Garf

+1 to the ones that got away. I don't think I have ever bid high enough on something yet to truly either live to regret it or have someone bail me out with their bid. I can see it possibly happening if I were to spot something I really want for the first time shortly before it ends, just because I wouldn't have the time I need to think things through. Over the years it's getting easier to avoid scratching the itch just because it is there... even though that generally feels good for a while

Time can be what it is all about. Time for an artist to do more than one book, time at home, time for self improvement... I can't recall if it was this forum where I said this before but nowadays a lot artists who choose the academic route are getting tooled up to work digitally because it gives them much more choice in the workplace. Character design, scenery design, concept artist, texture artist, prop design, 2D, 3D, etc etc. I think we are going to see a lot more digital art creep in purely because of the choices it offers artists.

Short answer is I totally agree with Bronty on this. There are comics that I read as a young child which had high circulation but I don't have any interest in collecting the pages or covers I see on eBay from time to time. ...the earliest comics I want to collect are the ones that gave me a unique or what was then a "new to me" experience. It made them stand out, and in general I guess it started with comics that sometimes had a darker storyline. As an example Batman comics weren't the same as the TV series or cartoons I had watched. People didn't die or get damaged on screen, so I never got all that invested in them. Whereas comic writers would happily slap me in the face by showing me they could just as easily take away a character I loved as create one.

Oh boy... Vertigo comics. If you have a lot of them to catch up on they could make you very poor.

I kinda feel bad that I was actually waiting for this one. Love it now though. It has just as much (if not more) flavour than everything else.... tasty thread.

Yay. I can play... #10 of Badger - First appearance of "Hodag", and as the Badger hails from Wisconsin it seems fitting that his nemesis draws on the local folklore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodag . I have always wondered how relevant that reference is in wider America? I do have more obscure bit part players in CAF and some I haven't popped on there but thought I would go with one that at least had several appearances under his belt. I also like that this thread is cropping up a few unusual sketches. If I had to pick an unusual one from what we have then it's the one that my daughter got from Carlos Ezquerra of Fionna the Human (which is from Adventure Time universe, more specifically it's from the gender bent fan fiction universe that exists within the Adventure time universe). Everyone was glad that she had brought some reference for Carlos to look at . I just really really like it.

Just popped on here before catching some sleep. I don't think I can get my head around this one, have already typed a post and deleted it several times.

Interesting thread. I think nostalgia will mostly beat out craft in the marketplace because it's going to be what the heart wants and if that heartbeat changes over the years so be it. Life would be so dull if everything just stayed the same or you were forced to stand still whilst everyone else is a blur of motion around you. However, the marketplace should have nothing to do with where we draw lines to identify craft because it isn't accessible. You might as well pull the shutters down and put up a "Closed" sign. The amount of younger people joining in with this thread in this place speaks volumes. Are there other reasons for there being fewer people carrying a torch for EC, strip art, the "Studio" era and golden age comics other than the newcomers being divorced from the nostalgia and pop culture of those times? Age, health, availability, visibility, decline in income for the old and young alike, inflated price tags, no way to ease yourself into the fold... is that the line we should take or is it just simply the storytelling has aged alongside the collectors? Plucking examples out of the air look at The Blue Bolt or Alarming Tales or any of the early sci-fi & space operas onwards to the 60's, they don't represent the larger demographic any more. Given the social battlegrounds we see today who is going to appreciate all that storytelling? We could throw the same argument at a slew of other genres from those eras that in attempt to write the stories off as no longer being relevant in the same context. I can appreciate a lot of the craft in what creators like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby made and there are times when they got all of it so right... however I honestly hope my daughters never ever grow up being able to relate to a large chunk of their storytelling. Why would I want that for them? I wonder if we have to give the pace at which attitudes are evolving a bit more credit now that we can voice our opinions to everyone in the blink of an eye. Was labelling artists who rose in popularity in the 80's & 90's as the new meta when we think of "rebels" at the start of this thread a bit of a whiff or have we all stopped reading print and online? To think there hasn't already been another shift makes me feel like it truly hasn't sunk in for some people how many years have passed. IMHO some of those listed in this thread will stand the test of time a lot better than others because their imagery transcends the storytelling.

That is fantastic... either you also have a load of horrible commissions you are not showing us or I am going to have to feel desperately sorry for the "what if" / "elseworlds" you

I don't venture into this forum much, hence the belated response, however maybe that's because I could easily get lost in this labyrinth of fandom , not that that would be a bad thing. Anyhow, enjoyed your post and the enthusiam you have for the books. It's strange that something you own and can hold sometimes gives you a fleeting feeling of disbelief.

