CartoonFanboy

I became aware of original comic art in the early 1990s thanks to (of all things) Wizard magazine. They talked about original art and Bart Sears had the Brutes and Babes column which would often times show original art for learning purposes. My interest in owning art came about in the mid-90s when I saw a piece of OA up close for the first time at a small comic convention. It wasn't until the internet opened up the accessibility of OA in the late-90s however, that I finally got my first piece as a senior in college.

I'm totally one of those guys who's superstitious about posting art before I have it in hand

Of the two comic related Kickstarts I've backed, both were late. One was about five months late while the other was about ten months late. I have an art reward coming for the ten month late project, but since the printed book arrived just this week, it will probably be a while before the reward gets done. Communication was pretty good overall, though I would agree with other posters that when there isn't much work being done, the communication has tendency to go dark. All that said, I enjoyed the finished products from both Kickstarts immensely and was ok with the wait.

Gary Frank is the artist for Doomsday Clock, not Frank Quitely. That said, I would consider both of them to be All Stars (though not new ones since they've each been working in the industry for over twenty years).

Unlike most people, I didn't discover Norm Breyfogle's work on Batman but rather on the Ultraverse series Prime. I still remember being at my LCS as a teenager and opening that first issue. Everything just seemed so big, larger than life I guess you would say. From just those first couple pages I was hooked. Later in life, I was fortunate enough to meet Norm at the inaugural Akron comic con in 2012. As you can imagine, he was wonderful, and at the time I hoped he would make regular appearances at the show. Sadly he suffered his stroke less than two years later and now he has passed on. RIP Norm Breyfogle. Below are some of my favorite Norm Breyfogle Prime pieces that I've been fortunate enough to acquire.

With the new Supreme Court ruling, this was obviously coming (though I'd hoped it wouldn't be this soon). Unfortunate for me since I'm in one of the affected states. I will definitely be factoring sales tax into future bids. On a more positive note, my last purchase was earlier this month, and it just so happened to be the biggest purchase I've ever made at one time. Being of modest means, I don't usually win that much off of Heritage due in large part to the BP. With sales tax now being a factor, I get the feeling my bids are about to become even less competitive.

Well, not all of these artists are alive mind you, and even those that are may not be interested in spending their time authenticating the thousands of pages of art they created in their career. The logistics of authenticating original art are numerous, especially for things like existing sketches done by artists no longer with us. Regarding the idea of slabbing, I once again have to argue that it's not practical. You mention posters being slabbed, but how many of those can you store before it becomes cumbersome? I have a modest collection of 130 pieces of original art, when I try to imagine how much space and weight that collection would take up because it's encased in plastic, I shiver. That - and as another board member once observed - most OA collectors don't see their art as a collectible, they see it as art. Art is the kind of thing we see in portfolios and framed on walls; for many of us, slabbing the art would lessen it.

This topic comes up every now and again. As Pete said, you can find some spirited discussions on it if you search the forum. For me, I have NO interest in slabbing my original art, even if there were a service that specialized in it. In truth, slabbing art just isn't practical given how large it is and the inconsistency in size. An argument can be made for an authentication service given the large number of fake sketches (and even published art) that exists in the hobby. Forgeries and misattributed art are real problems for collectors, thus opportunity exists there. Slabbing isn't necessary for that however, and in and of itself a slab really doesn't serve the needs of most art collectors. I can see using CGC to slab sketch covers, but other than that, no thanks.

That's the one @ O.

This is the only page I have of either character. It's Venom from the "Venom: Dark Origins" mini-series that Angel Medina drew some years back. Since it's an origin story, this page takes place prior to the unveiling of Venom's trademark toothy grin (actually I believe our resident original art aficionado has that very cool unveiling page).

All I could think of when I saw this thread title was this old Marvel ad from the 90s.

I asked the Facebook community on Tom Grummett's fan page about this and I got the following info: "Yes. This was used for WB Store Puzzle. I still have mine." John S. Jr. Here's the image he included:

+1

I believe this was published in Ultraverse #0. Short story featuring Hardcase before his team the "Squad" gets mostly killed.

That exhibit looks amazing. Thanks for posting!

I'm not sure what the previous poster was referring to when he said that McFarlane's wife financed the purchase. To my knowledge she has only ever worked as part of McFarlane's company. I've never heard anything about her being rich or anything prior to their marriage (I believe she was the daughter of one of McFarlane's baseball coaches from college or something).

That definitely sounds like a rumor. McFarlane was married long before he became successful, so it's highly unlikely that he had any such prenuptial.

That's the impression I had as well. It seems to be a perception thing. I don't think the artwork is the literal copyright, but the artists see the art as part of the copyright and (according to the video) usually leave the art in the hands of the publisher who is the copyright holder. That was my take away at least.

That's a great story. I can only imagine your excitement when Spencer told you the three missing pages had turned up. So cool that you were able to reunite the entire issue.

I don't use high contrast themes, but I agree that having thumbnails as background images is a mistake here. If this was done for vertical centering purposes, there are other ways to achieve the effect. I do like that the site is now responsive though. I'm hoping to see more sites in our hobby go this way, especially CAF (though I don't know how possible that is from an advertising perspective).

Actively collected from 2000-2005, then marriage, house and kids caused me to step away from the hobby for a while. Dipped my toes back in around 2009-2010. Actively started buying regularly in 2011 to current. So overall I'd say about 12 years of active collecting.

Right, two covers for $760, though I have to admit the second cover (Superboy #15 by Grummett) was on the weaker side. So maybe it's not that big of a jump after all. Still, I follow Grummett's work pretty closely and was surprised by the Heritage result, that's the nature of the hobby though.

Amongst my modest areas of collecting interest, I have to say I was very surprised to see the Robin #15 cover by Tom Grummett go for over $1,300 with the BP. The same piece sold as part of a two cover lot on ebay less than three years ago for just $760.

That is the current process, and in my experience (I cannot speak for others) ebay has never responded or shut down the listing. The report just seems to go into a black hole. This is only my opinion, but I doubt that ebay has the personnel (both in size and knowledge) necessary to accurately review a fraud claim from a niche hobby such as ours, so they err on the side of just letting the auction play out and see if the buyer complains. The problem being, of course, that the buyer is unlikely to have an epiphany once they receive the fake goods.

You'll find that people around here report suspected forgeries to ebay all the time, and ebay in return does nothing. I can't count how many times I've reported items that were clearly fake only to see the auction stay active. If this really does bother you to the point that you need to shame someone, I would recommend that you start with the "Powers-That-Be" at ebay.