Phill the Governor

I was the underbidder on this one (several actually). A very funny strip, with many emotional changes to his face. Nice pickup.

thank you! I do, yup. The one you made for your Sabrina Cover looks great!

This is a cool guide for those with a budget. As someone that does this professionally, though, in my experience reverse engineering balloons, full mastheads and other stats has a fairly straightforward procedure. And I can be totally transparent about what that is: use a high resolution scan of the published piece; then remove all the color (for black and white pieces) so it's just line art, size it to the original art, print it (on color matching paper which is WAY easier said than done), cut it out perfectly, adhere it perfectly in place onto the art (if it's an older piece) or onto a transparent overlay if it's a newer piece. To do it right, you need to use pigment inks on acid free photo paper. I'm leaving out a few steps and my own techniques but that's the basics. Typing that out makes it seem or sound easy. Tedious is the word you'll be looking for, especially for the paper color matching and (in most cases) the line art recovery. Anyone I know that's tried to do that effectively tries once and gives up OR feels sufficient in what they create, but upon close inspection the quality of the recreation is nowhere near where it could be in my opinion. Often times people don't want to shell out $$ when that $ can go towards new art, so they take the cheap route or forego recreations all together. Which is understandable.

There's very few of us that do it. At the end of the day, pieces generally have to be valuable enough to warrant the cost of the recreations. That barrier to enter can be high enough that I love picking up pages other's don't want with the intent of creating word balloons or an entire masthead. Low and behold, after the overlay is done it's not surprising how much more desirable a piece can be - even though the overlay isn't original. Two of my pieces (a cover and an interior page with stats on overlays): Scooby Doo #4 Cover Walking Dead Interior Page My enjoyment of pieces like this is greatly enhanced by the recreations, and it sort of puts a nail in the coffin for the spirit of this thread (for me anyways). I simply view any piece without word balloons or a masthead as an opportunity instead of something to stay clear of.

proceeds to show a killer copy with everything but a high grade status. What eye appeal!!!

I think comic book art and comic strip art, while different, have way too much in common to separate. There are certainly differences in the markets, but for the sake of argument I'd lump them together. The only real difference is that there will be a lot of strip art that falls into obscurity, not sure if it's a higher amount relative to comic book art but I'd wager it is. Comic books characters, by and large, impact culture more than strip art characters; despite the overlap. Without new creative teams revamping properties and characters to create that content and nostalgia, all that's left is aesthetics.

As others have said, dry cleaning and pressing does not remove stains. Contrary to what some hacks on facebook or other groups would have you believe. That said, CGC has become WAY too harsh on stains, overall, in the last few years - to a completely unacceptable level. The grading is inconsistent and all over the board as it is. But the staining downgrade is near the top of the list of problems.

Having the before photos help. As long as the declared value covers the total value of book, CGC should give some sort of compensation for the damage. The 4th and 5th photos, though, clearly show part of the new damage occurred inside the slab - that is the slab itself caused the damage. That problem is the exact, literal problem I have buying new 9.8 graded books, and the case itself cause damage to the book. I've come to think that CGC purposefully allows this damage to occur because it's deemed "insignificant enough" as real damage and encourages books to be resubmitted with a CCS press. There seems to be literally no other reason why the case itself causes damage like this, across the board, to books of every generation. The construction of the inner well, allowing new damage so easily would be laughable if it wasn't so sad how many high grade books are damaged this way. @CGC Mike Do higher-ups have any comment on this? It's undeniably prevalent and occurs on so many books how this hasn't been fixed is baffling.

If someone had a book with a known spine split, that was sent in for a clean and press, new damage done is the shared responsibility of the owner of the book and CCS. The owner should have known there was a risk of more splitting occurring, and CCS should have said "we don't recommend this work be done at the expense of new damage occurring". The idea that everything can just be pressed regardless of consequences is exhausting.

Wouldn't the collectors of 20 years ago have said the same? Historically speaking the only real question decade after decade is what art will become astronomical in 20 years vs other content that has lagged behind, because that seems to be a guarantee.. Great example, and I think there's a huge reflection of this in the antique furniture market in general. But thankfully rugs and art couldn't be further apart. The closest thing to comic book art that can be looked at, historically, is fine art. Much fine art over the centuries was commissioned buy a variety of people, but ultimately the relationship to commercial art and fine art, too, is often overlooked. Our comic book art was work for hire. The fine art world is also comprised by a (almost universal) 1:1 ratio of unique pieces. That said, 100 years from now if we're still here there is a 100% guarantee that there will be collections that were donated to museums, institutions, etc and this stuff will be, at the very least, way closer to fine art prices not the other way around. Heck, 20 years from now Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, even The Walking Dead and Star Trek are going NOWHERE. 40 years from now will there be new heroes or properties that have taken over popularity, or ones that currently exist that have been rehashed by new creative teams? Which heroes or properties (like Buck Rogers and Tarzan) will slink closer to obscurity? The cultural limelight will be taken up by others and we have 100 years of content to pull from and rehash and redraw and tell more stories of. Superhero's and comic book characters have in some regard superseded themselves to the forefront of culture and are "worshiped" in the same way that religious icons were in past days. Look at how much some of those religious paintings and commercial pieces from centuries are still appreciated. Past culture was heavily influenced by religion (heck it still is!) but there is an undeniable element of culture that comic books and superheros have effected that is lasting- at the very least for the next hundred years. As someone that's 32, my only worry for collecting through the rest of my life is what pieces are available within my budget now that won't be in due time - and exactly how much time is that? Looking at the historical record and gauging the effect this stuff has on culture I would feel foolish to think otherwise.

