comix4fun

That is an awesome piece! Congrats! I would love to see your other theme pieces as well.

My main site is being updated now....but I have the rest of them on my CAF gallery..

Comic Art Fans Gallery.

You'll find one under Bolland and the rest under "trophy wall"..

Thanks for the kind words.

Chris

Hello Everyone,

I just got a scan of my latest commission from Scott at Catskill comics. It is by Steve Mannion and all pencils. It is the latest in my "trophy wall" theme of commissions. It proves that there is room for comedy even in a theme this dark.

or for a nicer scan click HERE

Many thanks to Scott and Steve..it is everything I hoped for and more.

Best,

Chris Caira

www.hulk-smash.com

Dan Green inked the cover originally, but I don't have his contact info.

 

Mitch at Graphic Collectibles knows how to get a hold of him. He has gotten pages from him in the past.

Chris

kewl. no offense intended.

None taken. I actually did not ask for the reverse swastika. It must have been the artist's idea. I only mentioned how much Skull and hitler hated each other. I am only guessing as to how it got reverseed....

i really dig that theme you have going. it will be interesting to see them all up at the same time...hint hint

 

should have a Thanos one by Starlin. that would be just ill

They are all up now on my site... Trophy Wall on Hulk-Smash.com

I will be doing something special for them once this year is done. There are 8-9 more of these currently in the works by all different artists. As for the Starlin Thanos...no comment (yet).

Best,

Chris Caira

One thing I noticed

I thought Bucky's last name was BarnEs

But on the skull its listed as BARNS

which is correct spelling?

Good eye,

I thought I was the only one that noticed the mis-spelling.

It is Barnes with an E.

I have had that fixed on the original.

Chris

Alright I know I just posted new art, but this came in the mail today. I really love it.

Iron Man #120 page 2. The first issue of the demon in a bottle storyline by Romita Jr/Layton. Not only do you get some great images of Iron Man and Tony Stark, you get him ordering his 4th martini, and saying that he is "drinking for two".

A little slice of Marvel History, thanks to fellow board member and buddy Jeff Sharpe for letting this go....I love it.

Best,

Chris Caira

Do you have a link for this information? Nothing that I've ever read states anything even close to this unless it's in regards to the Swastika and the Nazi's. Left or right facing has different meanings depending on the religion/culture, but none have it as evil.

No problem,

I googled reverse swastika to get the info. It was the first link.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/swastika/index.html

They mention that the left right have different meanings to some, and to others there is no difference at all.

I never actually asked for the reverse image, but I did talk about how much Skull hated Hitler and perhaps he took that to mean he was the opposite.

Best,

Chris

is the Swastika backwards on purpose, or was the original art mirrored at one time?

The origins of the swastika come from its origins in sanskrit (thousands of years before WWII), include stories that the reverse swastika represents darkness, misfortune and suffering. Some say the direction means nothing or is ambiguous at best. I think that is what the artist was going for, the Skull is pure evil and the reversed swastika is a representation of darkness, suffering and misfortune.

Chris

Oh My farking Gosh.... amazing..

How much are these commisions costing if I may ask?

Thanks for the kind words,

Beck's pencils and inks were $600 (11"x17")

Tom Smith charges anywhere from $100-150 depending on complexity....

I consider them both a bargain...

Best,

Chris

This one showed up in my email box today (since it is a digital color job of a commission I have)

Here is Tom Smith's Digital Colors of David Michael Beck's Red Skull's Trophy Wall.

Tom's a pro's pro.....

Best,

Chris Caira

Good one Chris

I always looked at your Red Skull piece more as a "What If" type scenario!

Yeah the whole theme is an alternate universe kinda thing....I have a time share there....it's nice in the springtime.

Chris

I asked Geof Isherwood to do a commission for me, and this was the final result...

 

I am extremely happy with how it turned out!

 

Great piece Alberto......I love it.

Click HERE to see how this battle turned out.

Just messing with the Cap Fan

Chris Caira

I love the fact that you're turned it into a commission theme.

