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

1 hour ago, HighVoltage said:

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.

I prefer old school, sigs on the first page. I’m not really a fan of signed comic book covers. Long live Jack “King” Kirby. 

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I would definitely have preferred a picture with someone much more than any signature. Even better is when you meet someone you admire, take a picture with them, then later on have them sign the picture with you on it. I did this several times with Lee Roy Selmon (former Oklahoma Sooner great and Bucs HOF 1995). The only signature I would part with was one he signed of him on a USF magazine cover- sold on Ebay (and shown below).

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and here is one of the pictures I had him sign after taking one with him....

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Edited by 01TheDude
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15 hours ago, shadroch said:

I wouldn't trust any Kirby signature on a books cover. I certainly wouldn't pay a premium for one. 

I'd have to agree with you on this one. I don't recall ever hearing about or seeing (back-in-the-day) a Kirby signature on a cover (Other than the Marvel Milestone books I mentioned... and those tend to have a bit of a stigma attached to them).

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17 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Although not Marvel and maybe not SA...

Got these all signed by him at the original SDCC. At the El Cortez. He and Will Eisner would sit down by the pool after dinner and "hold court" with his big fat cigar. If you were lucky and there were very few people around, he might do a nice sketch. I had a nice Cap one he did for me. But I lost it in a house fire many years ago. He was a wonderful man and so good to his fans.

I believe I have an Omac #1 and a Jimmy Olsen #134 as well as a GA Star Spangled around here some where.

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These are all wonderful.

Thank you for posting them and sharing the story!
I love the info gleamed from collectors prior to my time going to conventions and/or meeting writers/artists.

I got to meet Eisner a few times at the SDCC, and he was very nice each time I met him.

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One year, I had a table at a Creation con in NYC when they were still doing comic shows.

The building next to my store housed a company named Gallo that made really nice pewter figures.The owner was really hard to work with but I somehow convinced him to give many thousands of dollars of his merchandise on consignment, so I set up a really nice display of fantasy figures, chess sets and such.  The first day Jim Starlin stopped by and picked up two small figures. The next day he came back and bought a chess set. On the last day, a gentleman comes by and tells me he heard from Mr Starlin that I had some really nice things. We talk for a bit and he buys several pieces and after we finish our business he asks me my name. I say Bill Ryan and offer my hand for a handshake. Just before our hands make contact, looking me in the eye, he says Frank, Frank Brunner.  I was taken aback and I can still remember how limp my handshake ended up.

The fanboy in me loves that two of my favorite artists have things in their homes that I sold them. 

I was never one for autographs and the only one I've ever stood in line for as an adult  was Joe Simon.

Edited by shadroch
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1 hour ago, shadroch said:

One year, I had a table at a Creation con in NYC when they were still doing comic shows.

The building next to my store housed a company named Gallo that made really nice pewter figures.The owner was really hard to work with but I somehow convinced him to give many thousands of dollars of his merchandise on consignment, so I set up a really nice display of fantasy figures, chess sets and such.  The first day Jim Starlin stopped by and picked up two small figures. The next day he came back and bought a chess set. On the last day, a gentleman comes by and tells me he heard from Mr Starlin that I had some really nice things. We talk for a bit and he buys several pieces and after we finish our business he asks me my name. I say Bill Ryan and offer my hand for a handshake. Just before our hands make contact, looking me in the eye, he says Frank, Frank Brunner.  I was taken aback and I can still remember how limp my handshake ended up.

The fanboy in me loves that two of my favorite artists have things in their homes that I sold them. 

I was never one for autographs and the only one I've ever stood in line for as an adult  was Joe Simon.

Fantastic story!

I've met Starlin - he was one of my more recent ones... about 12 years ago.
He was a bit 'business-like' at first, but after warming up was fun to talk to and he was nice to my son, which I greatly appreciate. To me, it reveals a lot about the person if/how they engage kids.

I have a slightly related story to yours, in that I sold the Steranko Captain America Marvelmania poster, signed by Steranko, to Mike Zeck about 20 years ago.
It was an e-bay sale. I couldn't believe it was *that* Mike Zeck who had won my auction.

