ASM 100 and Cosmic art?! 2 2

[romitaman]

To Mr marvel comic art guy..it seems we must know each other.... though i don't know who you are...... yet.... I'm teasing for the most part with the MJ ASM 100 cover image...it's a GREAT cover...... It just feels like MJ and many other background images were drawn without much flare...... more simple looking..... to make Spidey stand out more...... I'm gonna ask John Romita next time i see him why he himself didn't ink that iconic cover as that really is the ONLY ASM cover frank Giacoia ever inked.....interestingly.....

PSS  Yes Albert Moy used to laugh at me (in fun of course) throughout the early to mid 1990s when we would meet at comic shows and he would introduce me to others only as: ( "THIS IS THE GUY WHO TRADES KIRBY AND DITKO ASM ART FOR ROMITA ART.....HA HA HA HA HA") and everyone would all laugh together.

[MarvelComicsArt]

Mike out of sheer curiosity may i please ask does the Amazing Spiderman #39 exist and if so have you ever had the privilege of seeing it for yourself.

Of course you never have to divulge any private info beyond a simple yes or no, unless you wish out of kindness to give out any extra details. 

I had always heard somewhat conflicting reports , so i wanted to ask the Romita Spiderman connoisseur.

In my humble opinion that is the greatest amazing spiderman cover that he has ever drawn, his first and best!

It has an undeniable charm to it. An innocence that can only be described as pure Marvel Silver Age magic at it's finest.

( i know that John himself feels otherwise about ASM #39 since spiderman is not wearing his signature mask, and he actually prefers the ASM #40 )

Its like the great debate... chocolate or vanilla ... man thats a tough one............  but I'll take chocolate every time!

Congrats on holding onto the Hulk covers and interiors. Very wise of you in many ways.

And i say the following with admiration. If you wanted to , you could teach a master class in collecting and reselling original comic book art.

Profit 101-Lecture Hall A-San Diego Comic Con 2018- 

And if any other knowledgable parties wish to chime in on the ASM#39's whereabouts please do, the more the merrier!

And now i must get back to re reading Moby Di*k... that whale is such a cheeky bast*rd . 

 

Edited March 14, 2018 by MarvelComicsArt

[spider9698]

To my knowledge, it has not surfaced.

 

[MarvelComicsArt]

I myself have heard numerous tales.

Some say John romita still has it.

Some say Stan Lee has it.

There is another person who claims a certain Collector from the U.K. has it.

 

[vodou]

28 minutes ago, MarvelComicsArt said:

And i say the following with admiration. If you wanted to , you could teach a master class in collecting and reselling original comic book art.

Profit 101-Lecture Hall A-San Diego Comic Con 2018-

I dunno know about that. Mike practices basic Dogs of the Dow theory, not revolutionary (to Mike) but maybe to the hobby, and generally very profitable to anybody that practices it with the right product mix (rotating in-favor blue chips toward out-of-favor blue chips, on a relative basis).

[MarvelComicsArt]

1 hour ago, vodou said:

I dunno know about that. Mike practices basic Dogs of the Dow theory, not revolutionary (to Mike) but maybe to the hobby, and generally very profitable to anybody that practices it with the right product mix (rotating in-favor blue chips toward out-of-favor blue chips, on a relative basis).

What's remarkable to me about Mike is that he has been practicing this for at least 25 + years . I honestly applaud his no pun intended "SPIDEY" sense. Well ...a little pun intended.

He had a vision , mostly due to the love of the subject matter (Spiderman) and the fact that it was some of the cheapest Spiderman art out there at the time.

So it was a perfect match. Buy what you love at the price that you can afford. Done and done.

But it still amazes me that he cornered the market when numerous other savvy art dealers passed on the artwork. Namely Albert Moy who has a magnificent eye for quality.

And you are correct his method of rotation is on point. He has a firm belief that certain art will always rebound.  Or will mature better over time .

