Rodrigo Baeza

Harvey Kurtzman: Silver Linings daily strip original art (1948)

(Source: instagram.com)

Reed Crandall: Painting based on Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling (1957).

From the seller’s description:

“In 1954, the department of EC Comics he worked for was shut down after a sequence of Congressional Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency. This left Crandall, who would only pop back into the public eye again around 1960, in a serious existential crisis.

It was at this time, already it seems well into his alcoholism, that he met the United Methodist minister, John Farquharson Dow [1930-2019], then pastor and graduate of the Drew and New York Theological Seminary. They began to meet at John’s house and took to reading Martin Buber, Reinhold Niebur, and Soren Kierkegaard together. But it was apparently Kierkegaard that occupied most of their time.

In April of 1957, Crandall painted the present for him as a tribute to their weeks together reading Kierkegaard’s classic on Abraham and Isaac, Fear and Trembling. It was a gift for Dow’s wedding on April 27, 1957.

Before John’s death in 2019, he dictated a description of his memory of the painting, attached to the rear stretcher, ‘Given to Betty and I by our dear friend, Reed Crandall on April 27, 1957, our wedding day. For several weeks prior, Randall [sic.] had been involved in lengthy discussions of Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and found great hope in Abraham and Isaac’s faith as being 'beyond’ modernism and rational inquiry, which he here represents in an apocalyptic vision of the faith of Abraham and Isaac slaying the robot-knight, bringing to mind both modernism and the enlightenment and rationalism in general.’”

(Source: ebay.com)

Fred G. Cooper: Life Magazine original art and published cover (1928)

(Source: comicartfans.com)

José Muñoz: Batman sketches (1990s)

(Source: scotteder.com)

Tony DiPreta: Joe Palooka original art (1966).

From Sports llustrated, November 14, 1966:

POW! BAM! SOCK! TCH! TCH!

As readers of the comics are well aware, Joe Palooka, the other heavyweight champion of the world, is finally defending his title after 10 years of antiquing in Norwalk, Conn. with his wife (SI, April 19, 1965). The challenger: King Abbso of Jyrobia, who seems to be a composite of the Shah of Iran and Pete Rademacher. The King already has beaten Joe in handball 21-14, 21-19, 21-12, 21-17, in tennis 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 and in golf—Joe shot a 79 to Abbso’s 71. Tch! Tch!

Although an amateur, the King has had a fight with Billy Kaprone, Joe’s last opponent, and knocked him out—and Kaprone went 15 with Palooka! What’s more—more than Joe’s title is at stake. As Abbso has explained: “Jyrobia has remained neutral in the struggle between your country and Communism! However…if you accept my challenge…and win…I shall have gained a new respect for Americans! And Jyrobia and the United States will be friends!” Says President Johnson: “Tell Joe Palooka to fight him…and to win!”

Says Tony DiPreta, who draws the strip: “I feel like I’m really drawing Joe Palooka, not a guy wandering around not knowing what his place in the comics is. I’m doing Nov. 25 now, and they’re in the fifth round. Joe’s taking a beating and he hasn’t been hurting the King at all. Abbso has a wicked left hook. From watching Joe’s movies, the King has learned that when Joe gets set to throw his left hook, he drops his right—the opposite of what Schmeling saw with Louis. Joe doesn’t know how come he’s being clobbered. Joe’s down! He’s up at eight!…”

Some years ago the McNaught Syndicate, which edits and distributes the strip, forbade Joe to box because the sport was in such disrepute. DiPreta was asked if the Abbso fight was a sign of a new beatitude in boxing. “No,” he said, “we got a new editor. The old one was a woman.”

(Source: russcochranauction.auctionanything.com)