Koa

Here is one we just sold last week. Figured id post it up for everyone to see since it didnt make it to the websites. Frank handed it off to us at Orlando and it sold 30 mins after we had it on the show floor.

 

 

Nice, what website is franks new art listed?

While I'm not the biggest fan of FM's recent work I do appreciate his style.

 

I almost think he has the keenest eye when it comes to contrasting the stark black and white brush and ink image and while the characters maybe "grotesque" stylistically his ability to make the black and white image pop is like no other.

 

Totally agree! Here is a perfect example of the black and white ... I would like to think at least..

 

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1231414&GSub=167429

I think this is one of the most successful pieces by Frank done in this extreme style. Incredible.

I really hope we get to see more comic art by Frank Miller. Is he still offering artwork direct?

Stroman was never on my list of artists to get a commission from. I saw him posting artwork last year on CAF and just decided to inquire about getting a sketch cover done since I was a fan of his X-Factor work as a kid. There was no attempt to circumvent dealing with an art representative and Stroman never alluded to having one. It's only after researching CAF and the web that I found out about others having similar problems and that he had a representative. Would have never bothered with him, rep or not, having known what I do now.

 

These commission horror stories seem to always involve artists who have to sing for their supper. I really can't understand how an artist who isn't really that popular can justify leaving a fan who has paid for their work in these type of situations. Your fanbase is small enough as it is, you really want to alienate the few hundred people who might support your work...

 

True. I've had quite a few commissions with top artists and they have always come through. The only artist ever to stiff me for a commission was Pat Broderick a few years ago. I wrote it off as a loss considering how bad I thought his artwork had gotten over the years.

That sucks! That's what stops me from commissioning certain artists, whose work I'm nostalgic for but were never big players. Fans tend to be reverential and forgiving of their favorite artists and artists who are prone to taking advantage of that, really push it to the limits. I don't know how this could be anything but a passive aggressive way to bully the few fans willing to pay for their work they have left. Leaving people hanging like this, for years after taking their money is wrong. No responses. IMO He should pay back at least a portion of the money even if he delivers the art now. He won't of course but if he's really looking to mend fences....

These commission horror stories seem to always involve artists who have to sing for their supper. I really can't understand how an artist who isn't really that popular can justify leaving a fan who has paid for their work in these type of situations. Your fanbase is small enough as it is, you really want to alienate the few hundred people who might support your work...

I got a few emails from him via comic art fans a few times. I stopped keeping a wantlist after He tried to sell me pages that were listed at the artists choice during one of their 50% sales, at full price.

Moving Quick

 

I kind of expect it'll clear 15-20k somehow even though none of his art has ever come close at auction.

 

You know, i've been ragging on greg about his pricing but looking at some modern (last 4 or 5 years) era art, I see reps have (at least) doubled prices on many less popular artists new work over the last 6 months or year. I don't want to name names but Artists who have work sitting at 2500 a cover have newer no more desirable work listed at 4-5k now. If the work isn't selling at 2500 what makes people think 5k will be the trick? art that didn't sell at 5k are now listing 10k.

 

If this trend continues this hobby has officially jumped the shark, imo.

 

The piece stalled at $8k. I don't think it Will clear $15K. Could become the auction bargain.

The 15k comment was a follow up toward the sudden price jump in Spawn covers that have been sitting idle at 4-8k for years to match the 20-50k prices Greg has listed.

8k seems on the high end of reasonable for this.

That's nice. Will it reach $30k?

 

Will it even reach 6-8? Judging by how many years the other covers sat at these prices (until yesterday), it's unlikely. It'll be interesting to see nevertheless.

 

It's pass $8k. How far will it go for considering is one of the better looking Capullo Spawn out there ? Plus... Not too many come out to the open market.

I don't think it's one of the better covers, but they're all pretty good.

I'd be comfortable in this price range for a capullo/miki spawn cover I really wanted. I wonder what a nice capullo/mcfarlane cover will go for.

Moving Quick

I kind of expect it'll clear 15-20k somehow even though none of his art has ever come close at auction.

