Sadly, veteran comic artist AL PLASTINO passed away on
November 25th at the age of 91. Plastino drew SUPERMAN,
BATMAN and various other DC COMICS characters through-
out his long and illustrious career, even redrawing JACK KIRBY's
Superman in FOREVER PEOPLE #1. Another legend leaves
comicbook fans the poorer for his passing.
R.I.P. AL PLASTINO
DECEMBER 15th, 1921 -
NOVEMBER 25th, 2013
November 25th at the age of 91. Plastino drew SUPERMAN,
BATMAN and various other DC COMICS characters through-
out his long and illustrious career, even redrawing JACK KIRBY's
Superman in FOREVER PEOPLE #1. Another legend leaves
comicbook fans the poorer for his passing.
R.I.P. AL PLASTINO
DECEMBER 15th, 1921 -
NOVEMBER 25th, 2013
This is really sad. I just learned last week that I lived near him. Plastino was trying to reclaim artwork from a story he did about featuring President Kennedy that he had thought was in the Kennedy museum, but it wound up in a auction.
ReplyDeleteHere is a bit from our local Newspaper, Newsday:
For the past five decades, comic book artist Al Plastino was proud to tell people that his original art for the DC Comics story "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy" had been donated to the Kennedy Library at Harvard University.
He had been drawing the story when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, and work halted until the White House said to proceed. It was published in July 1964 with an editor's note on its last page announcing the original art would be donated to the library.
He was shocked, therefore, to learn it wasn't.
"I cried, I actually cried," said Plastino, now 91 and living in Shirley, who was one of the most prolific artists drawing Superman from 1948 to 1968.
He learned the truth at a recent comic book convention, when representatives of a Dallas-based auction house told him his artwork was actually in private hands and scheduled to be auctioned later this month, with an estimated value of more than $50,000.
The owner who consigned the work to the auction house, who hasn't been named, had bought it for $5,000 in a 1993 Sotheby's auction. It was on a catalog page with comic art listed as coming from the collection of rock and roll star Graham Nash.
The auction house, Heritage Auctions, now says it won't auction the work until questions about ownership are resolved. Plastino wants it back.
"I said, 'Where the hell did you get this work; it was supposed to be at the Kennedy Library,' " he recounted. "The longer I live, the more I find this world is not what it's supposed to be."
Dale Cendali, who heads the copyright and trademark practice group at the New York law firm Kirkland & Ellis, and is representing Plastino pro bono, is trying to find out how the art left the possession of DC Comics and where it went. She said that the Kennedy Library told her it was never in its possession. She maintains that the artwork belongs to its creator by default.
"The responsibility for proving clear ownership lies with the consignor," she said. "This is an unusual case in that the artwork itself makes clear that the artwork was supposed to be donated to the museum."
Another legend gone, Barry - and not too many of them left, sadly.
ReplyDeleteHow sad, and I just friended him on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAt least his art will live on, Chris.
ReplyDeleteIt will.
ReplyDeleteWhen Charles M.Schulz was having a few disagreements with United Features Syndicate over the Peanuts strip in the seventies, he actually threatened to quit. In preparation for this, UFS recruited Al Plastino to draw several weeks' worth of Peanuts strips with the intention of taking over on a permanent basis. Schulz's problems were ironed out, so the strips never saw the light of day.
ReplyDeleteHe was a good 'ghost' artist - I wonder if those strips were ever 'sneaked' into publication at some point?
ReplyDeleteMark Evanier mentions them on his obituary on Al Plastino - worth reading.