Love and Marriage #11 Page 2 - Matt Baker?

Note is has been brought to my attention that some people do not believe this is a Matt Baker page. I contacted the dealer and he was more then willing to take it back and return the pages I sent him in trade. Mike is a fair and honorable person in all of my dealings with him. After thinking everything over maybe it isn't or maybe it is. The industry back in studio days does not have clear credits so everyone has their opinions. I personally see Baker in panel four but I wasn't there.

So what is the page worth? What someone is willing to pay for it like all collectibles. In order to own a page like this that has no question marks about being Matt Baker would be a price out of my league. As to who did - hell who knows who did what with Wally Wood, even Ditko had a studio, many artists had assistants and whether Joe Sinnott did all the inking on certain pages is questioned. It is part of the industry and we take some things on faith.

Once I started getting more and more into collecting art, I then started reading more and more about various artists and over the years become a fan of Matt Baker - one of the very few black artists to break the color barrier way back in the forties. Matt's work set the standard for good girl artwork. You fall in love with them and can recognize them as Baker women. Dave Stevens was his heir apparent in the industry in my book.

But finding a Matt Baker page and being able to pick one up while I pick up so many other pages was going to be difficult. Likely Mike B. was will to do a trade and I let go of 4 pages to get a grail page for me. The fourth panel was the panel that sold me on this page. Truly stunning work.

So many more great artists to add but this one is special for me.

From Romitaman's Website

LARGE ART GOLDEN AGE Romance page, which was penciled and inked by the great Matt Baker, from the story titled: "Love to Share!" This nice page features the beautiful girl of the story in EVERY PANEL! This is Baker pencils and inks, perhaps with an inking assist from fellow Iger Studios artist John Thornton. This story was not drawn in 1953, though that was the first time the story saw print. It would not be published in the United States until 1958, by I. W. Publishing in the Super Comics title LOVE AND MARRIAGE (don't know if they bought the title from Superior Publishing or if I. W. Publishing was partnered with Superior). This story was drawn about 1947 or 1948, judging from the art and the story of the returning serviceman. Though done for Iger, this story was inventory (stockpiled for later publication), and became part of a large lot of stories sold by Iger to Superior Comics/Superior Publishing in Canada in the early Fifties as he (Jerry Iger) down-sized his operations (he would close his shop in 1955, just two years after this story saw print in 1953). It may seem different to some as by the time this story saw print Baker's style had changed and matured a bit, and also we are accustomed to seeing him inked by Kamen (a lot), who had a very heavy brush. Also, this story is rather static, so there isn't the action we are accustomed to in so much of Baker's work for Iger Studios.