Auction #221 at Hake’s Americana & Collectibles is filled with many gems across historical and pop culture collecting. Several among them are housed in their comics and art sections, including the Captain America #265 Mike Zeck original comic cover art.

Zeck attended the Ringling School of Art in 1967 then worked at the Migrant Education Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. His career in comics began in 1974, doing illustrations for Charlton Comics’ animated line of comics then got into their horror titles.

He started working for Marvel Comics in 1977 on Master of Kung Fu, then for nearly 10 years starting in the late ’70s he worked on Captain America. Zeck illustrated the Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars in 1984, then he designed the black and white Spider-Man costume, which along with the plot of the story, led to the creation of Venom. In the mid-1980s he worked on a Punisher miniseries. He illustrated the “Kraven’s Last Hunt” Spider-Man story, written by his Captain America collaborator J.M. DeMatteis, which is considered one of the most significant stories in Spider-Man’s history. His art appeared in DC titles, including covers for Batman and contributions in Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe.

The Zeck Captain America cover art is in lot 1412 at hakes.com. On 11” x 17” Marvel artboard, the pen and ink original art was published in January 1982. Issue 265 introduced Captain America villain Sultan, who appears along with Cap and Spider-Man as well as Nick Fury. The art has been inked by John Beatty. It also has a Columbia bicycle offer and publisher’s indicia paste-overs at top.

This issue represents the second time that Captain American and Spider-Man guest starred together. Their first meeting occurred in Amazing Spider-Man #187.

In addition to the cover, all 21 story pages are offered in this auction, in lots 1413-1433. This presents collectors the rare opportunity to own an entire issue of original art. Hake’s Auction #221 closes next week on July 11-13, 2017, so get your bids in soon.