alexgross.com

@TerrysComicsdan panosian is a great local artist who might do it if invited. used to be my neighbor too-

couldnt finish ep1, i found it unwatchably boring. 

On 10/11/2023 at 8:18 AM, Cat said:

Hollywood Reporter's piece on what happened to Daredevil. 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/daredevil-marvel-disney-1235614518/

according to the article, the direction they had taken did not even have dd in costume until ep4. they call it a 'legal procedural.' good g*d what an idiotic direction that would have been. better late than never to start over. 

On 10/5/2023 at 12:14 PM, Straw-Man said:

good.  didn't want to see it, anyway.

i did! i love this actor, hes amazing in everything he is in. if you havent seen 'green book' i recommend it. disappointing that marvel has had its head up its butt on this project for years now. guess when your finger is constantly in the air to gauge how the culture war winds are blowing, its impossible to choose your direction. 

On 10/2/2023 at 8:21 AM, MatterEaterLad said:

Here we go... 

this little snippet looks like mike allred and brian bolland had a baby who makes comics. 

but it is impressive nonetheless, and quite clear that it will be incredibly easy very shortly, if not already, to make a visually compelling comic with zero artistic ability. 

this does not mean that there will be no jobs left for great artists. but probably there will be less and less of them, like in illustration and other commercial art fields. pretty sure that at some point almost all hit songs will be either fully generated by AIs, or at least written by them. 

just rewatched this with my son on bluray and i believe it is the best animation ever done in a movie, from start to finish. i personally think it is also a wonderful, amazing film, possibly the best animated film ever. so nice to see them crush one ever once in awhile. it's getting farther between the good ones the last couple years in terms of superhero stuff. 

the lack of excitement here for this show is palpable. not even a shadow of what the original was. i dare not hope that the forthcoming jon snow show will be better (but i still do). i'm still astonished that a show would have the gall to replace it's two leads with marginally older actresses halfway through a season, for no good reason at all. 

On 9/12/2023 at 5:28 AM, the blob said:

Doesn't the current state of digital art allow someone with C- physical illustrating skills to create something that looks professional even without an AI boost? I guess AI may make it all quicker if used properly and may save a lot of time on more mundane stuff like backgrounds.

if you're talking pre-AI, not really. learning illustrator, photoshop or other 2d design apps, and then making something that looks nice still takes some work and a good design sense. it requires less traditional skill like life drawing, but your gramma can't just watch a few videos and then make something cool using illustrator or procreate. AI changes everything. now she can indeed if she knows the right prompts and references. 

On 9/11/2023 at 1:29 PM, blazingbob said:

My take on Baltimore this year was good buying,  very bad selling show for me.

I either didn't have the Timely's or DC Golden Age,  Horror books that customers wanted this year or I didn't have the books customers did want at the price point they wanted to buy at.  

There are always shows out there that require "you the dealer" to have a tractor trailer in negotiation room in order to close the sale.  Baltimore is one of those shows.  Motor City was one of the shows,  Megacon another.  If you don't hit that buyers "version of fair" after your offer the "I'll think about it guys" move on looking for that book that qualifies for their version of a "Deal". 

Box stock didn't sell that well and It looks like it is time for a inventory evaluation.  

Cash/trade offers this year unfortunately were on books that while I liked them didn't have the eye appeal to make them easy to sell.  And frankly if a cash/trade offer is net a check to the customer I would prefer getting something that I like.  

Even though there are plenty of "reports" stating dealers won't adjust their pricing lets NOT FORGET those owners of books having a hard time letting go of what their collection WAS worth a year or more ago.  The Bronze age Billionaire's as I call them aren't exactly singing the "Hills are alive with the sound of cha-ching" in their new reality.   

