OrangeCrush

2 hours ago, F For Fake said:

See, I knew you were the man for the job!

9 hours ago, FSF said:

I appreciate all the responses.  OC, I really like your idea because I always preferred the portfolio form factor for storage purposes but only ran across cheesy and/or flimsy looking options with pages that didn't look all that clear like mylar or apparently this polyglass situation.  Anyhow, it sounds like this is the thing I should be getting???:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RP55PS/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

Yep, either that or again either the Profolio Professional or Profolio Advantage line. The big difference between the multi-ring binder and the Profolio Professional and the Profolio Advantage is the Professional and Advantage already come with all the pages (24 so they each hold 48 prints). You really cant go wrong with any of them. The Multi-ring binder does come with 10 pages initially so basically you can store 20 prints before you have to buy more pages separately if you go that route. 

Here is the link to Di*k Blick and Itoya's Advantage line. 

https://www.dickblick.com/products/itoya-art-profolio-advantage-presentation-books/

I think Itoya might have cancelled the entire Profolio Professional line as all the stores I used to buy them from are no longer carrying them and Di*k Blick only has 14x17 left in stock. That really bums me out at that was my go to portfolio for comic prints. Hope they are working on a replacement. I know they had manufacturing problem as they were getting a lot of creases in the polyglass pages. Had to send 3 into Itoya myself for replacements, but they switched to a different manufacturer and so I thought they had all that worked out. Need to contact them and see whats up!

18 minutes ago, Drummy said:

Saw it last night -- 8/10 for me as a fan of the MCU.  Will definitely see it again in the theater, if only to process the huge amount going on.

LOVED:  90% of the humor -- laughed out loud several times

               Tough moral choices for several characters -- --script really felt like a vise, forcing characters to choose black or white

               Thanos, both as a character and how they handled the special effects

               Dark tone

LIKED:   Actors across the board were effective and in character; despite the many tones of the standalones, the --script did a good job

              Interactions among the characters who were 'more than teammates' (Scarlet Witch-Vision, Peter Quill-Gamora, etc.) and some newer combinations (Thor-Rocket, Thanos-Gamora, Iron Man-Dr. Strange)

              Much of the final scenes

MEH:     Some of the CGI battles and action felt rushed and hard to follow

             Opening scene a little clunky, much like the original Avengers movie

             Not much to do for some characters, but understandable given the movie's scope

That's it for now!  

Dan

6 hours ago, ExNihilo said:

"The villain is the hero of their story"

Thanos was written with a lot of depth and character.  This isn't an Avengers movie...this is a Thanos movie.

He wasn't just written with a lot of depth, but you can also (to an extenet) understand why he is trying to do what he is doing. Just look at the disasters we are facing with our own planet (99% of them can be linked right back to overpopulation). That for me was one of the most ingenious ways Thanos was written and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time given our own challenges we face here on Earth. 

Here is a really good spoiler free review:

http://www.startribune.com/avengers-infinity-war-delivers-major-achievement-in-superhero-storytelling/480852531/

1 hour ago, marvelcollector said:

Then...

  Reveal hidden contents

they blew it.

 

Not even close. At least for the vast majority of MCU fans, this is a grand slam all the way. The 93% rating from the audience on Rottentomatoes is proof of that thus far. Of course, no film ever winds up getting 100% ratings across the board. There are always the select few that see things different. I guess you just might be one of those people. Kinda makes me feel bad for you. Just can't imagine being an MCU fan and not absolutely loving this film because of the reason you stated. 

10 minutes ago, bronze_rules said:

Outstanding!!! Personal favorite super hero movie of all time.

Phenomenal integration of so many characters. Just blown away here.

The only downside I can see is that there may be too much to process for those that didn't do their homework and gather all the back-story yet.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Captain Marvel distress call. Looks like we'll be seeing lots more cosmic on the 2nd.

 

 

This movie is definitely not for someone who is just now jumping into the MCU. This film was crafted from the bottom up for people that have been watching Marvel's films from the very beginning. Can't blame Marvel for that. Anyone who goes to see this without seeing at least some of the previous films....well, those will be the people that wind up disappointed as seeing this film without seeing the others lowers the impact of EVERYTHING in this film by a factor of like 100.

