So far, it's only been the DD #208 cover that fits the bill.

I had to look it up, but I definitely remember that cover.  That's a good one - great DD image.

My problem was my friends and I were SO besotted with Miller - Elektra, the Hand, Kirigi, Stick - that stuff was sort of the center of our comic collecting world when I was a kid (we were just young enough to have JUST missed Byrne's X-Men, but just old enough to come on board with Miller when his stuff was on the stands) that when he left, I just totally lost interest in DD.  How can you follow that??  I tried to keep up with it, but I only ever got excited when he came back for that single issue, and then, of course, Born Again....

 

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There are always pieces that I'm on the hunt for - I'm not shy about that -  but the primary one which 'got away' for me was the Corner Box Art by Michael Golden for the MICRONAUTS.

An Ebay seller had just posted the original Cockrum corner box, featuring Baron Karza.  The seller let me know that he had the Golden one as well, fishing for an offer.  Funds were a little limited at the time, so I prioritized the 'Original' Corner.  I did offer (and bid) the same for the Golden as what I'd paid for the Cockrum Corner, but turned out to be the underbidder.  I now wish I'd had a little more gumption - what difference would a couple hundred dollars make - but it is what it is.

The attached is NOT a pic of the piece, but a Photoshop mockup.

At least I kept good records at the time.  Since it was pre-Ebay-info-lockdown, I noted the winner's Ebay handle, and give him a 'tap on the shoulder' now and again.

 

 

micros_corner.jpg

Edited by thethedew
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2 hours ago, Flambit said:

Yeah, it was pretty awesome.  And depressing.  Mostly depressing.  

I've been trying to use my "Vibe" powers and remember what else was on the table.  

I did forget to mention the covers to 187 and 159 were also there - I know that for a fact.  

And I do definitely remember seeing the 187 dps (pg 2 and 3), but Albert did tell me - or I overheard - that the entire 187 book was there in a stack.  I do seem to remember vaguely flipping though it.  

That's all I got.  But I was such a Miller fanatic at the time, that's all I was paying attention to at that age.  Miller had been off DD for a couple of years, and Ronin had sort of come and gone (I loved it - I didn't really understand it, but I loved pouring over the art and trying to draw like that!).  I honestly don't remember if DKR was out or not.  I suspect this was the summer before - 1985.

But the most amazing thing is that this area at the table I'm talking about was maybe a four foot section - two or three stacks.  He had a corner space, with tables - remember those old beat up wood tables that SDCC used to provide at the old convention center? - that ran at least eight feet or ten feet, turned, and ran another eight or ten feet.  And all of it covered with multiple stacks of art, each one maybe eight inches high.  No mylars or binders.  Just thumb though and pull stuff out.  -Shudder-

I was mentioning in another thread, I had a childhood friend - I was probably, maybe 15? at the time, my friend was maybe 14? - and I went over to his house right after that SDCC (or maybe the one after - memory is hazy now haha) and I walked into his room, and he had the covers to UXM 161 and Alpha Flight 7 just propped up on a chair.  "That's cool," I remember saying.  You could be a kid and own key covers.  So, message to the current owners: those two covers sat in a teenager's collection for a long time!

Back then, it was like buying a moderately expensive key book, like a GSXM 1 - and VF - not mint.  Now it's like buying a brand new Toyota Camry.  

 

Thank you so much taking the time to post that story! Mind boggling

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1 hour ago, thethedew said:

There are always pieces that I'm on the hunt for - I'm not shy about that -  but the primary one which 'got away' for me was the Corner Box Art by Michael Golden for the MICRONAUTS.

An Ebay seller had just posted the original Cockrum corner box, featuring Baron Karza.  The seller let me know that he had the Golden one as well, fishing for an offer.  Funds were a little limited at the time, so I prioritized the 'Original' Corner.  I did offer (and bid) the same for the Golden as what I'd paid for the Cockrum Corner, but turned out to be the underbidder.  I now wish I'd had a little more gumption - what difference would a couple hundred dollars make - but it is what it is.

The attached is NOT a pic of the piece, but a Photoshop mockup.

At least I kept good records at the time.  Since it was pre-Ebay-info-lockdown, I noted the winner's Ebay handle, and give him a 'tap on the shoulder' now and again.

 

 

micros_corner.jpg

Oh man, corner box art is awesome!  My big soft spot is Kirby 70s Cap stuff and someone on Caf has the Kirby drawn Cap and Falcon figures (placed in circles on either side of the Captain America and Falcon title logo).  Sweetness!

Edited by Flambit
add: "70s"
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There are a number of pieces over the years I have been the under bidder on yet really wanted the piece like Kirby X-Men #9 splash or Marvel Girl or FF #286 cover. But I had an upper limit I placed on the bids and while I regretted not getting either of them after the auction ended looking back on them I now do not have any regrets. The pieces I have really wanted like the DD #47 Colan cover and How To Draw book I do not regret paying the prices for them and they are my two top favorites in my collection.

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1 hour ago, NoMan said:

Thank you so much taking the time to post that story! Mind boggling

Thanks!  

In a feeble attempt not to derail the thread, because this technically didn't "get away," here's one last - almost surreal - SDCC OA memory.  

My second SDCC - i vividly remember it was 1984 - I was at the far back of the dealer's room (if you walked in the room from the double doors right off the main hall, and walked all the way to the far left corner where the load in doors were), there was a booth facing the wall, with an old woman.  She had this collection of really random comic related stuff.  In the later years, I can only assume it was maybe her husband's, who was a part of the First Fandom, and had passed away, and she was liquidating his collection.  

I know this sounds totally unbelievable, and I still to this day wonder if I really saw this, but I'll never forget: on her wall - for 10k - was this cover:

15-1.jpg

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1 hour ago, Flambit said:

Oh man, corner box art is awesome!  My big soft spot is Kirby 70s Cap stuff and someone on Caf has the Kirby drawn Cap and Falcon figures (placed in circles on either side of the Captain America and Falcon title logo).  Sweetness!

I sold the Kirby Cap/Falcon corner box art at SDCC last year.

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The only one that clearly comes to mind for me here is this. When I got back into comics, after some time of absence, there was the start of 'Image' and 'PITT' by Dale Keown, which I loved. Years later, I saw the original art for PITT #1 on offer. Unfortunately, it was so far above my budget that I had no chance of even offering for it.

pitt-1-pencils.jpg

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