Daredevil 233, Pages 03 and 04

Here's a great sequence from possibly the best Daredevil story ever written - Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Born Again (originally published in Daredevil 226-233). This was a favorite of mine from back in the 80's, and still holds up very well all these years later. I've owned page 4 for years, and knew the whereabouts of page 3 for almost as long. I don't know why I put off obtaining it for so long. I'm glad it was still available once I finally decided to do something about it. I always enjoy having pairs of pages since comics are a sequential medium and it really helps relay the impact of the story. (click for larger image)

Rip Kirby 1954-01-25

I had a small strip art collection some years ago (chronicled in CFA-APA issue 65), but sold most of it off. I was trying to condense my collection down to the bare essentials, which meant retaining only the stuff I was most nostalgic for (i.e., 1980's comic book art). I do have a real soft-spot for the photo-realistic strip art of the 1940's-1960's however. There were some tremendously talented guys producing the most beautiful art on a daily basis. Among the best were Alex Raymond, Leonard Starr, Jose-Luis Salinas, and Frank Godwin. I own or owned strips by all of them, but I did sell my only Raymond a while back.

My interest in these strips has been rekindled lately, and I was lucky enough to find this excellent Alex Raymond Rip Kirby at what I thought was a bargain price. Raymond is considered by many to be the best strip artist of all time. I won't pick favorites, but I'm glad to have another Raymond in my collection. (click for larger image)

Here's a close up of panel one showcasing Raymond's great brush and pen work. (click for larger image)

Fantastic Four 253, Page 20

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2012!

I had nearly the entire issue of this book, but never planned to keep it. I sold all but this page. For years I had hunted down Byrne FF art, and I especially wanted a nice early page featuring inks done using "traditional" inking tools (i.e., pen and brush - all the later stuff was done with magic marker). I was finally able to buy an example, but had to buy all the pages together. That shows you how rare this stuff is. Ironically, after I purchased the near-complete book, early pages began hitting the market after all. Go figure. Anyway, great inking on this page - very detailed. Compare this to the later pages I have from the 260's and you'll see the difference. (click for larger image)

You can read about my hunt for John Byrne Fantastic Four art in some of my CFA-APA articles (click for link)

Karl Steinhauser (1880-1954)

Here's a nice beach scene by the California artist Karl Steinhauser. He was born in Germany on March 29, 1880 (I purchased this painting exactly on what would have been his 132nd Birthday!). By 1915 Steinhauser had moved to Pasadena. He died in San Diego California on March 18, 1954. This painting has a very nice impressionistic style. The sky is delicately painted, and I like how he incorporated tones of pink in the sand. (click for larger image)

1930's Cubism Part II

The second of the two 1930's cubist pieces I picked up from a dealer in Russia. This one is really nice and is an image of a seated woman. I was told the artist's name is Azbuka, and it is signed K.A. I could not find any information about the artist. Medium appears to be colored pencil. Size is approximately 11 x 14 in. (click for larger image)

1930's Cubism

Picked up two great cubist pieces dating from the 1930's from Russia. I am told the artist's name is Azbuka, but could not find any information on this person. The piece is signed with the initials K.A. Medium appears to be colored pencil. The piece is approximately 11 x 14 in. (click for larger image)

 

Update 2025!  I'm on a roll!  I just updated an old post from 2009 with some exciting new information (seen here).  And now I thought I would update this one.  I actually figured this one out a few years ago but never got around to updating the post.  I purchased two of these 1930's style cubist pencil originals on ebay years ago.  The seller was in Russia, so I assumed it was a Russian artist, but could never figure out who that was.  One day, while on a trip to Pasadena, CA with my family, we took a trip to the Norton Simon Museum.  And suddenly, upon entering a room, I came across a large oil painting which was a near identical match to this piece.  So clearly, this is just a copy by some amateur artist.  Still, nice to know the origin.  The painting is titled "The Traveler" and is by Russian artist Liubov Popova.  I am adding an image of the original painting to this post.  Link to museum: https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/detail/M.1967.11.P/

Vira Varyanska

Here's the second of the two paintings I picked up from the Ukraine. Very nicely rendered portrait of an elderly gentleman. The artist was born in 1983 and studied at the Kiev Academy of Art. She also exhibited at the Krakow Academy of Art in Poland. This is fairly large at 35" x 21". (click to enlarge)

Here's a detailed image of the face. (click for larger image)

Pereta Vyacheslav

Just acquired some nice art from the Ukraine, including this lovely figure study. I love the contrasting reds and greens. The artist was born in 1977 in Dubno, and studied at the National Fine Art Academy in Kiev. This piece is fairly large at about 27" x 35" unframed. (click for larger image)

Here's a detailed image of the face. (click for larger image)

Fantastic Four 253, Page 10

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2012!

