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On 5/2/2023 at 9:30 PM, batman_fan said:

That's quite a bit of progress

 

I almost scratched the Cul de Sac off the list. The bid got down to the last second and someone pulled the switch. We bid against each other a few times, but I ran out of money that I was willing to spend. 

It was a classic - Petey reading a comic book about his hero Little Neuro who does nothing and explaining it to Alice his little sister. An odd strip, but terrific! That would have been a huge win if I'd succeeded. Oh, well... The winner paid dearly.  Click the image to see it on Heritage.

On 5/2/2023 at 3:56 PM, batman_fan said:

A man with the utmost taste.

Without the matching budget.

I just realized that my copy and paste of the list dropped the strikethroughs from the ones that I have acquired; I fixed that.  

I'm working down my list which dates back several years - some success so far.  

 

Alex’ Comic Art Wish List

Comic Book Art:

In the reasonably possible:

• Aparo B&B page (art and letters by Jim)

In the Serious Stretch Goals category, we have:

• Ditko Creeper
• Everett Sub-Mariner page
• Kirby Thor or New Gods page
• Mayer Scribbly page (if there are any) [Got an unused cover plus a recreation/revision of it from Harlan E's estate.]
• Rogers Detective (Batman) page from his wonderful run with Steve Englehart and Terry Austin
• Shuster Superman [Got a comic strip]
• Sprang Batman [Got a preliminary to one of his commissions]
• Swan/Klein Superman or LSH page

Special cases:

• The splash to JLA 29 (1st series) or the cover, but I'd prefer the splash. (The splash sold by auction at Heritage. Maggie Thompson told me it and two other pages had been stuck in a drawer since she and Don were given it by Julius Schwartz.)
• Cover to The Official Legion of Super-Heroes Index #1. The cover to #2 would work, but it's in David Mandel's collection and I doubt that I could pry it loose. 

Comic Strips:

• Peanuts by Charles Schulz
• Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson

On 5/1/2023 at 7:41 AM, diva_tsarina said:

the book looks very cool but it appears only way to purchase is through ebay? seems a direct option would have saved buyers 10-15% off the enormous cost. 

It's their eBay store. If they did it direct, they'd have to raise the cost for the time and effort that eBay saves them.

I'm happy for Tradd and Felix for the sales.

I'm happy for the buyers because they got art they like (I assume) at a price they found reasonable.

I'm happy for me because it's out of my wheelhouse so the prices are fine by me (if somewhat amazing).

I'm inclined to say that the sell out indicates, if anything. that Felix priced them just right or a little low. Excellent work in either case.

On 4/30/2023 at 7:50 PM, zstarmanz said:

Hi Alex,

No book signing tour in the cards yet... ;-)

As for cons, yes, we're all experienced con-goers, especially pre-pandemic. Getting back into the swing of cons is certainly something we're discussing.

How about meeting me at HeroesCon!

On 4/30/2023 at 4:19 PM, zstarmanz said:

Terry, thanks for starting this thread with such a wonderful post! And Chris, Alex, and Brian, we very much appreciate you chiming in with your comments! After 2, almost 3 years, of effort, we're very pleased to finally be able to have the book in hand! Our goal was to give David Wright and what we consider to be a masterpiece of comic strip art, Lance Hallam, a top-flight, art book treatment. Our priority was to reproduce the story at the same size and quality as its originals, so that we could faithfully replicate the experience of reading the story from the original art. And we wanted to do that in such a way that the resulting book would represent the definitive edition of one of David Wright's very best stories. This meant endeavoring to put the story in context with articles, commissions from contemporary artists, and reproducing not only the art, but also the boards to give a complete sense of the originals and Wright's process. Lastly, we were very fortunate to top it off with a cover by Carol Day super-fan, Brian Bolland, a great comics artist whom all three of us (Chris, Roger and me) greatly admire. Enough for now. My main point is to thank all of you for your comments and support! Guy Mills 

Guy, when is the book signing tour? 
 

Seriously, do you, @Chris K., and Roger attend cons?

On 4/29/2023 at 6:12 PM, Michael Browning said:

I stand corrected, then, because you have said that before and I truly believe you mean it. But, you are not the norm in this hobby, that's for sure.

And generally not the norm per my kids!

My first Carol Day exposure came from Aaron N.'s CAF gallery where my favorite strip is housed (click to see it on the CAF):

It has to be the creepiest comic strip that I've ever seen while also being an outstandingly beautiful rendering. Wow.

That led me to buying Roger Clark's e-book of the story (sadly no longer available) and the buying of two strips from Roger from that story (click to see on the CAF):

David Wright did wonderful work.
 

