John E.

On 1/6/2018 at 8:29 AM, Jay Olie Espy said:

I put in my guesses for all the Curt Swans and the He-Man promo. That Swan is a tough nut to crack with all the different inkers. That Superman 267 page sold in November for $2,035 and yet it's sitting right now at $195. Gulp.

Below is what I wrote a week or so ago, but I thought it got lost and yet here it is.

Well, I got brutalized once again this week landing in last place with 6 guesses. There are quite a bit of Curt Swan comps to make an educated guess. If Murphy Anderson wasn't the inker, a Swan page could cost you anywhere between $200-$399, so I erred on the more rather than the less. The hammer dropped on the less, way less. It was a New Year's sale in the Curt Swan market. Even that Swanderson that sold in late 2016 ended at under a grand. Ouch. The He-Man page performed well, but not as well as its predecessor, although I thought it was the better page (but what do I know?). On that note, the Super Powers promo mini-comic page with Kalibak and Darkseid that just ended on eBay hammered at $595 + shipping. Pretty strong price. Shoutout to @BCarter27 for landing 2nd place with a whopping 13 guesses.

That said, are there no pre-auction guesses for this week? Is this thread dead?

1 minute ago, Jay Olie Espy said:

All I can think of is the Attorney General. 

 

And it’s hard to unsee it being a War on Drugs cover. 

5 minutes ago, Panelfan1 said:

Missed the blurb at the bottom. Saw the keebler elf. All I could think of was cookies.  

All I can think of is the Attorney General. 

8 hours ago, Pete Marino said:

True.  It's part of the packet the Cabal sends to everyone upon their 40th birthday.

 

I turn 40 this August and the Cabal has already sent me a packet with this grail. It has a $19,500 price tag. C’mon now. I was born in ‘78, not 1970. 

4 minutes ago, eewwnuk said:

what about sellers that don't price their items that are for sale? 

Or when you make a search on the CAF classifieds or Comic Art Shop or when you click on the “Art For Sale” folder only to find that the piece is marked “NFS.” 

1 hour ago, comix4fun said:

Well, this isn't Wolverine. I've read Wolverine. I know Wolverine well....this ain't the first appearance of Wolverine. 

But, you're right, artist is only one of the factors in price. It's one of the single biggest ones, but it's just one. 

I’m not into cosmic Marvel, but when I was in middle school my peers thought Ron Lim and Silver Surfer and Infinity Gauntlet were right up there with the best of Marvel’s books; so if it’s guys my age inflating the price on those page, then it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t differentiate between Lim and Perez, O Captain! My Captain!

(I couldn’t resist.)

Just now, SquareChaos said:

If you decide to move those pieces maybe give full disclosure in the listing and say the dealers you bought them from never took them down - as this thread shows, this type of scenario is hardly unfamiliar to comic art buyers.

It’s funny, I was just thinking that. One site I may just reach out before I do with potential for success. The other, well, at least there’s not a price listed if you know what I mean, so I don’t expect anything to happen. 

I never saw this as a priority, but now that I think of it, it did me no favors not acting quicker. I bought these pieces years ago and though I don’t believe their value has doubled, I’d like to adjust the price just to get my money back or close to it after fees, etc. Hypothetically, if the dealer took down the art tonight and I listed the piece tomorrow, I’d look like a flipper. 

I own—for years—several pieces of art that are still “for sale” on two different sites. What kills me is that when I’m ready to sell, which is soon, I may be subjected to mistrust by potential buyers as I may appear as a scammer or, what is it called? A drop shipper? Not long ago I saw a piece on one dealer’s site that was on sale at another’s that I made an inquiry about whether or not it was really in his possession. It’s the sad side of the marketplace. 

Great art, Glen. I try to minimize my Facebook activity (such as "liking" stuff) so I'll just come over here and tell you how much I fawn over the art you post publicly.

Have you checked out Scott Eder's inventory yet? I know that he just posted new oil on wood works by Ashley.

1 hour ago, Jordysnordy said:

What’s the best way to scan OA since my scanner can’t fit a whole page. Take it to a scanning centre? Any other ideas?

I take my OA to get scanned at any corporate office supply store. They handscan it for me. I know this part has been debated in the scanner section, but I request it to be scanned as a jpg, in color, and at 600dpi. It costs me $1.99 per scan. Not bad done in pieces. 

Re: Bertram 40x60

absolute talent to work in that size with such detail. 