You know, i've been ragging on greg about his pricing but looking at some modern (last 4 or 5 years) era art, I see reps have (at least) doubled prices on many less popular artists new work over the last 6 months or year. I don't want to name names but Artists who have work sitting at 2500 a cover have newer no more desirable work listed at 4-5k now. If the work isn't selling at 2500 what makes people think 5k will be the trick? art that didn't sell at 5k are now listing 10k.

If this trend continues this hobby has officially jumped the shark, imo.

Hello,

I am a huge fan of Capullo and long time collector of his originals. With everybody posting great pieces I thought I would share mine. Here is my Batman piece. Its actually the piece that got Greg the job on Court of Owls and first time he ever drew Robin. I took a new larger pic of it but just realized my premium membership has expired. Once they update that I will have a bigger pic.

 

Batman and Robin by Greg Capullo

 

thanks,

Matthew

 

Great piece. I've been wondering why Some of Greg's batman art, like this was never published.

Here's the thing, the covers up at the artists choice have been sitting for years at 6k and then at 8. if nobody was willing to pay that for those particular covers what makes anyone think they'll sell at 30?

 

 

Pricing psychology. I'm not a money guy so maybe someone else can chime in if there is a specific name of the pricing strategy. Expensive = good. Apparently a couple years ago Kanye West was selling plain white t-shirts for $120 and they sold out quickly.

yeah, but 120 is still affordable for lots of people. Greg is listing filler pages at 1-3k. Popular artists have covers listed for less than some of his filler pages. I just hope his pricing strategy doesn't catch on among modern artists.

I think to a degree it's like the art of Bill Waterson and Gary Larson - - "The Calvin and Hobbes" as well as "The Far Side" comic strip artwork. Whereas with other similar properties like Jim Davis' "Garfield" where his prices direct to consumer were relatively cheap and readily available. I speculate if Jim Davis horded all of his art or donated them to museums relegating them in the "not available / not for sale" status, his original artwork would command much higher prices and greater prestige.

 

A large part of the valuation is based upon the scarcity in what is available in the open secondary market. So, what Capullo is effectively doing is price mapping, controlling the inventory and valuation by setting the pricing. Ultimately whether it becomes more trash than treasure or vice versa is to be determined by the longevity his own legacy and fan base.

 

Good point. I think Watterson also transcends the medium he works in a way Jim Davis does not. Frank Miller and Todd Mcfarlane also do that in their own way. Capullo doesn't. Greg has done his definitive work to date on Spawn and even though i think he surpassed todd 10 times over while on the book his work ends up bolstering Todd Mcfarlane's legacy more than his own.

I guess at the end of the day the marketplace will be the judge. If 40-50k Capullo art from 2015 starts appearing in collections at these prices than he's the biggest commercial artist in comic book history.

The market supply is really small for these since McFarlane is not selling his ones (it seems) Capello is not selling his ones (it seems) the only way to get one was through Miki.

 

There were actually two others I would have liked to have got via Artist Choice but since I already had 2 this was way low priority...also the OFFER starts at 8K - that was not the price, it was throw out a number but don't let it be below 8K and by the way it won't be 8K !!!

 

Its supply and demand and resources to purchase...all I know is supply is tight, demand is unknown, resources are unknown.

 

the one on HA was not very exciting, the one on Comiclink is more so...may be interesting to see.

One of Greg's most endearing qualities is the sheer amount of terrific artwork he produces working monthly so it's really artificial scarcity. The Spawn covers were so consistently good there are only a handful that I wouldn't consider a Capullo grail piece to own but the Batman covers are a different story.

I keep thinking in comparison to David Finch, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, Dale Keown because Greg's fan base is basically the same people, and that's mostly the Spawn stuff. I think Jim lee or Campbell level pricing would be a stretch but who knows.

The stuff inked by Mcfarlane cross into Todd's fan base but if you're spending the kind of money he's asking for top level examples, you can get McSpidey covers and splashes.

