The Marvel Method Archive

Original Daredevil art turns up

Patrick Ford 20 June 2016 Over the past few years several pages of original art for DAREDEVIL #9 have emerged from hiding; the cover and pages 1,2,7 and 9. Just today Heritage Auction Gallery posted page 8 from that issue. Gethin Lewis: Hmmmm...wonder where they've been hiding? Patrick Ford: Gee. I wonder if it could be Stan Lee? Gethin Lewis: Good guess, his garage apparantely is filled with them. Patrick Ford: Lee's dialogue is the written words equivalent of high fructose corn syrup. Calling his crap corny just doesn't get there.

Gethin Lewis: (Comic Book Guy voice) " Oh, your dialogue is so trite and corny, it would make even Stan Lee wince!" ^^^ ;) ^^^ Patrick Ford: Everyone agrees that judging art is a matter of taste. Good taste and bad taste. Gethin Lewis: Eggsactly Patrick Ford: Sure. People say, "You can't argue taste." Which is true. What can be done is pointing out that some people have really bad taste. I'm certain there are currently hundreds of thousands of people walking around who love the current Hollywood blockbuster type of movie. And 99% of those people would almost certainly hate Orson Welles' THE TRIAL. They wouldn't just hate it, they would consider it unwatchable. I have no doubt there are hundreds and hundreds of classic films those people would never watch because they would consider the films top be "slow" and "boring." Patrick Ford: Just the other day I saw an example. There was a post circulating which mentioned the edit of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY which Stanley Kubrick had premiered to preview audiences had been found. Or more precisely the 15-20 min. he cut after the previews had been found. And one of the most frequent comments was a variation on what a slow and boring film it was and how additional footage would only make it more slow and boring. Dave Rawlins: I have read that someone at Marvel gave Wood's 1st wife, Tatjana, some of his art. Marvel still refuses to acknowledge that original art belongs to the artist, a fact fully delineated in Ditko's "Sore Spot Cause And Crusade". Patrick Ford: J David Spurlock has mentioned that Dave Rawlins. It's also been reported in the comics "press" That is where Disney and Warner send their suits for ironing. Patrick Ford: http://www.comicsbeat.com/legal-matters-j-david-spurlock-suing-tatjana-wood-for-wally-wood-artwork/ Patrick Ford: If you notice there is a vague mention of 150-200 pages. That is a broad range and no evidence is given which mentions what that figure is based on. For all we know someone at Marvel told J David Spurlock that they had returned the art to Wood's former wife. Without a document there is no way of knowing if Marvel returned pages to Tatjana Wood or if they claim they did. And if they did return pages it isn't known how many and which were sent to her. Patrick Ford: The comments on the story at THE COMICS BEAT are a bit of a hoot. Anyone that has paid attention to stories concerning the Original Art Marketplace knows that threats of legal action are the fallback position of collectors and dealers and professionals. And yet on that thread J David Spurlock is smeared by two different people and a long time and prominent art dealer is named and described as a thief. Ken Gerber says 07/22/2015 at 6:15 pm This story bothers me to no end. It takes me right back to the frustration I had when Koch stole all of the ket Kirby and Ditko stuff from the Marvel Warehouse. Every Ditko Spiderman page out in the marketplace was stolen by Pete Koch. And so on. I consider Pete’s theft of the Marvel art the biggest art theft in American history. I am not joking. As an example, what will pages from the first four Spiderman books bring when he finally does find a weasel to start leaking out pages from them one at a time? And to Tatjana goes my sympathies. She is in her 80’s now. Leave her be. Spurlock should try to make money in other ways. He is the estate and if he is able to get his greedy hands on this art he will immediately start selling it. Daredevil 7 pages will start showing up for 50K each. When will the comic greats and their families finally be protected from the Spurlocks and Kochs of the world?? Ken Gerber Patrick Ford: The naming of Peter Kotch is interersting. Obviously Kotch did not steal the art from the Marvel warehouse. I've been told the thieves were Marvel employees. Of course it was original art dealers who told me it was Marvel employees who stole the art. And then they sold the art to various dealers. The dealer who was described as the primary fence turned out to be a dealer who has passed away. Patrick Ford: Here's an e-mail a dealer sent me "off-the-record." "The sellers have often been described as "scruffy," "shady," "druggies," and unknown. Certainly not regular customers to the 28th St. comic shop. They certainly weren't dealers either since I'm assuming all the dealers were pretty recognizable to one another. Reportedly, dealer Steve Fishler of Metropolis Comics was a regular customer at the 28th St. shop. The one dealer's name I've heard many other dealers mention was the source of numerous stolen complete Ditko stories was Steve Harrington. I've never heard Brad or anyone else mention Steve as involved in the comic shop or park transactions but he was the first dealer seen selling stolen Ditko art in public at the NY conventions right under Shooter's nose. Many believe he had inside connections with a marvel staffer. Anyway Steve passed away many years ago. " Patrick Ford: Based on Sean Howe's UNTOLD STORY "scruffy," "shady," "druggies," is a perfect description of the '80s Marvel staff. J David Spurlock: Wood was married three times. He was married at the time of his passing in the early 1980s. His estate planning took care of both his current wife (3rd) who received his house in CT; his close friend John Robinson who took care of him during his declining health; and even had provisions for Wood's 1st wife, who he had divorced back in the 1960s. Wood chose Robinson as his executor and put him in control of the 'residual estate' including copyrights and physical art. Robinson brought on Wood's long-time close associate, Bill Pearson, to serve as Director, to help manage the Estate. After 30 years, Bill Pearson decided to step down. Bill Pearson and John Robinson — with the support of the late Mrs Wood's Estate — asked me to come on as the new Director as of 2012. I was picked for my decades of experience in serving and advocating for, artists and their rights (Infantino, Steranko, Adams, Kubert, Frazetta, Brunner, etc). I have likewise worked with Wood's wife (3rd) and her Estate, Wood's brother Glenn (he and I founded the Wally Wood Scholarship Fund together), and Wood's 1st wife. Wood was very clear as to who was to receive what. His wife received a house and some funds. His ex-wife received funds and a large, rent-controlled apartment near Central Park, amongst other things. The residual estate (copyrights and physical art) was turned over to Robinson. The Estate has been managed every since Wood's passing with two primary interests: 1) to carry out Wood's expressed wishes and, 2) to preserve and expand the great artist's legacy. The Estate asked the court for help in regards to the art which was mistakenly delivered — not to Wood, not to Wood's widow, not to the legal executor of his Estate but — to Wood's old 1960s address where his ex still lived. The Estate hopes to stop the selling of Wood's art if/when it contradicts Wood's rights and/or express written instructions. The Estate hopes to open a Wood Museum, or partner with an existing museum, so that the art can be preserved for future generations — thus fulfilling the mission of expanding the great artist's legacy. Patrick Ford: Thanks for that comment David. Were you ever able to determine if pages were sent by Marvel to Tatjana Wood ? And if so which and how many? If Marvel informed you they sent pages to her did they supply an inventory? Lacking any documentation I'd tend to wonder if their claim pages were sent to Tatjana Wood was just a cover story. J David Spurlock: I'm not going to get into any more but will say, she showed them to me before I became involved with the Estate. Sadly, no cover or story pages from DD 7 were included — meaning someone at Marvel had already misappropriated those and; the delivery contradicted Marvel's returns policy in MANY ways. Someone at Marvel delivered Wood's art — not to Wood, not to Wood's widow, not to the legal executor of his Estate, but — to Wood's old 1960s address where his ex still lived. The Estate hopes to stop the selling of Wood's art if/when it contradicts Wood's express written legal instructions. Again, the Estate has been managed every since Wood's passing with two primary interests: 1) to carry out Wood's expressed (including written) wishes and, 2) to preserve and expand the great artist's legacy. The Estate hopes to open a Wood Museum so that the art can be preserved for future generations — thus fulfilling the mission of expanding the great artist's legacy. Patrick Ford: Here are a few other curious facts surrounding Wood's original artwork for Marvel. As of 1981 here are the DAREDEVIL pages by Wood which were in Marvel's possession.

