Note: The pages were too big to scan so I used the Notes app on my iPhone. They aren't as white as these scans show, but they are lighter than shown in the
Nate D. Sanders Auction scans.
Why I bought themWhile S&S is his best-known creative work today, my true favorite is a character he created well before arriving at what we know as DC Comics,
Scribbly, the Boy Cartoonist.
Scribbly was perhaps nearer to his heart than even S&S. While S&S were inspired by his children, Scribbly was Sheldon. Created when Sheldon was 19, he used Scribbly to tell stories about what he knew best - being a boy cartoonist. The stories featured a very young Scribbly using his drawing ability to help support his family. They started in
DELL comics and migrated to DC when he did.
How I came to own themBack in 2020,
these pages came up for auction at Nate D. Sanders Auctions. They were billed as 'Original ”Scribbly” artwork hand-drawn by comic pioneer Sheldon Mayer, published in ”All-American Comics” #6 from September 1939, and then reprinted in ”The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told” (DC, 1990)'.
A friend, Gary Land, told me he wanted them. I asked if he’d like to bid on them together - after all, who else would be bidding? Besides, I’d be happy with one. He declined. Bidding started. Kathy was egging me on as was my then big bank account (comic book sales). It got to $30K and I dropped out. Not long after, Gary called me and asked if I’d like to split them! I said sure.
After agreeing, I remembered the story from somewhere and went looking for it in my library. Eventually, found it in
The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. That was cool. Got to see them in print. Then I found this…
I was suddenly less happy with my purchase. So was Gary. Golden Age first appearance of a character is worth a lot of money. These pages though were recreated in 1989 or so and feature a minor character. They were not worth $7500 per page.
We talked about it and reached out to Nate. He explained. Nate understood and asked what we wanted to do. We offered $6K ($1500 per page) for the art or a full refund. Nate went to the family and Lanny decided to keep them. That was okay by me.
I never expected to see them again.
Thanks to my friend Rob Stolzer though, I did! Rob found them in the eBay comic strip section where I would never have seen them. I read the description and they were again listed incorrectly. I wrote again. They fixed it by canceling the auction and re-listing. Of course, I’d setup a search and saw it even though it was still in the wrong category.
Whew!
Only 5 people bid. Their feedback ranged from 43K to 2.7K so I figured that they were serious collectors and I’d get beaten. My cash pile is long gone, but I have a bonus coming in March. Kathy and I usually split it with the bulk going to property taxes and our summer vacation. The rest is for us to squander independently. So, I bid it all of my half of the remainder knowing it would not be enough.
Shows what I know because I did win! for less than $500 for the four pages!
Origin of the PagesAs mentioned above, these pages were re-created by Sheldon for
The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. I found out recently what triggered their creation and inclusion in the book.
Robert Greenberger, who worked as an editor on the seminal series, wrote this about the
Red Tornado and the Cyclone Kids entry in
13th Dimension column on the Who's Who of DC Comics, "(Sheldon) was not in good health by this time (1986 - Alex) and couldn’t come to New York, but was happy to chat with DC staff when we called, so I was encouraged to invite him to do this page. We struck up a cordial relationship resulting in this page and, shortly thereafter, his faithful recreation of a story to be used in The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. Having someone whose career was synonymous with DC and who was there at the beginning was a special treasure.
In the additional images, you will find a picture of Mike Gold (editor) and Bob Greenberger (assistant editor) with the art. Mike and Bob seemed very glad to see it.
