Amazing art day - vintage Billy Graham art story - Cage, Panther!!! 0

[glenbru]

One of the great experiences of my comic art collecting life happened recently. A collector friend of mine, Steve Kriozere, saw one of my earlier posts that I was searching for a Billy Graham cover to Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. He mentioned to me that the family was on FB and had posted a vintage cover to Hero for Hire. Well I contacted the family and a few weeks later I was on a plane to meet them in person in their hometown. They were so nice and hospitable, they were even kind enough to pick me up at the airport. A real treat was waiting for me at their house later as I got to peruse hundreds of originals from Luke Cage, Black Panther and more. To see all of those originals, still together, after all these years was such an unexpected joy. I don't think I can really describe how exciting it was to see all this stuff still in the original envelopes that the work was returned from Marvel in. It was like a time capsule getting to uncover this hidden treasure. At the end we struck a deal for the three vintage Luke Cage covers that they still had and multiple pages from Luke Cage and Jungle Action. I'll post a few here now but there are way too many to post them all up.

I want to personally thank the Graham family for opening their home and hearts to me and treating me so wonderfully. They are absolutely the best people you could know. I'm honored to think of them as my good friends now.

I noticed on the Billy Graham FB page https://www.facebook.com/groups/526219497745796/ that they are starting to sell originals by Billy Graham to the collecting public. If you are interested in buying a beautiful page by Billy Graham you probably want to jump at the chance as they won't last long. They're just too good.

You can contact Shawnna Graham, Billy's granddaughter, on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/citivix3n 
She can provide you with contact info for their art rep.

Here is fabulous cover to HFH issue 3. I've also posted the splash to 7 and 14 and a few other pages to enjoy that are now in my collection on the PANEL PAGE ART gallery:
https://www.facebook.com/panelpageart/

All I want to do is play the music from the theme from Shaft and Superfly while looking at these works of art that take me back to my misspent youth. 

[westform]

Wow! That’s awesome!

[glenbru]

Thanks Dan!

[Unca Ben]

Yes, truly awesome!  Mr. Graham seems to be a bit overlooked nowadays and it's good to see appreciation of his art!
How great it must have been to see all those pages together!

Edited April 9, 2018 by Unca Ben

[KirbyJack]

I lived the 1970s in a diverse neighborhood, and it still feels like the optimal era in which to do that. The music, the movies, and the comics of that time retain such a great feel to me. 

Wonderful pick-up!

[glenbru]

1 hour ago, KirbyJack said:

I lived the 1970s in a diverse neighborhood, and it still feels like the optimal era in which to do that. The music, the movies, and the comics of that time retain such a great feel to me. 

Wonderful pick-up!

Thanks!  I did too -- this stuff really evokes those memories of my childhood growing up in NYC.

[stinkininkin]

1 hour ago, glenbru said:

Thanks!  I did too -- this stuff really evokes those memories of my childhood growing up in NYC.

I seem to remember some of those Black Panther (Panthers Rage) issues that were inked by Klause Janson and also P Craig Russell.  Did you grab any of that stuff?  I'd love to see it.

[glenbru]

Hi Scott,

No they had no Janson or Russell inked pages.

[drdroom]

Those Luke Cage covers were the best Marvel covers of their era, IMHO. I really can't congratulate you enough.

[glenbru]

1 hour ago, drdroom said:

Those Luke Cage covers were the best Marvel covers of their era, IMHO. I really can't congratulate you enough.

Thanks!  I also got the number 5 and 10.  I'll post them up eventually.