JadeGiant

Latest Bob Larkin Hulk poster homage – this one by Joe Jusko. A tremendous commission experience with Joe on this one – he even provided several images and a video of this piece taking shape. If you are interested seeing the WIP video/images, please visit the link below. https://thejadegiant.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/bob-larkin-hulk-poster-homage-by-joe-jusko/ http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1419579

dupe

dupe

You too man. Missed on the ice cream this year - next year for sure!

Didn't get out to any shops in Toronto but Fan Expo was a blast - recap on my site if you are interested: https://thejadegiant.wordpress.com/2017/09/04/fan-expo-2017-the-dale-keown-experience/

Congrats on your first purchase! Good call for going with a lower priced piece to get started. Attending cons is a great way to meet other collectors and I highly suggest this to new collectors. It has paved the way for me as well and has added a tremendous amount of enjoyment in the hobby personally. Regarding the Starlin cover, I am neither familiar with the cover or Starlin’s market, but a $1300 markup on a $1600 purchase seems a bit aggressive if it was picked up at auction. It could be a great buy and maybe worth nearly double but likely not. The seller might have hoped it was an auction that flew under the radar and might be able to turn a quick and tidy profit. If it has been listed for a while with no sale they probably have figured they guessed wrong and are likely willing to negotiate. Maybe not. Either way, it is worth opening a dialog with the seller if you are a serious buyer of the art. This is important as you don’t want to get into a negotiation if there isn’t a price that you WILL buy the art. Tire kicking is fine if you are interested but serious price negotiation should be reserved for the pieces that you are willing to write a check if the price aligns for you and the seller. He might be willing to sell at a more modest profit to get the money back out of the piece for another buy. You don’t know if you don’t ask.

https://thejadegiant.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/happy-birthday-to-jack-kirby-co-creator-of-the-incredible-hulk/

Just caught up on this thread, haven’t read much in a while. First off, welcome to the hobby. As maddening as it can be, it is the best I have found (I have collected something pretty much my entire life). A few things come to mind. Friends – I think a vast majority of us do not have good friends that collect comic art that are in the same locale. The comic art community is small so the odds of lucking out in this way are slim. That’s the beauty of the internet however, it shrinks the hobby into your computer screen. I have made several friends that do not live close to me and it has all come from just talking art virtually. Do what you are doing here. Join forums/groups and be an active member of the community. It can take some time but you will make contacts which will become contacts and eventually some will become friends. One of my best friends is someone I met through the comic/art hobby and we found that we had a lot in common outside of art. We correspond almost daily on a host of topics. You will find yourself going to more shows to hang out with fellow collectors/friends and that’s where you will get that drink and some face to face discussion. Dealers – this hobby is tough when it comes to breaking in with the dealers out there. Many of them aren’t high on the customer service aspect – probably from all the questions they have to answer (as mentioned) but also because being an art dealer doesn’t really require those skills to be in the game. If you have the art people want, you are half way there (a LOT more than half way actually, see C-lines as example). Coming in early to the hobby I imagine that many people see the dealers as their primary source for building their collection. My experience has been VERY different as my collection has been built almost solely via other sources (less than 5% of my collection comes from dealers). Learning the ropes of how to buy art well will eventually lead you to this conclusion IMO (or maybe not as I know some people that buy primarily from dealers). Networking and making friends will help you to find art much better than scanning dealer sites IMHO. Buy a page – you have done MUCH more research than most people – bravo! Almost everyone does the opposite and jumps in too quickly and makes purchases they might later regret. I started buying pretty quickly but my approach was to limit my purchase’s price point to avoid buying big and having a major regret. This caused me to have a few minor regrets but nothing too bad and ultimately taught me to buy less pieces but at higher price points to get the art I want more for my collection. It’s all called paying tuition for your comic art education (not my term, I heard it from Felix) and we all do it so I would suggest not worrying about it too much. You have done your homework and you don’t sound like an impulse buyer so I say dip your toe in the water and make a few purchases (maybe at lower levels) and see how your experience goes. You can only get so much of an understanding from analyzing; you’ll start up the learning curve more rapidly once you start acquiring art. It doesn’t even mean you have to spend new money as I know a lot of people that have liquidated other collectibles that aren’t as important to fund art purchases (I have yet to do this but plan to at some point). Whatever you decide, good luck! (and feel free to ask me about art but my area of knowledge doesn’t line up with yours as I am a Hulk collector).

Will stop by for sure

You have my attention

anyone that wants to catch up at Fan Expo and share art hauls, let me know

Fan Expo weekend?

link?

Thanks for the info Simon! Any more leads, please feel free to post or message me directly. Thanks!

UPDATE!!! No additional leads so I am adding a couple images of the pages I am most targeting. Feel free to send any info if you have it. Thanks in advance!

I love threads like this – the ones of great interest but no way to land on a definitive answer (but always fun trying). I don’t think I have a lot to add because I look at the art from an aesthetic and content perspective first and foremost and that is how I assign value. As such, the premiums a cover demands often prices me out for what I want to pay in relation to what might be available from the splashes and panel pages. I often find great value personally in a nice half or 2/3 splash page. Old school Marvel was similar IMO as I almost always enjoyed the opening and/or closing splash over the cover (which often was not congruent with the story within the issue in some manner which bugged me).

I have never heard of a museum box, thanks for the idea

Just so no to trimming. Next thing you will be cutting up art to sell the characters separately. It’s a slippery slope. Being truthful, I have had the same thought as this has tripped the OCD trigger in my brain when I have a page that doesn’t fit, etc. I never considered it, but the thought did creep in.

Some really cool pieces - GLWTS!

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1413861 Newest in my Bob Larkin Hulk poster homage series by the talented Dave Aikins.

The more I talk to people outside of forums, the more I am of this same opinion. While the few web forums that exist for comic art collecting are great sources of information and provide great conversation, they are a small slice of the overall hobby/market. I think the conversations tend to create a perspective that this is how it is but the reality is that there are a lot of collectors (casual to serious) out there that hold different opinions and perspective. This forum tends to have a very heavy investment flavor but I don't get that nearly as much when talking to the "offline" collectors I run into at shows, shops, etc.

Thanks Jay, I was eyeballing that one. Telco had it listed previously at too high a price so he has dropped it a bit. I might reach out to him. I appreciate the heads up!

This is a great idea

Yep, found that interesting as well. I am really anxious to hear the details behind the Kirby deal. Good stuff Felix - already anxious to hear what you have cooked up for the next podcast