On 11/22/2023 at 11:35 AM, Unstoppablejayd said:

You haven’t???? 

On 11/22/2023 at 2:07 PM, Michael Browning said:

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Oh yeah, I have made a trade this year! My apologies! We made a great trade that was good for both of us and I am so appreciative of you doing that! (Man, my memory is terrible.)

I haven’t made a trade with a dealer this year, though. 😉

For what it’s worth, Barracuda is to the Punisher in 21st century what Jigsaw was to Frank Castle in the 70s & 80s. 
 

I mean, there’s also Ma Gnucci, but she just didn’t grow the legs to be a runaway hit with fans, nor does she have the reach for wider audiences, which is a real stumper, man.

On 11/22/2023 at 12:16 PM, Lucky Baru said:

@John E. 

Maybe you've missed the spectacle of Yellowstone unfolding before your eyes?  Yellowstone, with its reruns gracing the CBS screen, drew an audience of 5.49 million, akin to the viewership that accompanied The Walking Dead in its inaugural season.  As the seasons unfolded on the Paragon network, the audience burgeoned steadily. Come the premiere of the fifth Yellowstone season, a staggering 12.1 million pairs of eyes were tuned in.

I actually am aware that Yellowstone has grown in viewership since its first season. I am not one of those 12.1M viewers though. About the show I know that Kevin Costner is in it and I know that it’s set in the West. I know that Costner went through a nasty divorce. Otherwise I don’t care to watch it—but this is not a dig on the show; I also enjoyed Ms Marvel and She-Hulk and have watched them complete several times (a lot of that has to do with having a young family) so this is a matter of me having unrefined taste than the quality of Yellowstone.

By season 4, Seinfeld had 20M viewers and Friends had 25M. The series finale of Friends (“The Last One”) in 2004 brought in 52M or more viewers. These are all pre-streaming numbers. 
 

I did not watch Game of Thrones with the rest of America. After season 1, a friend of my wife’s was so surprised that I hadn’t watch it she lent me her dvd set and I watched season one like that, and quite enjoyed it. Season 2 came and went. I bought the S2 set on Blu-ray but found it so boring I never finished it. It wasn’t until just before the delayed final season that I binged all the seasons upon the urgency of a friend saying that the show is “so, so much more” than where I stopped in season 2. Years before, I binged Breaking Bad on Netflix after the series was over. After the bingeing of both, which I enjoyed, I still had that “what was the big deal about the show?” feeling. That’s because I wasn’t part of the larger community and the larger phenomenon stretched over a period of years that is the secret sauce. 
 

In my previous post I wasn’t saying we’ll never have another hit show again. Statistically that’s impossible. I was arguing that it’s going to be harder to create a cultural phenomenon with disjointed viewership. Breaking Bad was a cultural phenomenon. The Shield (which I watched) was a hit show. Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon. Entourage was a hit show. Weren’t Walking Dead and Breaking Bad on the same cable channel, AMC?

By cultural phenomenon I mean character recognition, star-making roles, when Barnes and Noble sends you emails the weekend before the premiere or finale to come buy the source material, the 4K boxed set, the calendars, the mugs, the party game, the chess set, the bobble head, the action figures, the licensed shoe horn. 
 

Yellowstone is a hit show. 
 

Word of mouth is very necessary for a hit show or the cultural phenomenon. It’s the one thing media conglomerates can’t buy and Nielsen can’t track. It’s my friend lending the complete season one of GoT or the other friend pressing me to catch up on the series. It’s you, Lucky Baru, talking about Yellowstone here. That counts. 
 

I won’t deny that Yellowstone’s growing viewership since season one is a phenomenon. But I do find it interesting that the show is on TWO cable channels (I had never heard of the Paragon Network and when I googled it, no network by that name exists. Did you mean Paramount?): it plays on “Paragon” and reruns on CBS and is streamed on Paramount Plus. Three platforms to get to 12M viewers. That’s what it takes to get a hit show TODAY. The first time I heard of the show was because I’m a Paramount Plus subscriber. The first time I heard about the show outside of that is because of Costner’s highly publicized divorce. I feel like that life event did more for the publicity of the show than the network ever could. 
 

