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Thanks. I’ll be here all week.

I love that map, but selling the house to get it would leave me without a wall on which to hang it.

Right there with you. 2M miles on United and quite a few on AA. Since Feb, over 85K on United. OTOH, my wife, daughter, and I had a great long weekend in Charlotte for Heroescon thanks to “free” flights and rooms. #firstworldproblems

I got the tracking number!

I’m here! One standard answer coming up ———- You might want to explore the following resources · 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. · 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 In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed.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. o The price information moved to The OA Elite blog. Click on the categories on the top of the page to see the updated list. o The discussion moved to Biggest OA Prices: The Blog. New buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear. For example, · Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. · Take page layout - In general, you might say: Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel pages However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash. · Take pencilers- 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 ... · Take combinations of pencilers/inkers - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/X 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: · Yahoo's comicart-l mailing list · The Comic Art Fans website · The CGC OA Board The main points of physical contact are probably: · San Diego Comic Con · New York City Comic Con · Comic Art Con · Heroes Comic Con 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.

Interesting! Thanks for the post.

Your questions on value retention in comic book are valid. I would not tie my IRA to OA with the possible exceptions of a very small group of artists. It should be considered an expense. Ditto for comics. As for what I collect - air miles, comics, and comic art.

I just heard from Elaine. My Kaluta piece should arrive at my wife's office on Thursday or Friday!

Hmmm... I forgot Butch Guice. That's late and no word. I share your frustration.

I have had only one significant delay - my commission from Mike Kaluta. It's finished and Elaine has it to mail, but I haven't heard from her yet. As for the others, they have been delayed, but nothing that's bothered me because they keep in touch and seem to have managed their money better than, e.g., Starstruck. I'd do it again for the right artists.

Hope my advice helps, but remember "Free advice is worth what you pay for it." (paraphrase of Robert Half)

Others may have known him longer and more may know him better, but how many have a sketch by our hero in their 3-Minute Sketchbook? I call it "3MS by OMLguy." No doubt the sale of my copy will fund my retirement! Right?

Best three page sequence in comic? I think this is it (from the collection of Mike Burkey)

I've been happy with my Canson Mix Media wirebound books. Some of them have this terrific chart to help you select what you want based on what your artists are likely to use. At a con, that's normally pencil, pen&ink, and marker. Based on the chart, I probably should have bought a book with Illustration Bristol or Mi-Teintest Pastel paper in it. My only other suggestions on sketchbooks themselves are: Heavier paper is generally better (less bleed through) Carry a sheet of thick paper to use as a backer for the sheet that they draw on. Use a wirebound book because the pages lie flat There's a lot to be said for hard covers One more suggestion, record the artist, the art and the commissioner in the sketchbook. When you pickup the art, record the artist's name, location and date on the bottom of the page that was drawn on and take a picture of the art, the artist, and, optionally, the commissioner. When you get home, do this: Go to an art supply store and buy archival see-thru Mounting Corners (see below) Print the photos as 4x6 at Walgreen's or wherever (it's really cheap) When you have your picture, mount the corners on the back of the previous page and insert the photo If you should ever want to sell the page, remove the picture from its back and replace it with the picture from the back of the previous page and you have provenance. If you never sell, you have a great memory book. Try it, you'll like it. Finally, and this is really important, label your book! Tape a business card on it with your mobile number and name. Do something to make it clear that it's yours and how to find you. Most people are honest and will try to get in touch if you give them a chance. I put a label on the front cover and on the inside.

Manhattan Projects was one seriously fun book. I have a page from it here and my avatar is from a commission that Nick did for me.

I agree. They are both great guys. George Perez is one of the hardest working guys on the con circuit. He sits at his table signing and drawing for as long as the show is open. Jeff Smith did this: George did this for me:

I might be a bit upset at spending $18K on one of the covers with the way the story went.

The NYT printed a review that spoiled the ending before the comic was released; hence, the controversy - did the spoiler devalue the book and people's experience reading it which in turn might impact the value of the OA.

