Chiodo, Joe - Flamingo

The cover to Jerry Iger's Famous Features #1. My first exposure to Joe Chiodo's work when the book came out in 1984, and still my favourite piece of his artwork. A lovely 18 x 24 inch painting shown in a poor scan. I purchased this beauty from Mitch Itkowitz in July 1989. I have added the image of the cover of the comic book as printed in the Additional Images.

My friend Mike worked for the city doing electrical work, or meter readings or some such, and as he did his work in some client`s home he came across two Good Girl Art paintings from the brush of H.J. Ward. These were stretched canvas on wooden back frames, and were sitting neglected leaning up against the wall.

Mike asked the owner if he would mind if he came back one evening to talk about purchasing the paintings. Neither Mike nor the owner had any idea of the value of the paintings, although Mike knew these were girly pulp cover paintings, and their approximate vintage.

When Mike purchased them, he told me about them, since he knew me to be an original art collector. At the time, I had little idea of the paintings` worth, either, but like Mike, I figured they were somewhat valuable. Mike hedged his bets and traded or sold me one of these paintings for more than he paid for both of them, and kept the other for himself (more out of fear that he would be losing a potential gold mine than because he collected original artwork).

I had this painting for perhaps a year and in July 1989, when I was unable to go to the Chicago ComiCon myself, I had my friend Ferd take the painting down from Winnipeg to the show, and shop it around. As I recall, Ferd told me that George Hagenauer was very interested but cash poor, so in the end, Ferd wound up trading the painting on my behalf to Mitch Itkowitz in exchange for a Joe Chiodo painting that I had always wanted -- the cover to Jerry Iger's Famous Features #1. That was my first exposure to Joe Chiodo's work, and is still my favourite piece of his artwork. Joe had just recently agreed to sell the painting after years of refusing to do so. I had already agreed to purchase the painting and Mitch was holding it for me.

The Ward painting I traded was the original cover painting for TATTLE TALES, March 1937, oil on canvas. I believe it was 18`x 24`. It featured a sexy secretary or `public stenographer` sitting in front of a typewriter with a `come hither` look, dressed only in filmy lingerie, stockings and garters. If you have the David Saunders book, HJ Ward, which was published in 2010 by The Illustrated Press, it is reproduced at full page size on page 62.

Most people would call me an idiot for making such a trade, and perhaps I was, but hey, I got my favourite painting by a great artist in exchange for what I gave up, and I am still happy with having done the deal, even if it was economically unwise.