Daredevil #100, page 11 (Origin Recap)

On this piece

Not surprisingly, for this pathbreaking one hundredth issue of old Hornhead, we have a recap of his origin (as recounted to the then co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone for a dash of realism). This is one of the pages and a great deal has been packed into it – from a flashback to the “twins”, Matt and Mike Murdock (the former creating the latter in a fit of panic in a much earlier issue in the series to explain away awkward circumstances) to Matt’s various physical endeavours to ensure that his physical shape was as sharp as his other senses that were heightened immeasurably as a result of his contact with radioactive matter during an accident that rendered him blind (this is recounted on another page currently in the gallery of another CAF member). However, what drew me most to the page was the panel between father and son. Each generation wishes better things for the next, and much wisdom is required. Here, Matt’s father, Battling Jack Murdock, is advising his son not to follow in his footsteps and to make a better life for himself. Indeed, it is because of his desire to impress his son that he reneges on his promise to throw a fight that gets him killed. Although Matt does avenge his father’s death in his first costumed adventure, it is sad that he never got to spend more time with his father. For those of us who have lost one or even both parents, the grief and pain that lingers on and never goes away is a very real feeling for many of us. And for those of us who have children and even grandchildren, do we not wish the best for them?

The penciller is also a great favourite of mine – the late and great Gene Colan. He was a warm and wonderful as well as genuine man, and I will forever treasure the personal message he inscribed in my copy of Tom Field’s marvellous biography of him, Secrets in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan. His art on Daredevil is legendary. If I’m not mistaken, he took over the artistic reins from John Romita Sr from issue 20.

Returning to the present artwork, ironically, the same scene between father and son (rendered in more detail) was the subject of a piece from the inaugural issue of DD that came up for auction. Not surprisingly, it was sold for a far higher price – higher than I was possibly able to afford although I would have liked to have had that page to go with this one as well if it were at all possible. And then I was reminded how blessed I already was because I already had a couple of pages from this very first issue and that was already beyond all my expectations when I first started out in this wonderful hobby. This leads me to my more general observations.

More generally

I didn’t really want to revisit observations on whether or not one has overpaid for artwork because as I observed many years ago now, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also, one mustn’t forget that there was at least one other “stupid” person (the underbidder) in the context (as was the case here) of an auction. However, there were observations – once again - that I had overpaid for this particular page. As I have observed before, that is fine with me. This was not the first time such comments have been made of pieces in my collection (indeed, I was surprised to learn that Fisch Benz also recounted similar observations on a piece of his on a recent (and very interesting) show). There is in fact no scientific formula with regard to pricing a piece of art – which is what the magic of the hobby is all about. Aside from not spending money that is meant for the family, one cannot mechanistically dictate how one is to go about purchasing a piece of artwork. Take, for example, a Ditko Amazing Spider-Man page in my CAF gallery (from ASM #31 and in my featured CAF gallery). I bid successfully for a page from that same issue at the actual (Mastro) auction, but then regretted that I had not bid for the page just mentioned as well. It subsequently turned up on a prominent dealer’s website at a significant mark-up. I pulled the trigger – and never regretted it. Was I expecting it to appreciate in value? Quite honestly, my own sense even then was that Ditko ASM pages would probably not depreciate much in value over time but there was no expectation that it would appreciate much in value over time either. However, I did feel a little foolish viewing the comments at the time. Now that prices for Ditko ASM pages have reached astronomical levels, those comments have been rendered moot. However, it is not about bragging rights (because for ordinary folk like me, funds are not unlimited in any event, so how long could one sustain one’s “addiction” if one was minded to be a constant show-off in this regard?) – in the final analysis, it’s about our love for the hobby, rooted in nostalgia and a whole lot of other intangible reasons as well as feelings that the artwork concerned evokes; it’s all about our sense of wonder and may that never cease.