chico_suave_58

There was a song a couple of decades ago called Rico, Suave...I just changed the Rico to Chico. 58 was my number when I was an athlete in college.

Mark is a quality dealer; I’ve bought a few items from him throughout the years...Great communication, he represents his artists well.

Great movie...9/10 for me. This may sound a bit over the top, but I felt like I was watching a contemporary version of the first Superman. The entire movie was magical and I was especially entertained with the final battle scene. Parents should be advised that there are horror-like scenes that can scare kiddos.

On your first random thought, I too thought that the AH panel pages went very high. When this was previewed, I was thinking that this would be a cost-effective way to add an AH WW to my collection (panel pages from 52, rather than WW proper, 7k max). Either AH has a rabid following or it could be as simple as AH + WW + Origin Story = straight cash homie. (FWIW, I believe that the Alex Ross WW portrait was better bought than the AH panel pages.) On your second random thought, that Cho cover was soft, but Harley on a bicycle wouldn’t be my first choice if I were to add a Cho art piece to the collection. Also, Harley’s hip & leg seems more Chun-Li (of the Street Fighter game) than the typical svelte Harley. Perhaps Cho’s art is softening, but I’m thinking this isn’t the right piece to confirm the trend. On your fourth random comment, Alex Ross’ original seven in a circular pattern = 26k? Why not...

Saw the movie last night. It was impressive & entertaining. It had visuals of Avatar, the fast paced action of John Wick & the story-telling of a Star Wars flick (with a little heart-tugging sprinkled throughout). I would highly recommend it...well worth the ticket price.

I think art prints serve a couple of different purposes for the informed buyer. First, it is an additional revenue stream for the artist (1:200 at $100 per less printing costs is a nice chunk of change). Second, it allows budget-constrained collectors to participate in this increasingly expensive hobby (e.g. OA piece at $10k vs 1:200 print at $100). This can be analogous to the fine art realm where the artist has sanctioned art prints/multiples of very popular pieces (and are clearly signed & numbered). Not meaning to plug Heritage, but as an example, HA have a print/multiple auction ending later this month. My $0.02...

The trailer is out...it looks exciting.

FWIW, there was a posting in the marketplace by Mikel Janin’s art rep selling the hand drawn cover by Mikel (who I believe works primarily on digital)...see here. Mikel’s work on the cover is stunning, but given the subject matter depicted & the ultimate story result, I would be more than a little ticked about it. There are other covers that reference the same subject. For the work that was associated, but could standalone (e.g. Jim Lee cover), I wouldn’t upset at all. Personally, I don’t have a dog in the hunt.

Bump

I finally had the chance to update my CAF with a couple of recent (and some not-so-recent) purchases. My collection is beginning to cook with dash of Superman, a pinch of Batman and some spilled wine. Enjoy!

The title says it all. The only thing I could find via internet sleuthing is that a previous owner used to have it on CAF. If you own this piece and are interested in selling it, PM me to see if we can get a deal done. Everyone else, if you can point me in the right direction, I really would appreciate it. -Carlo

Allen, There was an active post a couple of years back about a dealer engaging other bidders to bid on his behalf if a piece didn’t sell for a pre-determined amount. If one of the said bidders were to win the auction, then the dealer would arrange a trade of other piece(s) in exchange for the auctioned piece. Whether this is morally right is personal, but this is not too dissimilar from the fine art world where dealers will engage a similar tactic on their own represented artists to ensure the value of their artists’ work maintains a certain level. Like it or not, this is probably still going on b/c in the current Comiclink auction I did extensive research on an artist and the recently realized auction results for his covers & covers for a particular series. I was prepared to pay 3x for an example of this series by the said artist (which is owned and consigned by a dealer). Early on, I saw that the bid was incrementally bid up until it reached my max & it just stayed there for most of the auction. Maybe everyone that was interested had the same calculus as I did, but it still raises doubt given this dealer dynamic. As a collector, we either have to accept this dynamic in the secondary market or strictly purchase from the primary market (new art) which may or may not align with your collecting goals.

Judging from the responses, I’m definitely in the minority. None of the art in my collection currently has text & I feel that any future art additions have to stand on their own artistic merits. That being said, I can be convinced to add a piece with text if the art piece itself fits well within my collection.

I've only been collecting art for a few years, but I did happen to score one piece on CAF that was NFS. I reached out to the owner of the piece (which was a single page splash) and offered him 2x of what I paid for a DPS by the same artist (which I bought directly from the artist). At the time, the owner of the piece said that he received another indication of interest that was 50% higher than my offer (i.e. 3x of what I paid for the DPS), but went on to say that he was inclined to keep the piece. About a week or so later, I sent the owner a strong offer of 5x of what I paid for the DPS (I really wanted the piece)...that was enough for the owner to part with piece. Did I overpay? Maybe, but the piece is hanging on my office wall & I love how it complements the other pieces in my collection. On another piece (which was a cover that was NFS), I did my research and found that covers for this particular artist were averaging ~1,250 (with a very tight stdev) at very recent auctions. I offered the owner a 40% premium to the auction average...it was a fair offer, but nothing too crazy b/c I was looking to gauge interest. He cordially declined, but in my response, I indicated that I would follow-up in few months. In my subsequent follow-up, I upped my offer to just over 2x of the auction average...once again, he cordially declined. Basically, what I've learned is that if the piece is truly NFS, you'd better go big or go home.

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, but I wanted to ping the experts for their thoughts on digital edits of original art that was physically drawn in penciled/inked, but then, after scanning for coloring, was digitally altered. As an example, the tie in the attached art was moved digitally for final publication. Personally, I like the way the tie hangs on the original art, but the artist felt the need to modify the tie’s position after coloring (presumably because the “S” was shown too perfectly). In this case, no paste up exists other than the published piece differs from the OA. (BTW, I had seen the published piece first & then I was shown the OA before I committed to buy.)