Original Art Stories: Steve Ditko's Mr A: $38,837.50

What makes this splash page worth $38,837.50? I kid you not, that's what this art just sold for in the last Heritage auction. It's a lovely Steve Ditko splash page, from one of his most personal pieces of work and, if you've seen Watchmen and have read Mr A, you'd know that there's a very highly likelihood that Mr A, along with another Ditko creation, The Question, can be considered to be the inspiration behind Rorshach. Still, $38,000+? That's a fair chunk off a small house. It's a brand new car, and it's an amount that would have snared you the following Ditko pieces in the same auction, with change.

Ghostly Haunts #24 - original cover art. This sold for $1,971.75. A lovely Charlton cover from 1972. Ok, so it's not one of Ditko's own creations, and you can argue that it is Charlton and not Marvel, or DC, but it is a cover that's pushing 40 years old. And, even better, it sold for a fraction of the price of the Mr A. I've seen a lot of lesser artists price their art for more than this, and, to be brutally honest, if I had $2,000 I'd much rather this than anything, and I mean ANYTHING, by the likes of Rob Liefeld or even Jim Lee. Feel free to argue that all you want, but the truth is...it's Steve Ditko.

Creepy, #11, page 1. Sold for $5,078.75. I did mention that the Ghostly Haunts cover was Charlton, albeit a minor publisher in the grand scheme of things, but Charlton does have an advantage over a few other publishers - a lot of their art is hard to get as a lot of it has been destroyed over the years. I can't recall the collectors name, but there was a famous house/storage shed fire a few years back that saw a large cache of Charlton art completely destroyed, or burnt to the point of disrepair. Yes, it does make you want to cry.

On the other hand, Warren art is out there and accessible. Some of it is a bit clouded as to ownership as Warren's assets were sold off in the 1980s, and those assets included original artwork that had not been returned to the original artists, thus it was sold illegally. Where the bulk of the artists involved began to make strong noises in relation to having their art retrieved and returned, Steve Ditko, true to form, didn't want to have anything of it. In Ditko's (Randian) world, once it's gone it's gone. This is a man who could have easily asked for the return of the first Spider-Man story, as published in Amazing Fantasy #15 (which was originally stolen from Marvel) but didn't want to know. Mind you, in my eyes, even with Ditko's attitude being known publicly, it doesn't make it right to deal in stolen art, but then I'm in a minority there, especially when some people are offered a Ditko Amazing Spider-Man page, or anything by Jack Kirby.

Which brings us back to this page. At a shade over $5,000 it's still $33,000 cheaper than the Mr A splash. A lovely inkwash Ditko Warren page from 19668, two years prior to the Mr A. The purist will argue that this page was written by someone else, but when that 'someone else' is Archie Goodwin, possibly the best author Warren ever had, to me, that argument is then voided.

All of which brings us to this page. Beware the Creeper #2 page 10. Sold for $2,629.00. Written by Denny O'Neil and done at the same time as the Mr A page. The Creeper was also created by Ditko. The difference is that Mr A is 'pure' Ditko (that is, both written and drawn by Ditko) and there's a huge difference between the two characters. Mr A is more steeped in Objectivism than The Creeper ever was (in fact the closest that Ditko came to 'doing' Mr A for a mainstream publisher is The Question for Charlton), but for sheer action this Creeper page has far more action than the Mr A page, but it could have been had for nearly $36,000 less.

So why did the Mr A sell for so high? I really don't have an answer. It's classic Ditko art, showcasing what Mr A was all about. It could have something to do with the character, and art, being one of the few properties that Ditko created that he retained. It could be because it first appeared in Wally Wood's Witzend fanzine. It could be because Ditko had a strong hand in creating one of the most popular, and well known, characters of the 20th century - The Amazing Spider-Man. Who knows?

Well presumably the buyer knows, if indeed there actually *is* a buyer. Heritage aren't known for being totally clean when it comes to their auctions, their practices in shilling their own auctions and other dubious actions have been well documented (for example, read this, this, this, this and this, just to name a few, and place a bid on a Heritage auction and you'll soon discover that you might 'win' the auction, at a price right on your maximum bid) and Heritage are offering a service whereby you can 'Make An Offer' to the seller/buyer/someone so it might be possible that the page actually didn't sell for the amount that it's credited with, so unless a third party who bought it pops up, or Heritage reveal who now owns it (which they wouldn't, and rightly so) it may never be fully known if the art did indeed fetch $38,000+, an incredible amount for a Steve Ditko Mr A page. But then why would Heritage lie? That's the easiest question to answer. By having a piece of artwork 'realise' such a price, it brings in more sellers. They see the final figure and think, "I've got comparable artwork, so I'll consign it to auction," and hope that they, too, will win a mini-lottery. Even with Heritage taking between 15 and 19.5% of the final price, it'd be worth the punt. And the more items they get for their auctions, the more turnover, the more money and the bigger they become. So who really cares if they do the wrong thing by a few people? They're certainly big enough to ignore the criticism.