Pure speculation on my part, but I imagine not every artist can paint murals, i.e. large scale. 

Re: Thanos Wins

Holy mother. I wish I read that book upon its release that way I could’ve had a chance to snag a page. 

But there are 4 issue yet to be released, you say? 

3 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

FWIW, a guy just posted photos of the X-Men 25 Kubert pages where Magneto rips Wolverine’s adamantium out of his body on Facebook - hangin on his wall. 

On 1/14/2018 at 6:55 PM, tlatner said:

Lee -- thanks for posting these!  They're fun to read -- even if it's almost impossible to accurately predict what's going to happen on Heritage from one week to the next.  

You speak the truth here. I’ve been using comps to aid my guesses on Comic Art Tracker and I still miss my mark. By a lot. 

Lee, great guess on that Star Wars page. I didn’t put in a guess for this past week but I was tracking that pinup Sam Kieth did for Fish Police. I had it at $450 and I think it ended at $525 with bp. 

9 hours ago, Nexus said:

Jay, you've been following Felix Comic Art from the beginning (thank you!). If you haven't read all my e-mail newsletters, can I say you've at least read most of them? Overall, do you feel I encourage speculation?

I consider you to be a fairly typical buyer, in terms of profile: Someone who picks up a piece here or there that catches their eye. When they can afford it. I don't see speculation as a driver. I've already laid out why I don't believe speculation is why we've sold a lot of art to a lot of collectors. And here you are...pretty much what I was talking about. So thanks!

Do I feel that you encourage speculation? Not at all. There are verifiable sources from the web to the podcasts that you are quite the contrary. You have a long "voting record" of this. Honestly, I still believe the art sells itself. Furthermore, each of your artists has a four- to five-figure print run that is essentially free advertising for you and your clients' art. You probably don't even need to lift a finger to hype up your roster (but I know you do because that's what you get paid to do).

Does anyone remember the first Steve Oliff Akira color guide drop? Those color guides aren't in my wheelhouse, but IIRC, didn't the art sell out in about 24 hours? Here's copy of the newsletter Felix sent out on February 4, 2016:

Quote

 

We are very excited to announce that colorist STEVE OLIFF has chosen Felix Comic Art to sell his color guides from AKIRA!

Steve Oliff is a comic book colorist who has worked in the industry since 1978. His company, Olyoptics, was the first to use computers to do color separation. Steve was personally selected by AKIRA creator Katsuhiro Otomo to color the seminal work. Steve and Otomo-san worked hand-in-hand at Steve's studio in Point Arena, CA to develop the color scheme that would be used throughout the series. Steve's AKIRA color guides are hand-painted on heavy-stock paper using a combination of airbrush, felt pens, gouache, cel animation paint, and more! These are not your typical color guides; each piece presents beautifully as its own work of art and is suitable for framing (although as with all colored art, best to keep out of direct light). Felix Comic Art is excited to present this rare opportunity for fans to own an original piece from this legendary work.

We have over 300 pieces that we are preparing for the site. 

 

Anyone can plainly see that there there was no language in the above text that encouraged speculation that may have contributed to a sell out. And then there was the first Bryan Lee O'Malley art drop on August 12, 2014, a year and a half earlier. Notice how subdued Felix is in selling O'Malley:

Quote

 

I am now taking commission lists for both Nick Dragotta and Nick Pitarra for NYCC 2014! Please write for more info.

Also, more Bryan Lee O'Malley art will be posted tomorrow (Wednesday, August 13th) at 12PM PST. Included will be a large selection of pages from LOST AT SEA, some covers/illustrations from various projects...and yes, a few SCOTT PILGRIM pieces as well!

As always, thanks for your patronage!

 

And yet, it was an instant sell out. That's why I say the art sells itself. Then a month and a half later, there's a second O'Malley art drop. Felix could have really milked it, but this is what he wrote:

Quote

Felix Comic Art is proud to announce the sale of original art from Bryan Lee O'Malley's SECONDS. Bryan likes, whenever possible, for his art to be in the hands of the fans. To that end, he has consented to releasing a limited number of pages for sale this year. Unlike art from the SCOTT PILGRIM series, all pages from SECONDS are drawn on 11"X14" art board. Here is Bryan's explanation of the art process for this book:

I drew the whole book in rough form, using a Cintiq tablet and Photoshop, and edited the story along the way. The final version was later inked by myself and Jason Fischer, colored by Nathan Fairbairn and lettered by Dustin Harbin. For those wondering, it was “penciled” digitally but later PRINTED OUT in blue ink and INKED TRADITIONALLY, with Jason and I both working on the same page.

