Shelf Bound Auction: Day 14 – SILVER SURFER BY LEE/KIRBY!

This auction is now closed.

The purge for charity continues! You can see a complete list of all auctions here, in chronological order starting with the latest, here. Full auction details are included at the end of the article, but to bring the new folks up to speed real quick:

Every weekday until Friday, June 5th, we publish a new Shelf Bound article announcing a bind or bound set up for auction.

Each bind auction’s bidding starts when its article is published and ends 72 hours later, so today’s auction will close at 3 PM EST on May 17, 2020.  

Bids must be posted in an item’s comment section to be considered for that item; highest bid posted before close of auction wins.

Bids from outside the U.S. are welcome, although shipping outside the U.S. may incur additional fee. Bids posted in currencies other than US dollars will be valued at their USD equivalent.

The winning bidder emails me (greg at multiversity comics dot com) to verify donation particulars, then makes the donation and send me verification.

I send out the bind.

Everyone wins.

30 weekdays. 34 binds. All proceeds going to charity. Sound good? Let’s get to it!

THE SILVER SURFER BY STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY

Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby, Moebius, John Byrne
Inked by: Joe Sinnott, Moebius, Tom Palmer
Colored by: Tom Palmer, John Wellington, Glynis Wein
Lettered by: Artie Simek, Moebius, Rick Parker, John Costanza

Published by: Marvel Comics | Epic Comics | Simon & Shuster

Collecting:

• The Fantastic Four #48-50, 55-61, 72, 74-77 (Mar 1966 – Aug 1968)
• The Silver Surfer OS (Mar 1982)
• The Silver Surfer #1-2 (Dec 1988 – Jan 1989)
• The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience OGN (Jan 1978)

Additional Material: None

Bind Details:

• Oversewn binding
• Black Arrestox cover material
• Black/white headbands
• White endpapers
• Page edges trimmed

Signatures: None

Sketches: None

Bound by: Herring & Robinson Bindery.

If there’s a character more associated with Stan Lee than Spider-Man, it’s the Silver Surfer. He might not have a ‘great power, great responsibility’-level catchphrase like the Webhead, but the Surfer was Stan’s best soapbox for lamenting mankind’s flaws and praising its virtues. It was never subtle, but when you have that great Kirby character design and artwork staring back at you, waiting for you to give it its voice, subtle doesn’t quite cut it.

I didn’t set out for this bind, cobbled together from the When Galactus Calls! Epic Collection, the original Moebius and Byrne comics, and a 1997 reprint of the 1978 Surfer OGN, to favor Lee over Kirby. I understand Kirby created the Surfer completely without input from Stan, who despite having the worst memory in comics consistently mentioned being blindsided by the character’s first appearance. And I find myself preferring Kirby over Lee in general when it comes to their overall output. But once I started cobbling together the comics I wanted in this book, the more common thread was Lee as writer. C’est la vie.

This bind has several interesting wrinkles to it, but my favorite is that it has three different takes on Galactus & the Surfer coming to Earth for the first time: once with the usual Marvel Universe trappings but then twice more in broader science-fiction settings. And those last two are done by master cartoonists of completely different stripes: the Metal Hurlant style by Moebius for the Epic miniseries, and the American bombast style by Kirby for the 1978 OGN.

That OGN was the last collaboration between Kirby and Lee, and really was an original graphic novel (or novella, really); commissioned by Simon & Shuster specifically for bookstore release.

Why You Should Bid

Not to toot my own horn, but I really think this is a great mix of material showing off excellent work by some of the best creators in comics.

*ahem*

That OGN is currently out of print, and tracking it down in the aftermarket is tricky. The original 1978 printing is easier to find than the 1997 reprint (and usually cheaper) but the trim size is slightly larger than standard comic size, so using it in a replica of this bind would be tricky if you wanted the edges trimmed all clean-like.

The Silver Surfer Epic Collection series skips over the volume (#2) that would have included the OGN, so maybe they will give it a wider & cheaper release at some point? I’m honestly not sure why it’s been out of circulation for so long. One might think its original release by Simon & Shuster might have muddied the rights waters a little, but I’m pretty sure it was still covered under Marvel WFH contracts. But at any rate, it’s tough to find now and not looking to get easier any time soon.

So you COULD take the time & effort to track down the OGN and the reprints (or sacrifice some original FF comics – no judging!) and turn them into your own book via a binder using the techniques & approaches we cover every month in Shelf Bound . . .

OR

you could bid on the bind we’re auctioning today, get the benefit of someone else doing all that work for you, bone up on your Kirby v Moebius comparisons in case you find yourself mediating this particular fan battle, AND do some good for the comics community we all love in the process!

Starting Bid: $25
Auction Ends: May 17, 2020 at 3 pm
Proceeds Benefit: The Hero Initiative

AUCTION FINE PRINT

• This auction ends 72 hours after the date & time of this article’s posting.
• Bids MUST be placed as comments below to be valid.
• Bids order is set by the timestamp given by Disqus. I subscribe to every comment section and receive an email notification simultaneous to the posting of every new comment. That email’s timestamp is what I use to determine bid order & the final bid cutoff time.
• DO NOT TRY BIDDING FOR THE BOOK BY REPLYING TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT TWEET!!!!! BIDS SENT IN THIS MANNER WILL BE IGNORED!!!!!
• Highest bid posted before the end of the auction wins. The winning bidder has 24 hours to contact me via twitter or email (see below) to set up payment. If contact is not made in this timeframe, the winning bid is invalidated and the next highest bid will be the winner.
• Winning bidder will make the donation in the amount of the winning bid to the agreed-upon charity. Upon successful donation and receipt of receipt (hehe) by me, the bind will be mailed out via Media Mail on the following Saturday unless an alternate schedule is agreed upon by all parties.
• Feel free to post any additional questions you may have prior to the end of the auction below; I will do my best to answer them ASAP. Additional and/or specific pictures of the bind are available on request.
• Thanks in advance to anyone bidding on these binds. Good luck!