batman_fan

On 11/20/2023 at 11:55 AM, comix4fun said:

I wasn't a fan of his evolution in real time but I've come to appreciate not only how he grew and changed but also how he influenced a couple generations of artists who followed him. 

There are definitely artists who have a simplistic style or minimally detailed line, some of who had comics or strips that ran for decades, but a well executed story whether simple or complex in composition doesn't feel like kindergarten to me....especially if they were inspirational. 

Schulz comes to mind when you say simplistic 

On 11/20/2023 at 11:36 AM, KirbyCollector said:

There are many who say the same about Picasso. If you ever get a chance, visit the Picasso museum in Madrid. Picasso was a very good, classically trained artist and the museum is a showcase of his very early work as he was learning his craft. He would have had a decent career as a fine artist, had he not found his own voice. But he would not have been "Picasso."

Bill is definitely talented and a lot of his realistic work is amazing.  Just never cared for his work that looked "scribbly".  I have never been a big fan of Picasso but love Jackson Pollock who a lot of people would say sucks.  Everyone has their preference.

On 11/20/2023 at 11:06 AM, KirbyCollector said:

I look at Bill's work on NM and think, "What if Neal Adams had been bold enough to cross the line into avant garde art?" Neal used exaggerated figures and angles, was not afraid of white space, drew art outside of panel borders, and above all conveyed an intense energy which leapt off the page:

These elements are all present in Bill's art b/c Bill was a huge admirer of Neal's, but he was able to take it the one step further Neal never took -- or maybe never wanted to take.

Bill definitely invoked his inner kindergartener when creating his artwork.  I for one am very glad Neal didn't take his work "one step further"

There was this guy named Mike (can't remember his last name) that worked at All About Books and Comics in Phoenix, AZ.  I would usually stop by every couple week and bought frequently.  Mike said he could contact me if they got anything interesting in so I gave him my pager number (cell phones were just starting).  I picked up a bunch from him what I considered a very reasonable price. Mike also took me and a bunch of friends to the premier of Batman 3. It was a pretty good time. 

On 11/20/2023 at 9:47 AM, comix4fun said:

Ah Ok. Yeah. His run on NM was something transformative for both his own evolution and for comics. Really influential overall. I just thought there was something about the page in and of itself I was missing. 

Quit buying New Mutants when he started drawing for the title.  Couldn't get past his artwork.

On 11/19/2023 at 1:50 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

I hear you…I was just using the JLA 195 cover as a comp.  it sold last year for $288K

 Wow, just wow and maybe a OMFG 

That is beyond shocking.  Maybe the underbidder has a chance at redemption 

On 11/19/2023 at 11:03 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Whats the over/under on this cover hitting $300K?  

I will take the under but my ability to predict prices on this sort of stuff is not very good.

On 11/17/2023 at 8:38 PM, tth2 said:

Yes, while Sally isn't quite in the league of Peppermint Pattie, Marcie, Woodstock or Spike, she's not that far above them.

On 11/17/2023 at 6:35 PM, Jayman said:

I had to Google this. When did they rename the Victim Doctor Deadly's Daughter? Or is that just a Canadian reissue title? 

Best summary I have seen

"Dr. Deadly's Daughter" was the first version of Aurora's "The Victim" kit which was quickly renamed to avoid controversy and were only distributed in Canada.

On 11/17/2023 at 2:57 PM, Pontoon said:

Nice! Congrats! Dr. Jekyll is a tough one, no?

It seems to be.  I figured this was a good auction to finish out a couple of the series so glad to cross two off my list.

Not sure how I feel about the price on this one.  The cover is awesome, just drips of Herb, I guess I will say price was about right @ $38k

On 11/17/2023 at 1:45 PM, delekkerste said:

It ended pretty much exactly where I thought it would. It is the ultimate baller FU money piece.

"I can pay $132K for this, not because it's good, but simply because it amuses me." 

Do you think we will have to travel to the Louvre to see it?