Please sign up for the mailing list to get the heads-up for when the art becomes available for sale. As with our previous SCOTT PILGRIM sales, we expect activity to be brisk, so keep an eye out for the e-mail notice. Thanks as always for your patronage and hope to see you soon!

I think it took a little while longer to sell out, if it did at all, but that's understandable. I don't think the market was able to absorb it all in such a short time span. I've bolded the "brisk activity" part for emphasis that the FOMO rhetoric is restrained.

And don't even get me started on the first Paul Pope art drop. Pieces for $40???? C'mon! That was ripe for flipping. Felix didn't have to do that. He was leaving money on the table (please keep doing that, Felix). And yet, I've not seen one $40 piece get flipped.

7 minutes ago, vodou said:

Are people really this stupid with their extra money earmarked toward speculative ROI? Talk about herd behavior (the very definition of buy high, sell higher). Ha ha. Fools and their money...but awesome for Ramon moving some back art that was otherwise gathering dust.

Nah, it was a joke, an ironic statement. That was the point, that just because his rep compares him to Jim Lee, it doesn’t mean that it’s a hot stock tip that moves inventory. Ramon’s market has yet to catch up with, say, DWJ or Pitarra, so the dedicated few who buy Ramon’s art have to be buying for some reason other than speculation. I truly believe that the majority of Felix’s clientele who buy Ramon’s art with passion are buying DWJ with equal passion and not necessarily with future dollar signs in their eyeballs; therefore, the art sells itself, it doesn’t need a messenger. 

3 minutes ago, Nexus said:

There you go. Soooo valuable...

He IS the Mexican Jim Lee!

I'm pretty sure I said that on Twitter (it's an inside joke with Ramon). I'm not sure I ever put that in a newsletter (although if I did, I'm sure Rabid Ferret and The Shoveler will find it...keep digging, boys). To me, Ramon can be a role model for young Latino comics fans, the way Jim Lee was for young Asian comics fans back in the day. I was one of those kids.

Like I told Rabid Ferret earlier about all the obnoxious DKR references on the podcast...I enjoy amusing myself. Have I been shamelessly hyping my artists lately? Sure. I gotta write up these newsletters every week. I need something to break up the monotony. Now...if all it takes is to mention BORN AGAIN or whatever to sell out, then everyone would be doing it. And if all it took was mentioning YEAR ONE for collectors to line up to buy...that's not a very high opinion of collectors. If anyone wants to try, they're welcome to go through all my newsletters, they're all archived on the site. Feel free to pull out all the objectionable quotes. Let's see how many there are out of the 100s of newsletters I've sent out.

The first page I bought from you was one by Ramon from Original Sins back when you got started. I so love it. The page is from a mini-series no one read, from an “event” no one cares about today, but I didn’t buy it for that—I bought because it’s Ramon Villalobos. I did crack up when you called him the “Mexican Jim Lee,” but to me he’s the kid from Stockton that made good.

I came across your site looking for Villalobos OA. It was through your site that artists like Garry Brown and Chris Mooneyham entered my radar. I bought a Mooneyham Predator page without ever having read the book it was from because it made such an impression on me. When I posted it on CAF I compared Chris to the megafamous Chris Warner (Go ahead and use that in your newsletter; the first one’s free). (As I begin to trade up, I always consider selling it, but I can’t bring myself to it.) Having followed your site since its nascent stage, I—and many others—watched your roster grow. All of them, in the beginning at least, were relatively unknowns. Soon enough, your clients’ art got better and better, catching the eye of more than just fanboys. Your clients (or bosses) went from working on small titles by Dark Horse and Valiant and Boom! maybe?, to steady work with the Big Two. It was and is an exciting time, to see it all happen, to see it unfold quickly there on the shelves of the LCS, to feel like you were part of all that, and buying a page from these guys was a way to be to feel connected to it, to give them a little support and encouragement, to feel like you got there before the bandwagon did, to show your buddies the original art and say, “You see this guy right here? He’s the next Frank Miller.”

I didn’t read Thanos Wins but I imagine quite a few art collectors did, possibly more than the 22 pages that were available. If you want a page in today’s hobby, you have to be lightning fast. Maybe collectors want a page not because they believe it’ll increase in value, but because they know someone later will increase the price. 

