Original Art to Die For: The Holy Grail

20th Century Danny Boy has a long post about the art recreations that Mike Zeck is doing, has been doing, since 2000. I have to say that it was interesting reading, as I hadn't given much thought to the idea of recreations, much less the way that Zeck is doing them. While I've certainly seen some recreations in my dealings, I find myself wary of them, especially if you don't know the source.

As we all know, there isn't always the single original that we expect the art to have been shot off of. I know that I've run across a cover version of Detective #475 at a New york Con a number of years ago that was being offered as the "original", yet had no stats or even the glue marks of stats, which is pretty much unheard of from that era (1977). Yet it did look as though part of it was "original", i.e. that it had ink on paper that was put there by Terry austin. The clock artwork appeared to be a stat. Is there a story of how the cover was put together? Perhaps worth exploring. In this modern age of photoshop, it is even easier to manipulate the printed version. Dave McKean's Sandman covers looked wonderful in print, but the originals were multimedia nightmares to collect. I'm sure that most have gotten destroyed by this point.

Grail artwork:
There are a few grail artwork pieces that, if I were stupid rich, I'd be out there trying to find. I have no idea if they all still exist, although I do know for a fact that some are still in existence.

Captain Marvel #29 Cover













I know that this piece still exists, but without the Romita paste up face.

Miracleman #15 Cover

Johnny Bates and Miracleman in the most violent comic ever.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #24

The amazing two page spread with Etrigan making his appearance at the end of the book.

Master of Kung Fu #40 Splash page

The printed version of the page is a stat, and the main image exists somewhere out there...

Fantastic Four #51 Cover

Jack Kirby and his amazing creation, Ben Grimm in a beautiful pose on the cover.

Tower of Shadows #1

Steranko's splash page, which Albert Moy has had for years, is a masterpiece. I simply lack the 8 thousand dollars to purchase it!

i'm sure there are others, but all of these would be serious Grail pieces.