Tag Archives: greg theakston

Shame on You Danny Boy

I have followed Daniel Best’s blog, 20th Century Danny Boy for some time. While I do not always agree with him I almost always found him interesting. My biggest objection to him is that his quest for controversy often leads him to ignore easily obtainable facts. But in the past I have overlooked this failing as one all to common on the Internet. But this time Best has gone too far. In a recent post (Original Art Stories: The Mystery of Jack Kirby’s Art Ghost) he writes about a claim by Greg Theakston that Jack Kirby used a ghost artist to do the work on some cover recreations that where auctioned by Sotheby’s. Now I admit I find this issue to be a bit upsetting but at least Daniel has Theakston as a reference and I will leave it to the reader to decide for themselves as to the credibility of this claim. But what really gets me upset is that Daniel then proceeds to state the following:

But if Kirby didn’t draw the art, then who did?  I’ve been led to believe that none other than Mike Royer was the Kirby ghost, but that has yet to be confirmed

So without presenting any evidence and admitting he cannot confirm it, Daniel Best has decided to charge Mike Royer with fraud! I hasten to add that in a comment to post on Bleeding Cool, Mike Royer has denied ghosting the recreated covers (Greg Theakston, Sothebys And The Great Jack Kirby Scam). It is a disgrace that Daniel Best has decided, without any evidence, to smear the reputation of Mike Royer.