1st Spider-Man Belongs In a Museum!
Donation protected
Hi there. I am a cartoonist in Victoria, BC Canada and I've worked in a comic book store for 25 years. Three days ago, a woman came into my shop with the most beautiful copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 that I've ever seen. It's the iconic first appearance of Spider-Man from 1962, and, after the first appearances of Superman and Batman, pretty much the most sought-after comic book around.
She had heard that copies had sold for ridiculous amounts of money (like a million dollars) and asked me to sell it for her. She had bought it as a teenager in Victoria in 1983 for $450.00 and it seems that now was the time to set it free. My first step (there was not much I could do while she was standing in front of me with it) was putting a photo on Instagram, asking if anybody had an extra five hundred thousand dollars on hand.
Within hours, I got a call from a reporter named Lauren Boothby (from a local newspaper called Victoria News) who came down to do a piece on it: http://www.vicnews.com/news/rare-1-million-first-edition-spider-man-comic-for-sale-in-victoria/
First thing the next morning, however, my phone started constantly ringing! I had four film crews at my shop by mid afternoon and by the end of the day I'd been interviewed seven times. CTV in Toronto had me live on the evening news, The CBC had cameras on me for television and had me into the studio for a radio interview. Chek Six News was even there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq_LvPaIgtM
The mini media circus continued this morning, as I was on CFAX Radio, Global TV from Vancouver, and Newstalk 1010 in Toronto. More calls are still coming in!
With all of this talk about the comic and what could be done with it, the suggestion came to me that perhaps if I had one million people chip in $1.00 each, I could buy the book and offer it to the Royal BC Museum, an art gallery, or a continuing series of art galleries and museums across Canada and the US to showcase. Who wouldn't want to see this Pop Art masterpiece in person?
I see this as equal to an Andy Warhol print. Its iconic Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko cover would surely be a draw for a small town gallery, right? Everyone knows Stan Lee, right? We might even get a new generation of kids into art galleries. So, without much forethought or regard for a Plan B, I put a PayPal link on my Facebook page with my idea. Four hours later, I'm deep into it. People are throwing money at this project already.
So, my plan as of now (and, keep in mind I'm an artist and I can surely change direction as whims decree) is to see how much I can raise towards purchasing this book. Just because she WANTS a million dollars doesn't mean I can't try for less... Perhaps she'll accept an offer. What is it REALLY worth? It's worth making an art project out of all this free publicity I think.
If we don't raise enough, I have a few other ideas and am always open to hearing your thoughts and suggestions. I can donate the money we raise to charities, I can find a less expensive copy of the comic book to buy, I could write, draw, and publish a book about this adventure and print all of the names of those who donate within... (The possibilities here are exciting). I'm all ears. But let's see what we can do. It's fun, right?
But this is the goal: Raising enough money to buy a museum quality edition of the first Spider-Man comic and making it available to the public forever.
She had heard that copies had sold for ridiculous amounts of money (like a million dollars) and asked me to sell it for her. She had bought it as a teenager in Victoria in 1983 for $450.00 and it seems that now was the time to set it free. My first step (there was not much I could do while she was standing in front of me with it) was putting a photo on Instagram, asking if anybody had an extra five hundred thousand dollars on hand.
Within hours, I got a call from a reporter named Lauren Boothby (from a local newspaper called Victoria News) who came down to do a piece on it: http://www.vicnews.com/news/rare-1-million-first-edition-spider-man-comic-for-sale-in-victoria/
First thing the next morning, however, my phone started constantly ringing! I had four film crews at my shop by mid afternoon and by the end of the day I'd been interviewed seven times. CTV in Toronto had me live on the evening news, The CBC had cameras on me for television and had me into the studio for a radio interview. Chek Six News was even there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq_LvPaIgtM
The mini media circus continued this morning, as I was on CFAX Radio, Global TV from Vancouver, and Newstalk 1010 in Toronto. More calls are still coming in!
With all of this talk about the comic and what could be done with it, the suggestion came to me that perhaps if I had one million people chip in $1.00 each, I could buy the book and offer it to the Royal BC Museum, an art gallery, or a continuing series of art galleries and museums across Canada and the US to showcase. Who wouldn't want to see this Pop Art masterpiece in person?
I see this as equal to an Andy Warhol print. Its iconic Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko cover would surely be a draw for a small town gallery, right? Everyone knows Stan Lee, right? We might even get a new generation of kids into art galleries. So, without much forethought or regard for a Plan B, I put a PayPal link on my Facebook page with my idea. Four hours later, I'm deep into it. People are throwing money at this project already.
So, my plan as of now (and, keep in mind I'm an artist and I can surely change direction as whims decree) is to see how much I can raise towards purchasing this book. Just because she WANTS a million dollars doesn't mean I can't try for less... Perhaps she'll accept an offer. What is it REALLY worth? It's worth making an art project out of all this free publicity I think.
If we don't raise enough, I have a few other ideas and am always open to hearing your thoughts and suggestions. I can donate the money we raise to charities, I can find a less expensive copy of the comic book to buy, I could write, draw, and publish a book about this adventure and print all of the names of those who donate within... (The possibilities here are exciting). I'm all ears. But let's see what we can do. It's fun, right?
But this is the goal: Raising enough money to buy a museum quality edition of the first Spider-Man comic and making it available to the public forever.
Organizer
Gareth Gaudin
Organizer
Victoria, BC
