Question: Where are all the Ditko DR STRANGE pages? 1 1

[Timely]

Funny, I was just offered a Ditko Dr Strange page last week, a really nice one in fact. I just couldn't get past the $165,000 ask!

[Peter L]

Posted before I could write anything.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Peter L

[Peter L]

On 12/6/2018 at 10:01 AM, Grant Turner said:

I don’t even really see any in anyone’s collection either. Over the last couple of years I’ve seen maybe 2 or 3. Does somebody own a whole bunch and is just quietly sitting on them? Did they not survive the 60’s? 

 

On 12/6/2018 at 10:03 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

I heard from a well-placed source that Ditko did not have many, if any, classic Marvel pages in his possession when he died, so do not expect a flood of Ditko DS pages to suddenly appear on the market, or be consigned to a Heritage estate sale auction.

An article in a 2002 issue of Wizard magazine included an anecdote by artist Greg Theakston about a visit to Ditko's studio where Theakston observed that the back of a page of Ditko-drawn original art looked to him like had been used as a cutting board. 

It IS true that, according to Theakston, Ditko DID once use a page of his own original artwork for a cutting board. Theakston visited Ditko in his studio in 1993, and said he was shocked to see Ditko using the back of a page of his original art in this manner. Theakston recounted the story in detail in PURE IMAGE #1.

“He’d been using it as a cutting board,” Theakston said. “I looked a little bit closer and I detected a comics code stamp on it.” 

He asked Ditko to turn the board around, a request met with a deadening gaze from the artist. “I didn’t think he was going to do it,” the historian recounted. “It looked like a ‘Screw you’ look.” 

Slowly, however, Ditko reached out and flipped over the board. It was a page of original art from a late 1950s issue of [Charlton's This Magazine is Haunted], a splash featuring a diver. 

Theakston couldn’t believe it. Not only was Ditko not displaying, preserving or prizing this piece of original art, he was using it as a cutting board. Theakston quickly offered Ditko a deal: “Steve, I will go down to the nearest art supply store and buy you a cutting board that will mend itself -- a plastic cutting board that’s so smart that when you cut on it, it mends itself-and you’ll have the finest cutting board on the block.” 

“Nope,” Ditko replied, twisting the artwork-turned-cutting-board back around.

Theakston pleaded, “Steve, geez. That’s worth a fair amount of money. At the very least -- damn, Steve -- it’s an artifact. It’s an important piece of publishing history in terms of comics.” 

The artist turned and pointed to the drapery-obscured window next to Theakston’s chair. 

“Lift that curtain up,” he said. The curtain, the historian estimated, was about 18 inches off the floor. He pulled the drape aside and saw a stack of original artwork from Marvel standing roughly a foot-and-a-half high. 

“Can I look at these?” Theakston excitedly asked. 

“No.” 

The writer was dumbfounded. “I was sitting next to a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand dollars, maybe, worth of Ditko artwork and he was cutting it up without letting people look at it.” 

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/695/ditko11.html

[Unca Ben]

If I see a stack of OA, how would I know it was all Marvel without looking through it?

[Timely]

I've head this story too. I also was told it was not as dramatic as that, but who knows, I wasn't there! Perhaps he was using it to cut a slice of bread, probably not using the art to cut open a t-bone.

In either event, for collectors like all of us that's a strange thing to do. Without question, Ditko felt WAY differently about his art than the rest of us do!

So, was his indifference only about his own art or would he have been using the Mona Lisa as a cutting board too?

[comix4fun]

3 hours ago, Unca Ben said:

If I see a stack of OA, how would I know it was all Marvel without looking through it?

Well, it depends on how much attention you're seeking by making the statement.

Do you limit it to what you actually know and see or do you let your imagination run with it? 

[glendgold]

2 hours ago, comix4fun said:

Well, it depends on how much attention you're seeking by making the statement.

Do you limit it to what you actually know and see or do you let your imagination run with it? 

I would put much weight on the fact that Greg's ex-company was called "Pure Imagination." 