Just saw this tonight and wow!! I had a great audience. 80% of the theatre got up and cheered just at the Marvel logo. One of the things I found interesting is the theme music while the Marvel logo is being presented. Usually it has upbeat music attached to it, but this was VERY different. Very foreboding music this time around. All in all, definitely one of Marvel's best movies to date. They just can do no wrong and EVERYONE stayed through the entire credit scene, which is one of the longest I have sen to date, to see the extra scene Marvel always throws in the end. I really have to give Kevin Fiege and everyone else involved credit. The sheer number of high profile actors and actresses in this is mind blowing. They did a great job jumping back and forth between everything that was going on. It never once, at least for me, felt jumbled or hard to follow. And WOW, what an opening 10 minutes. Wasn't expecting that at all. In fact, in regards to the whole who lives and who dies angle, it went down pretty much the exact opposite of how thought it would. Cant wait for part 2 next may!!!

On 4/23/2018 at 4:57 PM, FSF said:

For those of you who buy and store comic art prints (primarily of the 11 x 17 variety), what are the various common methods of storing them? 

I was thinking about Ultra Pro top loaders but they don't appear to be archival quality (not sure).

I would prefer to order mylar from E. Gerber but they have two different types (flaps and no flaps) and I'm confused. I'd love to see a pic of either if anyone has one

Any other common methods to consider?  

Portfolio's are the only way to go for me and I usually use Itoya as their Polyglass pages are by FAR some of the best pages on the market. Just crystal clear and a big difference from Itoya's standard quality pages. After you get used to the Polyglass pages, looking at artwork in Itoya's standard pages is like looking at artwork through a foggy window. I always went with Itoya's Profolio Professional line as I liked the padded cover. Unfortunately they discontinued the 13x19 size with that line, which is the size most of the prints I buy are. So the best option for Itoya at this point, at least for 13x19 prints, is their multi ring binder as it comes in 13x19 and you can buy additional 13x19 Polyglass pages separately. The one nice thing about Itoya, regardless of what model portfolio you buy is they are all archival and all come with acid free black backing paper with the pages. 

Here is the link to the multi rIng binder

http://www.artprofolio.com/AP_Multi-Ring.htm

And here is the link to the Polyglass pages you can buy separately. 

http://www.artprofolio.com/Art_Profolio_PolyGlass.htm

A good place to buy these is Di*k Blick. They usually stock most of Itoya's portfolio's. Since your primary collecting 11x17 prints, Itoya's Profolio Profsssional line is what I would recommend or Itoya's Profolio Advantage line if you don't mind a hard cover over a soft padded one like Professional line. Both lines use Itoya's Polyglass pages, which again is an absolute must IMO. Have never been a fan of top loaders for prints. I like to be able to look at my prints like I am reading a big art book.

Here is a link to Itoya's Advantage line:

http://www.artprofolio.com/Art_profolio_Advantage.htm

On 4/23/2018 at 7:36 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Hopefully you wont take offence here, I don't know who she is, but I can see why you were inspired and, speaking as an artist, she certainly makes me want to get my pen out. 

LOL, no offence taken. One of the positive aspects of being a photographer is its a very easy way to meet beautiful women. Of course, I'm married now so those days have come and gone!! Best way not to be unfaithful is not to put yourself in situations that test your resolve. So I always have an assistant or two around when I do these kinds of shoots. 

On 4/24/2018 at 9:29 AM, F For Fake said:

Paging @OrangeCrush

Whats up? Someone mention prints, lol. 

5 hours ago, speedcake said:

That Vampirella 11  

Mine came today. I'm in love.

Yeah and I still have my CGC Signature Series version coming as well. Just got an email saying they were expecting them to ship in the next couple of weeks. Vamp and Sonja are Parrillo's bread and butter. The man absolutely loves drawing those characters and I love that he loves drawing those characters as they happen to be 2 of my personal favorites. You won't get any complaints out of me about a new Vampirella or Sonja cover from Parrillo. Keep em coming!!

Just did some more quick and dirty copy work today to post up on Facebook so I figured I would post up in here as well. 

The Duomo, Florence Italy.

Downtown Detroit, MI.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI.

I don't do portrait or fashion type photography very often, but every once in awhile I get inspired to give it a try. 

Have a bunch of orders coming including a couple big ones, but I have only received a couple so far so here ya go! Got a great deal on that 3 comic set with Wonder Woman and Harley. Just $9.99 a set. 

On 4/15/2018 at 8:31 AM, oakman29 said:

Did you paint this piece? 

I am a bit of an artist myself,  I really have only ventured into charcoal. 

