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Author:
Title: JACK KIRBY'S SECRET CITY SAGA No. 1 * Steve Ditko Collection
Place Published:
Publisher:Topps
Date Published: May, 1993
Description: CGC certified: NM (9.4). White pages. Grader notes: "Multiple bend back cover." STEVE DITKO COLLECTION. CGC-certified as Steve Ditko's personal copy, and with a certificate of authenticity signed by Patrick Ditko, Steve Ditko's nephew. Not cleaned and pressed in order to preserve all traces of Steve Ditko's handling. Credits: Cover: Steve Ditko (Art Adams inks). Scripts: Roy Thomas. Art: Steve Ditko. GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A non-Ditko Collection 9.6 sold for $10 in 5/24. Ditko Collection Census: This is the only certified Steve Ditko Collection copy.Near the end of Ditko's mainstream comics career, when he was scraping by on a modest income and his annual page count was in the double digits, he nevertheless refused lucrative art commissions, writing to a fan: "It's been a policy of mine not to do personal request jobs. I'm only interested in doing stories for publication. Everything else is just being sidetracked or a dead end." Ditko also nixed Marvel's offers to draw Spidey and Doc Strange, despite the ducats that would've flowed into his meager coffers. He acknowledged the seductive pull of nostalgia, but insisted on moving forward. "It's normal, natural, to want a repeated, continuing gratification, but who wants to continue to relive yesterday?" – Ditko, "The Movers and the Freezers," Four-Page Series #4, 2013. Carl Jung said that "what we resist persists," and although Ditko repudiated looking backwards, that seems to be exactly what he was doing in his late-career comics. While '80s and '90s funnybook fans were clamoring for all things grim n' gritty, Ditko was mired in stuff like Speedball and Secret City, which, compared to Alan Moore, art spiegelman, Frank Miller and Dan Clowes, might as well have been "Hello Kitty." And so the Pantin' Public, that fickle arbiter of success in the commercial arts, shrugged like so many Atlases, and Ditko's stuff was cancelled due to soggy sales. "Demographically, [Ditko] was also victimized by [a] continued inability to move his characters' dress, mannerisms and surroundings into a present-day setting; he always seemed to be a decade behind.... [Ditko's art] lacked the 'cool' quotient demanded by the new, young X-Men faction of fans." – Blake Bell, Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko. Fantagraphics: 2008, p. 158.***************************** Enjoying the Ditko Sale? Order a fully-illustrated softcover catalogue for 30 bucks or a limited edition hardcover for $200. Fun reference, great keepsake, fully illustrated, chockablock with bon mots, obscure facts, esoteric lore. These books always go fast so don't delay. To order, contact [email protected]. Consign to PBA Galleries. Top prices for Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age, original art and ephemera. Our sell-thru rate is 98%, and our research-intensive catalogues are the best in the biz. Find out why PBA is the new fan-fave of funnybook fiends. "This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books... Priceless." – R. Crumb. Send inquiries to [email protected]. Coming soon: The DC Universe Collection Part 4: SUPERMAN, featuring every issue of Superman from #1 through the modern era. Contact [email protected] to get on the notifications list.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $199 $10
$200 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000