Eric Seffinga

I've never slabbed a comic... or traded any up, to buy art. Just sayin'.

1. Not everyone that is in the hobby right now shares the same sell-to-upgrade approach. 2. One collector's "lesser" piece is often another collector's "bigger one."

Gonna do my best to sit this one out. I seem to always say that, but I went 3/4 of last year without any comic art, and hoping to do better this go around.

Katchoo's expression in that bottom left panel is priceless.

Thanks.

I put up 3 pieces this year. I have zero interest in the "contest" results part, but for the participation in the community, and in the hopes that some folks unfamiliar with the artists will see them and dig further into searches for their artwork on everyone else's art on CAF. I stepped outside my usual practice of simply listing the sizes and madium, and included some thoughts with each this year. I know I've been exposed to a couple artists via the Best Of voting in past years. But then I'm a CAF weirdo, and sometimes I just brows the "new" art posted to CAF, rather than spending time seeking specific interests. I never followed the most viewed link that a lot of folks used to swear by. I just randomly go to view everything new for the last 24 hours by image view, and scroll and scroll whenever I have down time during the day. Looking at whatever jumps out at me. I've made friends with collectors that way as well, when leaving comments on things I've stumbled across. I digress. I went into the year planning on buying nothing, so having a dozen pieces added to CAF this year was unintentional. Next year, though.... we'll see if I can get back to posting nothing! http://www.comicartfans.com/MyLowry.asp?GSub=432

Couldn't do it, even if there WERE one piece that would satisfy me. My collection is made up of a series of memories and past and current relationships. Friendships, experiences and so on. I see it as a living breathing whole in a way, and No single piece of art could ever encompass and replace all of the intangibles.

For sure.

That's awesome!

And in typical Donnelly flip flop fashion, I had a Coollines experience around the same time as yours. Even though I knew full well what to expect, I gave it a shot. Mine went like this.... They had a few pieces of Guy Davis Sandman Mystery Theater art pop up on their CAF with the usual note about asking for a price. They had just listed a few pages of Davis' work on eBay the week before. Same book. All around the same quality and all at around $600-800 a page. Really high for Davis' work, which is normally around $200-500, but the page they listed on CAF was one I really liked. Again content, time period, historical "significance" all around the same equivalency. I figured even if the one I asked about was more like $900 I'd hold my nose and cross my fingers. The price that came back when I asked about it? Had to have been at least $1800. I want to say might have been over 2k. I was just looking for the emails to see who it was that responded and gave me the numbers, but seem to have deleted it out of frustration. I simply thought "of course it is" and moved on. Same old same old. Buyer beware. If someone knows for sure what the actual story behind the art is (not what they purport it to be) and it's at a price the buyer can live with, and they actually follow through without changing their mind or conditions... more power to the buyer. All others... you know what they say about fools and their money.

I think Jim's motivations were a little more complicated. Scott or Jim would be best equipped to answer your question, re why he ended up at DC. I'm sure there are interviews out there that would help fill in some blanks. And I watched this documentary on Image a few weeks ago. It includes some info from that time period, via interviews with former and current Image folks that you might find informative. I'm not really a classic Image fan, but I'm a sucker for documentaries... https://www.amazon.com/Image-Revolution-Robert-Kirkman/dp/B01AEKUFB4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483190034&sr=8-1&keywords=image+comics+documentary