To keep things in context, these two Hulk pages, also sold by Heritage auctions, earlier this year, both sold for $6,572.50 each. Is it just me, or is it a bit odd that two pages can sell for exactly the same amount of money? Still, I'd rather have two non-Hulk Ditko Hulk pages, dating from 1963, than the Mr A splash.

You tell me - which would you rather, out of all the art featured on this page right now, all things being equal. Indeed, which would you have bid more for, and why?

Ghosts Of West Indies Past

I'd like to remind the West Indies, and their Test Cricket hating captain, that they carry with them a lot of history and baggage from test series past, so at least try to put up a fight, or provide some entertainment. This has to be the first ever Adelaide test that I not only have no desire to go and watch, but can't be bothered to at least catch the first session on television. I found these two B&W photos in a scrapbook documenting the legendary 1960-61 Australia v West Indies test series that I recently purchased. This was a series that defined the way cricket would be played between the two giants for decades to come, but, sadly, even with the presence of Joel 'Big Bird' Garner in the tour side (albeit as team manager), the current team is anything but world class. Gerner would do worse than to sit these guys down with some footage of classic matches from the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s and see the reaction. Let them see the likes of Wes Hall, Brian Lara, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Curtly Ambrose and co and see if that doesn't fire them up.

I doubt it'll happen. Until then, we still have video and DVD, so when the game is over in a three day flurry of Bollinger wickets (and let's face it - if you're a test cricketer and get out to the bowling of Hussey, you shouldn't be playing - even Huss was embarrassed) at least we'll have something decent to watch. As it stands, Gayle, who's stated that he'd be happy to see Test Cricket die the death in favour of 20/20 cricket (what an inspirational captain, eh), is doing his level best to see his wishes come true - the death of the long form of the game, as opposed to leading his side to victory.

Chris, Frank Worrell would have dropped you, not only from the side, but from the islands themselves, in a heartbeat, after your side's spineless capitulation already. Redemption should start today, but I'd not bet on it.


I'm not sure which game in the '60-'61 series this is, but as the original owner of the scrapbook came from Adelaide, and the bulk of the clippings came from Adelaide magazines, I'm expecting that the photos are from the Adelaide test. If anyone can spot them, feel free to comment and take a punt on which game it was!

Three Of The Best

I wrote about one of these comics back in February 2007, but I've decided to revisit and update it, but hey, why not use some old text?

First up is an absolute classic. Titled 'The Phantom Zone' and published in October 1982, this 96 page giant reprints the entire Phantom Zone mini-series by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan, in glorious black and white! It rarely gets better in comics books - Gerber and Colan - and this one comic is proof why we Australians were utterly spoiled when it came to reprint comics. The American originals cost $0.60 each - that'd be an investment of $2.40 for the entire four issues. In colour. And, as we all know, Gene doesn't look anywhere near as sweet in colour as he does black and white, in magazine format to boot. So this was a cheaper, and, in my own opinion, a better way to obtain the story.

You can say what you want about the physical quality of the 1970s and '80s Australian reprint comics, and some of it might well be valid, but this issue of Superman The Comic is what they were all about. Everything that was cool about these reprints is perfectly summed up in these gigantic reprints. This issue also has a sealed section as well, just like a filthy porn section in an otherwise decent magazine.

According to the Australian DC reprint site, this book came out in December 1979, meaning that I more than likely wouldn't have been able to afford to buy it from the newsagents. We grew up poor and in 1979 $1 was a decent chunk of change. It could get me about 10 to 20 American comics, usually without covers, although I did manage to buy the entire run of Iron Fist once for roughly $2 the lot, from a second hand store that I used to ride 30 minutes to reach, or walk about 90 minutes. Or it would buy me 20 books from the local library when they'd do their book sales. They sold books for 5 cents each, any book, but only in the winter months. The trick was getting them home dry, meaning I'd buy about $1.50 worth and ride my bike home, one handed, looking like I'd either swallowed a sheep or was heavily pregnant. That's where I got my copy of All In Colour For A Dime - which I still have - and a pile of 1960s Alter Egos, which the dog promptly ate, barring one which the cat pissed on. Sorry Roy. Oh yeah, they're long gone. Faced with such stiff opposition buying a new comic off the racks was virtually a no-no, unless it was something special. I expect I'd have seen it and passed - the little digest sized Marvel reprints (which I'll start writing about soon) could be bought for about 40 to 50 cents each back then.