This piece talks to me. I interpret it as all the color\life around the world, and mom is struggling to keep it together embracing her child ,alone , in spite  of her pain.

Yeah, I did half of it then kind of got pulled away and it sat there for awhile unfinished. I finally broke down a couple months back and finished it up. I don't do as much painting as I would like as I tend to spend most of my art time on photography and wire tree's. Charcoal is one of my favorite mediums and one of the most under appreciated IMO. Not many artists that I follow do a lot of charcoal work. I would love to see some of your work if you get a chance to post it up. 

And I appreciate the compliment on the piece. Its always nice when people appreciate your artwork. 

Just now, bababooey said:

If informing other collectors of poor behaviour is the goal then do it AFTER you're dissatisfied, the buyer is not there yet he's negotiating and witholding the name from us now    I see that as using a thread on the boards as leverage to persuade the seller to meet your expectations/demands, it doesn't look good.  I'm not even sure if the buyer realizes how it looks, he doesn't seem unreasonable that's why I two cented it 

Thats exactly what I was suggesting. If you wind up having a bad purchasing experience and in the end the sellers wind up refusing to correct the situation, than using the internet to let people know about that issue is a good move in my book as not only does it warn potential customers of the integrity of that particular establishment, but it also shows the establishment that not rectifying a simply problem that likely would only amount to a small amount of money could impact both thier overall reputation and overall sales. Is denying a retrun really worth that risk? Its not in my opinion. As I have stated many times on many different forums like this, I deem the most important aspect of any company to be thier customer service. Its why companies like Apple and Amazon are at the top of my list of favorite companies as they have OUTSTANDING customer service. And I also see no problem in warning the establishment before hand that you intend to take such actions if the problem isn't properly resolved. 

While I have never met Brittany, I do know what its like to be hit hard with very expensive medical problems. So a big tip of the hat for starting this whole thing to help raise some money. And even tho I don't know her, I wish her a complete and speedy recovery!!

On 4/4/2018 at 6:07 PM, Bird said:

If you are positive that you could not have caused the damage then return the items. If you paid by credit card or paypal then do refute the charge and return the items.

Don't worry about blame, there is no winning there. Focus on the fact that you did not get what you paid for and proceed from there.

 

This right here. In the 25+ years I have been using credit cards I have had to refute charges at least 10-15 times over those years and I won each and every case. Just like buyers have the advantage over sellers on eBay, its the same with credit cards. They will side with the credit card holder 99.9% of the time if its a legitimate issue that can't be proven to be caused by the buyer. Your a customer of the credit card company and they want to keep their customers happy and its not like these stores are suddenly going to start refusing to accept credit cards as a result of a credit card company refunding a purchase. 

Just now, bababooey said:

While the damage is unfortunate I think anyone purchasing these pre-orders should have a fairly clear idea when entering into an agreement what the merchant's policy is in the event of damage during shipping, grade achieved etc...  I would think most of these vendors are set in their ways on how to address this due to their experiences with post-sale price nibbling from buyers - the best way to deal with the "value increased/value decreased" dynamic on pre-orders is to have one way of doing it, that may be an "all or nothing" return policy.

While I can understand not appreciating their accusation on the damages, threatening to "out them" if you aren't satisfied with the resolution isn't a great look either.  By all means you should have gotten what you paid for but if you would have returned it for full credit IF you could replace it cheaper on ebay then the store shouldn't be in a no-win situation either way.

I'm going to assume you haven't done much business with this seller and I bet if you dropped the threat to out them here and asked for a nominal credit on your next order you'd probably have better results. 

Gotta disagree on this one. If I have a terrible customer experience, I think passing that info along is just doing a service to fellow collectors. It might make someone think twice about buying from them in the future. Its really no different than the threads on the board that out the bad eBay sellers. I know if I was in the situation and the sellers were unwilling to budge, I would tell the seller that not only am I going to refute the charges (if paid by credit card or Paypal) and that I would post my negative experience on all of the comic forums I visit. 

10 hours ago, Key Largo Comics said:

Pickups:

Very nice pick ups!!!

10 hours ago, Gaard said:

re: Wonder Woman #37

I've never been a big DC guy ... has Darkseid's biceps always been bigger than his head?

 

Cool books though.

Yeah, looks like he's been doing some steroid injections into those arms, lol. 

