Michael Browning

Today's dollar box finds.

Nice! I have looked and looked for the Secret City Saga foil editions for years and have never found any. I saw a Red Foil variant in a 50 cent box back in 2001 and didn't pick it up because I was so busy looking at everything, I forgot to get it. The Zorro cover is absolutely one of the best covers the company ever published (and all their covers were usually spectacular).

I was surprised to see the listing of all the comics Topps published and realizing that X-Files ran the longest, with the Xena serieses (combined) were a close second. These all started when the comic boom happened (caused by VALIANT's arrival on the scene and speculator influx) and there were some of the best writers and artists in comics working there. Unfortunately, most of the Topps stuff was licensed and of no interest to me at the time. Zorro was my favorite series from Topps (along with Dracula vs Zorro), but I also loved The Lone Ranger and Tonto miniseries by Joe R Lansdale and Tim Truman. In fact, I liked it so much, I got the graphic album cover art.

October 5 will make 13 years and five months. We were supposed to go together to Free Comic Book Day in Pikeville, Ky., and they found him dead the day before. The last time I saw him was the Wednesday before he died and, in an unexpected show of affection, he hugged me and said so softly “I love you, brother.” I pushed him away and laughed and said “What are you doing? I’m going to see you Saturday.” Those were the last words we said to each other.

I had a brother who wasn't a comic book fan, but my dad wouldn't buy me a comic book back in the late-1970s and early-1980s without buying my brother a comic book, too. My mother would write my name in the logo and his name, Steven, in the logo of his comic, even if they weren't the same, so that I wouldn't try to claim his as my own. My brother was 10 years older than me and we hardly had anything in common, but, occasionally, he'd let me come into his room and read his comics. One of the comics he had that I wanted so badly was Man From Atlantis #2. I only knew about Man From Atlantis because my mom and I watched it on TV. But, I wanted that comic book. Several years later, my brother gave me the majority of his comics. Because of the age difference and some things that took us down different roads, we weren't terribly close until the last year of his life. After he passed away, those comics he gave me became very important to me. I have tried and tried to chase down a few pieces of art from the comics he gave me. Today, I got the one piece I have chased for years: the Ernie Chan and Marie Severin cover art to Man From Atlantis #2. This piece means so much to me and I am so thankful to Mike Burkey for working with me on payments and for sending it to me early. Mike Burkey is not only the best comic art dealer in the hobby -- he is also an even greater guy and I am so appreciative of the effort he made to make sure I got this cherished piece of art. https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1580252

The sad face is because I strongly disagree and there’s not a face for that one. i don’t care who Neal Adams helped in the past. He’s only trying to help himself with this move. if you want to be so doggone righteous and help all these poor, starving artists, then donate some money to them. or, better yet, buy the Batman 251 cover and give It back to Neal.

Best dollar box find in awhile, for me. I was actually leaving the store and was standing at a table of dollar comics I’d already flipped through. My arm brushed over a ziplock bag in the box and revealed the top of the cover. I looked at it on a whim and it was a Fine copy of GI Joe 155 with the subscription card still inside. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these in the wild and I’ve never found one so cheap.

I've been collecting comic art for 20 years now and continue to buy comics each week from several local shops. The truth of the matter is that most comic dealers don't have a clue what comic art is. They don't even understand how the process works and they think everything I bring in is either a print or that it really needs to be colored. I can take pages and covers into shops where I shop and I show them to the dealers and they generally think the art is a print. A limited edition print. They always ask "Wouldn't you rather have it colored?" "What number is it? 1-of-20 or 1-of-5?" "Would it have cost you more to have gotten a color print?" "I'd like to have a print like that." So, it's not surprising that this happened. I'm sure that dealers all over the country have original art that they have been given or bought that they dig out and sell all the time. I was in a comic shop in Pikeville, Ky., buying comics at the counter when I looked over at the wall and found the cover to Creepy #44, which I bought for a reasonable price. It had been brought in in a stack of prints and sold as one lot to the shop. It was the real deal, though. Locally, last year, a high school girl found five pieces of original art at a flea market for $5 a page. Turns out they were all Mike Gustovich splashes and a cover and they all ended up on a dealer's web site for $700-$1400 each and I believe they all sold.

Yep, it’s down, again.

Around 2003-2006, I used to buy around $150 a week in new comics from a single shop that I was very loyal to and from which I had been buying for more than a decade. At the same time, I had been selling comics on eBay to fund additional purchases of comics. My local comic shop owner got in a comic that was immediately valuable because it had an error in it and was recalled. I had asked her to put that one on hold for me and she explained the recall and that she would have to charge me more than cover because copies were already selling for higher prices online, the day of its release. I told her that was fine and that I was going to drive over and pick up my comics that day. It was more than an hour drive to her shop, so I’d call to make sure the new comics had arrived on time before I left. It was also the week that the new Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide was released, so I was excited to get the guide and the error comic. On the way, she called me back and said she had thought about it and wasn’t going to sell me the comic because all I was going to do was resell it on eBay for more money and that she figured “why shouldn’t she make all that money, instead.” I told her I was already on my way and she said I could pick up the rest of my new comics, but not the issue I had called and requested. She then proceeded to tell me how offended she was that I’d buy comics from her and then was reselling them online. “Why should I sell to you so you can make all that money when I can just keep them and sell them, myself,” she asked me. I told her that I hated she felt that way and that she could keep all the comics I had in my pull file. I didn’t go back in her shop for 10 years and bought my comics from the other shop down the street from her. When I went back into the shop a decade later, she still had that error copy which was now basically worth about cover price. All that fuss - and the loss of a nearly 10-year-regular customer - because she hated the fact that I was buying and reselling comics and making a little cash for myself. It never made sense to me, because 85%-90% of the money I was making off of reselling comics online went straight back into HER shop the very next week when I’d buy extra new comics and back issues - and she knew that.