Great news, I won’t be looking for a divorce attorney

Peanuts all closed at decent prices except for the Sally daily which I thought was slightly low but not crazy low

On 11/17/2023 at 12:36 PM, drdroom said:

Liefeld Cap coming up soon. The greatest superhero drawing ever drawned.

Somebody got a smoking deal 

The Kubert Weird Wars ended at what I thought was a healthy price.

Hal Foster Tarzan Sunday from 1932 at less than $20k seems light

On 11/17/2023 at 9:02 AM, tth2 said:

I just noticed that the Corben page from Voice of Comicdom #17 is currently sitting at $31,200.  That seems really high for a page which quite frankly doesn't do much for me, and is much higher than I've seen for any of his other panel pages.

I just saw that page 

On 11/17/2023 at 7:55 AM, delekkerste said:

Yeah, I think that is practically axiomatic at this point. Mainstream super-heroes ascended to the top of the pop culture pyramid over the past 15 years. I wouldn't say sword & sorcery died during that time (witness the popularity of GoT), but, nobody can credibly argue that Conan specifically is as big a character as he was in the 1970s and 80s - not coincidentally, when most of the people still collecting Conan were in the teens and 20s. 

When I started collecting comic art in late 2002, BWS Conan was so revered that most people would have considered it to be one of the essential building blocks of a well-rounded comic art collection. And people who grew up with the comics and movies in the '70s and '80s were largely in their 30s and 40s, hitting their stride career-wise and buying up the art. Nowadays, there is just so little interest in Conan among younger collectors and it's really the 50-60+ crowd propping the market up at a more or less flattish level for the most part. 

Personally, I'm a huge Conan fan. I started reading the original REH stories in 1982, a year before I discovered comics, and I collected the comics throughout the '80s and loved the movies (I picked up a lot of the comics, collected editions, audiobooks, etc. in the 2000s and 2010s as well). To me, it's unfortunate that the early BWS art no longer has the relevance and appreciation that it did 10-20 years ago. It gives me no pleasure to point out that it's in a state of secular stagnation at best, but, it's so obvious at this point and people should be aware of that both in terms of if they are contemplating buying or selling and also as a cautionary tale about what can happen due to the shifting whims of the collector base over a decade or two.

I think if the material dries up and finds “forever homes”, the desire will go back up.  I am seeing something very similar going on with Schulz works.  Year after year, auction after auction of material has definitely resulted in a “I can always pick one up” if I really want to attitude and they aren’t wrong. 

On 11/17/2023 at 6:29 AM, delekkerste said:

Luckily, we don't have to wonder; the Conan #5 cover sold for $70K in the last ComicLink sale (vs. $66K at Heritage 5 years ago) and the #11 cover sold for $102K in the last Heritage sale (vs. $90K at Heritage 4 years ago; it probably would have fetched $75-90K 5 years before that). BWS Conan pages just sit on dealer sites these days going nowhere, even at prices which have barely budged over the past 4-5 years. I've even seen dealers over the past year or two actually mark down their asking prices on interiors and splashes to try and generate some interest. 

The best you can say is that the BWS Conan market is in a state of secular stagnation at the moment. Yes, of course there are certain pages and issues where the art would go nuts if it became available, but, that has always been the case. If, theoretically, Red Nails was broken up now, of course it would fetch eye-popping numbers, but, I know people who were willing to pay 2023 prices (or close to them) back in 2013 (and even made overtures to Thibodeaux) so the actual real price escalation would be far less than people think.  

Personally I think it is because BWS Conan material has lost some of its “bragging rights” appeal and the clout crowd has moved to something else.

On 11/17/2023 at 1:35 AM, Daveb25 said:

Won a restored bat1 to reenter the fold

I thought the hammer was on the lower side for it, congrats

I am praying the Peanuts strips go a lot higher.  I already have two strips to frame and would hate to have more I need to frame.

On 11/16/2023 at 7:31 PM, tth2 said:

Maybe they're finally bottoming out.

I would say bottom for that book would be 3-4k