I never really cared as long as the story grabbed my attention. In general I read more DC (mostly down to liking Batman), First, Dark Horse and other smaller publishers but still dipped into Marvel when I had the opportunity. In fact when I was really young I read more Marvel because it was what was being sold close to home and I could get my hands on. Loved Transformers, Iron Man (especially Armour Wars), scattered issues and arcs of Daredevil (don't think I will ever forget reading #234 as a kid) and the same with Avengers & West Coast Avengers. It wasn't until the late 80's when I was old enough to start venturing out further and discovered all the indie stuff I had been missing out on ... then a few years later DC's Vertigo imprint got my attention

... or maybe you end up missing out on the the bit that gets interesting. I don't think that Kirkman is ever going to find himself in a win/win situation but he has to write himself out of doing the same story over and over again. It's already been told three times now??? Personaly I think I'd prefer to find out if I can get along with the idea of everything flipping and being a struggle for different reasons for a while, rather than going through a fourth helping whilst desparately trying to shove popcorn in my face and seeing who has ripened enough to be put through the murder machine. We have had citizens struggling to become Mad Max... what happens when Mad Max struggles to become a citizen? What happens when Ash has to start working at S-Mart again? I dunno... at least let us see something kinda new before dragging it back to what most of us came here for in the first place ;) ... not to hijack the thread too much, what you are saying though does go to demonstrate that even for fans the interest is getting less over time but not fading entirely.

+1 There are so many books that are due a correction over time and this is one of them. It doesn't mean that the good bits of TWD are now suddenly errr... well, bad. It has been at the yardstick of the modern hype machine / age of the comic book adaptation that everything else seems to get measured by so everyone that can squeeze money out of it or push prices up and up have been happily doing so. When that slows down it has got to find a normal level. Is anyone buying close to FMV to speculate on this book any more? Is it always available? I still enjoy the comic but the TV show after Season 5 has been getting worse to the point where it is actually annoying to watch. I am sure this will likely cause some people to give up on the comic... and they will probably be the same ones that have nostalgia for #1 -#48 years down the line. I am sure anyone that has hoarded a load of them will already have their own idea as to what to do with them (and probably a better one than I can think of). It does look like selling and buying back a little later isn't a bad gamble right now though. It doesn't matter if you love it, hate it or aren't involved and only care about other comics... what TWD has done and still is doing is still worth knowing about. It has had a massive impact on all areas of the hobby and there are plenty of lessons to be learned from it along the way. Some that have been seen before, others that haven't. It's going to be a long long time before it is forgotten.

... nice. There is something that I have been meaning to snag from there for a while,

You have already been given the best answer. Even if you only want something small it's still likely to be fairly pricey... but I reckon your chances are good. You do kinda have to luck out at conventions to get a nice sketch off of him or just catch him when it is quiet. My guess is that the latter is especially difficult to do in the USA.

This topic reminded me I really should catch up on my Mage... https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/mage-the-hero-denied-1-of-15 It's not as if I haven't been waiting a while on this trilogy to complete

Currently people exist in both worlds, I haven't really seen that many places other than CAF where published OA really thrives. The FB feeds can be short lived and they also come with all the highs and lows of social media as well (i.e. popcorn fueled drama, you are at the mercy of the mods/admins, etc)... but they are currently lively so even though your recent post becomes yesterday's news it's part of a never ending procession you can interact with. I see benefits to both worlds. I like the permanence of CAF and I don'[t always like the constant drone of certain social media. I do think that FB and Instagram are now really shining the spotlight on sketches & OA, I wonder if things are going to get a lot more competetive?

At the time of posting this reply this sketch has 217 views & 7 comments http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1432014 It was posted to "Comic Book Sketches, Commissions & Autograph Prices" on Facebook at roughly the same time where it has 474 views & 88 comments.

I get that. It makes you happy and others happy, that's a good thing. Totally support the spirit of the donation. Much as I enjoy CAF there are other places I personally prefer to donate to either online or locally close to home, so CAF doesn't end up in that category for me. It's part of a hobby that is lower down in the pecking order which is why I end up looking at the services. Based on budget, the lengthening gaps between pieces I am intersted in popping up, looking at inventory out there and taking into consideration if I trade or sell something if I would ever be able to get a similar piece again... I just don't see myself being more active in B/S/T than I already am.