He plays the quantity game exceptionally well. Trade a cover for some splash pages... than unload the splash pages and use the money to buy more inventory. Its a revolving investment .

The dynamics of his business practice are solid and therefore he always makes a substantial profit.  And is there some "manipulation" ....  he has to protect his long term blue chips.

So no Romita spiderman art will ever sell below a certain price if it ever does he just reintroduces it into his own flourishing collection. But i will say this, there are a great deal of high end collectors .  

'WHALES" in the hobby that truly appreciate the Romita Spiderman art especially the covers  . So if it sells for a premium its because (a) it's highly sought after and

(b) it's highly sought after because it's beautiful iconic art from the heyday of Marvel Comics.  The historic and awe inspiring Silver Age!  Its is what it is .....

And now that the WONDERFUL WORLD OF Disney PR  machine is involved and running on all cylinders John Romita Spiderman art will always be primetime!

Mike is a smart guy because he was always ahead of the curve. I have no problem giving praise to anyone when its warranted. And was there some luck involved ? 

Of course right place right time, but he took the initiative. So Kudos

Edited March 14, 2018 by MarvelComicsArt

[buyatari]

8 minutes ago, MarvelComicsArt said:

What's remarkable to me about Mike is that he has been practicing this for at least 25 + years . I honestly applaud his no pun intended "SPIDEY" sense. Well ...a little pun intended.

He had a vision , mostly due to the love of the subject matter (Spiderman) and the fact that it was some of the cheapest Spiderman art out there at the time.

So it was a perfect match. Buy what you love at the price that you can afford. Done and done.

But it still amazes me that he cornered the market when numerous other savvy art dealers passed on the artwork. Namely Albert Moy who has a magnificent eye for quality.

And you are correct his method of rotation is on point. He has a firm belief that certain art will always rebound.  Or will mature better over time .

He plays the quantity game exceptionally well. Trade a cover for some splash pages... than unload the splash pages and use the money to buy more inventory. Its a revolving investment .

The dynamics of his business practice are solid and therefore he always makes a substantial profit.  And is there some "manipulation" ....  he has to protect his long term blue chips.

So no spiderman art will ever sell below a certain price if it ever does he just reintroduces it into his own flourishing collection. But i will say this, there are a great deal of high end collectors .  

'WHALES" in the hobby that truly appreciate the Romita Spiderman art especially the covers  . So if it sells for a premium its because (a) it's highly sought after and

(b) it's highly sought after because it's beautiful iconic art from the heyday of Marvel Comics.  The historic and awe inspiring Silver Age!  Its is what it is .....

And now that the WONDERFUL WORLD OF Disney PR  machine is involved and running on all cylinders John Romita Spiderman art will always be primetime!

Mike is a smart guy because he was always ahead of the curve. I have no problem giving praise to anyone when its warranted.

This doesn’t take away anything from the dealer but the other dealers didn’t see what he saw because it wasn’t there.  He created it. It really is more than predicting the future as he had a large hand in the outcome. He cornered the market.

Is it fair to say that had he not purchased alll of this artwork from the first 300 some issues that the prices wouldn’t be so high today? Had Albert Moy gone after and kept every Batman page from the first 500  some issues would the same prices we see today for those pages exist? 

 

[MarvelComicsArt]

Thats a very interesting point you make.  

The prices definitely reflect the fact that Mike has cornered the market on Romita Spiderman art, no doubt about it.

But Spiderman was never some unknown upstart character created by the image boys back in the summer of 1992.  Spiderman was Marvel Comic Inc's flagship character.

And yet other dealers ( in 1992) looked at the Romita  Spiderman run as nothing more than fluff and filler material. It boggles my mind that even today some would argue

 that because Romita did not Create Spiderman it lessens it somehow. That theory does not apply to Mcfarlane's Spiderman. Nor should it to Romita's Spiderman.

And yes there are different elements involved with Mcfarlane.  His Ditkoesque (on steroids), take on the character had massive appeal .