I'm an outsider with no skin in the Kirby game anymore, but remain a curious bystander because the case has all kinds of repercussions for the art world if it ever hits courts. The court case of individual legal right or wrong here may be pressed hard up against the court of public opinion on this one. In reading the comments against Hans' points in that link posted, the general sense I get is that general fandom, and even some absent minded OA collectors are siding with the Kirby family on this one right out of the gate, in a knee-jerk way. This is just a few dozen responses. Just one being a dealer/collector, and the rest, the general sort of folks that make up comic fandom, and their unsurprising continued support of a venerated creator. How many people at SDCC are actively buying Kirby art? A few hundred at best? Probably less these days, given it's prices. Now what is the average attendance of the show? 167,000 in 2015 according to Wikipedia. So how big is the voice of the OA collecting world? And more specifically the world of Kirby art collectors? They're the front lines, and it's maybe a few thousand against potentially millions of comic fans, and even just folks that like the movies, who are always going to be sentimental for the family. At least right out of the gate. Like it or not we are a fraction of the comic world, and most folks don't even care to understand it or it's nuances and complicated history. The narrative I see going forward is that Kirby was taken advantage of (facts for and against this aren't the point here), and now you have well heeled collectors with stolen art (again, facts aren't the point here) who are bucking at paying a mere small percentage tithe to the family, who is just trying to claw back a little bit of their father's legacy. Not unlike the case against Disney/Marvel. That is the continued case that I think we'll see circulate in the media. If you've got someone described in this thread as an "ambulance chaser" lawyer with a multi-million dollar backing, I'd think they use the threat of being tied up in court, and it would chew up more than the shakedown, even for the more well heeled among the collectors. Again, not unlike Disney. And keep in mind some of these collectors' art wealth is not proportionate to their income. They've been sitting on the art since it was sold cheaply, and find themselves sitting on a treasure chest. They don't exactly have millions set aside for a court fight. Paying a mere percentage of the piece in selling it has to be cheaper than the cost of fighting it legally....unless they can pool resources to fight as a group? But as I see it, legal challenges aside, the court of public opinion will not be kind to the fighters. At least not the first few. Educating the masses would be a near impossible task in the short term. We as art collectors, all, have to realize this isn't ultimately about the Kirby family or their greed/justice. It's about what happens if this ever does see the court, and what the outcome of such a property case would be. I'm thinking that at least in the short term we won't see such a case, and are going to see compliance and a staler market for that art, rather than getting any kind of decision that would setting things once and for all. I'm not sure too many other comics creators have the money/legal fight in them to try and push for the same kind of leverage against the aftermarket. So at least near-term, I'd think this is going to be localized to Kirby art only. But in the future, who knows... eventually a case is going to make it to a real court, right?

How is that supposed to work?

Took some convincing by the Mrs. that we should do it. It was totally her idea. Also had to beg Mr. Vallejo to paint your avatar over the nips. But he finally relented.

This one's in my foyer...

People's is the dumb....

Another really good listen!

That Rasputin is the bees knees. Easily my favorite of your movie art pickups. Killer.

Loved this episode. Suat's gallery has been on my CAF watchlist for a while now. Really enjoyed hearing what he had to say. Panelfan, regarding your last question about the good art/bad writing balance and preference, I actually tried to start a topic about that here a month or two back but it fizzled out... http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=9577160#Post9577160

As soons as the Beastie Boys track started, I was done. This was the other movie I watched this weekend, and it was just as bad as the Apocalypse movie was. Really truly, I like goofy popcorn movies as much as the next guy, but to me this really really was just silliness to the extreme. I miss the science in science fiction. This one should have had Smith's Superman Spider too!

I finally got around to watching this movie, after keeping myself in the dark from spoilers and reading this thread in general after it's release. What a turd of a film. I wanted to enjoy it, but I just kept laughing at it. So ridiculous and nonsensical. I was frankly a little surprised it didn't have Kevin Smith's giant Superman spider tossed in for good measure. There were a couple of scenes that were interesting, but overall, it was just no good. Sheesh. It's the first of the X franchise that I didn't see in the the theater. Was too busy when it came out. But now... think I dodged a bullet there. Only wish I'd skipped it entirely.

In lieu of pics It'd be cool to read a couple first person recaps to wrap up the thread.

Finished putting Escapo's frame together yesterday. A little more ostentatious than I usually go, but I felt like the character of the piece warranted the extra flair in the moulding just this once. Dunno what Paul Pope would think of it, but I dig it lots. It looks a bit wee in the photo, but the OA is roughly double-spash size on a single sheet. A bit of a monster. The art-only image is in my CAF gallery for any folks that want a better look...

That's a great great page. But why the hell'd someone let Lee near it with a Sharpie of all things??? One of life's mysteries? Also, personal pet-peve. What the heck is a 1/3 splash. It's either THE splash, or it's not. It's a great large bottom panel. The odd ways people choose to try and puff up their art to make it sound more important and impressive... man this page doesn't need made up terms like 1/3 splash. It speaks for itself.

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