Carlo M

I did have a look and the amount of art sold from contemporary artists is impressive indeed. Having younger collectors willing to buy OA is great, I was under the impression that these pieces did not move that much As to great contemporary artists, you may remember we did talk about Tradd Moore's Silver Surfer when I was trying to acquire one page. Here is another story and art that are likely to remain impressed in my memory, again thanks to the combination of both. Keep up the good work!

I mentioned earlier in this post that it is difficult for me to truly enjoy contemporary artists because I am finding it hard to connect with today’s storylines, even if I read 8-10 titles a month. Someone reminded me that not all stories from our youth were exactly masterpieces . Fair point. But recently I connected big time with Hickman’s relaunch of the X franchise (and mind you I am not a big Hickman’s fan) . And lo - I immediately bought three pages from Silva’s and Di Benedetto’s run on Powers of X. And the other pages available were snapped up in a matter of days, which you don ‘t see happening to the work of maybe even better artists associated with mediocre stories. So in my mind there is no way around it, comic OA has to be associated to strong storytelling.

70s Kirby, Miller, Simonson and to a certain extent Silvestri were all acquired tastes for me. Silvestri on X-Men has become total love if inked by Green. 70s Kirby I totally get and admire now. Miller I see what he was doing and why people love him, but still am not prepared to invest massively to add a piece to my collection . As to Simonson, I have his Thor AE and it absolutely rocks.

I only have a pic from my Essential but should give you an idea.

Personally I would rather have the half splash to FF 59 hanging on my wall, probably at a fraction of the price. But then again I love Sal Buscema....

Amen to that. And don’t get me started on Perlin. He and Trimpe totally ruined my favourite team: the Defenders stories after Buscema and Giffen were not so bad, but the art....I just can’t look at it. Carlo

I looked up the FF 59 half splash in the comic. Difficult to price. Amazing image of BBolt, large art. But the two top panels are not that interesting and no FF. Not quite sure where it will end up. Would look very nice on the wall though.... Carlo

Is there any Kirby 1970s Thor ? Silvestri XM might actually deserve a place in the 5-10k categories , based on the last few months auctions

Late ‘80s and early ‘90s in general , because of the demographics. If I were to pick a couple of artists I would say Silvestri X-men / Wolverine and Ron Lim Silver Sufer (including non IG / Thanos pages)

Most value: John Byrne most pieces : Sal Buscema (I know, I know....) carlo

I have to have the record for the collection most populated by a C character: Nighthawk of Defenders fame !!!! Carlo

Sorry you were disappointed, I also thought it would do better. It might be an action vs non action point. I noticed that European collectors, including myself, tend not to differentiate too much between action vs no action. This might not be the case with US collectors...there must be a reason why all great US action movies have at least one car chase scene!

33600 for the XM 129 page seems really strong. Kitty first issue or Frost bikini and corset tax, like Gene suggested?

Some very, very strong results: the two Buscema covers, the Conan BWS cover, the Thing pin-up, the Heck Avengers splash....all exceeded my expectations. But of these pieces I continue to believe that the Defenders 9 cover was the best piece. Artistically, it has a great layout, two large images in a not over-done pose, impeccable anatomy. Popularity-wise,, it is from one of the major bronze age storylines. And of the five featured characters, four are major MCU characters. I know many people have reservations about Sal, but Sal at his best, like on this cover, is very very good. I am glad he's getting some love, now there are three covers by him that have fetched more than 85k...not too bad! Yet...102k is 42k more than my initial estimate of 60k! Maybe Bronze Age is not really in decline after all,,,,or should we view these two covers as outliers?

The Defenders cover is now slightly over the Avengers 72 cover, which was a record USD 89625 back in 2014. Not going into pricing considerations now as we are just about to go into the live auctions. Both are terrific covers though (IMHO).