And was highly influential at the time throughout the industry.

He also worked on the title for a short period of time, thus creating scarcity of content. etc...etc

But the fact remains that both artists did not create the character and yet somehow they revolutionized Spiderman and the entire world around him. 

Not taking anything away from Ditko but Romita had such a massive impact on the character . His signature style to this day is still the most popular version of the character

merchandise wise. Even Hollywood loves Romitas Spiderman as the character has always been modeled after Romitas art style.  That says a lot about Romita's appeal and

his artistic standard of excellence.  That after all these years his version is the most stylistically recognizable.

Romita redefined what a  Spiderman Comic was. It became a soap opera romance title with beautifully choreographed action sequences .

A perfect storm of both deep seeded drama and action.  Romitas run took place during the now legendary creative high point of Marvel comics.

When Stan lee was still weaving his wonderful" Mark Twanish " yarns. Before he handed over the reins to Roy Thomas and left for La La land.

 

In a nut shell Romita redefined visually the world of Peter Parker and Spiderman.

And yet most savvy dealers at that time not just Albert Moy were not that impressed with Romitas work.

I blame it partially due to the length of his run.  At the time some would rationalize that too many pages equaled not enough demand.

Also some dealers just didn't love the romance soap opera aspect of Romitas run.

It wasn't hard nosed or edgy enough for them. To that i say to each their own. 

But time has proven them all wrong. And of course Mikes borderline ingenious hoarding... has helped as well!

And yes if Albert had hoarded away the batman pages the prices would probably be double by now. Now wait what am i saying it's Albert so triple the price. For sure!

PS 

But Albert learns quickly and he was wise enough to grab this beauty below in 2002 for $63,250.00 ( which was crazy money at the time)

Thus proving that even the biggest critic can have a sudden change of heart. This piece below must be worth easily 700k... if not more!

John Romita, Sr. - Original Cover Art for Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (Marvel, 1968)

Edited March 14, 2018 by MarvelComicsArt

[romitaman]

6 hours ago, MarvelComicsArt said:

Mike out of sheer curiosity may i please ask does the Amazing Spiderman #39 exist and if so have you ever had the privilege of seeing it for yourself.

Of course you never have to divulge any private info beyond a simple yes or no, unless you wish out of kindness to give out any extra details. 

I had always heard somewhat conflicting reports , so i wanted to ask the Romita Spiderman connoisseur.

In my humble opinion that is the greatest amazing spiderman cover that he has ever drawn, his first and best!

It has an undeniable charm to it. An innocence that can only be described as pure Marvel Silver Age magic at it's finest.

( i know that John himself feels otherwise about ASM #39 since spiderman is not wearing his signature mask, and he actually prefers the ASM #40 )

Its like the great debate... chocolate or vanilla ... man thats a tough one............  but I'll take chocolate every time!

Congrats on holding onto the Hulk covers and interiors. Very wise of you in many ways.

And i say the following with admiration. If you wanted to , you could teach a master class in collecting and reselling original comic book art.

Profit 101-Lecture Hall A-San Diego Comic Con 2018- 

And if any other knowledgable parties wish to chime in on the ASM#39's whereabouts please do, the more the merrier!

And now i must get back to re reading Moby Di*k... that whale is such a cheeky bast*rd . 

 

HI Marvel guy....

Sadly i've never ever seen or heard of the ASM #39 cover being out there....it's one of only a few large art ASM covers not known where it is.

Mike Burkey

[fsumavila]

7 hours ago, MarvelComicsArt said:

I myself have heard numerous tales.

Some say John romita still has it.

Some say Stan Lee has it.

There is another person who claims a certain Collector from the U.K. has it.

 

Burkey would know better than me, but I'm all but certain John Romita doesn't have the ASM #39 cover. I've been to his house and spent the afternoon with John and Virginia, and it wasn't there. I mean, he could have it under lock & key and out of sight, but I doubt it.

