Carlo M

As a Marvel guy, I would say Miller and Byrne. Miller is obvious. Byrne.. if you focus on his best work, well last time I checked his FF run was right up there among the very best for the title.. And if you go into the Lee / Kirby debate, then it would be fair to throw in also the Claremont / Byrne collaboration on UXM.

Crystal feels there is something wrong with Mother Earth

Such a sad story. Even sadder considering the strong work Dan has been putting in throughout the years. You say you were not satisfied with his initial work anyway, but I thought it looks pretty good! You have some very good looking pages in there Still, definitely a horrible story.

Looking for high end interiors (splash or strong panel pages) from one of these minis: Fear itself the Fearless (Bagley /Pelletier), featuring Valkyrie (only inked pages) Hellcat by S Immonen I am aware of what is available from dealers sites / CAF Hope everybody is safe! Carlo

Hope so! Today was day +14 here in Lombardy and numbers were not good (the "war" bulletin just came out). Hopefully tomorrow we'll start seeing some relief!

Hi everybody, writing from Italy so I thought my contribition might be of interest. I appreciate the topic is highly sensitive. It touches upon important themese like healthcare, economic policy, transaprency, etc etc. which are not only a matter of hard facts but also of political orientation. So I am not going to intervene with my views as to what is the right policy approach (the two main approaches being suppression of the contagion through drastic measures at the risk of a major economic downturn vs. mitigation, with more deaths, in particular from the weak side of the population). Just reporting what I am seeing here. We all underestimated the impact of this thing (and it was only middle of February,even though it feels a totally different world now). The common view was "it is just a flu that sometimes degenerates in pneumonia". Today, only one month later, we have over 47k infected, rising at about 15-20% every day, and about 4k dead. And this is after 14 days of lockdown in Lombardy (the region where this started) and 10 days of lockdown in Italy. And consider that most cases are in the North/Eastern area of the country whch is one of the wealthiest regions in Europe, with a very advanced healthcare system. True, most of the reported deaths might actually be of people with other pre-existing medical problems. But the hard fact is that we also have several dead in their '20s-50s. In any case, spending 7-10 days intubated is not great even if you don't die. As a sheer example of the danger, please consider that 14 doctors servig in treating the contagion are now dead. Our health system is at the utter limit of its capacity; ambulance sirens are going off continually here in Milan. The picture below, of an exhausted nurse taking one minute's rest, has become a Nationwide symbol of the battle that is being fought everyday by doctors and nurses. Besides the various different political positions, I would like to send my best wishes to all the countries that today are lagging 7-14 days from Italy's current situation. I seriously hope that your path diverges from ours (for the better). Best to everybody,

Art day today. At a difficult time for my country and - I believe - the world, this was a moment of small happyness in a difficult day, week, month... When I buy an interior page, I like to identify one single line in the dialogue that represents the page, captures the moment. Given current times, on this page it was reassuring to read: "It was a scary moment, I was caught by surprise. But everything worked out for the best. Truly". I wish six months from now I will be able to read that and smile. But I am afraid not everybody will be able to smile. Stay healthy. Carlo

The first one I am quite sure: it would be the "Devil had a daughter" splash by Steranko from XM 51. For the second one, it might depend on the mood of the day, I think I would go for the cover to UXM 257 with Lady Mandarin and Wolverine

I was the consignor of the Silvestri page and was actually slightly disappointed by the result, esepcially given how strong Silvestri X-Men interiors have been recently. I thought the close-ups at the top of the page were quite strong. Well done to the buyer! On the other hand, I was pleasently surprised by a S Buscema Defenders page and recovered most of the cost on a N Adams commission, which for a commission is not a bad result. Overall, happy.