CGC's Quality Control was flushed down the toilet a while ago. They know that more people will accept slabs with scuffs like this than bother sending them back in for a reholder. So it's more cost-effective for them to not solve the bigger issue and have @CGC Mike put a band-aid on the books people bring up on the boards. Why bother fixing the actual problem when band-aids work on a case by cases basis!

I do agree, as a human things like this that seem preventable can be frustrating. In fairness, I revised my "thread title" review from 1/5 to 3/5 because of their timely response.

They got back quickly and the payout was now re-sent, apparently being deposited in another 1-2 business days.

CGC has never been more inconsistent. The laughable amount of 8.0/ 8.5/ 9.0s that look like 6.0s. Books that should be a 4.5 or 5.0 that are a 3.0/3.5. 9.8s with multiple spine dents. 9.2s that look like 7.5s. Books I've done conservation on that come back Universal with no mention of the work done. (SO many now) Misplacement of books in their warehouse The really sad part is that every single time without fail it's a new graded book, graded within the last 12-16 months. The almost complete lack of oversight across the boards leaves the only answer that there are too many people working there now that are deficient in the skills required to do the job.

I sent an email this morning still waiting to hear back. I understand I'm being impatience to a degree, but a good amount of my time has already been wasted that I can't get back. The fact that their system easily assured me to sit back and wait for payment (because my payment preference was active and complete) but then did a 180 after the "standard deposit time window" ceased is unacceptable.

Reviewed as an emotion review was initially left. Have since used shortboxed with great ease and success selling books!

The story is really great. But in terms of variants, sketch covers and keys... I bet my left leg that 10 years from now no one will care about 99% of the the variants, sketch covers and keys from the series. If you like the collecting aspect and don't care about an expected drop in value in the long term, you'll be fine.

First off, sweet MM12! For clarification, do you mean that you put in a high bid before the 3 minute reset (very end of the auction) and that the underbidder was only $200 below your high bid?

I picked this up not too long ago and just posted it on my comicartfans account. Early appearance of Negan/Lucille with Carl. https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1877211 Heh, just noticed too. Issue #105, that it's published in, came out in December, 2012. 10 years ago now.

Is there a consensus on whether this happens naturally (slowly over time) despite conditions. Or is it accentuated by relative daylight? Not positive but from what I can see it's very likely marker. So there's a combination of archival inks and non-archival inks at play here from what I'm now gathering.

This is a philosophy that I've been trying to abide by and it's made the experience much more enjoyable. I always had a sense of discomfort or guilt posting something that inevitably ended up being a short term placeholder. In my experience, there are two main reasons people aren't posting things (aside from collecting so much you just don't have time to post everything).. 1. Unsolicited offers get under their skin and ruin the experience because people incorrectly think everyone abides by the same morals, ethics and courtesy. Personally, I've found that not responding to unsolicited offers (or just saying "no thank you") and moving on works, since I can choose how to react to these offers. If they are persistent, I am also persistent (with not responding or being candid and saying No.). I also get a sense of pride in my collection if I have pieces that anyone else wants. I also recognize that there are many excited collectors who do not share my level of morals, ethics or courtesy and by having a gallery on CAF I'm accepting the responsibility of having interactions with them. 2. People think they collect subpar or bad art because they don't receive the views/likes/comments on their pieces they are hoping for. Time after time I've talked to collectors who've complained about engagement on their pieces, yet when looking into their gallery I find they reply to comments on their own pieces only (padding comments on their pieces) and/or never comment on other people's pieces. So they expect people to come to them but they don't want to put in the time themselves. Which I think is a bit shortsighted. I will routinely search titles and artists I like and leave some likes/ comments on pieces. I'll also go back through to people who have comment on my pieces of the years and check back into their galleries and leave a comment or two if I see pieces I like. Sometimes (I'll admit) I even leave comments on pieces "in hopes" that they will say "who's this person?" and then check into my gallery and maybe leave a comment on one of my pieces. But the key is I never expect reciprocation, I just hope the person will appreciate it in some way.

I received this page in the page the other week. It's from the main Amazing Spider-Man title, circa 2008. The artist is Salvator Larroca. First off, I love the page. I think he does a great rendition, the lines are super tight and clean and sharp and what's not to love?! I did notice, though, that when looking at the page through light there's a red hue apparent in several portions. It looks like he used two different types of inks and the red appears where he used one type. Not sure if it's the one type of ink degrading in some way? I vaguely recall hearing that artists were experimenting using different mediums during the 80s and 90s, some of which were... not very archival. And there are stories from that period where the inks have turned from black to brown/red over time. Or in worse cases faded dramatically.

Anything new on the Invincible front? Probably tough to keep discussion going since the series ended?

@CGC Mike Should take note of this and talk to higher ups about re-naming ME, as well as rethinking the 2 week window. Surely CGC does not want graded books out there with these problems that were 100% caused during encapsulation. Especially since CGC can be the only responsible entity for problems inside the sealed cases of these books. Quality control is performed by people, not a machine - therefore it's disingenuous to call it a mechanical error since it's an error caused by a human. This distinction is important, and by not clarifying properly it makes customers feel like we're being lied to for CGC's ineptitude. Not to mention we have to pay for it if not caught within a very small window.

You do know that this is a comic book, right? So the laws of our physics do not apply 100%. We're talking about a part man, part spider here. Unless I'm mistaken, in previous ASM issues he had more than two arms, so............