[Pete Marino]

2 hours ago, Bill C said:

All very reasonable reasons not to be into collecting covers.

I always spent more time as a kid reading the book as opposed to staring at the covers (although I did that a lot), so I have more of a connection to interiors in general also.

I feel like with more and more people reading tpb and digital, the importance of covers (and their crazy multiplier) will diminish.

But, covers that are used for tpb and collected editions and keys, I can see them going strong.

[vodou]

5 minutes ago, Pete Marino said:

...the importance of covers (and their crazy multiplier) will diminish.

What do you consider a reasonable multiple?

[Pete Marino]

3 minutes ago, vodou said:

What do you consider a reasonable multiple?

If you use the "old math" with a panel being the base, a splash at x4 and a cover at x10, I think in-between a cover is now and a splash, so let's say a x7 multiple.

[Dick O.]

4 hours ago, Pete Marino said:

If you use the "old math" with a panel being the base, a splash at x4 and a cover at x10, I think in-between a cover is now and a splash, so let's say a x7 multiple.

Sounds about right. I use 8x as a rough starting point for covers, elaborated upon here:

https://comicbookinvest.com/2017/06/02/market-report-may-2017-heritage-signature-auction-part-2/

 

[buyatari]

5 hours ago, Pete Marino said:

I feel like with more and more people reading tpb and digital, the importance of covers (and their crazy multiplier) will diminish.

But, covers that are used for tpb and collected editions and keys, I can see them going strong.

As long as people are interested in comic art the covers will always do well.

With slabs all you see is the cover. 

 

[romitaman]

7 hours ago, fsumavila said:

Burkey would know better than me, but I'm all but certain John Romita doesn't have the ASM #39 cover. I've been to his house and spent the afternoon with John and Virginia, and it wasn't there. I mean, he could have it under lock & key and out of sight, but I doubt it.

John Romita does not own ASM 39.... nor does Stan Lee..... John said he hasnt seen the asm orignal since the early 80s.

[romitaman]

interesting topics above.......and honestly i love sharing all my stories with anyone who asks when talking about the hobby.......and my spider-man collecting....it's super fun and I'm quite blessed to get into the hobby when i did...... I have so so many fun stories about the hobby it's pretty awesome to share all the great deals that were had well before the days of the internet and all.

People seem to think i had a lot lot of money to buy art right from the beginning...I didn't,

I couldn't even afford to go to college as i had no money and my parents had no money so i joined the army and got out of the army in October 1989 and bought my very first piece of art the day i got out of the army.   a battle page from ASM 46 from a CBG ad that Scott Dunbier had for 110 bucks. 2 months later i called up Scott and asked if he still had the other 2 pages in his ad..he said he did and I bought those 2 also.

Fast forward 24 years later and I eventually completed the entire 20 page ASM 46 book...LOL

Honestly...I would never have the collection i have now without meeting  Mitch Itkowitz!

I met Mitch in late 1989 out of a CBG AD not long after he became John Romita's art rep...I missed out on the killer top tier twice up battle ASM  pages and covers which Mitch sold well before i met him......But i was one of the first guys to buy complete books when Mitch started selling complete art books that weren't split up. 

The 4 real Keys in the early 90s to getting great art was............

#1)  be avidly reading the CBG EVERY WEEK.

#2) go to as many comic conventions as possible to meet collectors and network yourself.

#3) Be prepared to have a HUGE PHONE BILL...as before the internet i always had 300-500 dollar monthly phone bills by making so so so many phone calls trying to do art deals.

#4) Have a decent job to afford to spend money on art....I thankfully got a good job in a hospital in 1991 working with cancer patients (mostly kids) and I worked there for 23 years until i retired in 2013 to do art full time when the hospital had cut backs and forced me out sadly.

