Ownership and auctions of EC art 0

[Lee B.]

Good morning!  With the ongoing discussions of original art by Jack Kirby and Marvel's return of original art, I wonder why I haven't seen more discussion of the Russ Cochran auctions of EC art beginning in 1980 (e.g., http://comicartads.com/content/russ-cochrans-comic-art-auction-1-1980).  Pardon my ignorance, but it seems like Bill Gaines held onto all of the classic EC art, then gave it to Russ Cochran to sell.  Did Bill Gaines get most/all of the proceeds, or did he share it with the artists, most of whom were still alive in 1980?  Perhaps EC had more clearly worded contract language that gave Gaines uncontested ownership of the physical original art, or perhaps the "older" nature of the EC art makes a difference, but imagine the outrage if Stan Lee consigned complete Kirby Fantastic Four and Steve Ditko Amazing Spider-Man books to an auction house in 1980.  Best regards, Lee

Edited April 28, 2017 by Lee B.

[furthur]

My understanding was that keeping the art was a specific part of the deal with Gaines-to the point that Frazetta wouldn't do covers for him and just loaned him the unused art for one of the Famous Funnies covers for WSF #29 with the proviso that he get the art back. I guess that idea was ingrained in those guys because I also understand that Harvey Kurtzman also kept all of the art for Humbug several years later and it was still in his estate when he died. No one saw the value of this stuff as being the art itself at that point in time-all of the value was in the ability to reprint the work for publication in the future. Only the rise of fan culture created the value we see today and that was long years away between 1950 to 1954 (though I suppose some EC fan-addicts might have dug getting a piece for free-I doubt many of them would have paid for it)  and even in the early 60's as fandom just began to flourish. Honestly, if you asked those older guys, I think they would be unlikely to tell you that they wanted the art and were told they couldn't have it-I bet in many many cases, if publishers hadn't kept it, many of the artists might have tossed it themselves-likely for lack of storage. Of course when it turned out to have value, they certainly all wanted it and I think they deserved to get it.

[The Voord]

From what I recall, all living artists (or members of deceased artists' families) got a cut of the proceeds from the art auctions, as I'm sure Russ would have (in his role as auctioneer).

I did, at one time, ask Al Feldstein about this.  I no longer have his e-mail response but I think the gist of it was that Bill Gaines bought physical possession of the EC art in addition to reproduction rights (all the artists were aware of this up-front, but EC paid good rates).  Someone like Frazetta preferred to keep his artwork, which is probably why he didn't produce much art for the company.  He took something like a half-payment for allowing EC to re-use the rejected Famous Funnies cover for Weird Science-Fantasy # 29, and got his artwork back.

Russ Cochran is still around.  Why ask other collectors, when you can speak directly to Russ?

 

[Lee B.]

I appreciate the thoughtful responses, Benno and Terry.  I didn't ask Russ directly because I didn't want to bother him and was worried that perhaps this could possibly be a sensitive subject.  But it sounds like it was really no big deal.  Thanks, Lee