Looks like the two Sal Buscema covers might be the stars of tonight's auction.... Carlo

Agreed! Here is a page I have from JB's run on Thor which has the same storytelling and artistic qualities, IMHO

I respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. I read Smith’s run well after publication in my mid twenties, not sure if that makes me prone to nostalgia. I think his art is eccelent throughout and this page is a very strong page artistically, both from panel compositon and storytelling standpoint . The body language perfectly reflects the dialogue , the close up is lovely with great effect on Kitty’s hair (very distinctive of PMS’style) . And I find the last panel hauntingly beautiful even if it is only sketched . Admittedly this is a case of less is more , so if you equate great art with lots of detail, well I agree this ain’t Perez or Art Adams, but I like it better. I am a big X M fan, so I may be skewed, but I also have read tons of comics and not all XM art appeals to me (2nd run Cockrum....ouch!). But Smith’s run is close third to Byrne and first Cockrum. My 2 cents .....

One other aspect to consider that is peculiar to OA is that OA inventory takes really little space compared to fine art. 10 portfolios can easily carry 2-5M USD worth of inventory and you can store them behind your sofa. Also easy to carry around from one show to the next. That might be a factor in incentivising a highly speculative pricing strategy, of course subject to the financial sustainability of the strategy. But, then again, many (all?) dealers are also collectors...

I agree there are great artists out there. Problem is to have them associated to great storylines....not many will stick in my memory, I am afraid.

Time to come out of the closet. I did. Recently. 4 figure piece. The piece is from an artist that has done very little work for Marvel and only two issues for that particular character. Difficult to price. My judgement was that the price asked (after a small discount that was offered for year-end sales) was "reasonable" - or rather should I say was within a range I was willing to pay for that particular piece. I may be right, I may be wrong, I will probably never know because not much comparable stuff is out there. For the record, very pleasant buying experience (I thought it is only fair to mention it). Carlo

Well I have never got too many complaints about the art I have hanging on my study. But admittedly she has often remarked about the "absurd female body shapes" , and that remark has been made across various comic book artists and eras. Looking back at my previous post, I would not want this to be misinterpreted that I judge the Boris piece "pornographic" - far from it! I just wanted to express that the level of nudity alone is not necessarily an indicator of bad taste. And I really have an open mind towards all kinds of arts. It is just that there is a line and that line is very very subjective.

Slippery territory.... As a sociology experiment I showed my wife the Boris and the Red Sonja pieces. She has zero interest in comics and no awareness of context whatsoever. She judged both "lurid" (sorry she is not a prudish but that is what she said) but said that the Boris would be more apparent on a wall and she would be more embarassed by it. Again, sorry, totally ubiased social experiment. If I may add my own comic art fan, I think that sex drives a lot of art - be it commercial or fine, and that is absolutely fine because sex is a part of everybody's life. It is hard to say when sex-driven images become bad taste or - dare I say - pornographic. This is a highly subjective matter. For me it is a mix of the level of nudity shown and the context. A semi nude warrior woman in control of the action is less pornographic than a more dressed woman subject to an act of violence. Just my personal position....

Just to mention the ones I am following the closest: 1) Defenders 9 cover (such large images of major characters from super major storyline - a classic IMHO) 2) Kirby Thing Pin-up 3) Dark Phoenix - I have already expressed my surprise at how high the XM 129 page - Kitty Pryde premium????? 5) Golden Avengers Annual, by a thin margin 10) Wolverine plate - nicer to look at.

I am based in Italy and have received art from all over the world with no major problems for many many years. Obviously you have customs to go through so as sender you will need to describe the item and put a value on it. For items for less than USD100 there will be no additional work to be done and the item should go through directly. For items over USD100 there will be some minor paperwork to be filled out to the shipping company by the receiver. Typically an email confirming item description and value. Then the receiver will need to pay VAT and duties when they receive the parcel. I would recommend Fedex as they have their own customs agent and the last mile locally, so the process is a bit quicker. USPS uses the local posts as agent both for customs and final delivery and they tend to be a bit more cumbersome, but nothing major. Cost is typically around USD100 (indeed Fedex tends to be higher), plus VAT and stamp duties. Please note that for items of value the receiver should be able to claim VAT for arts to be applied, which is 10% as opposed to 22%. Feel free to PM me privately if you need more info. Carlo