Anyways...I do have to say...like Marvelcomicart guy states above..... I was pleasantly surprised how no one....and i mean NO ONE for about the first 8 or so years I was in the hobby were interested in ASM INTERIORS....guys always wanted the covers...but no one collected interiors so it was nice not having to fight others for the art early on.

I still have a few of my early invoices with Graphic Collectibles (Mitch Itkowitz)

My favorite one is from March 1990...... Mitch said he had the very last  23 LARGE ART ASM pages from john...they didn't have much Spiderman on them but  i wanted them very very badly.  (all pages were from ASM 40-48)  He sold me 17 pages for 40 bucks each 5 pages for 75 bucks each..and the 2/3 interior splash page from ASM 47 were Kraven busts through the wall of the COFFEE BEAN with MJ and Gwen dancing, as kraven kidnaps Harry Osborn was 125.

now whats even funnier than this is the fact that on this very same invoice i paid 200 dollars each for the 2 john ROMITA ASM annual 21 wedding covers.......AND i bought 2 nice Ron Frenz ASM battle pages from ASM 260 by Ron Frenz for 150 dollars each!!!

Ron Frenz ASM pages were ALMOST 4 TIMES HIGHER than the price for each of 17 large art John Romita ASM pages!

but again...those were the days!!!

People have always asked me why I collected Romita ASM over Ditko ASM and I told them all...

"I WAS CHEAP! I COULDNT AFFORD DITKO ASM ART" And I was just thinking basic economics of the hobby.

Decent Ditko ASM pages were selling for 1000 dollars each in 1990 and everyone wanted a page.....Romita ASM pages were selling for 40-100 bucks each and NO ONE WANTED THEM......
and believe it or not...even in 1990, McFarlane Spiderman pages were selling for 5-10 times ROMITA ASM interiors

So I said to myself...I love "SPIDERMAN" So I'll collect ALL Romita Art...and since McFarlane was so highly priced.......and Andru, Kane, Pollard, Romita Jr, and Frenz art was still all very reasonable... I decided to collect any and all ASM art from #39-297...and I will ONLY do deals for Ditko and McFarlane ASM art, "AND" ALL non ASM art, to figure a way to turn that art into more ASM 39-297 interior art....

another funny story is in 1992....I had a sportscard / comicbook store from 1991-1998 with my older brother (he did the  sportscards and i did the comics)

I speculated and bought 700 copies of Javier Salteres GHOST RIDER #1 in 1990 when they first came out, (for half cover price being a store owner) ....the book shot up to like 15 bucks after a year or so...... and i met a guy through the CBG who had a comicbook store  who was avid into comic art and collecting art for a decade before me.......... He had about 50 John Romita ASM pages...about 7 large and the rest small........ and since he had his store in NYC I worked out the deal and traded him all 700 copies of ghost rider #1 for all of his Romita ASM pages! 

We are still good friends .....Even to this day he laughs when we bring up that story and he said the Romita art was considered bottom tier art back then....equivalent to....or just a tad higher to Tuska and Heck small art Iron Man art.... and Gene Colan small DD pages.....EVERYONE I would do deals with for Romita art in the 90s  would always ask me why i love that art so much? they would almost all tell me...."ROMITA JUST DRAWS "THE MARVEL WAY.....THE MARVEL HOUSE STYLE...."   I just told them all OK as i smiled and walked away...... and I moved on to the next deal to be had....

To this day I still feel that almost ANY john Romita ASM "character page" has more detail and is thought out and every panel displays and flows so well into the context of the story...I've never seen ANY comic book series EVER........ Where the character pages are as cherished and even more detailed than  the battle pages.......and of course the writing is a HUGE REASON for that.....I just love staring at them all...... character pages even more than spidey battle pages. Just look at how John Romita draws HAIR ON WOMEN and you will see what i'm talking about...no one draws hair as good as John Romita i've always said that from the very first pages of his i've ever owned. It's amazing how he uses the light effects for drawing hair. it's AMAZING to me..... John's 2 minute MJ and Gwen pencil drawings are something you almost cant explain yet it's "PERFECT" when he finishes!