Thanks Rob...the general idea is just so adaptable and so fun it would have been hard to stop. Every artist I have spoken to has been excited to work on the idea. Everyone likes working on villains I guess. There are over a dozen more ideas in my head and artists to do them. Every once in a while I get an email from my art collecting friends fronting their ideas for the theme, so those are in the hopper too.

This is one of the most fun things I have done in art collecting.

Best,

Chris

That Bolland Commission I had done at the end of 2005 really stuck with me as a general idea so I turned it into a theme of commissions....here is the latest.

Red Skull's Trophy Wall...David Michael Beck

I posted this to my CAF last night but want to show it to my CGC board friends.

This came from David Michael Beck through Scott at Catskill comics. Both of them were great to deal with and the piece blows me away.

To see the others in the theme you can look on my CAF or at my Web Site

So far the theme has been fun and the artists have done beyond all my expectations.

Best,

Chris Caira

www.hulk-smash.com

Thanks Hari and Mike,

I appreciate the compliment.

Pieces are so expensive these days you have to be alot more discerning and be alot more sure of the decisions you make.

If my taste approaches either of yours I will be in good shape.

Best,

Chris

That page was certainly worth the wait! Not only Doc Strange, but Dormammu and Clea too, and some classic Ditko quirkiness. Fantastic stuff.

Thanks for all the kind words guys. It wasn't cheap, but it was one of those pages that when you see it, it takes about a nano second to say "I'll Take IT!!"

Like you said it had every element anyone could want.

Chris Caira

That's a great point Chris. Ditko ASM pages are not all that difficult to find if you have the $$$ but Strange Tales pages?? Very tough.

A great Dr. Strange page with all Ditko work was one of my 1st art collecting goals. I looked for a good 10 years and only found 3 pages to reject and one to grab. It seemed like I was seeing spidey pages from most of the big art dealers but no Dr. Strange. It was a fellow collector who finally hooked me up with this one.

Strange Tales 127 Page 2

I hear tales of a splash page that may hit the market sometime soon, and it may challenge Spidey splash prices if what I hear is true.

Best,

Chris Caira

Ditko prices are maximum on his Marvel superhero works, namely ASM, Dr. Strange and Hulk (in descending value/price/popularity) order. Solid interior pages of each of those, featuring nice panels of the main character, would run 10-12K, 8-10K and 3-5K. Splashes would run, in my estimation, 40K, 25-30K and 15K (respectively).

While I tend to agree that the Ditko superhero stuff is his most pricey, I don't know if you can place Dr. Strange far behind ASM. While his Strange is behind ASM in popularity, his output on Dr. Strange was very small compared to his ASM output.

Ditko produced approx(pencils and inks) 828 pages for Amazing Spider-Man,

Ditko produced apprx(pencils and inks) 298 pages for Dr. Strange.

Most of the Dr. Strange stories were either 5,8,9 or 10 pages each with none being longer than 10 pages. Ditko's ASM stories were all at least 20 pages in length. So while Spidey might be more popular than Dr. Strange, he also has a 3 to 1 lead on all Ditko pages that were produced.

If the supply were equal I would agree with you ASM pages and Dr. Strange pages of similiar quality would be ASM #1 and Strange #2. But the dearth of Dr. Strange pages in existence and the rarity of quality pages to the market close the gap considerably. For similar in costume action pages I have seen Dr. Strange pages be the equal to sometimes, and at times the superior of, similar quality ASM pages....and that is do to simple relative scarcity.

The rest of what you said makes sense.

Best,

Chris Caira

I don't see why he wouldn't take a shot at Frazetta. He's never shied away from speaking about anyone else.

Read a little between the lines...he is certainly taking shots at Frazetta, in the way he attacks someone close to Frank, in the way he attacks the praise that Dave give Frank, and in pretty much every way.

If you rip on someone for the praise that they heap on someone...you must not agree with that praise...thus he is ripping on Frazetta...which is really shocking since he has copied his style lock stock and headlights...

Chris

PS...he has taken shots at Mark Schultz, Frazetta, Pratt and about 10 other artists that, if artists were playing the game battleship, would blow his dingy out of the water. Like the saying goes "If you can't beat 'em, berate 'em."

Nice page...I happen to own the page that precedes it with team X-men panel.

Pm me if you want to put them together.

Chris