New School Fool

There's always exceptions to the rule, but in this case I feel your 'old timer' probably isn't adept at using a keyboard/mouse/stylus pen over a pencil marker. Obviously - as you mentioned, they've had far more experience using traditional methods so that way will always be faster for them...as for creative use of panel design.. I don't think there should be a digital/traditional divide for this. Surely that depends on the artist? Once again, I feel this depends on the artist. I do agree there are some artists whose digital work pales in comparison to what a traditional artist can produce, I've never cared for Russell Dauterman's work which I find too plain and as you say, lacking in soul. Then there's a few artists who use both mediums, digital and traditional and I struggle to decipher which is which (Pepe Larraz, Werther dell'Edera). And then there Jorge Jimenez, who works 100% digital as far as I can tell. In my opinion his work easily rivals the popular traditional artists of today....I'd be hard-pressed to call it soulless.

I would love to see them!

Background detail may be a reason... or the fact that creating digitally is faster than traditional methods. I hear a lot of artists say that they can actually hit deadlines when they go digital.

@Nexus you mentioned you wanted to talk about Tradd Moore at the end of the podcast....Care to elaborate?

I'm well aware of what an Artists Proof is in the traditional sense, but thanks for pointing out that it's best to be cautious. For the record, thinking back I remember first hearing the term 'Artist's Proof' in this hobby on Russell Dauterman's site. He's a digital artist who sells monoprints, yet calls them Artists Proofs. He even has a clarification of the term in his FAQ page: https://russelldauterman.square.site/faq It seems that Black Diamond are taking the term and running with it.

Black Diamond does sell pen and ink pages, I've seen a few by Iban Coello in the flesh that are sold on their site. I always thought the the term 'Artist Proof' in this hobby is another way to say monoprint, so to me it's obvious. But must admit, from their site it's not very clear which is pen & ink art and which are monoprints.....

So the Thought Bubble Festival has been and gone, this is just a follow up in the event anyone else is thinking of going and has the same questions as I did. The festival was great! I was in two minds about going after I bought tickets but I'm glad I went in the end. In terms on comic art, there was a lot on sale. A select few artists represented by Cadence Comic art and Kirby Comic's art attended, as well as many other artists without reps. There was a lot of original art on sale! Something which I wasn't quite sure would be the case. In Cadence's and Kirby's case, a lot of it - apart from a few select pieces - were already available online. It was great to chat the the artists though, something one doesn't really get the chance to do here in the UK. But yes, a lot of the illustrators present would be considered as modern artists which probably are not so known to many here. I should have taken pictures but found the whole process a little overwhelming and the thought escaped my mind.

This is out of character for me for two reasons: 1) I'm normally a black hole collector. But to be fair on Ron Frenz, this art needs to be shown! 2) I don't normally request commissions. But I'm a massive fan of The Amazing Spider-Man issues #256-#259. Peter discovering the truth about his symbiote suit. His relationship with the Black Cat. The introduction of the Puma and the combined threat of the Hobgoblin working with the Rose. Art from this period of Ron's run is scarce, so I was ecstatic to discover that Ron was offering very reasonably priced commissions. The result is something better than I was ever expecting and I am extremely happy. As Scott Kress, Ron Frenz's representative put it 'Ron knocked it out the park!'

It would be great to know what the supposed original statement actually is....

I can understand this. I've bought art that I feel isn't the best that artist can do but will suffice until I can secure a better page. Once that page comes along I'll sell the lesser one. I also have pages I feel do not 'fit' in my portfolio which I will sell when the time comes. Yeah...this happens. The art I had just bought at auction actually has the initial price tag of the page when it was first sold written on top of the page (not sure if the previous owner bought it at that price or not)... Bear in mind this is modern art. i.e. The page was created within the last 5 years.... I paid 12 times the original price!

