John E.

No wonder I didn't quite recognize it from Knightfall. I didn't read NML. But Gsl has a good point.

did someone say something about hitting their 90's sweet spot?

 

I bet this one will go for a few bucks...

 

https://comics.ha.com/itm/miscellaneous//p/7141-54007.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

Oh boy that'll do it. Thanks for posting!

To put a different angle on that whole idea that dealers today don't deal in 90s art idea... back in the 90s they did. Just as today, most of them rep certain artists and deal in their current art now.

 

The short answer is they sold that stock 20 years ago.

 

OP mentions Kelley Jones on Batman, for example. Mitch used to sell some of JK's Batman pages through GC. Albert Moy had pages too. Others had pages at the time as well. Prices were in the $50-200 range for panel pages, with splashes being more. Not going to see them for those prices today with Batman on the page, but they do exist and pop up from time to time. Mostly from individuals selling them via eBay or classifieds on CAF. Occasionally Heritage. Like with anything else of quality, you gotta dig for the deals, or hold your nose and hit buy if it's something you gotta have.

 

Kelley did keep a certain amount of his work as well, so it's not all floating around out there that I'm aware of.

 

Terry Moore sold me a page from SiP #5 in '96 at Chicago Con. He'd just drawn it and told me it was bittersweet selling it.

 

Bought Madman pages directly from Allred at Philly and Baltimore in the mid 90s.

Bought my Sandman and other Vertigo work mostly directly from artists as well.

 

In fact, the way I see it, the 90s were the era in which comic art collecting went from a handful of folks dabbling or seriously collecting and turned into a thriving comic underground niche. Especially the latter half of the decade as more and more folks made use of this new thing we call the internet, and it no longer required that people make phonecalls, scour ads in CBG and the like, or be in attendance at every convention to get first crack at whatever was brought to that show.

 

Toss in the beginning of eBay, where the OA section of the site was literally just 2 or 3 pages of listings for EVERYTHING being offered (no BS color prints, no wannabe comic artist doodles, just pretty much published material), and things just kind of blew up by the time you hit 2000.

 

I think a lot of that Indie work sold to people piecemeal who were into the scene for a time. Maybe happy to just have that one piece of their one favorite story, and never got the whole collecting bug. Perhaps keeping it for nostalgia for the time they got out of High School, got their tribal tattoo and nose pierced, went to Lillith Fair, saw Chasing Amy and grabbed a cool page from SiP. And unless they hit eBay and happen to discover the pages bring money now, it'll just stay on a wall or in a closet. Dealers don't seem to seek most of it out because with a few exceptions, the margins just aren't there for the indie work. What can I say? People want hair metal and boy bands (McFarlane & Liefeld on Spidey, Youngblood, and whatnot).

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As an aside to the art buying, for me there was a ton of great comics in the 90s.

I think it was a massively creative era, just not so much for the Big 2.

 

Other than KJ and Beatty's work on Batman, or the killer folks producing the Batman Adventures books, if you wanted good work from DC, you actually looked to Vertigo. Sandman, Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, Swamp Thing. Along with books that have become industry mainstays like Hellboy and Bone, one looked to the indies and self published work. I'd stick the first few years of Stray Bullets up against just about anything. Especially that first year. It's what got me back into comic buying after a several year hiatus.

 

Jeez, and then guys like Burns on Black Hole. Clowes, Ware, Tomine.... great great artists left and right. If you were at all inclined towards truly great artwork and thoughtful, quirky or imaginative stories, I don't see how anyone would be hard pressed to find something to like, unless it just had to be guys in pajamas.

 

But then, if someone was really fixated on the vapid gyrations of hair metal, or the squeeling glee of boy bands, you really didn't care for the early 90s explosion of what was quickly labeled as alternative or "grunge". And I see the two scenes as really tying together a lot in that 90s era. Especially the first half of the decade.

 

Musicians and artists taking chances. Toward the end of the decade, artists (and a ton of musicians) saw what creatively was selling, and started aping that. And there was a flood of copycats and lookalike work trying to get some of that money. By which point the truly creative folks had moved on to the next thing, and the scene was so flooded, the next new thing came along and the decade ticked over into the next.