The HA auction, Romitaman had this one listed for awhile a few years ago. I see a Greg bought back the cover of Spawn 41 at some point which sold at HA for 2700, i think. With Danny Miki quadrupling his asking prices for Spawn covers that have been sitting unsold for at least 5 years now at 6-8k. I wouldn't be surprised if this one didn't somehow manage to stay in line with the new valuations and I will take any auction price near the 30k level with a grain of salt.

Sean several artists have told me the same thing - when they don't want to sell something but continually get pestered by collectors...they just put a sky high price on it. This is not meant to encourage anybody to pay up, but rather to discourage even ten seconds conversation on the subject. It usually works. Though sometimes doing this invites longer conversations over how crazy an artist is to charge so much (and to their face) or asking them to "justify" it (as if!) So those occasions...it's a backfire

 

No idea if this is what Greg is about or not, just that it is a practice by some artists, all this to me as I was sitting behind the table with them, not necessarily what they would tell fans that walk up and browse the stack of sketchbooks, ya know?

 

I write all this to say...Capullo self-pricing and the Spencer/Miki story (as related anyway) is nutz imo

 

That's really passive aggressive. If fans are pests perhaps you should go work without fanfare. I wonder how many of these same artists complain about not making a decent living in comics. I'd love to know who these artists are so i can not buy their comics.

 

Actually this goes somewhat to how a working artist markets their work and themselves (usually the same in the minds of most fans) during convention season.

 

Typically the best or signature original(s) from the recent past is the prime display piece at shows from April to November. Go to an artist's table -everybody wants to see originals, even if their wallet is only big enough for prints. If it's a big painting (think 18x24, 20x30, even larger) it's a pull from across the hall, draws people to the table. If this is your thing (as an artist, the way you're used to doing con season), you do not want to sell that painting at your second show out of 30 in a season. So you mark it (mentally or with a sticky) NFS. And people ask and ask and ask. (After all -it is clearly your signature piece!) Sometimes it's the same guy all weekend. So then you -in exasperation- quote him a number that sends him packing, say $35k for a 3500 piece. And that's that. A conversation ender. Everybody in this story knows the $35k is not going to happen. But do that a number of times, over a number of con seasons, and it's becomes habit. To the point you don't even think about it anymore, until a young buck (me) comes along and says, "Hey, nice as it is -nobody is going to pay $35k for that. Your market is more like $5k, tops." To which said artist replies, "Yes. Exactly!"

You don't see what's wrong with that mentality though? These artists at a convention marketing their work to fans and potential fans. They are actually in a marketplace setting getting annoyed by being asked if something is for sale.

may be a conversation ender but it's a good way to lose the respect of the people who support your work and I'm sure that tact, unless this artist is some childhood hero, sends people packing, away from supporting their work in any fashion and moving onto a different artist.

I'm not saying they need to sell, plenty of artists I love don't sell but they also don't insult their fans.

Either way, this is not the situation with Greg, he's offering select pieces. If you ask about something not for sale, he'll tell you it's not for sale.

I just noticed this cover on CLink, it's up for the May auction:

 

Interesting to see the market value of that piece. On HA only two Capullo Spawn covers have been sold - the last one was this one - sold in 2012 for 4,2k:

 

http://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/greg-capullo-and-todd-mcfarlane-spawn-39-cover-original-art-image-1995-/a/7059-92065.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

And those were fully inked by Todd Mcfarlane. Interior pages went for less than 150 each at HA also inked by Todd and Romitaman listed those interiors for around 300. I think they went low at auction

Got some new prices, should anyone here be interested. You can contact Danny Miki should something appeal to you.

 

Covers:

#24: $40,000

#26: $25,000

#32: $30,000

#36: $35,000

#39: $30,000

#42: $20,000

#46: $25,000

#50: $50,000

 

Pages:

#36.18: $25,000

#50.7: $40,000

 

As for me,

 

 

. Does David Finch have any batman pages left?

Sean several artists have told me the same thing - when they don't want to sell something but continually get pestered by collectors...they just put a sky high price on it. This is not meant to encourage anybody to pay up, but rather to discourage even ten seconds conversation on the subject. It usually works. Though sometimes doing this invites longer conversations over how crazy an artist is to charge so much (and to their face) or asking them to "justify" it (as if!) So those occasions...it's a backfire

 

No idea if this is what Greg is about or not, just that it is a practice by some artists, all this to me as I was sitting behind the table with them, not necessarily what they would tell fans that walk up and browse the stack of sketchbooks, ya know?

