G. Aman, the Bob Kane of grade school.
Still processing this collection, of course…it’s a lot, and I’ve got New Comics Day stuff to do on top of that, so it’ll be a minute before I finish.
What’s interesting is coming across some signatures in a few of these books here and there: notable was Gerry Conway’s John Hancocks in Amazing Spider-Man #121-2, the Death of [ANCIENT SPOILER DELETED] issues. Sold already, sorry!
But in Avengers #101, featuring the work of noted futurist Harlan Ellison:
…the bottom of the first page had the signatures of Mr. Ellison as well as that of Marvel stalwart Roy Thomas:
So, sorry, Collectors Solely of Comics Signed by Both Harlan Ellison and Roy Thomas, this one’s stayin’ in my collection.
Which reminded me of this first page of Silver Surfer #18 (1970), also found in this collection, and featuring the signature of the King himself, Jack Kirby, as big and bold as you could hope for across the bottom of the page:
But not to be outdone, a previous owner of this book decided to make his/her claim on comics history by putting his (or “her”) autograph at the top of the same page.
Here’s to you, G., forever sharing a page with one of the most legendary of comics legends.
And this isn’t even the *good* stuff? Can’t wait to see more. Thanks for sharing the awesomeness of these comics, Mike!
I really had to think about the title of the post…. I believe you’re saying G. Aman was taking credit for something he didn’t do, like Bob Kane on Batman? But it was most likely a kid who signed it, hence being in grade school?
And thus by explaining the joke, I’ve totally ruined it.
G. Aman was gutsy though, you have to give him that.
Also, how do you know G. Aman didn’t sign it first?
Final comment/Question:
How do you go about determining if these signature are authentic? Do you up the price for a signature? How much would you bump up Roy Thomas vs. Jack Kirby?
How many pages was G. Aman contracted per month I wonder?
I hope they don’t react too strongly when asked to adapt their style to a changing market
I am impressed by the Harlan Ellison signature.
Probably my second favourite speculative fiction writer, after Philip K. Dick.
Thelonious-From my experience, it’s not easy to authenticate comic book signatures, unless you get the comic with some sort of seal of authenticity.
I’ve been told that a signature will actually downgrade the value of the comic, until you can prove the signature is legitimate.
People just take the signature as a forgery until that point, so it’s the same as ol’ “G. Aman” signing the comic.
I’m sure there are experts who can verify the signature, but I don’t think they are easy to find and they probably charge quite a bit of money.
Steve Grad is the only expert of which I know; he makes regular appearances on the TV show “Pawn Stars”.
He is used by the company CBCS.
It would depend on the signature of it would be worth the effort.
Roy Thomas’ signature is probably not worth a great deal, and it would most likely end up eating almost all the profit from a book to pay to get his signature authenticated.
Kirby on a key book or a Harlan Ellison signature would probably be safer bets, but again, that is probably related to the condition of the comic too.
A mint key comic signed by Kirby would probably be a huge deal.
A key comic in “Good” condition signed by Kirby, again, the value would probably be mostly eaten by paying to get the signature authenticated.
Unless the creator was a recluse or something, you have to imagine most of these writers and artists were signing quite a few objects down the years, so their signatures aren’t going to be exceedingly rare.
I’m not sure it’s be worth spending the money to get the books authenticated, even with popular names like Kirby or Ellison. Especially if the expert concludes it is just a forgery.
Good old Harlan. If you went to writing conventions, every writer had at least one Harlan story. I have a Gold Medal edition of Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND that he signed because he pulled a lot of shit on younger writers. I had more than one copy, he knew that, but still. This was back in the day when home addresses and phone numbers were easy to come by. So now I have a copy of IAL signed by Matheson and one signed by Ellison AND Matheson. Harlan’s dead, and I did check on how much the first book would go for and wouldn’t you know it, the one he didn’t sign is worth more and understandable
Harlan was also in a JLA issue back around the 90s or early 100s in the early 70s. He was (I believe) Elliot S! Maggin’s friend Harley and he couldn’t get a date.
Mike: do you still have that Adventure Comics starring Supergirl where someone wrote something like “You get ’em, Pixie-Pie!” under the Supergirl logo?
You posted that about a decade ago. The things that stay in my head.
It was Justice League of America#89, another Flash pointing at the cover shot, and Superman had a blank head.
One last thing about signatures. You ever get any left-handers with smeared ink?
I can’t prove it of course but based on past experience I am 99% certain those signatures are authentic.
Whenever I see a collection like the one you’ve been showing off, I always get a little excited and want to see it all. And then it dawns on me that I likely already own 99% of what’s in there – and then I’m a little sad. The sheer volume of my collection now prevents me from having those moments of discovery like I did several decades ago. I’m also reminded of how glad I am that I got a lot of that stuff off the rack at cover price.
KRBY AUTOGRAPH! Ho-LEE shit!
Is this a pandemic-related sale? Perhaps you don’t want to talk about that here but, more generally, how has the pandemic affected your business?
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