Action Comics #1 Cover OA...still exists?!? 2 2

[PhilipB2k17]

Saw this posted on a blog. Holy hell!! This must be locked up in a vault at DC, right? It’s the holy grail of our hobby. Or is this fake?

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by PhilipB2k17

[vodou]

That's definitely an eye-opener but with the whole "art" interior being (nearly) uniformly white but attached to quite browned/worn board...I'm thinking it's either a modern stat for a reprint book (60s/70s era) or even a true 1938 stat used for production or advertising purposes. The areas of whiteout correction are interesting and require further thought. Or it could just be some sort of fanboy digital mockup too

[aokartman]

Looks like a fan piece created by Flee-Marquette.  See his posts.

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Posted April 4, 2010

   Moondog said:

   Bat-Man said:

I have - this is a photo shopped pic.

 

Picture is from 1935 and someone photo shopped in the Action 1's. 

 

I thought so too, but the blog that ran it did not claim it was manipulated. Thanks for confirming.

 

Right above that picture, that blog also displays my Action 1 artwork as the "ORIGINAL" art. 

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by aokartman
pic

[The Voord]

Pretty sure it's a mock-up that's been posted somewhere else in recent times.  Nothing to get excited about.

[Rick2you2]

It doesn't make sense as a piece of OA. Why would the corners be cleanly (if unevenly) rounded; the edges not show minor disintegration, and why no production markings? That isn't natural wear, and round corners wouldn't offer any advantage (maybe a disadvantage) for actual production.

[zhamlau]

It exists, but this aint it.

[Robot Man]

Sorry guys, it's a known fake. Original is probably lost to history...

[williamhlawson]

10 hours ago, zhamlau said:

It exists, but this aint it.

Where?  Just wondering, you have the same sense of certainty present in my childhood preacher's arguments...or was this the response to my first 'Is this the real Santa?' question? 

 

[buyatari]

I like how the issue number is a paste up. That must mean there was an issue 0 !

Edited April 17, 2018 by buyatari

[zhamlau]

14 hours ago, williamhlawson said:

On 4/16/2018 at 9:42 AM, zhamlau said:

It exists, but this aint it.

Where?  Just wondering, you have the same sense of certainty present in my childhood preacher's arguments...or was this the response to my first 'Is this the real Santa?' question? 

:-)

[otherworldsj331]

A little off subject. Around 2000 I was at the San Diego comic con and Irwin Donenfeld, the son of DC comics founder Harry Donenfeld, was speaking on a panel, and he said he recalls as a 11 or 12 year old boy reading the original pages to the Action comics number 1 Superman story before it was published. He said his dad would sometimes give him the original art pages to read to see if he liked a story or character, giving him an idea if a concept should be published or not. Irwin being about the same age as most kids that read comics, his dad wanted to get his opinion. I don't remember if he said he was also handed the cover to the issue along with the OA pages to that very first ever Superman comic story. I think probably he was not. 

Like another poster said, that cover is almost definitely lost to history. If it does still exist and was ever found, does anyone disagree it would be the single most valuable piece of OA ever?

Easily 15 million today's market?

[BCarter27]

1 hour ago, otherworldsj331 said:

Easily 15 million today's market?

Something like that would attract museum bidders, investment funds, and lots of non OA people. So all bets would be off. I would say Norman Rockwell money.

[vodou]

7 hours ago, BCarter27 said:

Something like that would attract museum bidders, investment funds, and lots of non OA people. So all bets would be off. I would say Norman Rockwell money.

It would probably go to Lucas, Spielberg or "a friend of..." I don't think any other money could touch theirs collectively for an obvious "total win". This is like the Mona Lisa of narrative art, and it means ticket sales in perpetuity, as everybody that can make it would have to go see it, not just nuts like us on this board.

Putting that aside though, I find zero personal excitement for the real piece - if it exists. Years ago, yes, I would have been crazy for it like most here but I'm just not there anymore for trophies, nor even superheroes or Big Two product in general...prefer what I actually like and love these days. It's a happy coincidence that that stuff tends to be 1/1thousandth the estimated price tag of Action #1 cover

[delekkerste]

10 hours ago, BCarter27 said:

Something like that would attract museum bidders, investment funds, and lots of non OA people. So all bets would be off. I would say Norman Rockwell money.

I think it would attract one museum bidder (Lucas), zero investment funds, and would be lucky to attract any non-comics people that could realistically compete with Lucas.  

2 hours ago, vodou said:

It would probably go to Lucas, Spielberg or "a friend of..." I don't think any other money could touch theirs collectively for an obvious "total win". This is like the Mona Lisa of narrative art, and it means ticket sales in perpetuity, as everybody that can make it would have to go see it, not just nuts like us on this board.