I was so glad to finding him (quite by accident) at Boston Comic Con in 2012. I got his autograph and picture with him. It was a real thrill to meet this kind and funny man.

Here's what I wrote about meeting Al in my review of the con:

Quote

When we finally ventured into the crowd I realized that everyone was there for Kevin Eastman and Simon Bisley. Kevin's crowd was at least twice Simon's, but they really jammed up the otherwise quite spacious aisles. Later in the day, they moved those two out to the foyer - that was a good decision. I didn't stop for either guy, but they both seem quite happy to be there. What I did find was the treat of the show for me - Al Jaffee. He was on the same row as those two guys, but his visitors were relatively few. John and I stopped and talked. He's sharp as a tack and really funny. His wife equally sharp and active. Al gave me his autograph and let me gush over how much I'd enjoyed his work without looking too embarrassed. Later, when we were leaving for lunch, he was right in front of us and we spoke a little more. This was a real treat for me.

On 4/28/2023 at 6:24 AM, Ecclectica said:

Thanks. Is there an abbreviation for "mini-series" ?

 

Not that I've ever seen. MS for the disease as mentioned, MS for manuscript, MS for the state of Mississippi, Ms. for relationship neutral address to a woman. There are many others, but this is the first time I've encountered it for "mini-series."

Oh, I hope they do another. I'm especially interested in my favorite story - Problem Child.

I deeply regret not buying all of the (admittedly low scan) ebooks from Roger when they were on Amazon. Sadly, he withdrew them due to lack of sales, I think.

I simply cannot agree more with your review of this book. Carol Day is an outstanding strip - both story and art - and David Wright's Carol Day - Lance Hallam is spectacular. It's well worth the $350 (US) that it costs in my opinion. The link will take you to the "buy" page. There's a link to an eBay store for US buyers and instructions for international buyers.

Among my book collection, for pure joy of owning and reading, this ranks with my copy of The Art of Richard W. Sprang which was also produced by a collector on a mission. This is as high as I can praise Chris' Carol Day book. 

Now I need to meet the team and get them to sign it. I wish that had been a purchase option.

Oops! Wrong thread

Stamps show up on older pages that were physically delivered to the publisher (though mistakes happen). Newer pages are generally sent electronically to the publisher so the original (pencils only sometimes; inked other times; never with word ballots) has no stamps.

I've never seen him paint one, but Bruce McCorkindale is affordable, fast and reliable. Ask him. He's on FB.

On 2/19/2023 at 8:51 PM, artdealer said:

So, just the other day, I was offered a trade, that was probably the most lopsided offer ever. 
This collector wanted to trade me his “debatable” (by his own admission) first appearance of Killer Croc from Detective Comics #524 pg 3 for the Golden Age Jerry Robinson Batman/Joker page from Detective Comics #76……even trade. Once I pulled myself off the floor from laughing, I told him no. 
Besides the fact I don’t trade, I told him nobody in their right mind would trade a “supposed” first appearance of a lower 2nd tier villain for a Golden Age page of the top villain drawn by his creator. 
Talk about a lofty trade expected!

Wow! 

I guess you can't blame a guy for trying, but wow!

On 2/20/2023 at 8:10 PM, malvin said:

Now that my collection is bigger, every year I go to my local big con (FanExpo Vancouver) saying I probably wouldn't buy anything, and I am proven wrong.

I ended up buying 5 covers (Young Justice, World's Finest, and Batman) as well as some Transformers Merchanising art

link to CAF recent uploads

Thanks for looking

Malvin 

I bet Max Dunbar was as happy as you are!

On 2/19/2023 at 2:23 PM, Rick2you2 said:

When I saw these 2 pages by Jim Aparo come up for sale from Phantom Stranger 11, that was that. I had previously seen them posted on Facebook, and hadn't owned any with Tannarak (a vampire of human souls) and PS together. This is a nice fight scene between the 2 of them with PS delivering his classic roundhouse punch. For my money. the best pair since Jayne Mansfield (with a young Jennifer Love Hewitt close behind).

 

Congrats. Loved Aparo's PS (and pretty much everything else he drew). I still need something from him.

On 1/12/2023 at 7:31 PM, Brian Peck said:

And it would come down to the DD issue and who did what in terms of the artwork. While the DD Miller stories are great who drew what on what page can give you a headache figuring out. Plus some people will only buy certain pages ie if Miller just did layouts, mi=ostly Jason or size of the artwork.

We figured this out long ago. Here's a link to a PDF containing the information. It also contains a link to the original thread from which the summary is drawn.

Interesting.