 

My .02¢ on that.

 

Eric makes some really great points in this post. There was a lot that I didn't consider which now makes so much sense once it was pointed out to me.

I started off this posting saying that I'm still trying to figure out my focus. Right now I'm buying a lot of art that either is aesthetically pleasing or touches the nostalgia, but a lot of the time it's about opportunity and if do I have the money for it. Reading everyone's opinions and experiences I think I could scratch off a purely 90s focus. Collecting 90s art is no less accessible, inexpensive, or competitive than artwork from other eras. In fact, I have learned that if I do see a 90s piece that I like, or maybe even on the fence with it, to snatch it up if the price is right. It may not pop up again. One of my collecting philosophies has been, "I rather have the option to sell later, then regret not buying now."

One of the biggest problems with finding and buying 1990s art is that MOST dealers disregard art from that decade and won't even sell it. Right now, 1990s comics do get a bad rap for being some of the worst ever published. But, they really aren't.

But, heck, I've seen dealers turn away 1980s art -- if it isn't Frank Miller, John Byrne and Dave Gibbons -- simply because it is "too new".

I know a lot of the older dealers are used to selling 1960s, 1970s and 1980s art, but I think they are really missing out when they turn away great 1990s art that is offered to them.

I buy 1990s art when I find it cheap, because, one of these days, it's going to be for some collectors what silver, bronze and copper age art is to us older collectors.

I do think there is a lot more of the 1990s art out there, but I think most collectors just think it's not worth anything and don't offer it up and dealers don't deal in it much.

I thank everyone for their input and leads! It has renewed my faith in finding examples from the 90s with a little digging and patience with patience as the key word. It will still be hard to resist buying art from today's books as they tend to be aesthetically well-done, accessible, and relatively economically. For sure I was pleased to see so many fans and supporters of 90s artwork and the comics from which they came. I had a chance to browse through some of the personal collections and I'm jealous of how disciplined some of you have been sticking to a focus and of course, how lucky you got.

Many of you seem to agree that many of these 90s pages may be put away, like in a lost kind of way. It never even occurred to me that some of this could be forgotten in a box somewhere. But hey, when these pages hit 5-figures, memories get jarred and these lost pages tend to resurface quickly. Of course, by then, it'll be too late for me.

I quoted the post above because it made so much sense once it was pointed out to me. Many of these top dealers don't bother with 90s pages, with the exception of top-tiered artists and covers. With the exception of Anthony Synder's site, if you peruse the bigger dealers sites hoping to find 90s art, you'll be out of luck, and it'll appear like nothing is out there. On the other hand, it might be better for us if the stuff never lands with the dealers...except for Meeley Man, who's reasonable with his pricing

That is a sweet DPS. Yes, that's the stuff that I'm talking about. I recently saw that Mike Manley had joined CAF and that he still had DARKHAWK pages. I thought those were permanently with him. I'll have to keep an eye out on eBay.

I can help with the Allred Madman stuff, just let me know what you are looking for.

I visit your site often and have thought about inquiring pieces you don't have listed, but I'm always afraid that it'll be way over my budget. Soon though now that you've opened the door!

Bronty's recent poll struck an epiphany for me. My "golden age" of comic reading was between 1990-1996, half of the decade that most people seem to blow off. I've been collecting OA for over 3 years now, and yet, I virtually having nothing in my collection from that era, at least nothing that I actually read the month it was released. Three years of collecting and I still can't find my focus. Do I want to go 90s nostalgia? All vintage? Very modern? Commissions? You get it. I just realized that it's tough to get quality art from the 90s.

My top three artists/books I'd love to get examples of are Mike Allred's Madman, Sam Kieth's The Maxx, and Kelley Jones "Bat" art. Madman pages are out there, but they don't pop up very often. But Kieth and James Sinclair have held on to every issue of the Maxx except for #1/2. Jones doesn't let go of his artwork either. And if you're a Jeff Smith Bone fan, you're out of luck. I don't see pages from Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise.