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2 hours ago, namisgr said:

I had Kirby sign my mid-grade copy of Cap 100 at Phil Seuling's New York Comic Con in 1975.  Sold it on the boards last year.

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so cool !!    also, I love your avatar , I don't own an original flying eyeball poster, but I do have a 9.8 first reprint ........ 

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Just a quick followup to my Creation story. 

After the show was over, I get back to my shop on Sunday night around 10PM to find the owner of Gallo waiting outside. He is mad and says he's been waiting for hours. I'm in no mood after working the show three days in a row and traveling an hour each way to boot. He wants his stuff back and his money. We are both pissed off and the conversation quickly went south. We go over the remaining inventory and he makes a big deal about what he claims is damage to a wizard statue. I say it must have been like that all along and I cant believe he is making a big deal on a $30 piece when I just handed him some $3,000 dollars. He goes nuts, smashs the wizard on my floor and jumps on it. Screaming curses and turning red, he tells me he will never do business with me again and says some unkind things about my ancestors. I'm just stunned how he went from zero to ten so fast. He takes his merchandise and storms out. I wait a while until he leaves so I don't run into him outside. As I'm locking up , I see an envelope and realize he left the money I gave him on the counter. I take Monday off and as soon as I open up on Tuesday he comes in all sheepish and asks if I happened to see an envelope. I handed it to him and he started to count it. I was about to say how insulting it was that he would think I took some, when he hands me $320 and says that is a reward for finding the envelope he lost.  I was going to refuse it, but didn't. 

He had a well earned heart attack a few months later and sold all his molds to some out of state company. 

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3 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Just a quick followup to my Creation story. 

After the show was over, I get back to my shop on Sunday night around 10PM to find the owner of Gallo waiting outside. He is mad and says he's been waiting for hours. I'm in no mood after working the show three days in a row and traveling an hour each way to boot. He wants his stuff back and his money. We are both pissed off and the conversation quickly went south. We go over the remaining inventory and he makes a big deal about what he claims is damage to a wizard statue. I say it must have been like that all along and I cant believe he is making a big deal on a $30 piece when I just handed him some $3,000 dollars. He goes nuts, smashs the wizard on my floor and jumps on it. Screaming curses and turning red, he tells me he will never do business with me again and says some unkind things about my ancestors. I'm just stunned how he went from zero to ten so fast. He takes his merchandise and storms out. I wait a while until he leaves so I don't run into him outside. As I'm locking up , I see an envelope and realize he left the money I gave him on the counter. I take Monday off and as soon as I open up on Tuesday he comes in all sheepish and asks if I happened to see an envelope. I handed it to him and he started to count it. I was about to say how insulting it was that he would think I took some, when he hands me $320 and says that is a reward for finding the envelope he lost.  I was going to refuse it, but didn't. 

He had a well earned heart attack a few months later and sold all his molds to some out of state company. 

Wow. That part of the story is unfortunate!

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I started collecting in the early '70's and remember going to a Detroit Triple Fan Fair in like '72 and having Bernie Wrightson sign my ST 1. 

At that time no one would have dared deface a comic by having it signed on the cover. We were even nervous about how the sig on the splash would affect the grade. It was more of a personal thing to have evidence of meeting with the creators back then.

I am still in that 'old' school, not a fan of signed covers.

I do crave a JK signed piece of OA, or maybe an SA FF. 

Edited by Tempus Fugit
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On 11/28/2020 at 11:12 AM, Tempus Fugit said:

I started collecting in the early '70's and remember going to a Detroit Triple Fan Fair in like '72 and having Bernie Wrightson sign my ST 1. 

At that time no one would have dared deface a comic by having it signed on the cover. We were even nervous about how the sig on the splash would affect the grade. It was more of a personal thing to have evidence of meeting with the creators back then.

I am still in that 'old' school, not a fan of signed covers.

I do crave a JK signed piece of OA, or maybe an SA FF. 

Completely non-comic related post...

Seeing 'the 70s' and that you're from MI reminded me of the time Dave Rozema came into the little mom-n-pop grocery store I worked at when I was a teenager. He was such a person_who_is_obnoxiously_self-impressed while he was paying for his case of Stroh's that he bottomed out on my respect meter.

Edited by Gaard
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