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Signed 'Jack Kirby' SA Marvels
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39 posts in this topic

16 minutes ago, MGsimba77 said:

That would suck 

Forget I said anything-- I would not trust something unverified but it is neat to see when people happen upon them on an inside cover because apparently it was not too uncommon for him to do that it might just be authentic. But with people actively faking signatures these days (i.e. Stan Lee)- I would NOT want to encourage them to start producing Jack Kirby fakes.

Edited by 01TheDude
added the NOT
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3 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

Forget I said anything-- I would not trust something unverified but it is neat to see when people happen upon them on an inside cover because apparently it was not too uncommon for him to do that it might just be authentic. But with people actively faking signatures these days (i.e. Stan Lee)- I would want to encourage them to start producing Jack Kirby fakes.

Forget it man you just blew open Pandora's box 🤣 ...just kidding. I wouldn't trust anything unverified either but now especially Kirby. 

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1 minute ago, MGsimba77 said:

Forget it man you just blew open Pandora's box 🤣 ...just kidding. I wouldn't trust anything unverified either but now especially Kirby. 

I'm fairly certain that was common knowledge and stuff I have read from the CGC forums in the past. I recall some collectors who had met Kirby in person and said he would open to the first page of the book when asked to autograph a comic. I sort of find that awesome as even he would prefer not to possible ruin the cover art when there is a perfectly perfect place to sign inside the book.

Seeing a signature on the cover is practically never seen (or incredibly rare) and the size of that one is also a little suspect for that reason. Ultimately it only matters to the owner of the book though as no Kirby signature will ever be authenticated by CGC. The other companies might offer it but they tend to be less reliable across the board as far as I've seen. Still-- what a bonus it would be to someday open a new (to me) old comic and find his signature on the bottom of the splash page. I suspect I will only get there by acquiring some Kirby OA which is unlikely with my current finances.

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4 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

I'm fairly certain that was common knowledge and stuff I have read from the CGC forums in the past. I recall some collectors who had met Kirby in person and said he would open to the first page of the book when asked to autograph a comic. I sort of find that awesome as even he would prefer not to possible ruin the cover art when there is a perfectly perfect place to sign inside the book.

Seeing a signature on the cover is practically never seen (or incredibly rare) and the size of that one is also a little suspect for that reason. Ultimately it only matters to the owner of the book though as no Kirby signature will ever be authenticated by CGC. The other companies might offer it but they tend to be less reliable across the board as far as I've seen. Still-- what a bonus it would be to someday open a new (to me) old comic and find his signature on the bottom of the splash page. I suspect I will only get there by acquiring some Kirby OA which is unlikely with my current finances.

It's a really cool sleek signature that's for sure. But I guess there's always that seed of doubt with that little nugget of information. I didn't know he scoffed at signing front covers. Curious if you know up to what point was he autographing? 1980s?

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4 minutes ago, MGsimba77 said:

It's a really cool sleek signature that's for sure. But I guess there's always that seed of doubt with that little nugget of information. I didn't know he scoffed at signing front covers. Curious if you know up to what point was he autographing? 1980s?

No idea--- was not really part of the hobby at that point and I was about 14 (1979) when I stopped collecting the first time (and came back in 2014). I'm sure others had encounters though. Maybe search on "the time I met Jack Kirby" or something.

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18 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

I Still-- what a bonus it would be to someday open a new (to me) old comic and find his signature on the bottom of the splash page. I suspect I will only get there by acquiring some Kirby OA which is unlikely with my current finances.

Happened to me with an issue of Amazing Adventures #1 I won at an HA auction.  I doubt it is fake; it wasn't advertised as signed and it was one of many books in the lot -- I posted a pic on here and people generally thought it was JK.

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/464491-jack-kirby-verification/?tab=comments#comment-11055225

Edited by OuterboroGuy
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21 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

not saying this applies to any of the ones presented so far-- but wasn't it somewhat common that his wife would occasionally sign his name inside covers?

Kind of hard to know or find the difference between them as most I have seen look the same to me.

I believe that was much later in his life (late 1980s on) when he developed hand issues and could not sign his name effectively so Roz would help. She also helped him ink so many pages in his career so no big deal right? :grin:  

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22 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

not saying this applies to any of the ones presented so far-- but wasn't it somewhat common that his wife would occasionally sign his name inside covers?

Kind of hard to know or find the difference between them as most I have seen look the same to me.

For big signings when the books were sent to JK to sign, it is said Roz signed some [most? All?] I've heard Mark Evanier has also done it. 

The only SA sigs I have from JK are on a stack of Xerox copies of all the FF #14 page stats. Mike Royer purchased them in 1969 (he can't recall from who) from someone who already had JK sign one of the pages. Soon after JK first contacted Mike about working for him, Mike had him inscribe another of the pages. His sig was quite different then, but has recognisable characteristics.

Mike was going to sell them to someone a few years ago, but the guy never returned to finalize the transaction. Lucky for me :D

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1 hour ago, MR SigS said:

For big signings when the books were sent to JK to sign, it is said Roz signed some [most? All?] I've heard Mark Evanier has also done it. 

 

This helped make sense of my encounter with Mark at SDCC '19 when, after one of his many panels, I asked him for a signature and he chuckled, "Which one? I know..." before signing a recognizable "Walt Disney," then scratching that out and signing his name. 

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23 hours ago, Primetime said:

I believe that was much later in his life (late 1980s on) when he developed hand issues and could not sign his name effectively so Roz would help. She also helped him ink so many pages in his career so no big deal right? :grin:  

When I met Jack in 1990 or 91 at the San Diego ComicCon, he wasn't signing anything in public at that time.

He told my friend and I, "If I sign for you, I have to sign for everybody - and I just can't do that today."

We didn't know about his health and/or his ability to even sign at the time.
We just knew he was a dang legend, and we were ok with what he said, because we were just so thrilled to meet him.
He did let us take pictures with him, so that was a tremendous consolation prize for us.

The first I had heard about Roz possibly signing for Jack was the two Marvel Milestone editions that came out around 1991 by Dynamic Forces.
I believe the FF #1 reprint had 1961 copies allegedly signed by Jack, and then the X-Men #1 had 2,000 copies signed.

I don't know what to think about those two editions and the authenticity of Jack signing them. It was a lot of copies for sure, but I'm not aware of what
the turn-around time on those being signed was.

In my limited knowledge & understanding, most 'old school' writers and artists signed on the first page of a comic when asked to sign.
I have quite a few signatures on page 1. And I've seen a lot of 70s & 80s signatures on page 1 from the likes of Wein & Wrightson to Claremont & Byrne.
It wasn't until the early/mid 1990s that signing on the cover of a book became more of 'the thing.' Again - my experiences & knowledge only.

Probably some of first books I had signed on the covers were when gold/silver metallic pens came along, and I had guys like Neil Gaiman and Steve Rude
sign their work. At that time, I had Stan and Romita sign with different colored sharpies, depending on the darkness/lightness of the covers.

Edited by HighVoltage
cant spell
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