I have trouble finding Knightfall pages, pages from 90s Punisher and Wolverine (the Marc Silverstri stuff). Can't find JRJR Punisher War Journal pages. Nor early Sleepwalker or Darkhawk (I'm already "slumming" it at this point!). Forget "Death of Superman" pages from the issue. I can go on.

Yes, there are 90s pages out there, but not with the "historical" quality. Sure, I haven't looked in every nook and cranny nor have I been aggressive trying to pry art from collectors. And certainly you can say, "You can't find the art you're looking for, welcome to the club, buddy!" I just find it odd that for a decade that everyone scoffs at and reviles, you'd think collectors would treat the art as anathema, liquidate it, then use the funds to buy better stuff.

I'm wondering if there are any collectors between the ages of 34-42 who grew up during this reading period are having the same trouble as me, and how you've negotiated your collecting focus?

I just can't wrap my head around conceptual art.

In late February of 2016, I received two commissions-- one a 11"x17, the other a sketch cover--from the same artist. I commissioned the 11x17 in August of 2014 and the sketch cover in March 2015. So yeah, one took 18 months and the other 11 months. I received a third commission from the same artist earlier that took roughly a year.

The cost of these commissions were below market rate and he was doing them as a favor to a new "fan." Since he is a regular of the local con circuit, I'd see him at his table and he'd show me a pencil rough or some progress which kept my impatience at bay. Every once in a while he'd email me a scan of his progress. Nonetheless, there was a point where I just said to myself, "Screw it. If he follows through, great. If he doesn't, oh well. I don't have a lot of money at stake anyway."

The lesson I learned is to simply stay away from at-home commissions. Best to buy ready-made published art or something that was already done before hand. Or get the quality convention sketch while at the convention. But there are some exceptions.

If you're going to get a commissions, I think these are good signs to look for:

1) Artist makes a specific announcement that she or he is accepting commissions in between gigs. This shows a priority, but I would still be flexible with the deadline they give you.

2) An artist announces they have spots open for commissions to be completed before and picked up during a major comic-con they plan to attend.

3) You go through their art rep, if they have one. This way you have another person who holds them accountable.

I've never had an artist that I've commissioned meet a deadline. "I can get it done in a month" likely means six months. What I do ask them is "Can I check in once a month for the progress?" And they are usually okay with that without feeling badgered. And if you're lucky enough to live in a region that holds lots of comic cons like me, you can ask, "Hey, I noticed you're scheduled to appear at such-and-such con. Do you think you can finish the piece by then?" That usually works.

I'm glad this issue was brought up. It can alleviate a lot of frustration for newbies. I think everyone who has commissioned artists has had less-than-ideal experiences. I recently spoke to a guy at a con who told me he stopped buying comic art one year and just started collecting on the commissions from ONE OR TWO years prior, and it was like he never stopped buying art.

And ultimately, I was happy with the quality of the commissions from the aforementioned artist.

Felix,

I've really enjoyed both podcasts...and the accompanying video. I hang on every word.

Nice hint about having Steve on as a guest...but I hope Rich joins in, too. It's funny that Mandel said that he'd buy art by the inches while others bought by the trunk full; At Big Wow, Rich was telling me that he was one of those guys filling his trunk with comic art it was so cheap.

I can speak a little about personalizations. I had a college professor who collected signed first edition books who told me go ahead and get a personalization because it doesn't affect the value. Flash forward 15 years I noticed non-personalized books were ending with higher bids on eBay than personalized books. Now this is for contemporary books. So think about it this way: if a first edition Catcher in the Rye came your way at a great price that was signed and personalized to "Bob," would you turn it down because of that, assuming there was no other one on the market? I wouldn't.

But relating to comic art sketches. I purchased a Bruce Timm sketch off the original owner in which the sketch was personalized. This didn't discourage me from buying it. Plus, I resold it at a premium a few months later. The personalization didn't seem to discourage that buyer either. Why? Because it's Bruce Timm!

Bottomline: If someone wants the piece, I don't think the personalization matters. But if there are a thousand pieces like it out there, I think the personalization might fetch a lower price. But I believe someone in the future will enjoy the piece regardless of personalization.

Hope that gives you some perspective.