Yes, this is the reason. I will eventually put my art up on CAF. I just don't have the time right now, and until that time comes, I'm a black hole collector. Best I can explain my feeling is like so.. I don't like the idea of something I own being displayed in another persons gallery. To me the art you have bought and display says a lot about the person. From the price tag when you purchased it to the composition of the artwork. Because there's only one of each piece of art, everyone's 'art signature' is unique, everyone has a different comic art portfolio. This overlap with the same piece in two portfolios means I have a somewhat 'joint' profile with another collector where I'd rather be unique and whole.

First piece bought at auction. I've only previously bought from art dealers or the artists themselves.

that's a great idea. I'll revert to this tactic if I get no reply. The only issue is, I'm a black hole collector...and this technique exposes me somewhat but I guess you can't have your cake and eat it!

Thanks for the advice guys I've left a polite note - let's see where this goes!

I've just purchased my first piece of comic art via auction. the page has arrived and am looking at it now while I type. Unfortunately, the previous owner still has the piece up in their CAF gallery, listed as NFS?!!? What does one do in these situations? Kindly ask them to remove it I presume? ...And what if they refuse to do so?

I would 100% expect his prices to go up! I'm not sure if it's Felix who sets the price or the artist themselves, but I've always found them to be very market savvy.

My take on this is that there's clearly a different demo-graph of collectors who purchase artwork via auctions as opposed to buying artwork from art reps, and these auction collectors are also predominantly the traditional pencil & ink enthusiast. That and the artwork isn't really that good! I think it's difficult to predict where we'll be in 25-30 years and what financial influence millennials will have, especially after the recent spat of Bitcoin and Etherium millionaires. I have no doubt in my mind that traditional pencil & ink pages will always command higher prices. But as more and more artist inevitably produce work digitally, the status quo on APs are bound to change. If you mean less than pencil & ink pages when you say low ROI, then I agree with you. If you mean this abysmal -79% Dauterman result, then no. This will change.

True. If the seller of the Dauterman cover sold to make money, they were either stupid, oblivious to the fact that it was a monoprint or just not aware of the current market consideration to Artists Proofs and Mono Prints. Hand drawn artwork is unfortunately, a limited and diminishing resource. I expect the market to change from its current state in the next 10-20 years though. I'm not sure if there's any artist born in this millennium who creates their artwork traditionally. I've never seen monoprints being called 'original art'. Maybe they've been called 'Artists proofs' but the fact that it's a print of digital work is often clearly stated. I don't think any dealer would dare risk their reputation by making such a claim.

Thanks for the comments guys! :)

Something is Killing the Children uses various artists for their variant covers, I know that Cadence Comic Art and Kirby's Comic art represent a few of them, though vas far as o know these are now all sold. As for interior art, this is even rarer to come by. Dell'Edera creates all his work digitally and to date I think he's created 8 traditional ink pages. I have been told two of these are in a museum. That being said, good luck with your search!

I've heard of a few of them...and those are relatively new artists, so from your comment I'd imagine it's all modern day stuff.

I realise there's not many members from the UK here but has anyone been to or have an opinion on the Thought Bubble comic art festival? I'm thinking of going but not sure how much comic art will be on sale there. A few artists are not responding on social media. https://www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/

Thanks for sending these links through. I thought I already knew, but it seems I still have a lot to learn. So from my understanding... inks over blue pencils = the prelim artist drew in blue pencil, which are then inked over inks over blue lines = the prelim artist drew in standard graphite pencil, then scanned this into blue which is then inked over. I imagine that inks over blueline pencil is the same as inks over blue lines.... but the terminology is confusing and can easily be mistaken for inks over blue pencils by noob collectors.

So pencils and blueline pencils are considered differently then...? I don't think these are digital blueline though. I don't see that stated anywhere....

Well enough art has sold now making it harder to deduce that which I have bought exactly. But the artist in question is John Romita Jr, and the penciller being JP Meyer. There is art for sale from a newly published Fantastic Four issue over at Comiconart.