As for this Wonder Woman run, Jenny Frison's covers are EASILY some of my all time favorite Wonder Woman covers. Just beautiful renditions of exactly how I personally envision Wonder Woman. Frison has really come into her own these last couple of years. I imagine I will buy many of those covers like I do many of Parrillo's covers. It doesn't matter how many copies I already own, if I find a good deal on another copy, I just keep buying them. That's one of my biggest weaknesses with comic collecting in general. 

39 minutes ago, GeneticNinja said:

I could swear I've seen that Michael Turner Danger Girl as a print before. A friend of mine has some Turner stuff. Perhaps I saw it there. I don't know why J Scott Campbell would have any pull in releasing it directly. But there is a Danger Girl Gallery comic coming out soon which will have art from a bunch of artists. This might be the year for another print edition if it didn't come out officially before.

 

I need to read Witchblade again. I think that might be Michael Turner's best work. I recall borrowing Fathom from that friend and not liking it that much. I have the two Witchblade Tomb Raider comics which were pretty good until the Top Cow Tomb Raider series came out.

 

Anyone have any Marvel movie prints? I haven't seen a good consistent series of prints for Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, etc.

No, if you saw it as a print than it was a homemade one taken from a picture off the internet. I know with 100% certainty, coming from both Aspen and Campbell, that Turner's Danger Girl image has never been made into a print. And the reason its up to Campbell is because Campbell owns all of the rights to Danger Girl. I asked Frank Mastromauro directly if they could make that print and he said that it was 100% in Campbell's court as he owns the rights and they can't make it into a print without his ok. And based off the emails I have had with Campbell, he pretty much implies the same thing. 

Witchblade is without question Turner's best work. As great of an artist as Turner was, his storytelling skills were really mediocre at best. I still enjoyed reading Fathom, Soulfire, etc, but they were not at the level of Witchblade when he was involved. I am actually around the 99% complete mark for my Witchblade comic collection, my Michael Turner comic collection, and my signed Michael Turner collection. I am hoping to complete all 3 by the end of this year. There are a couple signed Turner comics that are pretty hard to come by, but I am keeping an eye on eBay for them. 

And I don't own any Marvel movie prints, but I have wanted to buy quite a few I have come across as there are quite a few quality screen prints out there for Marvels movies. For one reason or another, I just haven't gotten around to buying any yet and I stress yet as I know its only a matter of time before I stat buying some of those up. I wouldn't mind some quality 13x19 prints for Tony Daniel's Tomb Raider work either. Top Cow is really losing a lot of potential income on the print side as they have the rights to a LOT of amazing work and prints have become FAR more popular the last few years. If I was in charge at Top Cow, I would be releasing a LOT of that work as limited edition prints. Unfortunately, whoever is in charge right now just doesn't seem to agree.

Came home yesterday to find a huge stack of boxes on my doorstep. Love days like those when you know its all comic related. Its like Christmas any time of the year. I finally received my Wonder Woman comics from Scotts, received a bunch of signed comics off of eBay, and I received my virgin Parillo comics, although the seller shorted me one. He only sent 4 instead of 5, but thankfully with the weight of the package being printed on the box, it should be very easy to prove that there were only 4 and not 5. Actually, all 5 of the PArrillo virgin comics were there.

After getting in touch with the seller for the virgin Parrillo variants, he told me he ran out of bags and boards ad had to put 2 book in 1 bag. I doull chckd and he was right. They were lined up so perfectly, I didn't even notice until I inspected them again. So all good on that Parrillo front! All 5 copies delivered. 

I'll post some more up later on so as not to take up too much space with just a single post. 

7 hours ago, SpeedforceKJ said:

Trying to find a frame for this but 13x19 is rather difficult to come across but I love this Turner print. 

 

I love all Turners prints and 13x19 is BY FAR my favorite print size, at least for prints I plan to put into portfolios. Nothing like looking through a quality 13x19 portfolio full of amazing artwork! His DC work is some of my personal favorites. I really wish Top Cow would get on the ball and release a lot of his Top Cow work as limited edition prints. They did release a few with the recent Witchblade commemorative thing, but they were 11x17 and I am just not a big fan of 11x17 prints as once you include the white border, which is an absolute must in my book (I hate full bleed prints or print with tiny white borders), your left with a pretty small image. Thats what makes 13x19 my favorite size. Its big enough to have a roughly 1" white border without making the artwork to small and its small enough to comfortably view 13x19 portfolio's while kicking back on the couch. That gets a bit rough when you move up to 18x24. 

