Long-time Chicago comic book dealer/collector Gary Colabuono had some of the rarest comics on Earth on display at the WizardWorld Comic Con in Rosemount this past weekend.
Spectacular, unique collector's items worth many thousands of dollars each! Some were literally one-of-a-kind!
But, they were not quite as promoted in the Chicago Tribune!
Reporter Brian L Cox stated in the article seen HERE that the "ashcan" comics were "hand-drawn, unfinished versions of early comic books".
In fact, the "ashcans" are no more "hand-drawn" than any other printed comic, whether it's Action Comics #1 from 1938 or the current issue of Spider-Man. (If they were "hand-drawn", they would be original pen-and-ink art!) In point of fact, ashcans are extremely-limited (usually five copies or less) b/w printed comics done to keep on file at the publisher's office and Library of Congress to establish copyright and trademark!
If you look at the examples of Gary's magnificent collection in the gallery at left, you'll see they consist of printed copies of literally whatever art was lying around (Batman art on the Superboy ashcan cover, Dr Fate [a male hero] on the SuperWOMAN ashcan cover!) combined with logo stats for proposed new comics titles on the covers. They were never meant to be seen by the public and most were thrown away or destroyed over the years as publishers moved offices from one location to another or closed up! (Both DC and Marvel have each moved their offices numerous times since the 1930s!)
Colabuono is one of Chicago's foremost dealer/collectors, and owned the (sadly) defunct Moondog's Comics store chain. He is respected and even beloved by the comics community. So I don't believe he misrepresented the books to Cox. I think this was Cox not understanding what he was told, then failing to ask questions. Since the Chicago Tribune offers no way to contact Cox directly, we trust that he'll learn from this article and contact us if he's doing another piece on comics or other pop collectibles. We will be more than happy to assist him.
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