High Comics Related Item for the Week Ending February 3, 2006

This is probably too sketchy:

eBay: Rick Griffin ZAP Comix #3 cover – original artwork

Still an $80,000 hammer price deserves mention.

eBay: NCS MASTERWORKS #1 Frazetta, Eisner, Steranko Kirby

Best Offer: US $7,000.00 Seller: nostalgiabooks( 1871)

Description:
"THIS IS PORTFOLIO #1!!!!! In 1977 Burne Hogarth, then President of the National Cartoonists' Society, approached me about publishing a Portfolio for the Milt Gross Fund component of the NCS. Working with Hogarth and Will Eisner we arrived at a list of over 50 artists who would be invited to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime event. Finally over 20 artists agreed to participate. The NCS Portfolio of Fine Comic Art was released in three volumes based upon the return of art and the signed and numbered Plates in the Portfolio. Volume One features a gold embossed Hal Foster slipcase and Volume Two/Three (released together) is encased in a Burne Hogarth illustrated slipcase. Volume one contains the following 12"x16" Plates printed on archival acid free stratmore stock with each artist signing and numbering their Plate in each Portfolio: Burne Hogarth "The Four Horsemen", Jack Kirby "Captain America: Partners in Action", Wally Wood "Idyll", John Severin "The Eagle Taking Coup", Al Williamson "Flash Gordon", Barry Windsor-Smith "The Witch", Jeffrey Jones "Seduction", Jim Steranko "Silk Stocking Murders", Jerry Robinson "Golden Age Batman, Robin and the Joker", Will Eisner "The Spirit: Treasure", Johnny Hart "BC", Milton Caniff "Steve Canyon", Harvey Kurtzman "Little Annie Fanny", Russell Myers "Broomhilda" …14 classic works of graphic art, each Plate individually hand signed and numbered by the Artist …Volume Two is: George Evans "Death of an Ace" (full color), Michael Wm. Kaluta "Through Whom My Power Flows", Selby Kelly "Pogo and Friends", Harold Foster "Merlin" (hand stamped and numbered), Berni Wrightson "WereBear", Jack Davis "My Good Buddies", Gil Kane "Star Hawks", Neal Adams "Tarzan" (signed only not numbered) and the bonus Volume Three (contained with Volume Two in the same slipcase) includes Harold Foster's "Merlin" hand colored in watercolors by him just for the bonus Plates (the bonus Plates were added as a thank you to the original subscribers to the Portfolio for waiting while some of the artists delayed the project), Frank Frazetta "The Gauntlet" (full color rough of the Clint Eastwood movie poster), Will Eisner "The Spirit's Swamp Rescue", Wally Wood "Dweller in the Dungeon", Harvey Kurtzman "Sex Object", Al Williason "Flash Gordon's Space Soldiers", Burne Hogarth "Prince Machiavelli"….the bonus plates are NOT signed or numbered except in the first 50 Portfolios. ..HOWEVER, THIS IS THE VERY FIRST NUMBERED ULTRA RARE PORTFOLIO. THESE WERE ALL HAND BOUND IN LEATHER WITH ACID FREE LINEN HINGES (THE PLATES MAY BE REMOVED FOR FRAMING) AND ARCHIVAL VELLUM BETWEEN EACH PLATE. THE HARDBOUND LEATHER BOOK CONTAINS A SPECIAL END PAPER GOLD STAMPED WITH A BURNE HOGARTH ILLUSTRATION WHICH IS ALSO EMBOSSED ON THE FRONT OF THE BOOK. TO PROTECT THE BOOK A SPECIAL HARD SLIPCASE WITH A NUBBY BUCKRAM WAS MADE WITH THE SAME EMBOSSING ON THE FRONT. THIS MASSIVE TOME WEIGHS AS MUCH AS 20 BIG MACS. THIS IS #ONE AND ALL THE PLATES HAND SIGNED BY THE ARTISTS ARE ALSO NUMBERED BY THEM WITH NUMBER 1. WHAT MAKES THIS ONE (AND ANY OF THE FIRST 25) UNIQUE IS THAT IT CONTAINS THE BONUS THIRD VOLUME WITH THE PLATES SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE ARTISTS. ONLY THE FIRST 50 VOUMES HAVE THIS AND THE FIRST TWENTY FIVE ALSO HAVE THE HAND SIGNED AND NUMBERED NEAL ADAMS TARZAN PLATE HAND COLORED BY NEAL ADAMS. EACH OF THE FIRST 25 MASTERWORKS EDITIONS HAVE A HAND COLORED NEAL ADAMS PLATE AS THE FRONT PLATE. EACH IS A UNIQUE AND GORGEOUS WORK OF ART. I WILL ADD A SAMPLE FROM ONE OF THE OTHER FIRST 25 LATER THIS WEEK. I CANNOT SHOW THE INTERERIOE AS I WILL NOT BREAK THE FACTORY SEALED PACKAGING. IT HAS NEVER BEEN OPENED SINCE SEALING IN 1983. IT IS A PURE MINT AS IT CAN BE HAVING ALWAYS BEEN STORED IN A TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED UNIT. THE FRANK FRAZETTA COLOR PLATE IS NOT SIGNED ALTHOUGH IT IS NUMBERED BY THE PUBLISHER TO MATCH THE PORTFOLIO thE SAME IS TRUE OF THE FULL COLOR MERLIN PLATE BY HAL FOSTER. BY THE TIME THIS SPECIAL EDITIION WAS ENVISIONED MR. FOSTER WAS TOO ILL TO SIGN THE PLATES..also included with this item is the magazine I wrote for CAPA-alpha detailing the entire process of the portfolio including the problems with Frank Frazetta and Neal Adams including the lawsuit we filed against Adams which resulted in the creation of the 25 hand colored plates for the MASTERWORKS EDITION as a part of the settlement, the production process, the final choices, letters from Burne Hogarth and Jack Kirby, full color photos of Portfolio artists at work: Hogarth, Eisner, Evans, Wood… This portfolio is in MINT condition and has never been opened since it was publisher sealed in 1982. Check my other auctions for individual sets of Volumes One, Two and Three for sale as well as Plates from broken sets. Be sure to check my eBay store for all my listings of Nostaliga Books inventory. More is being listed every week so check back."

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