The pioneers of cultural phenomenon in the age of streaming and disjointed viewership? Stranger Things and Squid Games. But with GS you had the pandemic and an audience who literally couldn’t go anywhere. Let’s throw Ted Lasso in there but I don’t watch it. Just sayin it’s going to be harder to achieve it. I predict that the future of “cultural phenomenon” is going to be created within streaming tribes, not necessarily because it touched the zeitgeist of the nation; however, so much depends on perfect storms gathering too—it’s not just the quality of the show. But that perfect storm is hard to predict, harder yet to concoct. I think all these phenomenal shows describe their success as catching lighting in the bottle. There isn’t less lightning, it’s just the bottle got smaller. 

On 11/16/2023 at 10:32 PM, redrighthand said:

Because I don't think he does.

This gets carelessly thrown around a lot,

Bill stated in one of the early CAF videos that Mike has a financial stake in CAF after Bill had to reassure users that there was no conflict of interest, that Mike has no access to price data (nor Bill). CAF, or Collector’s Network, Inc., has gone through a lot of changes lately, so whether Mike still has a stake in CAF today is another thing. (Bill explained that Mike “lent” him money for Bill’s ailing mini golf business, and in exchange Mike was given a stake. I’m also working off memory from like 3 years ago so expect some details to be off.)

I saw ZERO marketing for this film outside of Facebook. Not one billboard. Not one bus shelter poster. I watched this on Friday opening weekend and there was no standee or poster in the movie theater. In fact, I saw ZERO merch at Target—no clothing, posters, toys aimed at toddlers. Nada. Zero marketing for this movie as if Marvel/Disney didn’t even have faith in their own production and tried to cut their losses. Sure I have notes for this movie, but had there been a marketing blitz people would’ve shown up and had a good time and it would done well for at least two weekends before the holiday prestige films come out.  

I’ll be the lone dissenter and say it’s not the characters, it’s the writer. Where are the bigger stakes? Everything is resolved. No pissed off aliens coming to invade earth. No urgency to find their missing friend. No visit to Doctor Strange for keys to the multiverse portal (Hello, America Chavez!). And are the three a team? Or are they not a team? In Captain America: Winter Soldier, SHIELD is Hydra and the Avengers are on their own. In Civil War, heroes tore each other apart (War Machine suffers spinal injury; Team Iron Man sics The Vision on Team Cap) and some become outlaws. We are not getting these level of stakes from these films anymore.

But I’m still watching them and enjoying (most of) them.

It wasn’t a convenient weekend so I had planned to sit this one out. But I’d peek in throughout the show and decided to jump in the fray on Sunday. I only posted 3 pieces and all repeat from the previous show. Sold 2. Small value and under market.
 

After selling in 7 of the last 8 shows I’m low on inventory. I stopped going to comic cons where I’d pick up small pieces on impulse buys. Everything is so expensive everywhere that I can’t even do impulse buys on eBay anymore and just sell later when the novelty has run out. I had a theory that they’d be less art posted than last show because of this. I’ve noticed longtime collectors who brought the heat the first 2-3 shows are no longer setting up. Maybe they’ve run out of inventory too? But with 6500 pieces posted I was wrong. Maybe half are commissions as Mike points out.
 

The spirit of “priced to sell” is getting away. I get why some pieces are priced to not leave meat on the bone. Others not so much. Sure, one can point out to greed, but there are a few predators out there who can smell a flip 49 states away. I don’t sell anything that I think can do better in auction, but if I do, I don’t put an “aspirational” price tag on it. I like to refer to the price tag as “anti-flip” or “dealer repellent.”

On 11/13/2023 at 1:35 AM, Brian Peck said:

I was annoyed at some of the lack of etiquette.

This was my experience in the May show. Tire kickers who turn to ghosts. CAL is never held during a convenient weekend for me and so I have to remove myself from the people I’m with to type out a long answer regarding the condition of the piece or whatever. Then zilch. A simple “I’ll pass, thank you” would suffice. No foul. I had a known figure in the hobby inquire about a piece but didn’t want to pay my asking price. Went back and forth a bit but someone was willing to pay the full price. And when I let this person know, I could feel the eye roll in the response. Okay, I’ll make note of that for the future. 

On 9/29/2023 at 2:34 PM, delekkerste said:

What in the AF
 

Here’s my promo card from Cardsmiths 

On 9/23/2023 at 9:02 PM, Benedict Judas Hel said:

I would hope so!  I would be worried if they didn’t!

