ESeffinga

Anybody that’s noticed my past lists in this annual thread, going back for the last several years will join me in saying, we are rooting for you. Truly. My experience has shown me, it’s nice I keep thinking I’m content on a regular basis. And yet the new things still come. Just less planned for, or as unexpected. Like perhaps Gene going back to sports cards, Voord’s shift from comic to movie OA, or me finding myself making more music and by extension, back in guitars again? These days I realize for me, the collector thing just never goes away no matter how much I think it will. “Contentment” for comic OA may kick in (or the chase for it just gets too hard as we are priced out of our areas of interest within it) and so perhaps the gaze just moves to another place where the collector in us can feel more comfortable? I can’t speak for you, or those other guys, but it certainly feels more the case for me. Looking inward, I find the desire for comic art pulls less and less. The desire for new things on the wall has shrunk as the space is all but gone. It’s a shifting of interest and priorities. I still love the medium of comic art. I love to see it. Talk about it. Wonder at an artists’ creativity on a given page. So that excitement is still there. But the overwhelming desire to own a piece of a given book that I don’t already own is less interesting to me as the prices have continued to skyrocket. Not that everything is unaffordable, just that the prices are too excessive for me to justify, and the idea of selling what I have to get something else just feels too tedious and I am content with those pieces. I really am. I’ve been essentially saying some version of this for at least 5 years now. And yet every year I end up with at least some new piece of art. So... yeah. Best of luck with that!

Oh, my concern wasn’t with the site. It’s just that it is a print on demand printer company rather than an actual book printing company. They have a tendency to be hit or miss in print quality. Especially if the work is dark, or in the case of comic art, you want to hang onto subtleties, like shades of off-white. On demand printers essentially take what you send and they hit the print button. No one is doing anything to dial in the files for their actual print equipment, and that can make or break a great printing job 9 times out of 10. But print on demand is super economical, as evidenced by such a book at $150. And as was already explained this particular place also offered sizes not often seen in on demand sites. A non-print on demand company would be charging considerably more for such a print job. Even most short run book printers wouldn’t touch a 1-off book. It’s not worth the effort to them. I’m sure the OP’s files and scans were set up well, and his PDF was ready to go, so it really just came down to how well the color balances came out on this particular facilities equipment. And from what I can tell it looks quite nice. Hopefully that clarifies. I wasn’t impugning this particular site. I’ve not ever heard of them. Just reacting to the general scenario. Looks to me like the OP either lucked out, or these folks are better than most of their ilk. Most are set up to print general family photo albums, vacation books and things of that sort. Get away from that and like I said, it could be a gamble. Some art, maybe more than others. FWIW...

My hang up would be that they are asking you to trust them with the whole wire transfer while pulling a weird move on the payment method. Yeah, the whole Covid thing has up many businesses. Credit cards just aren’t one of them from anything I’ve seen anywhere. So it smells. And when something starts to smell, I get less trustful without a verifiable explanation. Especially given other experiences are concerned. I’ve used plenty of international wire transfers over the years. It certainly makes sense sometimes to do so. But I gotta trust the place first. And from what I’m reading they’re not exactly earning it here. If a bunch of folks I trusted vouched for them, I’d be more inclined to trust them. Has anyone you know stepped up and said they are totally down with these guys?

Yeah.

I liked the first one quite a bit. I have been anxiously awaiting this one since I found out it was to be set around Washington, and they were recreating some regional landmarks of the time. By the time they got to the mall fight, I was no longer anxious to watch it. It really didn’t ever improve. I love the actors. I think the movie wanted to be more than it was, and I wanted it to be more than it was... which in the end, was hot trash. So disappointed.

Hah. Please do with the book. I’d appreciate seeing it. And if nothing else, thanks so much for the unintentional reminder. I just shot Sheila a very long overdo email because of this thread.

I can send you Rick and Sheila’s current contact info if you want it. We used to talk a couple times a year. Tho I think I owe Sheila an email for the holidays. Whoops. Thanks for the reminder!!! I for one don’t have to ask an artist. I work with many artists regularly. It’s thankfully part of my gig. Thought for a long time I would “be one”, but at a certain point realized my talents lay elsewhere. Though I do still like to dabble. You are correct people read left to right. Also the “odd” facing page is the initial impact page, which is why MOST creatives like to put their impact work there. Or to do every other spread, so one spread as drawings or text on both pages, and one spread as a single painting or groups of paintings, depending on layouts. But if there is a dominant piece of work it tends to the right. Your suggestion about Jeff made me curious, so looking though all Jeff’s monographs at hand, sketches, text and other lead in material is generally on the left. Full color splash pages are on the right. In fact flipping through my artist monograph bookcases, I can’t find anything laid out the way you suggest other than an instance once or twice in a book where the orientation might be flipped? Tho to be fair, I didn’t dig out any comic “art” gallery monograph type books. They are mostly in storage. I mostly have books by painters, photographers, sculptors and the like in the bookshelves. Many of them designed by or in conjunction with the artists themselves, and purchased direct from their studios. I’d love to see one laid out as you suggest. It’d be interesting, can you recommend one? I’ll definitely pick it up. Very curious about it. But who cares ultimately. People can and should go with whatever floats their boat. Especially in this case as it’d be their own book, and that’s the beauty of that concept. It can be whatever they like. -e.

