gumbydarnit

The GreatEscape sometimes hires me and a couple more collectors out as a sidelines assistants to block his trade partner from seeing what all is on his play chart:

Hey watch a "then" and "now" episode of antiques roadshow and notice how many down arrows there are. The last one I watched pottery, furniture, jewelry you name it, they were down about 40-60%. This episode was shot in 2007 and the "now" values were 2020. When I see those shows, it makes me wonder about "the more you bid the more it's worth" mentally of our hobby. Like JJ says, if it's life changing money and you're considering selling down the road perhaps it is time to start thinning the herd while we are still at all time highs. Me, I'm keeping it to the end : ) It brings me too much joy, more so than numbers in a bank account.

I was slow to appreciate Dave Cockrum, but I think, like many of my vintage, I fell so hard for Byrne’s artwork that Dave’s first and second run of X-Men seemed pale by comparison. Then slowly I started to appreciate all he brought to the table. Dave created so many powerful and dynamic pieces, covers and interiors, I see that now, but hey sometimes a 10 year old might not the best judge of art : ) I meet Dave at a Mid Ohio Con and became a immediate member of his fan club. What a warm and friendly guy!

Well... someday Disney will decide to buy the rest of my childhood and purchase DC and then DC will count again : )

Hey a DNA Jordan card... take that Jordan DNA and create 5 Jordan clones and make yourself an unstoppable basketball team... not bad for 1.4 million!

Ok I gave it a lot of thought, I too am a man often with split minds. So I have the PERFECT solution for the cards or art dilemma: Sell em and go all in with SKETCH CARDS BABY!!!! just kidding.. I’d buy art. But I spend my time on the comic art websites and not sports cards websites. I know nothing about printed images on cardboard but I get really excited when people scratch out lines on paper.

For this piece, you wonder the whiteout and the stat (I think it's a stat and not an art paste over) were too much for the new owner. Sometimes the distraction caused by the art/production fixes outweigh the enjoyment of remaining artwork.

Just finished watching Jay... good friends, good stories and good art! The trifecta that makes the hobby great and so much fun! Your Scott Williams X-Men cover is outstanding... now if only we could get him on the title as the regular PENCILER!

Nice I’ll have to tune into this one!

My second positive post goes to one of the OGs of the hobby... Scott Dunbier. This is for two reasons. First, for being a dealer that put a lot of prime artwork in the hands of collectors, among his highlights was bringing a bunch of Watchmen pages over to the US market, back when it was new art. I wonder how many key pages on CAF were at one time sold by Scott, I’m guessing it would be a pretty high number. Anyone who helped puts these Bronze Age beauties in our collections I raise my glass to! I saved the best for last, without Scott we wouldn’t have IDW’s Artist Editions! He was man who introduced the idea of publishing full size original art with all the glue stains, editors notes and everything, this was a dream come true to art collectors. Collectors who couldn’t dream of owning 144 pages from their favorite artist CAN drop a mere $125 and have their own favorite keepsake of their guy. For me, it’s Byrne... so much inspiration in those pages...Byrne X-Men, Fantastic Four and Marvel Classic Artifact Editions are always in my bonus room waiting to be enjoyed. For that reason Mr Dunbier gets a massive shout out of thanks. I’m grateful there are passionate guys like Scott documenting the history of comics and providing all this inspiration for fans and artists alike... way to go Scott!!! Scott Williams Scott Dunbier Will my next positive post be to another Scott?!? Only time will tell ; )

My goal - stick in the kiddie pool and watch the big kids do Triple Lindies for Mavel Bronze Age covers.

Looks like a show worth seeing!

Shout out from THE APE whoop whoop!

Cool artwork! Who’s the artist and what comic is it from?

With a grim 2020 behind us. I thought I would kick the new year off with the THREAD OF POSITIVITY!!! Someone helped you on a deal, bought you a adult beverage at a con, or did a dealer hook you up with a sweet cornerstone piece... give em a shout out! I won’t take all the good ones, but I’ll get the ball rolling with my first positive nugget. How cool is it that we have our own pro that is willing to sit in and add to our conversations about the greatest hobby in the world... collecting original art... SCOTT WILLIAMS THANK YOU! Your great tastes in original art is only rivaled by your mad inking skills. We appreciate you offering up insights and fun back in the day stories and creating great art to feed the hobby! I hope everyone will join in with something good to say... even if it’s redundant. If you’re typing a post and it’s negative, this is not the thread for you ; )

Protecting your market sometimes comes into play for particular artists’ runs. Not at all saying it happens here, but they are collectors with deep specific collecting focus that place bids to make sure the floor doesn’t go low, and thus keeping up the perception of strong demand for a run. Sometimes that is what is at play on these high results. in this case it’s BYRNE/AUSTIN!!!!! What more needs to be said. In my eyes it’s their last stand, where their styles still remind us of their X-Men days, after this issue their subsequent art team ups drift a bit too far away from those days. Still good to see, but doesn’t quite feel the same. My Mount Rushmore of comic art teams: Byrne/Austin Miller/Jansen Kirby/Sinnott

And we should add Tradd Moore Silver Surfer Black pages are they valued at 5K or 6K or more?

It's about time to work on an update.. where to start? Where would you say values are for A-Level Byrne X-Men or Bolland Killing Joke pages?

Congrats on adding the new page and congrats on having the best page in the book (in my opinion), the one with Colossus vs Proteus. WOW that page is a showstopper!

Well my world domination will have to wait for another auction...

I started think of how much Stan Lee was the face of not only Marvel but the comic book industry in general. He brought a lot of goodwill towards the art form with his warm and welcoming personality. With his passing who steps into the void? Right now I feel like it may be Jim Lee. What do you guys think?

John the fact that you know this is important because ... Knowing is half the battle ... I guess bidding is the other half ; )

Kinda like holding a powerball ticket, you can dream before the numbers are drawn.

DEAL!

Dan, Let's make a deal.. I'll take the Byrne pieces and I'll leave you everything else.... WE'RE GONNA OWN THIS AUCTION! WOOOHOO!