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Thanks. As I wrote in the Description, I was amazed to win it.

Though I've had no business dealings with them the guys with the worst reputation are known as Cool Lines Art, the Donnelly Brothers, and on ebay valnsteve. Google is your friend. Also,ACE & DIC List have been updated on Terry Maltos' Comic Art Community ( http://comicartcommunity.com/ ) website for commission experiences. See below for links. an ACE List: http://comicartcommunity.com/2014/04/awesome-commission-experiences/ DIC List: http://comicartcommunity.com/2014/04/deadbeats-in-commissions/ Submit Your Reviews HERE: http://comicartcommunity.com/acedic-additions-list/

This isn't in my collection. Rather, it's a group of scans that shows the progression from a Marie Severin cover guide to Kirby pencils to ink to print for the first issue of Skull the Slayer. Thought some might find it interesting. Go Marie!

I pay and there's often pics that don't load. The new servers are supposed to be better, we will see.

Bill has never mentioned that. I'd be pretty surprised if it does.

Grail is a strong word, but this is my favorite piece; the last one that would go out the door. It features my favorite character by my favorite artist in uninked pencil glory. Click to embiggen:

I found preliminary pieces for two of my commissions on Anthony's page. Both were from deceased artists (Nick Cardy and Giordano). I'd never thought to ask about prelims from the artist. Anyway, I'm glad he's doing this since I was glad to get them. The prelims are in the Additional Images section. Click to see. JLA by Giordano (click to see prelim in Additional Images) and (one of my favorites) Bat Lash by Nick Cardy (click to see prelim in Additional Images)

I post all my art because it makes it easy for me to see when I want to see it. Only a piece or two have any significant prominence so I doubt that my showing it will influence the price my family gets for it when I pass. You can see the collection by clicking the link below. Alex

Nope, I buy art featuring the artist and character combinations that I like. That leads to some artist duplication, e.g., Frank Brunner doing Dr. Strange & Company and Htd vs. DD, but not a lot of "similar" art.

Re: What drives you to collect? While I concentrate on artists and the characters that I strongly associate with them, nostalgia is only part of my interest. I collect art from modern books as well. Re: Do you love the medium and just can't get enough of comic art originals? I like images that tell a story. At a fundamental level, I enjoy storytelling and I really enjoy the mix of words and art working together. Re: Are you a "Prestige" collector and only looking to pick up some top pieces? Nope. I buy lots of stuff others wouldn't even want, but which makes me happy. OTOH, I wouldn't turn down "top" pieces for cheap. Re: Are you really just a comic book collector that ran out of stuff to get and this seems the next logical step? I am a comic book collector and I have a long current pull list. If anything, new comics inform my art purchases. Re: Are you interested because of the money aspect and if you're going to invest money, it might as well be something fun you're interested in. I put the money I spend on comic art in the entertainment (money to burn) category. Re: Are you a full time collector just dabbling? I'm a full-time employee of my company and a full-time dad, I'm not a full-time comic or comic art collector. Re: What category would you put yourself in? Do you think it's the same category others would put you in? What are the categories?

My first purchase is also my favorite - Superman by Curt Swan. The Description on the CAF tells the full story and also shows what a blue-lined inked version with color looks like. Click here

Beautiful. I'm not familiar with Twin Earths. I'll have to look into it.

My offering isn't quite so fine, but here it is (click to embiggen): City of Others #2 Pages 17 and 18 I really love the look of his people especially his "swamp people." This piece doesn't have any of them, but it does have zombies.