I'd like to play. I bought this piece a few years ago from Steve Schanes of Pacific Comics fame in an eBay auction. The description read: SHAZAM Captain Marvel Original Pencil & Copied Bkgd C. C. BECK #1U818 Size: 11.25" x 8.5" Drawn for the publication of Fanzine Original Captain Marvel "Shazam" & Words were drawn by C. C. Beck Klang the Killer and background are copiedand that description seems 100% accurate. However, it didn't have the fanzine name and I'd like to know than and try to get a copy of it. So, I wrote to Steve, but no luck. He wrote back: I traded for the SHAZAM Captain Marvel Original Pencil & Copied Bkgd C. C. BECK about 3 years ago with a CC Beck collector who was also a close friend of CC Beck. At the time of this transaction he told me the name of the fanzine but I have forgotten.Drat! Does anyone recognize it? Click to see a bigger image.

His work is amazing. I have two other pieces: Pirate Ship (done at Rose City Comic Con in 2017, I think) His first commission CPG vs. Grandfather Crab (done for Rob Stolzer and bought from Rob by my wife as a gift to me!) Click the images to see a larger view.

My favorite piece is clearly my Curt Swan Superman (click to embiggen). I'm not sure that I have a grail beyond this, but I think the pages that I would want the most are probably: The splash to the first comic I ever read. My brother and I poured over this trying figure out who everyone was and what they did. I do have a page from that comic. You can see it here. Yes, I'd like this more than the cover. There are four others that I would be especially happy to own. The original to the 2nd Legion Index is in David Mandel's CAF. Sigh... I might be a Legion of Super-Heroes fan as well as a Curt Swan fan.

I have a number of such folks: David and Julia Petersen of Mouse Guard. David is amazingly talented. He builds models of his story sets to get the perspectives right. Here's on piece that I have by him. It wasn't done just for me, but he did suspect that I'd try to buy it. Click to embiggen. Jeremy Bastian of Cursed Pirate Girl. I've gotten to know Jeremy from con visits. I enjoy talking to him and love his work. I have several pieces, but this is the first and my favorite - CPG herself. Like David and Jeremy, Katie Cook is from Michigan. I guess those cold winters give them time to draw and write. Katie is probably best known for her licensed Star Wars work (books, posters, etc.). She also wrote MLP for a number of years. Her creator owned book Gronk is a lot of fun and got her a minute or two on the Super Bowl one years - it seems that the Patriots have a player with the same name and the network wanted to clear up the confusions. Here's a piece she did for me featuring her characters Dale, Gronk, and Harli meet Sugar & Spike. If you haven't met Andy Runton at a con, make the effort to introduce yourself to him and Owly. A nicer guy and a sweeter story you simply won't find. And, of course, there's my friend Thom Zahler. He's a great guy to be around and a terrific story teller. His Love and Capes is a must read in my opinion. This piece (one of several) is one of the few pieces of L&C original artwork. He's a good friend! There are a lot more actually. My experience with the comic artist/writer crowd is that they are generally pretty nice to be around.

One other comment about a commission, to get the best work, you need an idea that appeals to both the artist and to you. My Howard the Duck vs. Donald Duck by Frank Brunner was one like that.

I enjoy getting commissions, but ... 1) I have been uncommonly lucky in that none have been late for less than valid reasons and all the artists have kept in touch. 2) I expect to lose at least 60% of the cost of the commission when they are sold (by my wife and daughters). In exchange, I get an image that I want from the artist I chose. That works for me. As an example, of what I like and what will never make back the cost, I offer my most recent commission. I'm a fan of Yale Stewart's work on JL8 and Kathy commissioned him (with an assist from me) for a 35 wedding anniversary present featuring the "Little Legion." Click for a bigger image. There are 30 humanoids, 1 disassembled killer robot, a table of food, and rocks. This was pricy. I have the OA boards, the prelims are on the way, and there is one full-size print. A Legion collector might pay me a couple of hundred for the lot if they had a sweet spot for the SA Legion, but I doubt it would go for more. My rule of thumb - the more personal the commission, the lower the resale. The more complicated, the longer it will take and the more expensive it will be. Commissions get worked in among the regular job and they can slide for a long time. Risk and reward.