My assessment on the Bronze age market is one where I really feel like it is marching to the Gasoline market.  Up and downs every day where I'm happy one day and disgusted the next.  It almost feels like I don't want to be a buyer of this part of the business for awhile.  I'm tired of stepping up,  paying what I feel is a fair price for something and 3 months later looking at it going WTF did I buy this?  But look while I may be disgusted at this time of the day on this post doesn't mean I will feel the same way tomorrow.  Fanexpo Chicago was a great show for me which was a very pleasant surprise.  Baltimore was a very big disappointment and frankly I'll own up to my issues on why it was.  

big props to @blazingbob for this honest convention report. though never the most warm and fuzzy dealer out there, bob is no-nonsense, a straight shooter, and usually fairly priced at cons. i always buy something from him when i see him at a show. it's incredibly rare on these boards to hear this kind of report from dealers. it's either something useless like "we sold alot of books" or crickets. +1

On 9/10/2023 at 4:45 AM, comicwiz said:

How does AI resolve the royalties and rights managed areas of stock image use? AI simply borrows and does some heavy lifting of images belonging to others, it may remove metadata, making it more difficult for software uses by company's like Getty to locate them in their reiterated form, but AI doesn't just magically lift away the problem with stock image companies, photographers, and other copyright owners coming after any commercial use without permission or license. If anything, the lawsuits will pile up in the same way they did early on when Google came out with their image search, and people thought, oh look, how cool that I can use this image Google helped me find, and which I can use on my website, only to later find out that the image required permission and licensed use, and a lawsuit is pending if you don't pay the penalty for misuse and infringement.

as you probably know, midjourney and the other AI image making apps create entirely new images based on their visual training data which is everything on the internet. just put in my name or any other known artist in midjourney and give some prompts that include 'in the style of' and you'll get an array of derivative but not stolen images. so, its more than stock imagery that the AI are threatening. its working artists and illustrators, yes, some people are suing but it seems unlikely that some lawsuits can stop the direction of things. paying to use stock imagery or hiring an illustrator will probably become superfluous once the AI is a bit better and easier to use.

On 9/10/2023 at 6:53 AM, 1Cool said:

The vibe at the Con on Friday felt very tame compared to previous years but I did see quite a few big purchases being made with most of them being dealer to dealer.  If you had the goods they were selling and guys like Burns who keeps his prices low seemed to do very well but I did hear some grumblings from guys who didn’t have the goods.  Lots of discount signs came out Friday and I wonder how far the discounts will go today.  

thanks for all the great pics! looking forward to more reports about how this show went from collectors, dealers and everyone in-between. 

@Robot Man curious if you think that in another 20 or 30 years, we will similarly be amused to see that an action 1 in mid grade was "only" 3 mil in 2023, or if you think this price curve is going to get flatter (for the key GA stuff).

though the show is aimed at teens, roberto aguire-sacasa, the creator and show runner, is head of archie comics, is a former writer of comics, and is a giant fan of comic books of all eras. 

On 9/3/2023 at 7:52 AM, namisgr said:

I read two newspapers every day.  I don't see AI generated images being published in place of art.  Plus, the vast majority of art accompanying articles is photography.  Schematic illustrations are different, having used in whole or part computer programmed material for at least 30 years now.

I've also read the position statements of some of the most widely used and read news services, and none uses generative AI for images.  Instead, it's short news stories especially in technical topics like business and economics or short local stories to turn sets of facts and information into small pieces for publication.  For major and national stories, AI is being used for information gathering and fact checking, but not story generation in the absence of human creative control.

Here's the approaches currently in use by Associated Press, Newsquest Media Group, The Guardian, and NewsCorp Australia.  It also makes mention of local news outlets generating small stories using AI: Robot reporters? Here’s how news organisations are using AI in journalism

What the future holds is an open question (e.g., will generative AI ever be able to create a great comic book?), and I'm relieved to see the current period being used to raise concerns and questions, with the hope of formulating restrictions to mitigate problems before they start.

there may be less AI than it appears currently in newspaper illustration. however, the use of stock imagery in all major newspapers (these 2 examples are from the NYT and WSJ this week) has been quite common for many years now, and seems likely to soon be replaced by AI generated imagery, as it will save costs. one person who knows how to write prompts can save all stock usage fees and possibly all fees for outside artists. 

before photoshop, illustrator and other apps made it simple to make small spot illustrations for print and digital media, all magazines and newspapers employed thousands of illustrators for every image that you saw. many of them were my teachers, friends and colleagues. now, most of these places employ one in-house artist/graphic designer, feature a lot of stock imagery from getty and other sources, and occasionally pay a name artist for a major article. the NYT is better than most at continuing to employ illustrators, as is the new yorker. but overall, most papers rarely do so and this number will continue to drop. 