There is only time that I was the underbidder that has even a halfway decent story associated with it. Here's that story. To help you understand the emotional impact of this tale, you should understand that The Legion is my favorite set of characters (Superman is my favorite single character) and Curt Swan is my favorite comic artist. I got my first Legion (Adventure 326) while in the hospital at age 8 for six weeks due to pneumonia. I have no doubt that my young mind was deeply impressed by the books that my dad brought me and the artists featured in them. Anyway, my "grail" has been a Curt Swan piece featuring a lot of Legionnaires inked by Curt or George Klein for quite sometime. In 1986, ICG published The Official Legion of Super-Heroes Index. Either of the first two covers would qualify as the Swan/Legion "grail" for me. Those covers are: Look at all that Swan/Legion goodness! I didn't see these issues until long after they were published because I had a comic collecting hiatus. It wasn't until I started buying comic art (2005-ish) that I saw those images and thought how great it would be to have one of them on my wall. Since I had no clue as to where they were, I didn't really worry about it too much. Not long after that (2008), Brad Meltzer decided to raise money to save and restore Jerry Siegle's boyhood home - the real birthplace of Superman. One of the pieces placed for auction was this one: You can probably imagine how excited I was. When the auction came around, I bid not just stupid (for me) money, but horrific (for my wife - we had three daughters in college) money to try and get it. I felt pretty good about the bid and was sure that I'd win it and then - wham - I was beaten. I had time to raise the bid, but not the stomach. Sigh... At least, I helped raise a bunch of money for a good cause, right? Not long after the auction close, the image was posted to the CAF. With that I discovered that I was bidding against David Mandel. If you've never visited his collection, click the OA image above and indulge yourself. It's clear that his pockets were deeper than mine; if I'd known I might have bid more just to help raise funds. (No probably not) I also found out from David's description on the OA that David was involved in the auction and Mark Waid had offered this piece and one other to Brad for the auction. Brad asked David which to accept. David picked the Swan piece. David is smart! This past year, Mark Waid was here in Houston for a signing and I talked to him about the auction. Turns out that he also had the other cover (#1) and that it was now in the possession of a friend of his. Sigh ... So, close. Still, it's nice to know that both pieces have good homes. Don't feel too bad for me. I do have a few pieces as consolation prizes. This one I really like since the inker worked hard to give it the feel of the original story (click to embiggen): and this wonderful pencil piece: I'm content.

That's quite impressive! Congratulations.

RIP Bernie Wrightson Posted on his [url= From Liz: Austin, TX - 3-18-2017 Legendary comic book artist and illustrator Bernie Wrightson has lost his long battle with brain cancer. He is survived by his wife Liz, sons John and Jeffrey, stepson Thomas, and countless friends and fans. We will have a celebration of life for him later this year. His full obituary can be found here: www.berniewrightson.com Thank you for the many years of love and support!

The usual argument against masonite (and in favor of cardboard layers and foam board) is that masonite can break and it will damage the art and it is much heavier. That said, Heritage has used masonite for the pieces that I have bought from them.

Congratulations!

Congrats! Mike does excellent work.

I have not "flipped." In fact, I've only sold two pieces in the decade that I've been collecting - a Giordano Green Arrow headshot and a Carol Day strip. In both cases, I knew the buyer was interested and I sold them (at my cost) to make room for a better example. That's it.

I wouldn't have done it. I'd have asked him to blue-line ink or lightbox ink it.. I have a Curt Swan pencil commission that I wanted to see inked by an inker that wouldn't overwhelm Curt. Joe Rubinstein did that for me and Laura Martin hand colored it. I think the result is exceptional and my daughter hangs it in the entryway of her new home while the pencils hang in my den. I consider them two separate pieces of OA and I'm quite happy that I didn't ink the original. There are days that I wish I'd had Laura color a photocopy of the inks.

I must admit that I've thought about asking him to put a background on this. Thoughts? There's not a lot of room, but ...

Doing the lettering for my commissions with Gary Martin That's great, MIke!

I wonder if I could sell photocopies of any of my art for $200. I would if I thought I could.

For what it's worth, there are lots of combinations "out there." Here's a list and my opinion on relative value: I think my revised order would be (most expensive to least expensive): Pencils, letters, inks (100%) Pencils & inks (90%) Digital pencils and physical ink by same artist[90%] Pencils only (60%) Because the penciler told the story though the inker wins on details Digital pencils & inks by different artist (40%) Ahead of blue-lines because pencils don't exist Blue-line inks (40%) The published image Digital one-of-a kind prints (not much from me, but maybe something) Of course, this assumes that you could get the same page from the same artist(s) in each form which you can't. Still, it is more or less what a consensus of people think about relative values of similar pages from the same art team.