Who's Who and Marvel Handbook 0

[ignimbrite]

When I was a kid I spent hours and hours pouring over these books. Now that I am adult actively arresting my development I am looking for some of these pages but I am suprised st just how rarely I see them for sale. This isn't to say they aren't around but i just thought there would be more.

Were these at anytime popular pages to collect?

[chrisco37]

This is a total guess on my part (as I’ve never seen an original page of either series)...but I’d suspect that they aren’t particularly sought after.  I’d think that the original would be mostly stats.  

[vodou]

22 minutes ago, chrisco37 said:

This is a total guess on my part (as I’ve never seen an original page of either series)...but I’d suspect that they aren’t particularly sought after.  I’d think that the original would be mostly stats.  

There's plenty the first Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHOTMU) original art floating around. That's the best stuff IMO, but there's also no end to the Keith Pollard original turnarounds for the Deluxe (and/or later) edition/s too. For most entries there was new art drawn for the main image and, as chrisco37 suggests, the panels were reproduced and likely stats. What I've seen is pin-up looking originals of those main images around. Have several myself (not for sale, sorry) but not handy or I'd share. Check Comicartfans.com out using search, I'm sure you'll find more than you imagined and even some for sale.

[Bird]

The Pollard ones, 3 figures to the page front back and sideways views, are plentiful and were reliably $150 or so for the longest time. I do not know what they go for now. I have two Paul Smith ones, single figures, and they were much more expensive that $150.

 

RGL wouldn't sell me Doc or Clea so I had to "settle" for these two!

[Twanj]

I don't know about Who's Who but the Marvel ones pop up quite a bit it seems

 

https://www.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=790+231&Nty=1&Ntt=marvel+handbook&ic10=ArchiveTab-071515

[ignimbrite]

First of all thank you for the feedback/suggestions.

I should have done a bit more digging into the Marvel Handbook pages (they seem to be available), I guess I was always more of a DC guy and was obsessing a bit about the Who's Who art.

[aokartman]

1 hour ago, ignimbrite said:

First of all thank you for the feedback/suggestions.

I should have done a bit more digging into the Marvel Handbook pages (they seem to be available), I guess I was always more of a DC guy and was obsessing a bit about the Who's Who art.

I have a Who's Who Wrath that is pretty cool with a Batman cameo.  Will try for a pic.  Hang on.

 

LINK TO CAF WRATH ILLO

Edited December 9, 2018 by aokartman
pic added

[ignimbrite]

The Wrath Page is cool. I read over your description on CAF and I am sorry but I am a little confused. Is that all the original page?

[aokartman]

16 hours ago, ignimbrite said:

The Wrath Page is cool. I read over your description on CAF and I am sorry but I am a little confused. Is that all the original page?

Your confusion is warranted.  This is a two-piece production art and I did a lame mockup.  I will try to get better pics.  David

Edited December 10, 2018 by aokartman
spell check

[Will_K]

OHOTMU art seems to be around a lot more than Who's Who art.

Here's 2 of mine form Who's Who...

The Titans of Myth:  https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=632436

and

Insect Queen:  https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1339664

[zhamlau]

I've had a bunch of these pages over the years. The Marvel ones ,depending on character and artist,  can often sell for quite a lot. Ive seen many sell in the 4 figure range. It's also not just Romita or PWS ones as I've seen Pollards break 4 figures too. I know of a few Pollards I'd pay well over 1000 for only to be told by their current owners "thanks but no thanks".

I used to love these books. It was such a fun way to learn about other books and characters you didn't actively read.

[ignimbrite]

12 hours ago, Will_K said:

OHOTMU art seems to be around a lot more than Who's Who art.

Here's 2 of mine form Who's Who...

The Titans of Myth:  https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=632436

and

Insect Queen:  https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1339664

I need a bit of education here. Did all Who's Who pages have an overlay? I love the insect queen page.

[aokartman]

Here are a couple better pics of my Wrath with Batman overlay, signed Mike DeCarlo.

[PhilipB2k17]

On ‎12‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 7:37 AM, ignimbrite said:

When I was a kid I spent hours and hours pouring over these books. Now that I am adult actively arresting my development I am looking for some of these pages but I am suprised st just how rarely I see them for sale. This isn't to say they aren't around but i just thought there would be more.

Were these at anytime popular pages to collect?

There's some stuff up on eBay right now, I think.

[Will_K]

5 hours ago, ignimbrite said:

Did all Who's Who pages have an overlay?

When the black ink line is printed in a different color, I think it's called a "color hold".

And I think a high percentage (maybe even all) of the Who's Who entries had color holds (overlays).  It was easier than mixing color holds with regular line work on the same piece of paper.  Also, if you had different color holds (e.g. some red, some blue), a different overlay for each color.

[John E.]

On 12/10/2018 at 10:19 AM, aokartman said:

Here are a couple better pics of my Wrath with Batman overlay, signed Mike DeCarlo.

Just curious: is that overlay original ink on vellum?

[aokartman]

3 hours ago, Jay Olie Espy said:

Just curious: is that overlay original ink on vellum?

Yes, exactly right, sorry, I should have explained that.  Apparently, the way the book was designed required the artist to create the background image on the separate overlay, which is, indeed, original art.  It makes it difficult to display, and I keep it because I like the Batman figure.  I had to deconstruct my amateur "mock-up".  If I had an 11 X 17 scanner it would be a fun project to create a complete composite print.  David

[Brian Peck]

Here are two pieces from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

John Buscema pencils three images of Nebula, Joe Rubinstein inked just one (published in the Handbook) but left the other two pencil figures untouched.

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #9

 

 

 

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #8 (I used to own the Byrne wraparound cover to this issues as well)

 

Marvel Girl penciled by Butch Guice and inked by  Joe Rubinstein. Its the the new costume design in X-Factor #5

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by Brian Peck

[vodou]

5 hours ago, Brian Peck said:

Only in comics would that outfit contain those jugs to even a PG-13 rating.

Meanwhile, and lower, such promise from the front and side views, but the back really failed to deliver. John...please see F.Frazetta tail next time

[miraclemet]

On 12/10/2018 at 5:11 PM, Will_K said:

When the black ink line is printed in a different color, I think it's called a "color hold".

And I think a high percentage (maybe even all) of the Who's Who entries had color holds (overlays).  It was easier than mixing color holds with regular line work on the same piece of paper.  Also, if you had different color holds (e.g. some red, some blue), a different overlay for each color.

The style DC used for the Who's Who pages were always overlays of multiple images, so the Wraith example is probably what they all were like. 

By comparison the OHotMU (Oh-Hot-Moo, as it is colloquially pronounced) were usually stand alone images for their index. So the OA is far cleaner. I see OHOTMU pages far more often than DC pages, but there were more OHOTMU issues than Who's Who issues... and maybe Marvels artist agreements (to be able to keep their own pages for later sale) was better and thus there are more in the market.