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alxjhnsn

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Posts posted by alxjhnsn

  1. 4 hours ago, Twanj said:

    Thanks!

    I'm a relatively new fan of Coipel, check out that Mighty Thor run & other Thor stuff...and anything else anyone has to recommend by him?

    Yes, his work on the Legion of Super-Heroes with Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning is exceptional.

    There are a couple of collections that you could pickup though I suspect the back issues are pretty cheap, too.

    Volume 1

    Volume 2

    They are really great stories if disturbing.

  2.  

     

    On 5/10/2019 at 7:35 PM, Nexus said:

    (I rep a guy who actually just did a CAPTAIN CARROT cover. 

    I have a commissioned Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew cover. Click to embiggen.

    Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew (Tribute to JLA 29) by Scott Shaw!, Comic Art

    On 5/10/2019 at 5:05 PM, Matches_Malone said:

    I never understood collecting unpublished or commission pieces

    I commission for a few reasons:

    1. I have a specific idea that I really like and want to see it realized, e.g., my Yale Stewart L'il Legion and my Frank Brunner Howard the Duck vs. Donald Duck pieces.
    2. I want to reward the artists for all of the entertainment that they have given me over the years, e.g., my Cardy Bat Lash and Colan Daredevil.
    3. I like their style and really want a more striking image than most panel pages provide.
    4. Get to know the artists a bit.
  3. I've been very lucky with my commission requests. I attribute it to my excellent art direction. Here are some examples:

    Yep, it's the art direction (or maybe it's luck and choosing the right artists). :)

  4. If you want to learn about pricing comic book art, this might help. [Put in Spoiler tags because it's long and lots have folks have seen it before though I've updated it a bit.]

    Spoiler

    You might want to explore the following resources

    • The website Comic Art Tracker can help you find art and look at current asking prices for similar pieces.
    • The OA auction archive at Heritage Auctions – This archive presents the results from all of their OA auctions.. Once you sign-up and get an id, you can search for pieces by your artist and see what they have sold for.
    • The CAF Market Data - More auction results (more than 1,000,000) are available if you join the Comic Art Fans site, pay for Market Data access, and access eBay and other auction sites as well as Heritage.
    • The Comic Art Database. It contains transaction records entered by the owners of Comic OA.
    • Dealer sites. Dealers, generally, post their art with fixed prices though there are exceptions. There is a list of dealers on CGC OA board and the Dragonberry site has a list as well. The CAF site will search the inventories of several dealers for you. [Of course, Comic Art Tracker is better.]
    • Blouin Art Info which tracks sales at major art auctions. It can turn up some Comic OA as well. Look for the “Art Prices” item on the top right of the screen
    • Jerry Weist's Comic Art Price Guide - Heritage published a third edition of it. In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed.
    • A topic  on the CGC OA boards, A-level panel page valuations by artist/run - thoughts/additions/changes?, holds a discussion that relates to your question. It provides some "generally agreed upon" ranges for popular runs by popular artists on popular characters.
    • The Biggest OA Prices thread tracked some of the largest sales in the OA space. While that particular thread has stopped; it's probably worth reading for the discussions. Meanwhile , the information is still being updated - just with a different mechanism.
    New buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree that it is difficult. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear.

     Examples of how piece can differ in ways that impact pricing include:

    • Content: Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. 
    • Page Layout: In general, you might say:

               Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel page

    However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash.

    • Penciler vs. character: There are "A-list" artists, but not all of their books/characters have the same value. Kirby FF pages generally go for more than JIM/Thor pages which go for more than Cap pages (2nd run) which go for more than ...
    • Pencilers/inkers combinations - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/InkerX FF page might be more or less than a Kirby/Stone Thor page. Hard to tell.

    Finally, you should join the comic book OA community. The three main points of Internet contact are:

    The main points of physical contact are probably:

    • Dedicated Comic Art Shows
      • Comic Art Con (Spring/Fall) - A twice yearly show originally in northern NJ, but moving to NYC. The domain seems to have lapsed, but the show owner has a page for it here.
      • NYC Comic Art Expo - Annual spring show, nothing but art people (dealers, individual sellers, and buyers) and a few local artists. Held at the Penn Hotel opposite Penn Station
      • LA Comic Art Show - Annual art show one week before SDCC to leverage the dealer’s visit to the west coast
    • Conventions with High Dealer Attendance
    • Shows with a comic artist focus
      • Heroes Comic Con - Not a lot of comic art dealers, but a huge number of artists who generally will draw and have portfolios to sell
      • Baltimore Comic Con - Similar to HeroesCon.

    One last comment, if you are looking to buy or sell, spend the time to learn the market. That might take 6 months, but it's worth the time.

     

  5. Comicpalooza held another surprise. Well, technically not a surprise since he was announced much earlier; it’s just that until the week before I’d not seen his work. 