16 minutes ago, Nexus said:

I'm not an art dealer. I'm a rep. *My* whole purpose isn't financial. If it was, I wouldn't be doing this. More assumptions...

How valuable is DOCTOR STRANGE #55?

$45 in 9.8. 

I don’t know, Felix. I remember that time you called Ramon Villalobos “the Mexican Jim Lee” and then there was a run on your RV inventory. 

2 hours ago, Mr. Machismo said:

My entries:

Batman #1 Cover (Volume II, New 52, 2011) / Batman: COURT OF OWLS by Greg Capullo

—

Batman: THE LONG HALLOWEEN Trade Cover by Tim Sale

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Detective Comics 881 Cover by Jock - Batman: The Black Mirror

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Batman: White Knight #1 Variant Cover by Sean Murphy

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Batman: White Knight / Batman VS. Joker Splash / Issue 1, Page 11 by Sean Murphy

 

Rest of 2017 here (most of it, anyhow.)

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetailsearch.asp?gcat=91867&Yr=2017&order=Comm&pi=18

 

The WK page 11 is submitted under “Covers”. 

3 hours ago, Andahaion said:

Same here.  I'm new-ish to OA, bought three pieces last year.  Two of which from stories I have not read, nor likely ever will.  I've also made offers on pieces from books I've never read.  The third one I purchased because I bought a trade (Superman Rebirth #1-#13) and the writing really struck a chord with me.  Great version of Superman.  And with the birth of my own son coming in March I found the storyline personally poignant.

Congrats on your upcoming addition to the family. My son/second child was also born in March, on the opening weekend of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. That’s how I remember 

9 minutes ago, vodou said:

My comment comes from exactly how comic art was when the hobby began...everything was $10-$50 except those HUGE Sunday strips by Herriman and other giants (then and today) of sequential. And anything that reeked of somebody doing in sequential what they could get (seemingly, to the man outside) paid a lot more to do somewhere else (example: Alex Raymond Flash Gordon). But those obvious to all outliers aside, going back to the Seventies...everything was nickels and dimes with little of the minutiae of differentiation we see today. Except, even then, "hot new" was priced as if it had been around for 50 years of hobby lust 'n appreciation...Wrightson Adams Barry Smith Steranko Kaluta, fresh in-wet all priced right up there with the legends of sequential And a fair bit of it...sat too.

Yup...whether anyone thinks that the high price tag is warranted or not, I think of Felix who quoted Richard Martinez in a podcast to the likes of "Art was expensive then, too."

6 minutes ago, vodou said:

Cowpuckey. I think the most interesting What If? of our hobby is: What If there hadn't been a comic art market prior to yesterday. What do you think ink-wet art would sell for without being able to ride the coattails of 40 years of comic art collecting and the self-perpetuating nature of 'comps' in a long-run rising market? I think everything would be $50 and some stuff, a lot of stuff, still wouldn't sell.

Yeah I see what you’re saying and a lot of “great looking” art today doesn’t get sold whether it’s priced at $500 or $100 ($100 being a “great” deal today). It’s just hard for me to tell someone today that their $500 page wouldn’t be worth $50 if it weren’t for 40 years of collecting and recent comps. I think 40 years of collecting and the comps is what helps justify the purchase. 

1 hour ago, Panelfan1 said:

I don't know if what you say is a fair argument. are you saying that todays art is better technically than older stuff, or that it will only go up for technical artistic reasons rather than future nostalgia? (that is nostalgia felt by collectors in the future).  Artistically - I think there is great stuff from every era, as well as not so good stuff. 

Eh, I’m making a blanket statement, but yes, it’s closer to “it will only go up for technical reasons than future nostalgia.” I’m hypothesizing here, based on money thrown at art that isn’t aesthetically appealing, but “hey, I read it as a kid!” (me included in this camp). And EC is a comparable example. Great art from Jack Davis and Williamson, but I can’t get through a story word for word. 

This claim of mine was inspired by yesterday’s trip to the LCS when I spotted a cover that caught my eye and I would love to own (theorically) but I didn’t even bother to buy the book. My claim also undermines the great writing by today’s writers, too; but, unlettered pages de-emphasizes the writer’s role in the creation. The writing may not vanish in the mind of some, but certainly has vanished on the OA. This is to say that I know that my claim carries faulty assumptions, and I don’t subscribe to it 100%, but if you’re buying art before you’ve the book (which I’ve done) than it’s not far fetched.