Beautiful Wilson.  Love that green.  Ok, here's my speech:  That green will fade badly if you leave it in the sun even for a short time. Hate to beat a dead horse, but these paintings are dropping like flies, and I see so many that have faded badly over the years.  And you have one beautiful Wilson there.   It's got it all.  

Hello:

It appears the picture taken of the art shows the art behind glass.  Would you consider posting a picture of the art without the glass covering it?  It appears the red is washed out compared to how it look when sold at Heritage back in 2011.  I'm hoping that is just the effect of the glass covering it.  

Thank you,

Bill Batchelor

It is out my good man!  Order from Hermes Press, as Diamond Distributors is in the middle of bankruptcy and who knows if book stores or Amazon will get them.  

And I meant to say thank you for storing out of the sunlight!  This one shows the beauty of an original piece by Mr. Wilson if protected.  So gorgeous.  That is one evil cover.  

Attribution is a tricky monster in the wrong hands. They don't know.  I sometimes see people give credit to Artist number 4.  Haha.  And may be it's line drawn by someone, and then Mr. Wilson painted it.  He did a few like that.  But the master of all things Wilson, Mr. Beccatini, states it is one of the few Mighty Samsons, that is not by George Wilson.  Good enough for me.  And when Mr. Wilson did a  painting for The Mighty Samson in the 1960s they were masterpieces. They have many tells that give his art away in spades.   This is a wonderful cover, but not in the vein of Mr. Wilson.  I hope you are doing well, Marcus.  Good to talk to you again.  

You're right Marcus.  Heritage was good enough to show a full picture of the art and describe the sun burn(even though I do believe this is ot a George Wilson piece).   I commend them for this.  

I just hope people will get a look at what sun,etc. does to these one of a kind art pieces, and know what is happening to this art, when they leave it exposed.  It seems better to take a really nice photo of the painting, have it sized the same as the original, show it, and then put the original in a safe place for posterity.  

And even more sad to see similar issues with the great Neal Adams Conan/kung Fu covers. I just know if I was buying one of these pieces I would really appreciate being forewarned of how delicate they are.  But I know people think, hell, I paid all this money for this art, I'm going to want to put it up somewhere so I can look at it.  But this piece tells the tale of what happens,better than I can describe.

Any solutions for this problem, that I haven't thought of?

Ps Check out the new The Art of George Wilson book that is gonna be out any day.  It's got all my pieces of George Wilson in it(some here, but many that have never seen the light of day, literally, haha).  I have tried my best to fight the fade demon for 25 years. Almost all are the same as the day Mr. Wilson painted them. We have been very blessed.  

Thank you vey much for posting this art.  One of my favorite Boris Karloff covers.  Truly a scary painting.  3 weeks until release of The Art of George Wilson by Anthony Taylor!  May I ask the history of this piece?  

Sold for $84K!

A record for Wilson art.  Wow!

Hey George:

Oh yeah.  That baby's real.  Thank you for the information.  Looking at the final art and this, I would say I like this one better.   I love what he did with the background.  He was such a master.  In his own way, as good as Frazetta.  He always has action.  A lot of time Frazetta doesn't.  I just wish Mr Wilson had blown his own horn more, like Frazetta did.  I take that back.  I believe I might have a preliminary from Turok in the March of Comics series?

I know I harp on this a lot but PLEASE be careful leaving the painting out in the sun, even the shade.  IT WILL FADE.  I take one of mine out put it on display for a week and put it back up.  So many of these have faded so badly, that I see coming up for sale.  I have passed on dozens of them as they were just too badly faded.   It hurts my heart to see them.

Enjoy this one. I've only seen just a single new/old one come up for sale over the last year.    Yours, as you say, is a KEEPER!

And thank you for sharing. You made my day.  

Bill  

Hello George:

I love this piece.  That is quite the prelminary!  I don't think I've ever seen a preliminary by Mr. Wilson before.  I assume not signed?  And if you would be so kind, could we have the dimensions of the piece, please? And is there anything on the back of the art?  And if I may be so bold, how did you find this piece?  

If you should get tired of it, haha, let me know.  Please.  

I hope you are well.

Sincerely,

Bill Batchelor

Thank you Steve.  He took the time, often like Neal Adams, as I'm sure you know, to color his own comic covers, as he had a vision, and colors were very important to his vision, as you can see from this cover.  I could never find any other Steranko color guides.  Have you considered posting some of the ones you had in the past? 