Your worry is equal or greater to mine 😵‍💫

On 9/23/2023 at 1:47 PM, Will_K said:

Those live art sales were going gangbusters early on.  In 2023, I think the percentage sold during live show is down.  I don't follow all of them but when Bill sends out the promo e-mails, he teases a few of the pieces and gives a rough idea of how many pieces will be available.  Lately after the sale, Bill has been sending follow-up e-mails showing the art and prices for what is still available.  Depending on the artist, a very, very rough guess is 10 - 30% of the pieces do not sell during the live show, it really depends.  The pieces vary.  Some are original published art, some are pieces done expressly for the live art sales.

And it's not just a function of price.  There aren't hundreds of people watching the live shows but you'll see a large increase in views afterward.  Originally, fulfillment was handled by a third party, great packing for my 1 buy.  Bill handles the fulfillment on his end now, still great packing for my other buy.  After a couple weeks, the unsold art is returned to the artist.  I was present when Dan Brereton sold one of the returned pieces at this year's Baltimore Comic Con.  The buyer was from overseas and very likely didn't watch the live show.  Also, there might be a little fatigue, I think Howard Chaykin has done at least 3 of those live art sales.  I think Denys Cowan has done at least 2 of them (1 of them with Bill Sienkiewicz).  Dan Brereton has done 2 of them.

I'll watch a good portion of every other episode (or so) of Dueling Dealers.  I usually bail out on the recap so no guesses about sell-through rate.  As per the "flip of the day" topic lately, you can see the Mike and/or Anthony do some (direct or indirect) sourcing from ebay or other auctions.  But I don't think there's a lot of that happening.  Anthony will say that he picked up certain pieces from artists that were recently at X-Y-Z Comic Cons.  So there's bound to be some markup there.  I know other people are doing the same thing on ebay.  Hey, if you don't like the markup then you'll just have to go to all the comic shows and get art directly from the artists.

Thanks Will_K. A lot of my observations match mine. The only exception is that I don’t tune in for those sales shows—during or after—so I don’t know what the attendance is like, nor do I get to hear Snyder or Burkey say where they get art. 
 

I'm well into my 10th year collecting. In years 9 and 10 I’ve spent my entire year’s budget all at once this year and last on private offerings and this is probably why I don’t eat and breathe comic art like I did years 1-8. That and in a post-vaccine world I have been so busy I just don’t have the kind of time I used to, to waste on scouring the hidden corners of the internet for art. I don’t even bother putting in punishing bids anymore which was a favorite past time of mine. That’s my excuse. Where have all the other small-time collectors gone that used to prop up the low-end 90s art in 2020-2021?

In ‘20-‘21 when prices were going bananas, the attitude was “The tide raises all boats.” What I’m hearing now is “Everything’s fine!” as long as the “tide” is still raising the yachts of high-end premium art. Meanwhile, the sailboats are capsizing.

Wow runaway thread

Is anyone keeping up with the live art sales shows, particularly the ones Bill Cox hosts? How are the sales going there?

On 8/29/2023 at 5:48 AM, vodou said:

I read that as Kevin signing the COAs not the art. Those bidding, or more curious than I, could ask for clarity.

This is how I understood it too

On 8/19/2023 at 12:08 AM, DeadpoolJr. said:

I think he got banned/temp suspended on here a few years back hasn't been back since. 

Not before he called us all skinflints as he walked out the door 

On 7/19/2023 at 8:58 AM, RBerman said:

Are they rebooting Kamala with powers to match the "solid light" she has on the Disney+ TV show? Those were taken from another character, Sapheara, a hearing-impaired heroine who appeared in a one-shot that Marvel published in 2014 for the Children's Hearing Institute, to teach kids about their cochlear implants. Here's the splash from that, to bring the topic back around to original art.

I read rumors on news sites that Marvel killed off Kamala in order to resurrect her with powers closer to her MCU counterpart. Then I recently read from a more official source that Marvel is bringing back Kamala as a mutant in a new series co-written by Iman Vellani, the actress. 
 

Not sure how I feel about this. I liked Ms Marvel’s “embiggen” powers as an Inhuman but I concede stretchy powers look silly on film. I thought it was creative on MCU’s part to give her “solid light” powers instead. But I’m not jiving with this whole tail wagging the dog move. 

On 7/19/2023 at 3:11 PM, MAR1979 said:

  Except when it comes to Mullets those must not be tolerated.

Or ponytails.