My only Hsu - Beavis and Butthead #4 pg 30 featuring She-Hulk and Titania.

Crystar #1 by Bob Larkin framed and on my wall. My favorite painted cover. More beautiful in person than on the comic. Thanks to Bob Larkin for selling this one to me.

Can you post a list of art you own so that we know what art you might be trimming or altering?

Hmmmm... I’m not sure. I know that I bought art from Lewis Wayne Galleries about 15 years ago. Didn’t know it was a pseudonym at all, but it sure could be.

That Wayne is a friend of mine and lives close by. He owned a coal mine (or was in the coal business), but I know that we used the same comic shop for more than 20 years and I never knew of him owning one. Maybe Lewis Wayne?

I read some of the Byrne UXM run as my dad bought whatever was on the spinner rack at the time, so I got issues 112, 119 and 133 - and that was it. I probably could afford a page from one of those, but I don’t want to spend that kind of cash on a page and I have accepted that those have passed me by. But, those 2nd run Cockrums and Paul Smiths are still within range for me and I’m content with buying those. I realize all too well that stuff I didn’t buy a few years ago is now 3x what I would have paid then. I passed up a Cockrum 2nd run splash about a decade ago for $1500 and now it’d be 10x that, I’m sure. I have sunk higher amounts than I want to into pieces over the last couple of years because there’s no way I’m going to be able to afford them in two or three years down the line.

I am shocked that every answer to this question isn’t a hardcore NO. You should never alter art in any way. This is another of those no-brainer questions and I’m completely shocked and saddened that so many people are like “yeah, I’ve done it because I’m too cheap to buy a bigger frame/portfolio.” What?!?

I was ready to put an $8k bid on it until I found out a friend of mine wanted it (he was the winner, too), so I didn’t even bid. The prices on these pages are going to continue to rise higher and higher as more collectors deal with the fact that first run Cockrum and Byrne UXM are now almost unaffordable. Plus, look at the rising prices of 1980s art - if we don’t buy it now at these prices, it may be the next art that’s out of reach.

I knew that PMS art is rare and, between what Gary has/had and what PMS has, that very few pieces ever come up for sale, but I haven't seen too many pages like that one go up for sale and go for so high. Albert was selling pieces earlier this year for $4000 each and I thought they were much better than the page that sold on HA. Paul Smith's run on UXM is fondly remembered by comic fans who grew up in the 1980s, so I guess these pages will probably continue to go higher and higher in price with each one sold.

Is this now the norm for Paul Smith Uncanny X-Men pages: https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/panel-pages/paul-smith-and-bob-wiacek-x-men-168-page-11-original-art-marvel-1983-/a/121929-15207.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-ThisAuction-120115 $5040 for a Kitty Pryde page... I was watching and actually wanted to buy it - until it started climbing past $2500. I figured it’d go for half what it did. Are PMS pages selling that high now? Congrats to the seller!

My very first trade was with an Australian collector and I trusted him and it paid off. That was 20 years ago and I wouldn't do that again (not meaning him, just with anyone overseas). It's not that I don't trust the other collector, it's that I don't trust the agents who handle the art while it's in transit. But, I trade with dealers and well-known collectors quite frequently and have always had great results. I enjoy a good trade. The back and forth is fun and it's even more fun when a good deal comes together on both ends.

And, growing up, Neal Adams could draw anything and it would be my favorite. I bought many back issues with Neal Adams covers that had truly awful interiors, but, I didn’t care. The Neal Adams cover made it all good.

Texeira Jonah Hex/Hex Budiansky Ghost Rider Trimpe GI Joe Springer Dazzler Paul Smith Uncanny X-Men Gene Day Master of Kung Fu Starlin Warlock/Captain Marvel/Dreadstar DeCarlo Betty and Veronica/Cheryl Blossom 1980’s Infantino Flash Infantino Star Wars Bissette/Totleben Swamp Thing Byrne Fantastic Four Simonson Thor Miller DD Golden Micronauts Sal Buscema ROM Lapham Harbinger McDonnell Iron Man Banks Green Lantern Buscema Conan Andru Spider-Man Nolan Batman Totleben Miracleman Truog Animal Man Lightle Doom Patrol

It’s Pollard. Here’s what Bob said: “No. I got sick and couldn’t do more than the first 5 or 6 pages, as I recall.”

I’ve reached out to Bob to see if he penciled this. I’ll update when I hear back from him.