 

I write all this to say...Capullo self-pricing and the Spencer/Miki story (as related anyway) is nutz imo

That's really passive aggressive. If fans are pests perhaps you should go work without fanfare. I wonder how many of these same artists complain about not making a decent living in comics. I'd love to know who these artists are so i can not buy their comics.

Got some new prices, should anyone here be interested. You can contact Danny Miki should something appeal to you.

 

 

 

As for me,

 

 

 

so....I got contacted by a collector regarding one of my Spawn covers, they put forward an offer for it, but it was half what I paid for it! I put him in touch with Spencer Beck and told him that he sold Danny Mikis Spawn stuff etc

 

He did this, for those that have seen it you know the Spawn covers etc on The Artists Choice, it says minimum 8K offers considered.

 

So the guys says how about 8K and apparently the response was that Greg had contacted Danny and Spencer and said that he wanted the prices to be more in line with his pricing! So....Spencer said that they would not even consider 8K but might consider 3x that.

 

Firstly this is a shame since Danny was happy to sell his pieces (admittedly for an exorbitant price to me - it was a piece he did not want to sell, so yes it hurt); but also this seems like Price Fixing. Not that I know what price fixing is in a legal definition but this seems dubious at best.

 

anyway, here is one of my Capullo/Miki Spawn covers that I am delighted I have and will not be going anywhere! You have to admit these pieces are nuts

 

 

 

Sweet cover Joe. I think it's one of the best by Capullo/miki. If I had to guess, your cover would list at 50-75k now.

Here's the thing, the covers up at the artists choice have been sitting for years at 6k and then at 8. if nobody was willing to pay that for those particular covers what makes anyone think they'll sell at 30?

I love Greg's art but this whole pricing situation is a straight up punking of his fans. I'm sorry danny has also had to price at those levels, it makes me less likely to buy anything from anyone involved at all now

on Capullos batman art, i've never seen such a schizophrenic price list.

 

On the Hush / Jim Lee comparison: Many of you are judging based on nostalgia, personal connection, and your own perceived importance of the story (objectively, it was a very important story) which is absolutely justified. What I think is being missed, is that there is a new generation of collectors – one I myself belong to, and few of which are on this board.

nostalgia vs the so called new generation. His work of Spawn in the 90's was what built the anticipation for his Batman run to begin with.

I've been a fan of Greg's from his X-force days in 1991/92 and think Greg is one of the best contemporary artists in comics as is Jim lee but Jim is still the gold standard for commercial artists in comics. Every time Jim launches a new series it's the biggest selling book out there.

To us, Capullo/Snyder > Hush, and Capullo > Lee, and there is a large number who started reading comics with their Batman #1, the same way Hush rekindled comics interest for many.

 

I much rather own a page from Court of Owls than a page from Hush, and I also think Greg is a far superior artist.Now, this is completely subjective – but that's my point. As the new generation of collectors emerge, the Capullo/Snyder run is at the forefront of that – not Hush, not Dark Knight Returns, not Miller's Daredevil or whatever run you feel superior.

I think Marc Silvestri (circa 2010 to today) is a superior artist to his Image co-founders. That's and 2-5k will get me some pretty high end contemporary covers by Marc. New Jim lee cover sell for what? 10k up. I can argue until doomsday at how much better Marc Silvestri is but the marketplace says otherwise.

As a diehard fan of capullo, I'd have to admit he's never had the commercial drawing power his contemporaries like Campbell, turner, finch has had. I don't know what that is, I think his best work is every bit as appealing or more.

For me personally, I spent a decent chunk of coin to get my pages – especially the splashes. It wasn't easy, prices were stupid high and not something I was used to paying, but they were also purchases I do not regret and would (and will likely) do again. If these were to lose value entirely – I'm OK with that. The Court of Owls pages represent the greatest story I have ever read, and the incredible experience I had enjoying it. I am so strongly connected to Court, that I couldn't imagine parting with them. Many feel the same way about Death of the Family, Zero Year, Endgame, Superheavy, and the entire run in general.