He put the groovy in Comics!

i just talked to him yesterday.  He is one of the giants in the comic world to me.  He captured a period of time so well in his comic art.  And a gentleman to boot!  

Thank you Brian.  There is a lot more to Wilson's paintings than most realize.  In spite of his schedule of producing paintings, he managed to throw in an underlying tale in most of his paintings.  You just have to search for it.  I have one of 10 copies of Weir's De Prestigius Daemonium from 1568(with a vellum that is not very wholesome, to say the least), that contains the list of demons you can conjure up if you dare.  While he did not believe in witches, instead thinking they were psychological condtions, making him the father of psychology basically, he did very much believe in evil and demons.  He was in fact the opposite of the Witchfinder General; and hence his books were banned and possession warranted your death in the inquisition.  It is such an important book it has been translated into English.  Generally unheard for most latin books from the 1500's. 

Mr. Wilson is indicative of how great the men and women of that time were.  They just took of business, and never spoke on it.  We need them now.  

Hello Terry:

I understand your thoughts on the rare part.  I should have clarified as to the rarity of the 1960's Wilson's.  But I do covet your #25, I must admit.   Thank you so much for posting it.  I have many times enjoyed it's beauty.  I would so enjoy learning the history of these pieces.   

It seemed like Mr. Wilson was really hitting his stride with these particular pieces.   They show an attention to detail that seems to be a little lost in some of his later paintings.  I can only imagine painting so many pieces, could burn you out.  I never realized how much of a hedonist I was until I got older.  Haha.  A fine perfume.  Beautiful automobile and a wonderful piece of art.  They all go hand in hand.   

I know I will have disagreement on this next point, but I raise a glass to him; the greatest comic book cover artist to ever live.  Here's to you Mr. Wilson.  

I just had to put up my success!  Here is a better image.  I didn't have to upgrade after all!  

Hello Duke:

I understand your concerns.  And I carry on an internal debate, and have so for many years, on whether to talk about this subject as it causes the owners some concern.  But in the end I felt like it was too important of a subject to not do so.  If this information had been out in the wild 20-30 years ago so many Wilson pieces would not have been so badly damaged, including some of my own.   I only wish somoene had told me this could happen 20 years ago!  

I post it here as everyone who loves comic art is here.  Being a life long fan of comic art I cannot stand to see such beautiful art damaged in such a way that could be avoided.  And I see it constantly.  

I do realize this is not art that I own, and that I am critical of the art, but only because I love Mr. Wilson's art so much, and it hurts me so badly to see it needlessly being damaged to the point that we never get to see his work as it originally was.  It would be like people not knowing that a certain piece of glass would damage their Romita work, and if you could just share the information with them, the pieces would not be destroyed, but you didn't.  Frankly, from a selfish point of view I would be better off to say nothing, let the existing pieces be damaged, making my pieces worth more.  But there is more to this than just me and my art.  This is about an intregal part of comic history being lost forever.   I could never forgive myself if I did not do everything in my power to stop this.   

Duke, I do appreciate your concerns, and have always respected your thoughts,  and welcome anything I have missed.

Sincerely,

Ashley Batchelor   

Hello Wallace:

That signature is hard to find!

It is a strange piece, as if the background characters were added onto the painting and they don't look like something Mr. Wilson would have done.  

Just wondered about your thoughts on this.  A wonderful piece and the woman is top-notch Wilson at his best.

Sincerely,

Ashley Batchelor

Hello Michael:

Thank you for posting this!  What a wonderful piece.  The Flash Gordon's are so hard to find.  Can you give any other details about this piece?  The colors are still wonderful.  Do you keep it out for viewing, if I may be so bold?

Did you ever imagine you would own something like this when you were first reading the comic in 1965?  How great is life!!!

Sincerely,

Ashley Batchelor

I'm so jealous Marc.  Tell you wife she is a lucky girl.  Wonderful Boas and very original!!

Hello Marc:

Thanks for the kind words.  I have been searching for these COF covers over the last 20 years, to no avail.  I bought a lot of pieces out of Calvin Beck's estate but no COF cover art.  I have the negatives for many complete issues and they are really cool!

Good to hear from you and please say hello to Mr. Boas for me, and let him know I really have appreciated his work for over 20 years, and love his covers as much as Famous Monster's Gogos' covers.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Sincerely,

Ashley Batchelor