I was the littlest biggest Superman fan as a tyke. It was brought on I’m sure by Christopher Reeve’s Superman and at the time it was brought on by the marketing push for Superman II. I carry a 3-inch scar on my ankle getting hurt pretending to be Superman. Here’s a page from my first Superman title book reimagining the whole coal-into-diamond bit:

A commission of another important “first” Superman book:

Then one day I was talking to one of the Hernandez Bros, Mario or Beto, and one of the two was telling me about the books they read as a kids and they kept citing Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane. I thought it was silly for them to have been reading—what I thought was a girl’s book—and asked if they read Superman at all. Their was response was “Superman is virtually invincible and unstoppable. There’s only so much you can do with that. So he was really boring to us.”

I never looked at Superman the same way again. Probably explains why he gets stripped of his powers so much—to make him “interesting.”

The mid-90s did give birth to pony-tail Punisher. It might not be a mullet but it’s still 🤮

On 7/19/2023 at 9:36 AM, MAR1979 said:

Superman, the Character that in effect inspired the entire super-hero genre has been treated very very poorly in the comics for most of my lifetime.

-  Late 1980's; rendered flaccid power-wise by Byrne.
- 1993; "Killed off" for a full year - not 30-40 days, a full year!
- 1994; brought back with a Mullet. A frickin' Mullet!!!  The height of indignity.
-  late 1990's; Classic costume and powers taken away for over a year. Character becomes pure energy or some tripe and starts wearing an electric blue outfit and or crimson red jumper - WTF?
-  Sept 1 2011; The total dee-bag Superman (characterization) is born. Classic costume gone for many many years and changed to an abomination + insult to American pop-culture. A costume and characterization change that served merely to stroke the universal sized ego's and tiny u know whats of Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, and Dan Didio.

So puhlease no more whining about the Punisher, as the medium itself exists as we know it due to the Superman Character.  The same character who has been treated like excrement for 4 decades!

P.S. The rule should be; If no mullet, then no whining!

 

 

 

Sure, but then we got the cool af Kingdom Come Superman 

On 7/17/2023 at 7:47 PM, MAR1979 said:

 IMHO on a character like the Punisher wearing spandex was absurd from the 1970's git-go. 

Superman was brought back with a mullet, nothing and I repeat NOTHING in main stream comics is more offensive than that.  

 

Ironically, I gravitate toward pages with the Punisher in spandex  Although I understand the practicality of the urban tactical gear look, I can not stand it. I think that’s when things got problematic—when Punisher donned the tactical gear so commonly seen worn by mass-casualty event perpetrators. The black and white spandex at least dialed it down like a parody. Much like the purple pants of the Hulkster.

But to your point, back in our day  heroes stayed dead a year or two.

On 7/17/2023 at 6:46 PM, MAR1979 said:

@KirbyCollector

Are you teetering on the ledge?  Another Comic Book Character to be killed never ever to be seen again or for 45 days whichever comes first.

Marvel Announces The Death of Moon Knight
https://www.cbr.com/death-of-moon-knight-marvel/
On July 17, Marvel Comics announced the upcoming death of a fan-favorite character in writer Jed MacKay and artist Allesandro Cappuccio's upcoming "The Last Days of Moon Knight" storyline.

 

As they did with Ms Marvel who’s now returning as a mutant  The common thread here is that Ms Marvel and Moon Knight both have Disney+ shows . With the Punisher (who had a Netflix show), the comics didn’t kill-kill him, but I think Disney-Marvel want to strip him of his status quo that made them uncomfortable. Happy 50th anniversary, Frank. 

On 7/14/2023 at 6:27 PM, MAR1979 said:

Didn't even last 45 days. Whole thing was and is nothing more than standard planned comic book business machinations. I do hope those who whined feel at least a little bit silly.

https://www.cbr.com/marvel-who-is-punisher-teaser/

 

Looks like a cool update to me. BTW, I've been a fan of the character since Cap 241, which was the first image of the Punisher I ever saw.

Notice the weapons aren’t assault-style guns anymore and the “skull” is integrated into the costume as parts and not easily replicated as a windshield decal. Whatever this “Who is” is, it isn’t the traditional Punisher but a Disnification of him. 

On 7/12/2023 at 7:03 AM, MIL0S said:

I love John Buscema's work but his prelims tend to be on the looser end of the spectrum compared to some other artists.  I was surprised this cover prelim just sold on Comiclink for nearly $2k, thoughts?

As someone who is not a John Buscema devotee or a Conan comic book fan, I’d say that is a very recognizable image so the price makes sense to me. If I could only have one Buscema piece that would be it. It’s also the only Conan #1 piece in the world without Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature scrawled in the live area which makes it all that much more valuable.