 

So, as absurd as prices are and as difficult to understand as it is – I ask you to remember the majority of Greg's audience is very different than that you're accustom to.

I think one of the reasons there is a strong negative reaction to Greg's pricing is I think many of us feel alienated by his pricing because it's so much higher than the marketplace for contemporary artists. it's not even in the same ballpark. As a fan who has supported his work for decades, it feels like a slap in the face to price even filler pages at over 1k.

If that's what the marketplace dictated, it would be one thing. Art goes to auction and that's what it sells for. Greg's work, at auction, has not come close to these prices.

Work with Mcfarlane is something entirely different, mind you. McFarlane's involvement is a game changer. I think That 90k asking price for the Spawn 54 splash is high but it's also one of the best pieces of Capullo/Mcfarlane art.

I'll be curious to see how the sales go.I love Capullo, he's one of my favorite artists but this pricing seems out of sync with any art collecting market. I would imagine if his work does sell well at these prices it could push a dramatic asking price increase by other commercially viable artists.

His batman work is priced higher than Jim lee and Jim is arguably the definitive 21 century batman artist.

Similar with his Mcfarlane inked Spawn pages. You can get pretty awesome mcspidey covers in the same ballpark (or less) as those two spreads.

Yeah, I get that of course, but still really odd to me. I've been around a number of "celebrities" over the years. Artists, writers, film industry types and just plain uber wealthy folks that never had or felt a need for a security guard, much less two.

 

I get it with the A lister elite and the paparazzi psychosis that surrounds them. But Frank Miller? Comes as a bit of a shock to me, so what do I know. Good on 'em!

If he keeps his artwork around it's a prudent move. Maybe he needs a bank vault...

Do these sell? Are there people lining up to drop $10K for these? I am obviously not the demographic for this art as I can’t get my head around the price for what you get but I have to presume that there is a market but I am having a hard time understanding who it would be. I enjoyed Miller’s early DC and Marvel work but this does not stand up in my eyes. Are the die hard FM fans rushing to buy these?

There not all 10k. I'm considering buying a Miller commission (not posted here) and here's why.

Miller's DD work had a a big impact on me as stories but the artwork from that series in general does not appeal to me in single page form for various reasons. Frank has not done much art for Marvel since he evolved or de-evolved depending on your point of view during the late 80's. Specifically DD/Elektra. The DD visionaries 2 and 3 covers are two of my favorite pieces of art and if they do come to market I doubt they would sell for less than 10k. same for the DD black widow cover he did for some obscure marvel reprint book in the early 90's.

I like frank Miller's modern art. it has nothing to do with his name, it has to do with his art. FM composes art and expresses through line and shapes that often appeals to me on a visceral level that i cannot articulate.You may feel his art is and sneer at my appreciation for it, that's okay. We all need someone to look down on but Miller's work has meaning to me. I value his contributions to the art form and I see something of value, artistically in his work. If I see the right piece, i will buy it.

You have to be kidding, that Elektra looks like The Joker in drag.

 

It's called "style"

 

Malvin

 

You can call it style, but if FM's name wasn't attached to that art you would think it was a joke. That right hand and joker chin/smile are inexcusable, even for a legend.

 

Sorry, just my honest opinion.

 

I forgot to include the smiley face/tongue sticking out emoticon when I said "style"

 

Malvin

Miller's name only has value because many people find value in his work.

It's self expression. miller intentionally makes the artistic choices he does, the exaggerations or intentional ugliness in order to evoke a response in the viewer. There is a more basic quality to his line that i think could be attributed to his sever health issues over the last few years.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take (view not buy) any and all new art from Frank - he's my favorite comic artist. I've enjoyed all of his phases (even defending his current look in a recent thread). And these Elektra sketches are 20 x 30! So great to have on the wall! Just the nipples

yeah, I don't see the big deal. we all have them and in light clothing they might be visible.