Putting that aside though, I find zero personal excitement for the real piece - if it exists. Years ago, yes, I would have been crazy for it like most here but I'm just not there anymore for trophies, nor even superheroes or Big Two product in general...prefer what I actually like and love these days. It's a happy coincidence that that stuff tends to be 1/1thousandth the estimated price tag of Action #1 cover

I don't think this cover would have that kind of attraction outside of the comic book/OA collecting community (heck, even within the community, I doubt most people would go much out of their way to see it).  More like an interesting curiosity than the "Mona Lisa of narrative art" if you ask me; it probably wouldn't even be the highlight for most people visiting the Lucas Museum. Oh sure, many people would find it interesting, a few may even go out of their way to see it, but, in the grand scheme of things, I doubt it brings in a lot of bodies through the turnstiles beyond the people already interested in seeing the rest of the Lucas collection in the first place.  

Edited April 19, 2018 by delekkerste

[Bronty]

Well the main issue with ticket sales in perpetuity is that it’s been stated admission will be free!    

I think it would get good money.   20?  

[BCarter27]

2 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

Oh sure, many people would find it interesting, a few may even go out of their way to see it, but, in the grand scheme of things, I doubt it brings in a lot of bodies through the turnstiles beyond the people already interested in seeing the rest of the Lucas collection in the first place

If you can't bring people in the door with the first appearance of Superman or Spider-Man, maybe it's time to scrap the museum plans. I think you are getting at a larger question as to whether the Lucas Museum will be viable to the general public at all.

The two closest comps might be the Geppi Museum (which has a strike against it by not being in NY or LA) or the Art of Pixar show several years ago at the MOMA (which iirc was very crowded?)

[Bronty]

Again, admissions free.   Which tells me that they are planning for operating losses to be offset in some other way.   Interest stream from Lucas investments?   Dunno, but if they aren’t planning on charging, they’ve done some thought and don’t need it to be viable

[delekkerste]

33 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Well the main issue with ticket sales in perpetuity is that it’s been stated admission will be free!    

I think it would get good money.   20?  

At that price, your only potential buyer is Lucas IMO, and I doubt they would have to go anywhere near that high to win it.  

33 minutes ago, BCarter27 said:

If you can't bring people in the door with the first appearance of Superman or Spider-Man, maybe it's time to scrap the museum plans. I think you are getting at a larger question as to whether the Lucas Museum will be viable to the general public at all.

I think it will be viable - they're casting a wide net with traditional representative art, illustration art, comic art, movie-related art, children's book-related art, digital art, etc.  Plus, it's Lucas, it's L.A./Hollywood, it's going to be in a space and building that people will want to check out, etc.  Even if they got the Action #1 cover (if it existed), it wouldn't be the main draw for most by any stretch of the imagination.  

[Bronty]

It’s so hard to predict.    Someone more bearish could say it’s worth 5-8m tops and there would be plenty of ways to back up that argument.     And someone could say it would go for 4x that and there would be ways to back up that argument too. At the end of the day there’s really never been a truly special piece at auction, at least that I can recall.    I.e.  a massive first appearance cover like this.    So it’s all a guessing game.     I’m coming at it from the pov of when something nice goes goes up, the money always seems to come from somewhere.     You are coming at it from the usual suspects POV which is equally legitimate, it’s just hard to say how it would turn out.

[delekkerste]

1 hour ago, Bronty said:

It’s so hard to predict.    Someone more bearish could say it’s worth 5-8m tops and there would be plenty of ways to back up that argument.     And someone could say it would go for 4x that and there would be ways to back up that argument too. At the end of the day there’s really never been a truly special piece at auction, at least that I can recall.    I.e.  a massive first appearance cover like this.    So it’s all a guessing game.     I’m coming at it from the pov of when something nice goes goes up, the money always seems to come from somewhere.     You are coming at it from the usual suspects POV which is equally legitimate, it’s just hard to say how it would turn out.

I'm of the view that you almost always have to consider it from the usual suspects POV, because all the mooted alternatives (Saudi princes, Russian oligarchs, Eminem, Hugh Jackman, Tobey Maguire, etc.) invariably never end up walking away with any of this stuff.  That's not to say that no billionaires, foreigners or celebrities are into this material, as tth2 always incorrectly paints my view - but, empirically, if any of those end up winning big pieces, it's because they have been into comics for a long time (e.g., Lucas, Hariri, Cage, Lasry, etc.).  No museum board or celebrity or investment fund without a prior, longstanding personal connection to the comic world is going to suddenly decide they need to drop $15 or $20 million on the Action #1 cover just because it became available.  And, no one in our hobby is going to think they need to pay 5-7x the cost of an Action #1 9.0 or 10x a Ditko Spidey complete story or 10-15x the Hulk #181 cover or 30-40 covers of the quality of ASM #50, Silver Surfer #4, etc. to buy something like this.  Ain't gonna happen.   

Edited April 19, 2018 by delekkerste