No artist in my opinion put as much thought and detail into the side characters and backgrounds in panels like John Romita did...He truly cared about putting out a great product.... and making sure buildings.....cars... and people were positioned PERFECTLY, so every panel looked like a real PICTURE and not just something in a comic book.

I always love sharing the story where john Romita told me how he would turn in a Spiderman story for printing...and he would feel let down and that he did a sub par job drawing it....................but after Stan put the words on all of the pages and John Read the story it all made sense and the story became GOLD when he thought he turned in TRASH!!!  

I truly admire and appreciate john Romita for his  humbleness.. To this very day he still feels he was NO BIG DEAL compared to other artists at Marvel, and he REALLY feels he was just at the right place and the right time to take over Spider-Man...... But i ALWAYS tell him he was so so much more to so many of us who read his books and viewed his art! 

(I ALSO feel the same way about ALL John Buscema  and Bernie Wrightson art, after studying so much if their great art i've owned over the years, these 2 are right up there as some of the greatest artists my eyes have ever witnessed.)

...... It's been an amazing ride and privilege collecting this great art for 29 years I must say.....

Edited March 15, 2018 by romitaman

[grapeape]

29 minutes ago, romitaman said:

interesting topics above.......and honestly i love sharing all my stories with anyone who asks when talking about the hobby.......and my spider-man collecting....it's super fun and I'm quite blessed to get into the hobby when i did...... I gave so so many stories about the hobby it's pretty awesome to share all the great deals that were had well before the days of the internet and all.

People seem to think i had a lot lot of money to buy art right from the beginning...I didn't,

I couldn't even afford to go to college as i had no money and my parents had no money so i joined the army and got out of the army in October 1989 and bought my very first piece of art the day i got out of the army.   a battle page from ASM 46 from a CBG ad that Scott Dunbier had for 110 bucks. 2 months later i called up Scott and asked if he still had the other 2 pages in his ad..he said he did and I bought those 2 also.

Fast forward 24 years later and I eventually completed the entire 20 page ASM 46 book...LOL

Honestly...I would never have the collection i have now without meeting  Mitch Itkowitz!

I met Mitch in late 1989 out of a CBG AD not long after he became John Romita's art rep...I missed out on the killer top tier twice up battle ASM  pages and covers which Mitch sold well before i met him......But i was one of the first guys to buy complete books when Mitch started selling complete art books that weren't split up. 

The 4 real Keys in the early 90s to getting great art was............

#1)  be avidly reading the CBG EVERY WEEK.

#2) go to as many comic conventions as possible to meet collectors and network yourself.

#3) Be prepared to have a HUGE PHONE BILL...as before the internet i always had 300-500 dollar monthly phone bills by making so so so many phone calls trying to do art deals.

#4) Have a decent job to afford to spend money on art....I thankfully got a good job in a hospital in 1991 working with cancer patients (mostly kids) and I worked there for 23 years until i retired in 2013 to do art full time when the hospital had cut backs and forced me out sadly.

Anyways...I do have to say...like Marvelcomicart guy states above..... I was pleasantly surprised how no one....and i mean NO ONE for about the first 8 or so years I was in the hobby were interested in ASM INTERIORS....guys always wanted the covers...but no one collected interiors so it was nice not having to fight others for the art early on.

I still have a few of my early invoices with Graphic Collectibles (Mitch Itkowitz)

My favorite one is from March 1990...... Mitch said he had the very last  23 LARGE ART ASM pages from john...they didn't have much Spiderman on them but  i wanted them very very badly.  (all pages were from ASM 40-48)  He sold me 17 pages for 40 bucks each 5 pages for 75 bucks each..and the 2/3 interior splash page from ASM 47 were Kraven busts through the wall of the COFFEE BEAN with MJ and Gwen dancing, as kraven kidnaps Harry Osborn was 125.

now whats even funnier than this is the fact that on this very same invoice i paid 200 dollars each for the 2 john ROMITA ASM annual 21 wedding covers.......AND i bought 2 nice Ron Frenz ASM battle pages from ASM 260 by Ron Frenz for 150 dollars each!!!

