Stalzer2002

This isn't something that I collect, but I do have a Juanjo Guarnido Blacksad in my Blacksad: Amarillo collection.

Nice. As a budget collector myself, this is something I'm looking forward to.

You can get some very nice George Perez and Gene Colan pages for only a few hundred dollars.

I've been contacted by Scott Dunbier in the past (through CAF Mail) based on scans I had posted in my gallery.

 

If you had something you thought he might be interested in including, you could contact him through his own CAF

 

Not sure I have anything he'd be interested in, unless he was doing a Colan Daredevil book (which would be awesome!). I was mostly curious about how much effort goes into finding the OA, or if books/artists are chosen on the precondition that Scott Dunbier already knows where most of the art is or can easily find it. It seems like for many artists, whose work has been sold for years and was once not terribly valuable, it would be hard to locate a majority of the pages of a run of issues. When I search CAF for pages from a particular issue, I often don't find much.

Well, I for one would love any kind of Colan book, so you might wanna get on that.

Here's an interesting article where Scott talks about putting together the New Gods book.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/books/idws-scott-dunbier-champions-comics-artistry-with-heroic-precision/#/0

I guess if you develop relationships with the right people, whether it is artists who kept their original art (like Simonson) or dealers/collectors who have spent years tracking down work by a particular artists (like Mike Burkey and early Spider-Man), anything is possible. There's probably a lot of classic comic art that's sitting in someone's basement, basically lost. But with prices in the five or even six figures, the stuff that is out there has probably filtered down to a relatively small number of people.

Excuse the ignorance of this question, but does IDW only make artist's editions when they can locate most of the original art?

They used to, but last year they started a line called "Artifact Editions," which include whatever pages they could get their hands on from a particular run instead of complete issues. The Watchmen and the upcoming John Romita Spider-Man twice-up and Frank Miller Daredevil books are all Artifact Editions.

Thanks guys!

 

I have some nice convention sketches and existing pieces I need to post as soon as the scanner is hooked up.

 

Some questions if you don't mind:

 

* I've contacted a few artists to see if they were taking Commissions or could put my name on a wait-list. A few of them replied pretty quickly and seemed game, but then when I tried to send payment...crickets.

 

Do people generally tell you if they don't like your request, or is it more of a passive-aggressive thing? I have a budget I need to stick to, so if someone doesn't respond at all, I can assume that maybe they will get back to me weeks or months from now if they have an opening. But if someone says "Yeah, sure!" and then weeks go by without hearing another peep, how long do you stay committed to them before moving on to someone else?

 

I suppose it's better to have radio silence before I send payment than afterwards, but I'm not sure how many follow-ups to make before throwing in the towel.

 

 

* What I like about this forum is that people seem cordial and genuinely willing to help one another. Which is great, because it feels like this is a hobby of Secrets.

 

Is it easier to network once you have some pieces in your collection to show, as proof you have fun concepts or are easy to work with, whereas people just starting out might have more trouble? Does it help having people to vouch for you?

 

 

* And just curious, do you all have "If ______ is there, ask for _____" lists you bring to conventions? I still kick myself over opportunities I lost either because I didn't know what to ask for, or because I didn't associate a person's name with their work.

I've never had a request turned down, but there are some artists who won't do certain things, such as personal likenesses. I'd imagine that if someone isn't interested in doing a piece, they'd just say so. If you're not hearing back, it's probably because they're busy or forgot to respond.

I definitely agree that you should do some research before contacting an artist. Most artists are good people, but there are a few bad actors out there.

I always go into cons with a plan. Actually, once I decide what artists I want to get pieces from, I contact them ahead of time. At a minimum, it pays to know what their rates are before the show. But if they're taking a pre-order lists, you can get some very nice, detailed commissions.

Coollines has pages from Thunderbolts 12 by Mark Bagley with dialogue on the art.

http://www.coollinesartwork.com/featured.asp?Piece=297522

Yet none of Mike Burkey's Bagley Thunderbolts pages have dialogue, including several from the very same issue.

http://www.romitaman.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=15441&ArtistId=970