...or they would soon discover that the Facebook groups get a lot of instant interaction/likes/comments.

To be honest most of the story arcs that you can associate with movies and TV from Marvel and DC are not going to be truly suitable for all ages reading, either in theme or use of language. Most of those books would require a level of independent reading in the first place, as a parent you can't really read comics out loud to kids, it just doesn't work well ... it's not like reading prose from a chapter book. I think if I gave my kids classic Spidey, Avengers or Batman it's quite likely they would get bored and potentially not finish them. Give them "Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers" and they might actually finish it. That's part of why things like Uncle Scrooge or Bone or Spider-Man loves Mary Jane are brilliant suggestions. They are written for the audience you are thinking of. If you want to get kids into comics then personally I think you need to start somewhere different, then maybe move on to the mainstream e.g. start with something like Uncle Scrooge / Long Gone Don / Phoebe and Her Unicorn / Chi's Sweet home > then move onto Adventure Time / My Little Pony / Batman Adventures / Teen Titans Go! > then move onto recent Teen Titans / Oz / Simpsons > then move onto the next thing and the next thing. Personally I have found it very challenging when first trying to find comic book material for kids that they actually enjoyed and engaged with, but there is plenty out there if you go looking. Marvel & DC actually still have a surprising amount of stuff out there aimed at younger readers, as does Boom! ... but there are also so many indie gems and lots cool stuff from the manga world as well. You also can't take all the recommendations on here at face value just because something is a "classic". If you include Tintin because it's a classic then you also have to be aware that certain volumes will be "of their era" when it comes to dealing with issues like race or gender (lack of female characters). It's not that I think these books are necessarily out to harm anyone, just that the world view has shifted over time. I'm also not picking on Tintin... there are plenty of similar examples in other classic runs/story arcs. You can try and compile a list on here but unless you are getting a lot of interested parents involved then you are going to be better off scraping the blogs out there covering this topic.

+1 I also wouldn't want CAF to vanish and agree the hobby as a whole is all the better off for having it. I also should have mentioned it has made me get up off of my arse and catalogue most of my collection.

Giving $75 or more to essentially what I see as a social media site to unlock features is where I draw a line. Giving a site that much support requires features I would use or a decent amount of disposable income and no inclination to donate to some other cause. I really enjoy the free membership and features. It's nice to have a go to place to share and see what others share but I don't need any of the premium features and seem to have gotten along fine without them. - Unlimited Gallery Rooms and Images - Don't need this. Free features seem adequate. - Comic Art Classifieds - Rarely sell so I don't need this, people contact you anyway, people sell all the time by advertising their CAF elsewhere without this feature. - Watch Site Member Galleries - Bookmarking/alert feature. Don't need this. - Email Alerts - Really nice to have if you have money to spend and are looking to buy something that has been eluding you. Possibly the one thing I would want but I can live without it and it would only server to encourage me to spend more when I am sticking to limits. - Fast Access to eBay Auctions - Can be done in eBay which goes to a mobile app. Delete Unwanted Comments - I could delete a double post to tidy a gallery... don't need to though. - Have a Dashboard! - Don't have it so I don't miss it. - Multiple Image Upload - Don't need this. I am guessing it's nice for someone setting up for the first time or sellers. - Increased Image Upload Size - Don't need this. - About Me Page - Don't need this. - Get Featured! - Don't need this. People that just want to share a handful of images/convention sketches are almost never going to go premium as things stand currently. Rather than reducing the cost as a whole I think if there were more membership tiers available then it's possible quite a few would likely opt for one of the cheaper tiers to show some support even if they didn't need the features. e.g. Tier 1 - More Gallery Features Tier 2 - Email Alerts / Buyer Features Tier 3 - Ability to disable Ads + Dashboard Tier 4 - Larger image sizes + Seller Features I think the seller features are too good to go for less than they currently do.

+1 My head was spun in the direction of OA once that penny dropped. When you see people not thinking twice about dropping $200+ on the next hot modern or variant why not get the OA instead? The only problem was that the well was really running dry on the 90's trash/treasure I love by the time I started looking for it... and I was still very much learning about myself as an OA collector as I went along which often held me back. I still love picking up trades but not that many individual comics.

Well. Nowadays they mostly aren't free but they are beyond reasonable at UK events. Will pop you a PM.