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ASM #40 Cover Painting by John Romita at Profiles in History
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Profiles in History released their catalog recently for their upcoming Hollywood auction. Amongst the listings are several comic pieces, along with this cover recreation by John Romita. Not sure how many folks here follow PIH auctions, so figured I'd share the info in case anyone is interested in following the action or bidding. 

https://profilesinhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/96HollywoodSs.pdf

Capture.JPG

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1 hour ago, delekkerste said:

Anyone care to opine on the authenticity of the Schulz Peanuts and Bob Kane Batman sketches (two of the most faked things in our hobby)?  

I haven't reviewed them, but that sounds like you're leading the witness hm

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5 hours ago, KingofGames said:

Profiles in History released their catalog recently for their upcoming Hollywood auction. Amongst the listings are several comic pieces, along with this cover recreation by John Romita. Not sure how many folks here follow PIH auctions, so figured I'd share the info in case anyone is interested in following the action or bidding. 

https://profilesinhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/96HollywoodSs.pdf

 

I like this better than his black and white works, but the middle paragraph just goes to show what I've always known - most comic artists can't paint to save their life.     

Most commercial illustrators are much better painters than comic guys.   Kind of refreshing to hear an honest take on that from an artist.

I'm not sure why anyone would pay 80k for that though. 

Edited by Bronty
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Does anyone know why Romita did not do the "Marvel Comics Group" logo or CCA stamp ?

At almost twice-up, I think it would've to be easier than Romita's self-described efforts to paint.

I think I've noticed this with other recreations.  Even plain, black and white recreations.  The missing elements always gave me the impression the recreation was incomplete.

 

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those elements wouldn't have been hand drawn on the original published art.   In some sense the real question is why have any of those elements (logo, issue, etc ) at all - if it was color OA it would have had none of that.    But we're probably overthinking it, he's just trying to make it fanboy friendly without slavishly painting out every little thing.

Your comment is right  that this piece looks neither like real color OA would have, nor like the published cover.   If the goal is to make the art look like the published cover, you'd want no omissions, and if you wanted it to look like color art would have, you'd want more omissions

Edited by Bronty
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1 hour ago, Bronty said:

those elements wouldn't have been hand drawn on the original published art.   In some sense the real question is why have any of those elements (logo, issue, etc ) at all - if it was color OA it would have had none of that.    But we're probably overthinking it, he's just trying to make it fanboy friendly without slavishly painting out every little thing.

Your comment is right  that this piece looks neither like real color OA would have, nor like the published cover.   If the goal is to make the art look like the published cover, you'd want no omissions, and if you wanted it to look like color art would have, you'd want more omissions

Well said.  It speaks to the idea that the successful comic book is indeed a collaboration of artists.  Here we have a high-profile artist who has created a somewhat disappointing, to some, recreation.  Perhaps because he ventured outside his specialty.  Idea layout, penciller, inker, letterer, colorist, editor, printer, and more all combine to create the books that we remember.  David

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1 hour ago, Bronty said:

those elements wouldn't have been hand drawn on the original published art

The Spider-man logo, issue number and cover price wouldn't have been hand drawn on the original published art, either.  But it's on the recreation. 

I was thinking maybe there was a legal reason.  But I figure Marvel would let Romita do pretty much what ever he wanted.  If he could use the Spider-man logo, why not "Marvel Comics Group" ??

4 minutes ago, aokartman said:

Here we have a high-profile artist who has created a somewhat disappointing, to some, recreation.

Kind of harsh (by some).  I'm not really a Romita fan.  But even if he had difficulties with paint, I think the final result is a good painted version of the published cover.

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17 hours ago, Will_K said:

The Spider-man logo, issue number and cover price wouldn't have been hand drawn on the original published art, either.  But it's on the recreation. 

I was thinking maybe there was a legal reason.  But I figure Marvel would let Romita do pretty much what ever he wanted.  If he could use the Spider-man logo, why not "Marvel Comics Group" ??

Kind of harsh (by some).  I'm not really a Romita fan.  But even if he had difficulties with paint, I think the final result is a good painted version of the published cover.

