do me a favor and email this guy about a forgery (1 Viewer)

jordan

lothario speedwagon
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150519050632

not bukowski, i know, but i thought my friends here might want to help nonetheless. this seller is very obviously dishonest, as he copied the listing directly from another seller from whom i bought a legit copy of this book and then added in all of his BS about it being "guaranteed authentic." i emailed him about it, but i don't expect to hear back. not only is this very clearly a forgery (from anyone who has seen a crumb sticker), but he actually went to the trouble of putting an "autographed copy" sticker on the front of the book.

also notice how the book is signed by two people (crumb and his daughter), and this genius signed both names in the same handwriting.
 
...not to question you on this, but it looks right to me and they were both in NYC a couple weeks ago. Is Sophie's signature much different? It looks different than R's, but similar. Also, the "2010" is Crumb, spot on. He has now adopted the European "1" in his numbers.

It would help if he provided a better photo, but from what he shows, it seems right.

that being said, I do not know what Sophie's signature looks like...

Bill

Also, it seems that there are either a lot of forgeries out there, or S & R were messing around a bit trying to imitate each other's signature. I see lots of different styles of both of their signatures:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Evolution-crazy-artist-signed-Sophie-R-Crumb-x2-/130450670188?pt=US_Fiction_Books&hash=item1e5f77426c

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sophie-Crumb-Sophie-Crumb-2010-Hardcover-SIGNED-/220695285996?pt=US_Fiction_Books&hash=item336276d0ec

http://cgi.ebay.com/SOPHIE-ROBERT-CRUMB-SIGNED-EVOLUTION-CRAZY-ARTIST-BOOK-/370455753805?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5640e2344d
 
Maybe they both sign both names. Sort of "you do this stack and I'll do that stack." Or at a signing event, two lines form and they don't trade off books.
 
the seller emailed me and basically told me the same thing - that they were playing around signing each others' names and stuff. and maybe i'm a little bit of a hypocrite to cry foul when one of the best books in my collection is a book in which bukowski and crumb did the same thing... but the three examples bill showed are obviously in sophie's handwriting - it's pretty recognizable from her comics. the one in question is not, nor does it really look like crumb's handwriting either, unless crumb has a lower case handwriting that no one has ever seen. moreover, it seems like the fact that they were playing around like this would make it easier for forgers to scrawl some signatures in the book and pass it off as real.

i still don't buy it - maybe if i saw more examples of crumb ever signing his name like that, i would change my tune. in any case, i'm glad i was able to get a copy with both of their "normal" signatures, as i feel like the others wouldn't be worth as much. it's kind of an interesting case, though - sophie's signature is clearly worth less than crumb's, so is it really honest to claim that it is "signed by both" when crumb didn't actually sign it? i guess if someone is really worried about it, they can plop down $350 for the slipcased, limited edition. i almost did, but decided to get this one instead, since i like sophie's art and comics a lot, but maybe not that much.
 
Yikes, they haven't made this one easy, have they?

One of the three examples Bill posted looks like R. imitating S, the other two look like they were all S. Then the one that Jordan posted doesn't look like any of those, but more like a traditional R. signature...but the picture is tiny...

Too much confusion. I'd be uneasy about any of these unless I'd seen it signed.
 
just for reference, here is the copy i bought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180586214440&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

i would feel fine buying one of the ones that were obviously signed by sophie, but i think it should be specified that she signed her name AND her dad's name - and i wouldn't pay much more than $40 for a copy, since it hasn't been demonstrated at this point that sophie's signature is worth anything. it actually makes me kind of happy, since the ones where both signatures are obviously genuine appear to be rarer.
 
well, too bad i didn't save the picture... if you go to the auction now, the seller has replaced it with a photo that looks correct. who knows... she's certainly not the worst seller on ebay, but she's clearly plagiarizing another seller's description, and then vigorously defending a potentially forged book as real before pulling the photo and putting a different one up with a couple days left in the auction.
 
Probably not still available, but I just called the Barnes and Noble they did the signing at the next day and bought three copies direct, at cover price. They showed up and each has two distinct signatures, clearly in their own hand.

I do know that Crumb likes to fuck with people, so wouldn't be shocked if they were screwing around with it.
 

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