Here's another great page from FF 253 featuring Mr. Fantastic. This page dates to just around the time when John Byrne switched from traditional inking tools (pen and brush), to magic marker. These earlier pen and brush pages have much crisper inking. (click for larger image)

Wetering Portrait

Here's a very fine portrait I acquired by the artist Johannes Embrosius van de Wetering de Rooij (1877-1972). Wetering was born in Woudrichem in the Netherlands and studied art in The Hague and eventually obtained a royal grant. He is most known for his landscapes and water scenes, which makes this portrait quite rare. In fact, the highest auction record I could find for him was not a landscape but instead a scene of people reading on a terrace. (click for larger image)

A photograph of Wetering in his studio.

Animal Farm

Picked up a terrific museum-quality painting that I am really excited about. It's oil on wood panel. The painting is not signed, and I have no idea who the artist is. I do know that the artist was incredibly skilled - the details are just stunning. Looks like a Dutch farm perhaps. I had originally estimated the date around 1940's - 1950's, but I was able to dig up a little information that shed some light on this piece.

The label on the back lists Borst and Clausen as the framer out of Manhattan in New York. I did a little research and Borst opened his shop in NY in 1886. In July of 1890, Borst retires and Clausen takes over the shop. Not sure how long the company stayed in business after that, but it seems this painting dates to the turn of the century - maybe 1910 or so. I'll have to do a little more digging on this one, so for now, I'll just enjoy looking at it! (click for larger image)

H. Loveland Hawaiian Shore

Got this nice seascape in recently dated 1941 by an H. Loveland. I have not been able to find any info on the artist yet, but according to the label on the back, it is entitled "Hawaiian Seas". The label also reads "Association of Honolulu Artists", and finally a price of $50. It's going to need some cleaning as it has yellowed quite a bit, and there is some very minor paint loss that will need touching up, but otherwise a real nice painting. (click for larger image)

Fantastic Four 266 Cover

In all my years of comic art collecting, there has only been one piece I have regretted selling - this cover. Well, after it being absent from my collection for several years, it is finally back!

The story goes back a few years - another comic art collector friend and I were discussing John Byrne's Fantastic Four years, and we decided to choose our favorite covers. Our choices were very different, and somehow this cover came out as my top choice - a classic image that I fell in love with as soon as I saw the original comic book back in the mid-80's. He said "I bet you could find that one", and with his encouragement, I contacted a dealer friend to inquire if he knew where it might be (he being the guru of all things Byrne). Turns out he knew exactly where it was; at HIS house! Shortly thereafter, we made a deal and it was mine. I won't go into the foolish reasoning that got me to sell it after that, but suffice to say, I regretted it. Well, I was happy to right that wrong recently and get this baby home again.

This cover, depicting The Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Charisma, is done entirely in marker, which is typical for this period of Byrne art. One thing of note - the figures are HUGE on this cover - probably the largest figures on any of the covers he did during his stint on the Fantastic Four. I actually did the overlay on this cover the first time I owned it, since none of the lettering is actually on the art. I also tweaked the scan in Photoshop - the lettering is quite white compared to the paper stock of the art. I'm going to re-do the overlay and match the color with the paper stock. (click for larger image)

If you want to read more about this cover, John Byrne's run on the Fantastic Four, and my chase of John Byrne art, check out some of my CFA-APA articles (link).

Di Angelo Painting

Just got a new painting in and I am loving it. Probably dates from the late 40's, early 50's and is signed Di Angelo. Very nicely painted image of people strolling through a market. It has a beautiful hand painted frame with a very interesting old label on the back that says "Artistic Framing, Bloomingdales NY". I'll have to do some research on this one... (click for larger image)

Did a little research and it looks like this is the Italian artist Pasquale D'Angelo (1896 - 1955). The seller told me it was from the 30's, which makes sense given the artists life span. I found a very similar work by the artist of an alley scene that was probably done about the same time as this painting, and even looks like the same city.

Dark Knight Returns Production Page

I've been seeing some of these production pages on ebay lately, and thought I'd pick one up. Not exactly sure of their origins, but they appear to be printers proofs of some kind, and may have been distributed with anniversary copies of the DKR TPB. They consist of two layers; one is the color art (computer printout), and the other is a clear overlay containing the black and white line art. I took some time and created another overlay that contains the lettering so you can actually read the page (click for larger image). Coincidentally, this page immediately follows the original page that I own from the book.