Ron Frenz ASM pages were ALMOST 4 TIMES HIGHER than the price for each of 17 large art John Romita ASM pages!

but again...those were the days!!!

People have always asked me why I collected Romita ASM over Ditko ASM and I told them all...

"I WAS CHEAP.!!" And I was just thinking basic economics.

Decent Ditko ASM pages were selling for 1000 dollars each in 1990 and everyone wanted a page.....Romita ASM pages were selling for 40-100 bucks each and NO ONE WANTED THEM......
and believe it or not...even in 1990, McFarlane Spiderman pages were selling for 5-10 times ROMITA ASM interiors

So I said to myself...I love "SPIDERMAN" So I'll collect ALL Romita Art...and since McFarlane was so highly priced.......and Andru, Kane, Pollard, Romita Jr, and Frenz art was still all very reasonable... I decided to collect any and all ASM art from #39-297...and I will ONLY do deals for Ditko and McFarlane ASM art, "AND" ALL non ASM art, to figure a way to turn that art into more ASM 39-297 interior art....

another funny story is in 1992....I had a sportscard / comicbook store from 1991-1998 with my older brother (he did the  sportscards and i did the comics)

I speculated and bought 700 copies of Javier Salteres GHOST RIDER #1 in 1990 when they first came out, (for half cover price being a store owner) ....the book shot up to like 15 bucks after a year or so...... and i met a guy who had a comicbook store  who was avid into comic art and collecting art for a decade before me.......... He had about 50 John Romita ASM pages...about 7 large and the rest small........ and since he had his store in NYC I worked out the deal and traded him all 700 copies of ghost rider #1 for all of his Romita ASM pages! 

We are still good friends .....Even to this day he laughs when we bring up that story and he said the Romita art was considered back then.... EVERYONE I would do deals with for Romita art in the 90s  would always ask me why i love this art so much???? they would almost all tell me...."ROMITA JUST DRAWS "THE MARVEL WAY.....NO STYLE"   I just told them all  OK.. and I moved on to the next deal to be had....

and It's been an amazing ride collecting art I must say.....

It's funny to me and my brother to imagine a time when people didn't consider John a great artist. To me Ditko was the best if you forced me to choose between them. For my brother it was Jazzy Johnny all the way. You were way ahead of us as we didn't really get started collecting original art until 96-97. We mostly gave up on Romita pages on ebay as you always outbid us ha ha. I think John is one of the nicest men I've ever met. He's a terrific artist and a better person. It's always fascinating to hear stories like yours highlighting your method of madness. It all worked out as you did a great job amassing the most impressive collection of Romita art not to mention the rest of your collection. Thanks for sharing and if you see John tell him, " thanks for doing it the Marvel Way." Best-mike in sunny southern california

[romitaman]

21 minutes ago, grapeape said:

It's funny to me and my brother to imagine a time when people didn't consider John a great artist. To me Ditko was the best if you forced me to choose between them. For my brother it was Jazzy Johnny all the way. You were way ahead of us as we didn't really get started collecting original art until 96-97. We mostly gave up on Romita pages on ebay as you always outbid us ha ha. I think John is one of the nicest men I've ever met. He's a terrific artist and a better person. It's always fascinating to hear stories like yours highlighting your method of madness. It all worked out as you did a great job amassing the most impressive collection of Romita art not to mention the rest of your collection. Thanks for sharing and if you see John tell him, " thanks for doing it the Marvel Way." Best-mike in sunny southern california

Will do Mike!!!!

[Mickey7]

Very interesting to hear the story of how you got started collecting art, and how the market was back then.  Thanks for sharing Mike.