AI has already replaced many creative art jobs such as illustratior and graphic designer. how many newspapers now use AI generated images to accompany articles instead of paying someone to make a piece of art? it's sure to replace jobs in the comic art business too unfortunately.

right now, it's still fairly obvious and less than exciting when AI imagery is used in a comic like your friends examples above. it's neat that he can make this all himself, but it does not have much personality to a discerning eye. before too long though, i imagine that midjourney and other apps will truly be able to ape in a non-obvious way the best comic artists working in the field now or in the past. do you like j scott campbell and neal adams? a truly sophisticated AI will be able to synthesize those into a fascinating and possibly even good looking drawing style, hard as it is to fathom. you can even decide if you want a more klaus janson inking look or a josef rubenstein, for example. right now that's not an option, thankfully. but it will happen. 

there's no doubt that as AI continues to improve, it will displace more and more creative jobs in the art biz, movie biz, music biz, comics, etc. it's also replacing jobs in medicine (radiology) law (paralegal) and many other significant high paying fields. 

it appears we will be facing a major crisis when we get to the point where a huge number of jobs have been eliminated due to AI. it's just a matter of time. how we handle it will be one of the great pressing questions of the next decade or two. 

On 8/31/2023 at 3:51 AM, namisgr said:

Consigners are blocked from bidding on the comics they consigned.  As for the stickers, nobody but Comiclink likes them but I imagine they'll continue to use them for advertising their business.

this may be true on CL but i am told on excellent authority that another major auction site allows at least some big sellers to bid on their own books. 

i have no evidence but a strong suspicion that all 3 major auction sites participate in some kind of shill bidding on the bigger auction books. allegations to that effect have been around for a long time by some people who apparently worked at some of these places. and all three sites appear to be owned by people/businesses with major collections of their own. therefore the auction house winning a book because they shilled it too high simply can mean it goes into the vault for awhile.

ultimately no one should be shocked by weirdly strong auction results at any auction site. 

On 8/11/2023 at 11:47 AM, gadzukes said:

My last two collections have come my way from a "friend of a friend" so make sure ALL of your friends know you collect!!!!!

nice pickup! just curious if you used overstreet to let him know how you came up with your prices, or some other way. i've only bought one collection before and used a combination of gpa and overstreet...

On 7/27/2023 at 10:24 PM, DC# said:

Here is the $43k book from Heritage this week.   Definitely weaker than recent sales though some of those had MC too as I recall.  

yes lots of chipping and the cream pages also dont help. imo a well presenting 5.0 with owwp or wp would likely do much better than this right now, despite the economy being in a sort of netherworld. 

many of us would like to see tobey play spidey again. but not with raimi, please. was doctor strange and the horror zone of terrible moviemaking not enough proof that he's not a good filmmaker??

On 7/16/2023 at 5:57 PM, Robot Man said:

Yeah, very comic book centric and compact.

Yeah, Mr Bedrock I’d going down to SD as well. He had a somewhat smaller booth but brought a very nice variety of books. Something got most everyone. Dealers really get a bang for the buck with 2 shows in basically a week. 

great report, thanks again for all the pictures! wish i could have made it. 

what was the consensus on sales saturday? i heard mixed things so far about crowd size and sales. dealers don't usually chime in here when sales are slow but they are quite willing to let us know when books are flying off the walls. 

the market seems to be stabilizing a bit but i also know some collectors (me?) who are somewhat skittish right now as well. observations? 

On 7/15/2023 at 6:53 PM, Robot Man said:

Just got home from Torpedo. Whoo Doggies! What a huge packed room of beautiful vintage funny books! Saw a lot of friends, made some new ones and spent a load of cash.

If you didn’t go today, make sure to hit it tomorrow. I left a few for you. If you can’t find something to buy in that room, you aren’t a comic collector…

No time today for a full report but will try tomorrow. Got pictures to prove it…

thank you for the pics! i so wanted to be there but it was not meant to be this year. next year for sure i am coming down. 

On 6/24/2023 at 9:58 PM, Primetime said:

Thanks to @Bunky Brian for a very unusual haul for me today 🤓😛

one of my very favorite dealers! 

On 6/24/2023 at 2:44 PM, rptcomics said:

CLOSED It won't allow me to edit the title so I made a new one.

if you edit the first post in the thread, it allows you to change the title of the thread.