theflashunc

I've overpaid for items in my collection, but whenever I have overpaid its been when I've bought from the artist directly. Maybe its a skewed rationale, but if I'm going to overpay someone for the work, it's the person who created it versus another collector or unaffiliated dealer down the line. I don't have any regrets about it either, though I don't think I've overpaid by double or triple FMV, so maybe that makes it sting a bit less. As others have mentioned, buy what you love and as long as you're not putting rent/food/retirement on the line to do it, then have fun with it.

A couple years ago, during the Daredevil relaunch by Waid and Rivera, I picked up the first splashy-page from issue #1 from Paolo's rep. He was going to be at HeroesCon not long after, so I brought it along for him to sign. When I brought out the page to sign, Paolo lit up about how excited he was to work on the book, and how the page was the first his dad had ever inked of his work, and one of the few they did with pencils on the page before he moved cross country and they started to do bluelines under inks. He shared how the left arm of Daredevil was actually him, showing his dad some of the technique, and dad went off, did the rest and they continue to work together today. He seemed genuinely touched to see something again that was a bit more than just some work for hire, but a real family moment between father and son. Couple years later, Paolo and Joe are at a signing at Isotope comics in SF, so I bring the page by for Joe to sign. Paolo recognizes me and we chat a bit about what he's been up to, the usual as Joe signs the page, and I notice he's touched seeing the page again as well. He admitted also to being a bit perplexed why some folks collect the original pages. Its that kind of stuff that's really fun in the hobby. The hunt is great and all, but sometimes its more than just pencil and ink on paper, yanno?

David Mack brush head sketch of Daredevil. Took him maybe 30 seconds and one dab of the brush in the inkwell. Barely lifted the brush off the page. Crazy to watch happen in person:

You can thank the direct market too. Far easier to decompress the story telling when folks can go to a dedicated store to find their funny books in stock, versus rolling the dice at the nearest newsstand. But like any other era, modern delivers some great stuff.

There's probably better-versed experts on this, but my hunch was always they use the "business" as a way to write-off their hobby to Uncle Sam every year.

No votes for me this year, but that's all the same. So much cool art to see, another fun year all around I'd say.

I personally find this kind of thing valuable in that it gives a sampling of what a rep or dealer might have available for an artist -- even if I missed out on it. Some dealers/reps you visit their site and a particular artist's section is completely empty, or has just a couple not terrible desirable pieces. Doesn't exactly send the message that dealer/rep can get those interesting or noteworthy pieces from an artist. But yes, very frustrating when stuff is left up as available years after the fact.

A simple search of the forum brings up multiple examples of how these guys are the worst:

Anyone who loves the hobby and the art wouldn't misrepresent altered and reworked art as original, nor deal with fellow enthusiasts they way that they do if the legion of stories out there are to be believed. They may personally love it, but that doesn't seem to extend much beyond their own self-interest.

Just updated with my picks for 2017. Looking forward to seeing all the submissions, as always.

Fwiw, a buddy has a Stegman page from his Fantastic Four issues during Hickman's run, and I believe that's full pencils/inks on the page. Maybe he shifted to digital after that period?

I just assume anything the Donnellys have -- and they have some Paul Ryan FF art I'd be thrilled to own -- as just having been lost in a fire somewhere. They're not dealers in any traditional sense, between the altered covers, outrageous pricing and all the rest. They're more collectors using the veneer of the business to their own advantages.

Doesn't bother me all that much. If folks want to pay what the artist thinks the market will bear, that's their prerogative. Better that than the artist not seeing the appropriate compensation for their work, even if it means it prices it out of reach for me.

I still think Sean's Joe the Barbarian work is his high water mark, but what do I know? Good for him getting top dollar for his work. Certainly won't begrudge an artist getting what the market will bear for his or her work.

Criminal, Last of the Innocent, Issue 1, Page 6. By Sean Phillips $200

The short version is Neal adheres to a rather crackpot theory about the history of the planet and geology.

Those Growing Earth videos cost some scratch to produce, I'm assuming. I mean, I wouldn't pay that for new Deadman, but I've never been much of an Adams fan.

2017 looked pretty dire for my collecting goals around mid-year, but it worked out by October with some more additions to my Eltingville collection, and a couple pretty stellar commissions.

I think it works for me. 95% of it is pretty killer, and I tend towards the paste-ups being cool rather than a detraction. Besides, what Chaykin is best known for he nails in spades, and it ain't hats...

There are also examples of just penciled pages with no inks to speak of. On Dale Eaglesham's recent FF run, he did super tight pencils of each page, didn't ink it, and Mounts did the colors digitally from the purely penciled pages. Tech has allowed the page creation process to vary pretty widely these days.

Fwiw, I have seen inks over blue lines where the seller is offering both the original penciled page and the inked page together. Splash Page did that with a lot of Paolo Rivera's Daredevil art once his dad started inking the work from prints. There's only about a half dozen of those pages that Paolo and Joe penciled and inked on the same board, but I think offering both together is the ideal approach.

I've got a few including the first Simonson Thor, the Born Again, and the Kirby Fourth World. Recently picked up the Samnee Daredevil one, which was really cool. I like the details they throw in to some of the editions as one-offs, like -script companions for the Samnee Daredevil edition, and the braille in the Born Again one along with some of the recreated vellum overlays. Also the Kirby Fourth World one is gigantic.

Roger Langridge usually does sketches for a Heroes Initiative donation at the cons I've seen him attend. At Heroes Con 2012, I donated and he asked what I wanted, I said "Batman and Robin" and came back later to a grumpy Batman with a Ralph Wiggum-esque Robin. I still find it hysterical and would love to read this series.

Just picked up a couple more pages from Evan Dorkin's Eltingville Club series. The most recent are a couple pages from issue #2, the finale where things go horribly wrong at SDCC.

I'm hooked on Evan Dorkin's work on the now completed Eltingville Club. Its a comic about comics and comic fans. The funhouse mirror view can be a bit painful to see at times, but clearly made by someone who gets and loves the medium. Got several pages now from across the various arcs and love all of them.