A surprise visit from George Tuska at NY Comic Con! 2 2

[Zolnerowich]

A surprise visit from George Tuska at NY Comic Con! 

Well, sort of.

I'm sure most of you Golden Age aficionados know a thing or two about George Tuska, but just in case:

George Tuska was one of the premier artists of the Golden Age of Comics. He was there near the beginning, joining the Eisner/Iger studio. His first published artwork was in 1939, in Mystery Men #1 (pencils and inks on the "Zanzibar" story and the "Wing Turner" story) and Wonderworld Comics #4 ("Tom Barry of the Royal Mounted"), both with a cover date of August 1939. These were published by Victor Fox for his fledging comic book company, at that time under the name Bruns Publications, Inc.

And from Aug. 1939, here's Zanzibar:

 

And here's Wing Turner and Tom Barry:

(Wing's got a wicked right punch!)

George Tuska went on to have a prolific career in comics, and did artwork for Jungle Comics, Ranger Comics, Planet Comics, Black Terror, Fighting Yank, and notably, Crime Does Not Pay. He was artist for the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1960's, and in the Silver Age he had a major impact, as lead artist on Iron Man, beginning with issue #5 (Sept. 1968) and continuing for 10 years on this title.

Tuska died in 2009, at the ripe age of 93. He was still doing artist commissions almost up until the very end of his life. In fact, just 6 months before he died, there was a topic posted on these very CGC boards, on April 26, 2009, titled "George Tuska Signature Series signing". Some boardies had arranged to have Tuska sign some of their books, and it seems like everything went very well.

So where was I? Ah yes, a surprise visit from George Tuska at the 2018 NY Comic Con.

I went to NYCC on Sunday. Fastest line ever. Starting off strong! Crowds not so insane.

Most of the comic book dealers are set up in rows 2400-2900, northeast corner of the convention center. No need to venture outside of this safe zone! A highlight of the show was watching my pal @Sqeggs bargain down the price on a handsome Sensation Comics #13 (at Harley's booth).

Speaking of Harley, he had some mighty fine books at the show. In what has become my comic con mantra, I asked Harley: "Do you have any early Fox books?" Harley said, "No, um, uh, hold it... yeah, here's a few." He pulled out a couple copies of Mystery Men #6, and also a Mystery Men #5. Here is that book:

 

Uh huh, I know what you're thinking, "meh, a 2.5 restored, piece missing from bottom left corner, upper spine a bit of a mess."

Anyhow, that's what I was thinking, and was about to hand it back to Harley, when I noticed THIS:

There, staring right back at me, was the signature of George Tuska!

Had you noticed the signature?

Harley hadn't. And it took me a while to notice it.

Now, at first, I figured it was just someone's random scribbling. But the more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself it might be authentic. It just seemed to me kind of unlikely that some random person would have gone out of their way to "forge" George Tuska's signature. Sure, Tuska did draw the Zanzibar feature in this issue (see below, you can see his style has already become more sophisticated).

 

But after all, if you were going to go out of your way to forge a signature, how about Lou Fine's, who did the cover, or Will Eisner's, who did interior artwork in this issue.

I first pointed out this signature to Harley. Well, that was a mistake -- he hadn't noticed it, but once he realized that this *might* be Tuska's signature, I think I lost some bargaining power on the price. 

I then showed it to Sqeggs. He was fairly convinced, but suggested I pull up some actual Tuska signatures for comparison.

The next post in this thread will show off these signatures.

 

[Zolnerowich]

OK. Part 2 of 2 of this long-winded non-saga.

Here are some of Tuska's actual signatures, from the 1940's to the 2000's.

Original art from Captain Marvel Adventures 1941 (I think).

 

From his 1960's Buck Rogers newspaper strip:

 

His first Iron Man, 1968:

 

A bit of the risqué (original illustration art, 1987):

 

From The Art of George Tuska, by Cassell, 2005:

 

So then, dear reader (if you've made it this far), what sayeth you? Is it George Tuska's signature?

Yea or Nay?

 

[Point Five]

Yea! 

Very cool. 

 

[KirbyJack]

Cool! I love George Tuska. For me, he is THE Iron-Man artist.

[comicjack]

Got to meet him at SDCC back in the 90's super nice guy with lots of talent.Those are some cool books with his early work at Fox and his work at the Chesler shop which has always interest me.I had a great talk with him on some of that work as with Dynamic 11 and Bulls eye 11 which he did some great art for them.We have lost so many greats from that era and will never see the likes of them again so humble  just average guys to talk with !

