Carlo M

Saw the art on Artcoholics - all very nice and all...sold. There is obviously a market for these products. I wonder if a secondary market will develop.

Which one was the Pepe Larraz monoprint drop? Would love to get one piece from him , he is one of the best currently, IMHO

Oh wow that was quick! I love this forum!

Hi, I know a recent post of mine on a recent (much more relevant) sale by Romitaman has caused much controversy - yet I have got try: anybody knows what the ask was on the UXM 226 recenlty sold at Romitaman? It must have gone on hold in a matter of hours... As the onwer of a few Silverstri UXM pieces I like to keep track of prices...if people think this is an inappropriate thread please do let me know. Peace to everybody Carlo Michelini (full name)

Hi sorry it took me a while to respnd. Hard to tell, but comparing the stock of paper on which my Dauterman's Artists Proofs are printed to another example (Andrade's OA from his Cap Marvel work) it feels like they are on a different stock of paper. So I would not be surprised at all if the Marvel border is also part of the computer generated layout. I am sure you can ask the artist at the time of enquiring. Still, what is interesting is that most of the nice pieces were sold and yet only a couple surfaced on CAF (including mine). So I wonder, is there a younger generation of buyers who is not on CAF at all?

Agreed beautiful cover, very well balanced layout. Maybe not very Andru-ean, but definitely a classic. Huge congrats to the buyer!

I am sorry this thread created some tension. It was certainly not my intention! The piece is truly historical and I thought it might be of interest in case some people did not notice it was sold. Should we in the future in general refrain from commenting dealers’ activity and just stick to auctions? Just asking what the right etiquette should be.

Got it , my bad! Thanks!

Price?

Agreed I would have preferred the sketches to be on the back , would have increased the original art resemblance. I will ask him about this .

So I got my first artists proofs today. They both come from Russell's work on PoX. One is an example of how digital art can be used by the artist to realise his vision, and render a particular sitaution. I am sure some people will think I am crazy to spend money on one image replicated four times digitally, but I thought the subtlety of the effects was a sign of things to come (and it kind of looks cool): The other one simply looks very cool: So net net a good experiece. The two pieces look very slick, with (obviously) thick blacks and nice effects. I love the simplicity and sophistication of Russell's art and I am glad I have a couple of examples. The fact they are printed on Marvel paper helps. Russell added one little sketch of Storm on a post-it on each of the pieces, which is nice. All the nice looking pieces from this and the previous issue have sold, so obviously there is demand for this kind of product. Not sure if this means that there will be a market for re-sale. In any case, at these price points (300 and 600 respectively) for this kind of quality I might buy again in the future, but I will be highly selective.

This was an interesting contribution and I pondered on this. Yet, when you say "art has little to no intrinsic value" and then you move on to making the link into the artist's body of work and fame, is that not what "intrinsic value" is about? I will give you an example. I am a total sucker for '70s Defenders. Loved loved loved all the run from 1 through circa issue 70. And yet there are certain issues from that run the art of which I would not want to own even if it was given to me from free. I am not going to name names but some of the art simply does not make the cut, fullstop. So nostalgia and context can get you only to a certain point, but then there has to be also some "intrinsic" quality (and yes I will qualify Sal Buscema's work on that run as quality work!).

Personally I would never buy art that I do not find pleasant to the eye. BUT, nostalgia has made me pay a bit of a premium , or in any case just make that extra financial effort on art that is beautiful AND nostalgic to me.

Well said. Still it would be nice to ascertain that there is a sort of intrinsic value to comic art. I think there is a quality that transcends sheer nostalgia. The likes of Kirby, Ditko, Byrne, J Lee and yes absolutely McFarlane (just nto name a few!) have achieved a level of artistic quality and POPular recognition that their work has achieved a standard VALUE that is not only due to the nostalgia factor of the buyer.

If I understand correctly, the post was about how many buyers there are out there for OA priced at above USD100.000. Assuming we are talking abut people who can buy regularly in that price range (say at least one piece every couple of years), my totally uneducated guess would be 25-30. Am in the ballpark here?

This has to be one of the major sales of 2020. Beautiful beautiful cover, must be super impressive in person. Congrats to the seller and the buyer!

I don't have any Thanks Giving art to share but still as a European i think it is a great great moment you guys have over there! Enjoy! Carlo

My thoughts on some prices from this auction, of course focusing on the stuff I tend to follow Strong prices - GKane / KJanson Giant Size XM cover USD72000 - nice image and Janson is just perfect on Kane. Yet this being a reprint I tought it would come lower - JR JR UXM 197 page USD4800 - I don't remember a JR UXM interior panel page going this high, but I may be wrong as for some reason very few tend to come to market. I really liked this page because of the dark backgrounds and the interaction between Colossus and Kitty. Still the price is strong for a no-action page - BWS Lidfedeath page USD8700 - again, I think this is a record for the issue. Beautiful storytelling, one of my top three / five UXM issues by Claremont. I am really happy that the quiet pages from the issue are getting recognition - JByrne Alpha Flight 25 half splash - USD9000. Another record, price was probably driven by the large images and the nice inks by Wiacek. Another no-action page getting good value. Is OA becoming more European in tastes? About right - NAdams Avengers 93 splash USD31200 - Cap Marvel is almost an "A charachter" and the image is huge. Historical and impressive visually - Ditko ASM USD96000 - very early, Spidey in all panels. There was no chance this would be a bargain - Kirby FF 55 RNM - super historical issue but the precedents did not support the reserve, IMHO - JLee UXM 268 cover - this was covered at length here and elsewhere. Like it or hate it, it is a very strong cover from a very strong run. And late '80s / early '90s OA is super hot at the moment Nice buys (wish I had bid) - JByrne XM 134 page USD30000 - some may feel this is a high price for a no-action no Wolverine (well you do get glimpses of him). But the storytelling is impeccable, with a great cliffhanger. I may be biased by the splash coming right after this page (the best splash of the run, IMHO), but still huge congrats to the buyer - R Andru MTU 7 splash USD7200 - nice image and production, the price is very attractive compared to where Andru's ASM prices are - JStarlin Marvel Premiere (almost) splash feat Doc Strange USD8400 - very strong image with beautiful backgrounds coming at a nice discount to both Starlin's work on Warlock and Cap Marvel and Brunner's Doc Strange splashes recently coming through Heritage

I would say it depends also on the inker. Janson on layouts, not so bad. Colletta (and I am not so negative on Colletta),,Mmmhhhh

Thanks for the post. It made me ponder. A lot.

If confirmed, this is pretty relevant info . Would need more detail to judge as to whether positive, negative or neutral ....

Thanks! I have emailed them, let's see.... From what I could gather also from some of Pepe's posts on FB he has sold most of the pages as Artists' Proofs, but there is not much on CAF...

Looking for a high end piece from the epic HoX six-parter. Willing to go the artist's proof route. Anybody can help? Carlo

I doubt it will get there, at least considering the precedents from the Doom / Surfer storyline of a couple of years back

I also crossed the line and just bought two artists proofs from Dauterman's work on GSXM. At the end of the day, many artists are going digital and this is going to be the only way to have examples. Dauterman's site featured a large percentage of sold items, with price ranges from 200-300 for a page to 600-800 for a good splash / cover. So presumably that is the market at the moment. I would love also to get an example by Larraz, another favourite of mine that does mostly digital. Still have to receive them, so I will come back with pictures and my impressions for the viewing experience when I get them.