Bump, something to think about over the weekend. Carlo

I have three pieces up in this CLink auction: Marc Silvestri UXM 243 page: from Inferno storyline, great close-ups of Jean Grey (rare by Silvestri) and Storm https://comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FALLSUB.ASP%3FFocused%3D1%26id%3D1398%26Artist%3DMARC%20SILVESTRI%23Item_1383560&id=1383560&itemType=1 Sal Buscema Defenders 15 page: from XM tie-in, excellent Janson inks on thight Buscema pencils https://comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FALLSUB.ASP%3FFocused%3D1%26id%3D1398%26Artist%3DSAL%20BUSCEMA%23Item_1383561&id=1383561&itemType=1 Neal Adams Havok commission, with signature power effect https://comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FALLSUB.ASP%3FFocused%3D1%26id%3D1398%26Artist%3DNEAL%20ADAMS%23Item_1383559&id=1383559&itemType=1 Happy bidding!

I love all these examples....hopefully there will be more coming!

In a separate thread we are talking about an image where the artist used sparse inks to create a particular effect. For lack of a better term, I call these type of images "psychedelic". Here is the page I am referring to and another example. another example: So I would like to ask people to post examples where the artists used these kind of effects, at a time where one did not have digital gimmicks to help out. I would also be interested in hearing when this type of technique was first used. A couple of examples by N Adams and Steranko come to mind, but I wonder who used it first and whether somebody used this before them.

As the buyer I obviously love the page. In fact, the large panel with the "psychedelic" effect was actually a major plus for me. I think it is very effective (admittedly even more impressive in colour) and inventive, especially with the blurring from Jean's face to the shuttle, which adds to the drama of the situation. The reader gets both a subjective and external view of the situation...fantastic storytelling. I also totally love the dialogue and thought balloons on this one. Great -script by Claremont. And the top baloons are so dramatic. Having said that, I can see why some people may be put off by the layout. So I think the final price was about right, neither a bargain nor a rip off.

Hard to tell because people have different definitions of A pages. For example, the pages from issue 100 were not necessarily A pages (and I got one of them, so I am trying to be objective). Yes, they are key pages from the Phoenix mythos, but not really Phoenix and no action. Shall we say A-? On the other hand, average pages from GS and 94 have gone for 30/35k or so. But they are sort of outliers? Anyway, if we agree that one A page is a page with powered up Phoenix or Wolverine with claws unsheathed, I would say that would be 30k plus, and a B page is a page with some action and some strong other characters (like Storm, Colossus or Nightcrawler), I would say a B page from 102 on would be 10-15k, maybe even 17.5k.

I personally think Kirby’s style was evolving throughout all of his FF run, and it is not only Sinnott’s contribution or workload. Then you can follow the development through his DC years and the Marvel comeback. I like his very stylized art in the mid ‘70s , but if I were to pick the absolute peak I would also go with FF annual 6. Just perfect.

A good friend has just posted a great Sal Buscema cover from his classic '70s run. Very reliable seller. Priced on CAF: https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1601849

One is large art (The World's Great Artist Edition), the other one standard art . They are both amazing, both showcase some amazing issues, including some classic Doom and Inhumans moments in both books. Personally I prefer the small art one as its has more consistent art, IMHO, all Sinnott inks. I also like later Kirby as his style had become even more distinctive by then. The large art one has one issue inked by Stone, which is not a favourite of mine on Kirby (personal tastes). The large art one, though, has an incredible fold out of Dr Doom which in itself would deserve the price as a standalone poster. Also, conventional wisdom has it that that is the peak Kirby period. So, most people would say go for the large art one, I suppose.

Ok thanks , will keep it for best of 2020 then!

Brian, does a win at November Heritage posted on January first qualify for submission?

Plus one. Like 99.99% of earth's male population I am a big fan of Lee's rendition of ninja Psylocke (even though personally I prefer armoured Psylocke by Silvestri or the Lady Mandarin version by Lee). Yet I have always found that particular panel grotesque. I wonder, what was Lee thinking? He is normally quite respectful of anatomy, albeit in a teen-ager friendly way. Maybe it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek?

This budget edition is such a great idea. I truly enjoyd going through th entries and was amazed by the quality. Congrats to the buyers!

At the end of the day, I figured it is better to share. BTW, as to the inker on this piece, Heritage says "The inker is unknown, but both Dan Adkins and John Verpoorten have been suggested". Any idea anybody?

To post or not to post. That is the question. I decided to post my big win.... https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1598886 Happy 2020 to everybody!