I agree my point about disappointment was too harsh.  Not trying to hurt the sale!  Maybe I was factoring in their  $70-90,000 estimate, and thinking, wow, I wonder if John Romita wishes he got $70K for that.   And/or, if he knew somebody someday would be paying that much, would he have done it differently?. 

Watercolor is very tedious and difficult work, and I appreciate the scarcity of this piece.  As Romita said, he would never attempt it again.

David

And, here's a different watercolor recreation showing the code stamp and price box,etc. just for comparison (current HA auction).

 

subby.jpg

Edited by aokartman
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Based on the image of Romita's ASM # 40 painted recreation being posted here, I do think that he's done a really nice job.  Some of the lettering looks a little shaky in parts, which underlines my long-held belief that artists can seldom pull this one off (lettering being a real skill in itself).  You can see the shakiness of the lettering on the additional image of the Sub-Mariner cover showcased in aokartman's post, which detract from an otherwise fairly-decent recreation.

Edited by The Voord
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2 hours ago, The Voord said:

Based on the image of Romita's ASM # 40 painted recreation being posted here, I do think that he's done a really nice job.  Some of the lettering looks a little shaky in parts, which underlines my long-held belief that artists can seldom pull this one off (lettering being a real skill in itself).  You can see the shakiness of the lettering on the additional image of the Sub-Mariner cover showcased in aokartman's post, which detract from an otherwise fairly-decent recreation.

Totally agree.  A very fine job on the recreation and the painting, even if Romita states that he struggled.  And double agree on the difficulty of lettering.  Not a lot of artists can easily pull it off, which is why I have so much respect for guys like Kevin Nowlan, Frank Cho, Travis Charest, and other artists who I'm blanking on for their lettering skills, on top of already supreme drawing skills.

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I've seen this piece and it's very interesting work by a very important artist.   I don't know what it's worth.  If something isn't from the original published art I find that I value things differently than many.  To me, a prelim is worth more (or at least more interesting) than a recreation, even if it's less pretty.   Partly because I know it's tied to the inception of the published story (especially so if it's a classic or important story), and partly because I know that pieces created during the inception of the story are necessarily limited, whereas recreations are limited only to the number that an artist makes after the fact.  But this particular recreation is more like a reimagining; there is a style to it which is clearly unlike the original cover or the published cover, and it's stylistically unique or at least very rare in the catalogue of Romita's work.

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22 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

Totally agree.  A very fine job on the recreation and the painting, even if Romita states that he struggled.  And double agree on the difficulty of lettering.  Not a lot of artists can easily pull it off, which is why I have so much respect for guys like Kevin Nowlan, Frank Cho, Travis Charest, and other artists who I'm blanking on for their lettering skills, on top of already supreme drawing skills.

Dave Sim!    

38293-2930-43003-1-cerebus.jpg

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One of the few recreated covers, by one of the original artists, that really worked for me was Chic Stone's Fantastic Four 27.  Stone did the sensible thing and used stats of the logo and captioned materials - which look absolutely fine (infinitely better than shaky attempts at lettering).  From the collection of John Sisson (if he's here, I hope he doesn't mind me posting his CAF image?):

Chic.jpg

Edited by The Voord
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On a separate note, I've had Bruce McCorkindale recreate for me a number of 1960s Marvel covers.  Bruce wisely chooses to print-out (directly onto the artboards) logo and captioned materials (which he tweaks in ink, if need be).  Yeah, I know that these things are no substitute for the real thing (if they even exist), but they do make for nice (affordable) substitutes . . .

Spidey 18.jpg

Edited by The Voord
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9 minutes ago, The Voord said:

On a separate note, I've had Bruce McCorkindale recreate for me a number of 1960s Marvel covers.  Bruce wisely chooses to print-out (directly onto the artboards) logo and captioned materials (which he tweaks in ink, if need be).  Yeah, I know that these things are no real substitute for the real thing (if they even exist), but they make for nice (affordable) substitutes . . .

Spidey 18.jpg

Those are fantastic, and I wish they were a little closer by just having attached stats for the feeling.  David

 

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