Fwiw, one designer to another, I absolutely think you got it the right way around. I was fascinated to hear you were able to get a 1off book printed for only $150 until I saw the source. It came out great regardless. I bet inspires a few people here to do something similar. Kudos!

Technically, in a few spots...

There is no reason Covid necessitates wire transfer. Look at the world economy, largely driven by cards these days from at home shopping. It’s beyond a huge flag. I’d tell them tough tits. Get paid by card like the site states, or find another buyer. Too many ways this goes sideways otherwise. But that’s just me.

I thought he mentioned it was going to a museum of some kind? I swore that’s what I’d read or heard somewhere recently. I didn’t think this was someone’s rich guy “flex”, or that is was an investment attempt at all. Maybe I’m wrong or it was a bad assumption on my part? I’m sure @Nexus will be along shortly to spell it out when he can. All I can say is congrats to him again. Making bank for his artists is no small thing. Especially in the current economy/health situation.

Did it look like this?

I believe you. Tho I asked 4 dudes in my office, all 10-20 years younger than me, who are all hardcore gamers. I figured since they spend a ton of time talking about games In the office, they’d set me straight. Not a one knew who Shigeru was by name. 2 of them knew who Miyazaki was tho. So, not just me. 3 of us! Hahaha 😝

Agreed.

All I’ve got to add is damn, markers are tough!

This one I like. I think the gag is cute, and the staging and pacing are fun. Very nice pickup.

Give up on Marvel and DC? Sometimes I’ll read something that makes me feel that way, but they have their moments. So, Nah. Go straight to manga? As good a place as any for a good story. I just try to read good comics. There are a ton of amazing stories produced all over the world. Many right here in the states this year even. Adrian Tomine’s latest Lonliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist was a great read that came out this year. (As is most everything he does.) Don’t Go Without Me by Rosemary O’Connell was magical. I love being transported like that. I feel inundated by so much choice out there it’s hard to know exactly where to start. And over the history of comics there are a ton of things I’ve just gotten around to reading, or rediscovered after decades hidden in my closet. I pulled and re-read Tardi’s Adele Blanc-Sec books earlier this year. What a delight! The one thing I haven’t ever found is a dearth of good comics to read. I just don’t feel the overwhelming need for them to feature men and women in tights, or with aDc or Marvel logo on the cover I guess. I do love great manga, but for many previously mentioned reasons (Felix has explained it in depth) most of the best manga art is nearly impossible to find. As is a lot of the other great art out there being produced. Sometimes a good story just has to be a good story. And I satisfy myself with owning the book.

Once again, had to Google who that was... If you’d said Hayao Miyazaki, I’d be with you. A name I think most households are at least familiar with. I would think ( I’m probably wrong) most know the work of Shigeru without knowing his name? I’ve seen him mentioned in a documentary on gaming once, and at least recognized his face, once I looked it up. But O still think Miyazaki is more “known”. But that’s more Disney and less Lee.

Yeah, I just find it funny that there is this mental speed bump there. Time will tell if the mono print thing retains financial value, just like it does with comic art and all things. I mean, being real here, many of us don’t think comic original art will ever be “Art” with a cap A in actual art museums (as opposed to the likely probability of it showing up in cultural museums). So in reality comic OA is just another class of collectible, same as comics, or cards or stamps or what have you. Monoprints are potentially just another side of this. I’ve mentioned the Photography art connection before. I won’t belabor it here. It’s not a unique enterprise. And it has a track record of successes, though time will tell their staying power as well. Like a lot of old comic art, a lot of early photography was never made with an eye towards posterity, and a lot of it degrades quickly over time.

My copy of this hardcover has bee in almost every house I've ever lived in. I may not collect traditional 'nostalgia" comic art, but I sure as hell have a bunch of books that this applies to. I remember sending away for my copy way back when. Headsketches and all. Mine was one of the last in the 1000 copy run. Fond memories. Seeing the art is a trip. It's MUUUUUCH darker in the printed cover.

Good thing none of these has value...

It’s a beauty. What is going on with that frame tho? Was the art knocked cockeyed in shipping?

The angle I find fascinating is the old school set that only wants to buy orig comic art hand drawn, but is totally into buying multi-thousand dollar printed books that are available by the thousand. But that one off print of art, oh no... that’s crazy. Buying printed sports cards, or game cards, or whatever. Holofoils, and chromium cards, or limited or rare release deck cards... that’s all ok too. But not a piece purchased direct from the artist or artists’ rep printed as the only one. Nope. The mental gymnastics there, I don’t quite get, personally. I’ve seen people argue their reasoning and I still don’t get it. And I count myself as one that’s done my own wrestling with it. I own one piece by a digital artist that was 4 figures. Not comic art, but the only way to obtain the artist’s work. He has a decade+ track record of sales, and the prices continue to climb on the A+ work. Not unlike any other “collectible”. Maybe that is the line. Making the mental leap back from “original” to “collectible”? And which is it really? Not that there isn’t value in it but whether the object is the art, or a representation of the art. Half-baked thoughts on an early Saturday morning.

Bill Cosby? Good gravy...

That is fabulous (and hilarious!!) Kudos.