Edited October 13, 2018 by comicjack

[piper]

Yes!

[podboy66]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing 

[PUNYHUMAN]

That looks like George Tuska  to me .  I met him also years ago,  what a great guy. I talked to him about his early days , when I bought up Lou Fine he glowed. He said, he was the best with a brush!! I then showed him a Hit Comics # 5 I just purchased at the show. He said that it was beautiful and then showed it to his wife Dorathy.   Both were great people. Sadly he is missed.  BTW , I also bought a Mystery Men # 5 off of Harley at  another show.

[Robot Man]

Yep, looks like you got a real Tuska autograph there. I also met him at SDCC one year and had him sign a few things.As others have said, great guy and reallyt appreciated his fans. Sadly, not many at his table but was good for me because I got to hear some cool stories about the dawn of comics.

[Robot Man]

My only question though. Why, just why did you even tell Harley?

[Sqeggs]

1 hour ago, Robot Man said:

My only question though. Why, just why did you even tell Harley?

@Zolnerowich is a man of the most refined sensibility, the most scrupulous honor, the highest integrity ... and he had been drinking heavily at lunch. 

I'm joking, I'm joking!  If Harley was asking $5K for the book without the sig and $7K with the sig, then $7K it will be! 

@Zolnerowich never concerns himself with debates over money or other such trifling matters. 

[Zolnerowich]

16 hours ago, comicjack said:

Got to meet him at SDCC back in the 90's super nice guy with lots of talent.Those are some cool books with his early work at Fox and his work at the Chesler shop which has always interest me.I had a great talk with him on some of that work as with Dynamic 11 and Bulls eye 11 which he did some great art for them.We have lost so many greats from that era and will never see the likes of them again so humble an just average guys to talk with !

Thanks for that brief anecdote, Jack. Yep, Tuska had a hand in so many cool books over the many decades. This cover of his is probably my favorite. Thanks to Jon Berk @jbcomicbox for providing the correct artist credits (changed from Lou Fine to George Tuska) back in 2006.

[Zolnerowich]

5 hours ago, PUNYHUMAN said:

That looks like George Tuska  to me .  I met him also years ago,  what a great guy. I talked to him about his early days , when I bought up Lou Fine he glowed. He said, he was the best with a brush!! I then showed him a Hit Comics # 5 I just purchased at the show. He said that it was beautiful and then showed it to his wife Dorathy.   Both were great people. Sadly he is missed.  BTW , I also bought a Mystery Men # 5 off of Harley at  another show.

Great story!!! I think Tuska has been quoted that Lou Fine was one of his influences (though Fine was only about 1.5 years older...)

You know what they say: great minds shop alike! Fun that we both got our Mystery Men #5's from Harley. It's a neat book.

[telerites]

One of my favs by Mr Tuska

 

[MusterMark]

Awesome get of a great Tuska book and SIG! 

[Zolnerowich]

On 10/13/2018 at 2:13 PM, Sqeggs said:

@Zolnerowich is a man of the most refined sensibility, the most scrupulous honor, the highest integrity ... and he had been drinking heavily at lunch. 

I'm joking, I'm joking!  If Harley was asking $5K for the book without the sig and $7K with the sig, then $7K it will be! 

@Zolnerowich never concerns himself with debates over money or other such trifling matters. 

To be fair, @Sqeggs is the one who snuck the contraband hooch into NYCC in a Gerber 4-mil Mylar “bottle” protective case. It was a heck of a challenge cracking it out!

[Zolnerowich]

On 10/13/2018 at 12:18 PM, Robot Man said:

Yep, looks like you got a real Tuska autograph there. I also met him at SDCC one year and had him sign a few things.As others have said, great guy and reallyt appreciated his fans. Sadly, not many at his table but was good for me because I got to hear some cool stories about the dawn of comics.

Thanks for sharing, RM! That's so great you got to meet him. I think your example of Tuska's signature might be the best match to the one on my Mystery Men 5. 

[Sardo Numspar]

Definitely his sig!  What a great find.

[Zolnerowich]

So the votes are in. Based on the 100's (1000's?) of years of collective experience from the esteemed boardies, the consensus is unanimous that the signature came from the very hand of George Tuska!!

Detailed metrics:

• Yea: 8
• Presumed Yea (supportive but didn't specifically state yea or nay): 4
• Nay: 0
• Harley: "Huh?"