[zhamlau]

On 12/7/2018 at 2:15 PM, Funnyslover said:

Faq 29 onwards touch on this 

http://unitedfanzineorganization.weebly.com/ditkofaq.html#005

 

Very interesting read especially regarding his Dr. Strange art.

[Moondog]

Was speaking to an old friend at HA in mid 2017 and he mentioned he was in his office and examining the DS story from ST 110.  I about dropped the phone. 

[Timely]

The whole story?

I wonder where that was... and where it went?

[comix4fun]

12 hours ago, Moondog said:

Was speaking to an old friend at HA in mid 2017 and he mentioned he was in his office and examining the DS story from ST 110.  I about dropped the phone. 

Wow, where would that 5 pager be on the list of  Silver age 1st character appearance story OA to be publicly known to exist? 

AF 15 is known, obviously, and earlier.  TTA 27's Ant-man story sold publicly in 2002. The complete TOS 39 has sold a couple times at least since the early 2000's.  I know there are pages to JIM 83 out there.

I don't remember ever seeing or hearing of pages from FF1 or Hulk 1 being shown or available publicly.

It predates X-men 1 by a couple months. Everything else major came later than ST 110 too. 

So that story would probably be in the top 5 earliest SA Marvel character 1st appearances publicly known to exist as OA. 

[vodou]

42 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

The complete TOS 39 has sold a couple times at least since the early 2000's.  I know there are pages to JIM 83 out there.

These were both seen publicly much earlier too, can't remember which years but were in either Christie's or Sotheby's early 1990s auctions. Some pretty major (and often not seen again) stuff moved through both houses back then. For those that don't have those catalogs it's worth the $5/$10 per each to assemble sets, one sale per each per year so maybe 20 catalogs total for the entire decade?

[comix4fun]

31 minutes ago, vodou said:

These were both seen publicly much earlier too, can't remember which years but were in either Christie's or Sotheby's early 1990s auctions. Some pretty major (and often not seen again) stuff moved through both houses back then. For those that don't have those catalogs it's worth the $5/$10 per each to assemble sets, one sale per each per year so maybe 20 catalogs total for the entire decade?

I think the TOS was Sotheby's 1992-1993, I have the catalog somewhere. I'd have to confirm. Those early 90's Sotheby's and Christie's catalogs are great. Those, along with the Profiles in History 2002 auction catalogs are my favorite as they were crammed with great piece after great piece. 

 

Edited December 22, 2018 by comix4fun

[vodou]

46 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

Those, along with the Profiles in History 2002 auction catalogs are my favorite as they were crammed with great piece after great piece.

Heh. My library is in total disarray presently too! PIH 2002, was that the black/red theme catalog with McFarlane Spidey cover? Dedicated to all comic art iirc. That's where our friend Mario outbid me on the X-Men splash, I thought I was crazy back then; he outbid crazy also iirc. But I got something else, a cover, so all worked out (but not really, I'm still smarting over that splash!)

[Peter L]

7 hours ago, comix4fun said:

I think the TOS was Sotheby's 1992-1993, I have the catalog somewhere. I'd have to confirm. Those early 90's Sotheby's and Christie's catalogs are great. Those, along with the Profiles in History 2002 auction catalogs are my favorite as they were crammed with great piece after great piece. 

 

 

7 hours ago, vodou said:

These were both seen publicly much earlier too, can't remember which years but were in either Christie's or Sotheby's early 1990s auctions. Some pretty major (and often not seen again) stuff moved through both houses back then. For those that don't have those catalogs it's worth the $5/$10 per each to assemble sets, one sale per each per year so maybe 20 catalogs total for the entire decade?

What's the history behind the move of comic art sales from Sotheby's and Christie's to Heritage today?

[vodou]

34 minutes ago, Peter L said:

 

What's the history behind the move of comic art sales from Sotheby's and Christie's to Heritage today?

They only got involved in comics/art to begin with because fine art post-JapanInc was in freefall. As soon as that changed (circa dotcom bubble) they were O U T. That's when HA stepped in, or rather a few years later after a succession of other lesser players gave it a shot and couldn't pull it off.