The book's contents are nothing short of amazing. Talk about bang for your buck! The Americans never got books this great. This comic reprinted material from the following American originals:
Superman Family #190 (the entire contents)
All-New Collector's Edition C-62
DC Special Series #5 (Two Great Superman Classics intro)
Superman #13
Superman #300
Superman Annual #1 (Map of Krypton)
Superman Annual #2 (How the Super-Family Came from Krypton; With Best Wishes from your Super-Pal, Superman)
the 1955 Kellogg’s Premium Superman Giveaway
Superman #245 (Superman Presents a Collection of Special Features)
Superman Family #172 (The Superman Family Album)
Superman #197 (Clark Kent’s Other Jobs)
Action Comics #334 (The Origin of Super-Horse)
Action Comics #347 (Supergirl's Boy Friends)
80 Page Giant Magazine #3 (When Superman Kissed Lois Lane)
Superboy #175 (The Superboy Legend)
Superman #45
Action Comics #395 (The Secrets of Superman's Fortress) and a handful of material that hasn't been sourced yet.

Better still, as if it could get any better, there was a sealed section. Sealed sections only appeared in magazines like Cleo, Playgirl and the like - centerfolds with mild nudity, but nudity all the same. Did it show if Kal-El indeed was a super man? Certainly the cover of the sealed section would suggest so - that's as racy an image as you're likely to see on a sealed section. Talk about phallic! Does this mean that this comic broke the final taboo? Of course not. The sealed section had oodles and oodles of super facts, ya dirty person you! Details about Superman's life and origins. Krypto! Comet! Supergirl! All clothed! Ummmm...Maps! You name it and it was probably in there. This is what comics were all about.

I doubt that anything in America came close to delivering this kind of material at such a low price. Granted a good 2/3 of the book was printed in glorious black and white, but the 64 page reprint from Superman Family #190 was printed in colour, albeit on cheap quality newsprint (as was the wont of the time) and hey - 128 pages of classic art from the likes of Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Bob Brown, Jim Mooney, John Forte, Pete Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger and Al Plastino plus stories by Jerry Siegel and Gerry Conway (amongst others), a competition for both a three-in-one stereo and a state of the art cassette player, photos from the Superman movie and the sealed section - well what more could you want from your $1.

Now this one is the big one. The cover bears the boast that it's, "The Largest Comic Ever Published" and it might just be right. I've seen phone books thinner than this. Published in 1982, this would have to easily be one of the most impressive Australian DC reprints ever issued. It contains an amazing 26 separate stories. In order, they are:
DC Comics Presents #14 (Judge, Jury... And No Justice)
Action Comics #406 (The Ghost that Haunted Clark Kent)
Action Comics #509 (The Great Space-Travel Hoax)
Superman Family #204 (The Coupon Caper)
Superman Family #208 (Lois's Dream Scoop)
Superman Family #183 (The Day Lois Lane Walked All Over Superman)
Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #122 (The Day Lois Lost her Mind)
Superman Family #207 (The Exposé Exposé)
Superboy #180 (Prince of the Wolf-Pack)
The New Adventures of Superboy #19 (The Scrambled Egg-Hunt)
The New Adventures of Superboy #7 (This Planet Is Condemned)
The New Adventures of Superboy #12 (The Day of the Alien Scoop)
Adventure Comics #210 (The Super-Dog From Krypton)
Action Comics #344 (Supergirl's Super-Pet)
The New Adventures of Superboy #17 (It's a Dog's Life)
Action Comics #467 (A Superman's Best Friend is His Superdog)
Secret Origins #2 (The Supergirl from Krypton)
Superman Family #205 (The Earthquake Enchantment)
The Brave and the Bold #147 (Death-Scream From the Sky)
Superman Family #201 (Hang-Glide To Nowhere)
Superman Family #202 (The Reporter Nobody Knows)
Superman Family #171 (Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder)
Superman Family #199 (The Blackmailed By-Line)
Superman #270 (The Viking From Valhalla)
Action Comics #507 (The Miraculous Return of Jonathan Kent)
Action Comics #508 (The Secret World of Jonathan Kent)

There's a name for these volumes now: Showcase and Essentials. You see, Australia were producing these comic books decades before the Americans caught on. And they were damn cheap. Where else could you spend $2.20 and get such a huge volume featuring Curt Swan, Alex Saviuk, Joe Giella, Pete Costanza, Jim Aparo, Win Mortimer, Al Plastino, Romeo Tanghal, Kurt Schaffenberger, Dave Hunt, Bob Brown, Kim deMulder, Bob Oskner, Murphy Anderson and even Vinnie Colletta! And it includes one of Jim Mooney's best ever stories, Supergirl's Super Pet, featuring the debut of Streaky, the Super Cat. This was all housed beneath a Curt Swan penciled and Neal Adams inked square bound cover.

It doesn't get any better than these.