Five faces of Modesty Blaise! Newspaper strip art a highlight lot of this week’s Catawiki International Original Comic Art auction

Comic art collectors and Modesty Blaise fans are bidding furiously on a lot offered in this week’s Catawiki International Original Comic Art auction featuring five original pen and ink Modesty Blaise strips, all written by Peter O’Donnell.

The lot includes one strip drawn by one of the five Modesty Blaise artists who worked on the world-famous British newspaper strip, first published between 1963 and 2002, now syndicated globally, including John M. Burns, who worked on just three stories, “Yellowstone Booty”, “King Cobra” and part of “Eve and Adam”, before he was replaced by Patrick Wright.

Three of the strips, highlighting the five artist’s interpretations of the character over an 18 year timespan, are signed.

In strip order, offered in the lot are: Strip 1954 (signed) drawn by original series artist Jim Holdaway for the story “Takeover”, published 1970; Strip 4745, drawn by John M. Burns for the strip “Eve and Adam” published 1979; Strip 4819, drawn by Patrick Wright, also for the story “Eve and Adam”, published in 1979; Strip 5718 (signed) drawn by Neville Colvin for the story “Death in Slow Motion”, published in 1983; and Strip 6940 (signed) drawn by Enrique Badia Romero for the story “Milord”, published in 1988.

The British seller, Delman, lists all artworks as in very good condition with all speech bubbles are still attached. “This iconic chance will not be repeated,” they proffer.

British comic related art in this week’s Catawiki International Original Comic Art auction, which ends this Thursday, 22nd July 2021, also includes art for the story “The Seven Simons” by Angus McBride from an early issue of the short-lived magazine, The Wonderful World of Disney, published in 1975, and some illustrations he created for Once Upon a Time magazine (Issue 8, 1969), to illustrate a telling of “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.

Also offered is an original “Robot Archie” page by Bert Bus, first published in the weekly anthology Sjors, published in 1973, one of several new stories created featuring the marvellous mechanical specifically for the Dutch market (more information on those here on downthetubes); illustrations for an adaptation of “The Golden Apples” fairy tale for The Wonderful world of Disney by Ron Embleton; a “Robot Archie” page from Lion by Ted Kearon, a page from the story “The Superons”; and another rare Carol Daynewspaper strip (2785) by David Wright.

Art by Antonio Parras

There are some great works for European comics too, on offer as well as artworks by artists such as Thierry Girod, Jose González, Dick Matena, Antonio Parras and Moebius (Jean Giraud).

Bid on Holdaway, Jim / Burns, John / Wright, Patrick / Colvin, Neville / Romero, Enric Badia – 5 x Original strip – The 5 Faces of Modesty Blaise – (1970/1988) here

View all lots in this week’s Catawiki International Original Comic Art auction here

Modesty Blaise strip collections on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)

With thanks to Richard Sheaf for the tip



Categories: Art and Illustration, Auctions, British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

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