     

    Isaac Goodhart is a young artist who recently illustrated the story of the young Selina Kyle. I picked the book up at my LCS, Bedrock City Comic Co., last week on the strength of the art not registering the artist’s name, just that I liked what I saw. 

     

    At CP on Friday, I stopped at his booth and finally made the connection. On Saturday, I brought my copy to be signed and commissioned a drawing of young Selina. 

     

    I think it’s terrific and look forward to seeing more work by Isaac. 

     

    https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1549276

    66A770DD-E047-48A6-95B0-A532E561BD9D.jpeg

  6. Low priced comic book art from 10 years ago can carry significant value today. This write-up might help you get a feel for a fair price.

    Spoiler

    You might want to explore the following resources

    • The website Comic Art Tracker can help you find art and look at current asking prices for similar pieces.
    • The OA auction archive at Heritage Auctions – This archive presents the results from all of their OA auctions.. Once you sign-up and get an id, you can search for pieces by your artist and see what they have sold for.
    • The CAF Market Data - More auction results (more than 1,000,000) are available if you join the Comic Art Fans site, pay for Market Data access, and access eBay and other auction sites as well as Heritage.
    • The Comic Art Database. It contains transaction records entered by the owners of Comic OA.
    • Dealer sites. Dealers, generally, post their art with fixed prices though there are exceptions. There is a list of dealers on CGC OA board and the Dragonberry site has a list as well. The CAF site will search the inventories of several dealers for you. [Of course, Comic Art Tracker is better.]
    • Blouin Art Info which tracks sales at major art auctions. It can turn up some Comic OA as well. Look for the “Art Prices” item on the top right of the screen
    • Jerry Weist's Comic Art Price Guide - Heritage published a third edition of it. In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed.
    • A topic  on the CGC OA boards, A-level panel page valuations by artist/run - thoughts/additions/changes?, holds a discussion that relates to your question. It provides some "generally agreed upon" ranges for popular runs by popular artists on popular characters.
    • The Biggest OA Prices thread tracked some of the largest sales in the OA space. While that particular thread has stopped; it's probably worth reading for the discussions. Meanwhile , the information is still being updated - just with a different mechanism.
    New buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree that it is difficult. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear.

     Examples of how piece can differ in ways that impact pricing include:

    • Content: Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. 
    • Page Layout: In general, you might say:

               Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel page

    However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash.

    • Penciler vs. character: There are "A-list" artists, but not all of their books/characters have the same value. Kirby FF pages generally go for more than JIM/Thor pages which go for more than Cap pages (2nd run) which go for more than ...
    • Pencilers/inkers combinations - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/InkerX FF page might be more or less than a Kirby/Stone Thor page. Hard to tell.

     

    Finally, you should join the comic book OA community. The three main points of Internet contact are:

    The main points of physical contact are probably:

    One last comment, if you are looking to buy or sell, spend the time to learn the market. That might take 6 months, but it's worth the time.

     

     

  7. 23 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

    I actually posted a Miller Daredevil page on one of the main Facebook group pages today for the first time and was surprised by comments from people there that didn't even know what CAF was.  I made assumptions that anyone who would join an original art Facebook group would at least be familiar with CAF, even if wasn't their favorite platform.  I never bothered looking at the Facebook group pages in the past because I thought it was redundant, but I have to rethink things.

     

    And now you know how to search the groups. That's useful to see what people post.

     

  8. I'm glad to see artists getting paid so boom on sketch cover market!

    That said, I find them awkward. They don't go into an portfolio gracefully due to the weight and putting them in a box means you can't see it. They just doesn't work for me.

    As a matter of full disclosure, I do have two: One was a purchase from The Hero Initiative and the other came in a VIP bag at Amazing Houston Comic Con.

    Amber Atoms by Kelley Yates from The Hero Initiative.

    image.png.fad0d785ae57fc403c6a340c9af42668.png

    Commissioner Gordon by Ryan Kincaid as VIP swag

    image.png.410b25f2bd432aec00a6067a40352034.png

    Neither is slabbed. I don't own a single slabbed comic and it will probably stay that way.

    I also have an Ah, Yeah Comics blank that I might have Art Baltazar draw on one day, but I'm not convinced that I will.

     

  9. I really enjoyed the show. I visited it along with the Tolkien Exhibit at the Morgan and Metropolis Comics a couple of months ago. The Tolkien Exhibit was fabulous, but no pictures were allowed.

    You can read about the trip and see my pictures here. I photographed each one of Mike's that was on display.

    https://m.facebook.com/alxjhnsn/albums/10213543190438017/?ref=bookmarks

  10. There's a book that I like - The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History by Michael Hart.

    It's an interesting ranking because it ranks people by their impact on society. Not on being the best or the worst or the best looking or the smartest, but on their impact.

    A list of comic book artists ranked by their impact on succeeding generations would be interesting. Anyone want to try to pick number one? Milt Caniff? Someone else?