Here are a couple of images I would love to see Top Cow bring to market. 

And I have emailed J Scott Campbell regarding releasing Turners Danger Girl piece at least 10 times now. Its become a yearly thing from me. His last reply was "Your certainly a tenacious collector, lol". I wont give up until he brings it to market. Its one of my favorite pieces by Turner an Campbell should release it just to honor Turner. 

As for you having a hard time finding a 13x19 frame, you should rally consider matting it. Not only will it look a million times nicer, it will also be much easer to find frames depending on the size matte board you use. 

17 hours ago, www.alexgross.com said:

congratulations! theres no better thrill than selling an expensive painting. except perhaps buying the comics you want with the money you got!  who's your art rep? 

Much appreciated! I was with Wall Productions for a number of years, but recently switched over to Elizabeth Poje´ + Associates. I have a really good friend who I went to art school with who wound up getting a job with Elizabeth Poje so it just seemed like the right thing to do. 

On 3/10/2018 at 11:18 AM, the blob said:

Ok, he really loves prints, he's excited about them. Maybe rent part of genesis's store out as a print gallery? Schlepping in from michigan would be a pain, but southwest had some really cheap fares to long island's macarthur airport last i looked.

Actually, I have enough frequent flyer miles to fly back and forth like 30+ times, probably even more. Unfortunately, my interest is in collecting prints, not selling them or showcasing them in other people's stores. I even started a separate thread just for print collecting!!! As for the people that continue (again and again and again) to bring up the hijacking of threads topic, which ironically does nothing but prolong the very thing they are complaining about, I will once again state plainly that when someone asks me a question, I answer it. Its as simple as that and I honestly couldn't care less whether they like it or not or wether they deem it hijacking a thread or not. And I will continue to answer questions posed directly to me, wether it be in this thread or any other thread for that matter. My advice to anyone that can't handle that fact is to use that ignore button. Its what its meant for. I certainly won't lose any sleep not having to listen to those people bit*ing and moaning anymore. In fact, I think the use of the ignore button should be used FAR more often. It separates people who either don't like each other, don't like the posts that people make, etc, and ultimately it makes for a much better forum all the way around. 

10 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Guys, please take this somewhere else. Maybe a PM. The rest of us don't care. I would hate to see this thread pulled because of a childish little rant. OK?, Pretty Please?  

I agree 10000%. I don't even care and the posts are aimed at me. Posts like those should just be deleted by mods right from the get go. So I'll add a pretty please on top of your pretty please!!!

8 hours ago, F For Fake said:

It may not have been explicitly stated, but you also have to "read the room", and note the folks participating in the conversation, especially the person who started the conversation. 

Considering those posts were made after I was long gone and no longer even reading the thread...well. that would be a really neat trick. If you can teach me how to read the posts in a particular thread when I'm no longer even in that thread...well, again that would be a really neat trick so I am all ears. Personally, I just think its 1000 times easier to actually state exactly what it is your talking about as opposed to being incredibly vague. That way there would be no confusion and it would ultimately solve any problems before they are even started, but I guess that is just too easy for some people. 

And considering I am still relatively new here, to expect me to know exactly what kind of comics people are referring to just based on thier username is really really PUSHING It. Sorry, but as much as I enjoy this forum, I do not go around memorizing what each member on this board focuses on in regards to collecting. I am sure as months and years go by I will learn what comic's particular users are interested in just based on thier posting history, but to expect me to do that when i have only been posting for a couple months is really laughable at best.  

29 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

WTTB!

 

Wow, yet another sarcastic comment from ygogloak aimed at me. Whats the world coming too?

21 hours ago, shadroch said:

Came into an unexpected windfall. It was actually expected but the size of it was a shock. I was already well prepared for retirement and don't have any immediate needs or even wants. My current thoughts are to use some of it buy 12-20 CGC books, most likely SA Marvels but if a classic GA cover came along, I might go for it.  Suggestions for either individual candidates or an entire portfolio are most welcome. Portfolios should have at least eight, and less than 25 books.  Might consider some artwork.

 

If I came across a lot of money like that, I would defnitely spend it on original artwork. I expect to see a correction in the market in the next few years, especially with slabbed comics, variants, and modern comics, but you can never go wrong with original art. Over the last 25-30 years, original art has pretty much beaten everything in regards to return on investment.