J David Spurlock: Again, the cover and story pages to DD 7 were misappropriated while at Marvel, after the 1981 inventory. They were not among the many pages mistakenly delivered; not to Wood, his widow, or executor; but to his ex-wife at his old 1960s address. The DD7 pin-up is the only page from that issue that escaped theft while in Marvel's custody. Patrick Ford: Just a reminder. Page eight, which is the image attached to this post, is soon going to be auctioned off by Heritage. This page has not previously been sold by Heritage. A Google Images search shows the page has never before been posted on the Internet until Heritage put it up yesterday. Patrick Ford: As you can see as of 1982 Marvel had most of Wood's original DAREDEVIL art in it's possession. Marvel had all twenty pages of DAREDEVIL #5 and the pin-up. Marvel had all twenty pages from DAREDEVIL #6. Marvel had 18 of the twenty pages from DAREDEVIL #7, issue #7 also contained a one page pin-up. Marvel had nineteen of the twenty pages for issue #8. And Marvel had all twenty pages for issues 9-10. Someone took a liking to issue #11 because only one page was in the warehouse. Patrick Ford: BTW. Notice in panel two Lee has placed a note which says, "add to balloon, I can sense it all." Jim Van Heuklon has spotted another instance where Lee made sure to "talk real slow" so that his audience of eight year old geniuses could understand him. Notice the addition in the panel Jim found is in a completely different style from the rest of the balloon and is so crude looking it may have been lettered by Lee.

"How can I betray such a man?" is lettered in a near scrawl.

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