Skizz

But really ...

But seriously though, this write is such a load of BS.

Most of my purchases are either from dealer websites or eBay. Stuff like this is really disheartening.

Yeah, so pumped about that. By the way, anyone who is fan of Unbreakable (or of the early M. Night movies) needs to watch Split. I'll say no more lest I go into spoilers.

I did have a budget when I started some five months ago. At the time it seemed like such a large sum of money (at least by my standards) that I would never spend on luxury items or hobbies. But I burned through that pretty quickly and now it's basically what you describe - trying the use a portion of the monthly income towards the hobby. It's rather challenging, but I have to say that trying to work out the jigsaw puzzle of what and how I can afford and choosing just the right piece without neglecting any real life expenses is quite fun as well. In fact, I feel like the challenge makes me appreciate every piece that I do buy. So far nothing I have purchased has been over $1,000. I am however gearing up towards purchasing something special and expensive, and for that I'd have to stop any new purchases for the next few months and save up. Yeah, I have to say that having a focus does help mitigate too many haphazard or impulsive purchases.

Yeah, yeah, yup. I'm slipping all right. And the view is ... expensive. This is me trying to work out how I can afford the next piece.

This is a page from #0 of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory, illustrated by J.H. Williams III. I love J H William's sense of design and how he can change his style so drastically to suit the project. And I absolutely love the art in this Western style page that almost looks like something out of Blueberry by Jean Giraud (Moebius). But it also sets off my OCD bells something fierce, because it doesn't quite fit neatly into my collection. The primary focus of my collection is art from Alan Moore books, followed by 90s X-Men and finally art from masters like Moebius, Eisner, Kirby etc (although I don't actually have anything from the latter two ... yet). But this page doesn't quite fit anywhere. But, I do love the art and it is from a book written by the other British heavyweight writer ... Grant Morrison. So there's that.

No comic art today. Just posting to express my sadness at the passing away of Len Wein. The focus of my comic art collecting is Alan Moore and X-Men/Wolverine. And Len Wein had a big part in both.

Fine arts doesn't have much context; so it knowing who the previous owners were helps to give it some. Comic art doesn't need that as it already have context from the issue, page number, storyline, graphic novel etc. I'd imagine most collectors of comic art couldn't care less about who the past owners were. I know I don't.

This is depressing

Thanks for this. Looks like the artist is Leo Oliviera.

Cool project. Keep us posted on this mate.

I'm not really a 'covers' guy. Even less so for modern covers, that generally tend to be just characters posing for the camera without giving any sense of the story. But everyone else seems to be into them. And a part of me wanted to see what the fuss was about. But I didn't want to break the bank doing it. This is a cover re-creation of a 90s X-Men give-away comic, done by the original inker that popped up on eBay. It looks like the inker printed a blue line copy of the original and quickly inked it. The logo and caption are printed, but everything else is original inks. It was available for the price of a mid level restaurant meal and I do have a certain amount of nostalgia for 90s X-Men. So I got it in order to satiate my desire for a cover. It's cool for what I paid it, but my overall feeling is, well ... "meh". I think I'll probably stick to panel pages in the future.

I bought this Ms Marvel pin up at a local comic mart. The seller had no idea who sold it. There is unique looking signature, but not one I recognise. I was wondering if any here recognises the artist or signature. Any help would be be appreciated.

Thanks mate. Sent you a PM. Regarding competing for Moore written pages, I feel like Moore has been so prolific, there's plenty to go around for all of us.

Yeah, that was cool. The shop owner gave me a certificate of authenticity which said the name of the magazine. I punched it in eBay and there it was for fairly cheap.

I posted here some weeks ago about my surreal experience of walking into a used book store in a village in France whilst on my holiday (vacation for the North Americans) and finding all this Moebius art. Despite have not enough cash, I bought one small piece that was supposed to have been published. I had no idea at the time if this was legit or fake. But the members on this board were kind enough to help me verify. I have now been able to get a copy of the magazine my piece was published in (see below) and certainly looks legit. I can't believe that I actually own something drawn by Moebius (and published at that). Now if I can just get a Jack Kirby my life will be complete.

If I can give a real world perspective on this as a new-ish collector and a millennial (albeit one of the older ones, having been born in the mid 80s). I was at London Super Comic Con this weekend. And I did stop by at Bechara's. I have to admit I didn't recognise most of the art/pages on display. And I didn't even like a lot of it; it looked, for lack of a better word, "old" and not all that different from the next page. It was like trying to watch old John Wayne westerns now. But there was one "old" art and artist I immediately went to check out, with a very strong desire to buy a page, if there was something available that was both affordable and to my liking. And that's Jack Kirby. I have thought about why I am so drawn to Jack Kirby, when my eye glosses over all the other vintage art and I have come up with three answers: 1. As the creator of so many enduring characters that is very much part of the zeitgeist at the moment, I view him as a auteur along the likes of Stanley Kubrick and I feel I'd be honoured to possess anything drawn my him. This doesn't apply to almost anyone other older comic artists. 2. I feel enough people my age or younger will come to this conclusion such that I would not be alone in spending a somewhat larger sum on this, so art by Jack Kirby won't devalue to drastically in the future. Again, I do not think this will apply to art by other silver Bronze Age artists like Neal Adams, Jim Starlin or even John Byrne or Perez. So whilst I can't yet afford to drop five figures, I'd certainly try to find something in the low four figures by Kirby. And Bechara did have some of that. 3. Despite my disinterest interest older art or comics. I can objectively say that Jack Kirby's work stands in a league of its own. Now admittedly I haven't read any golden/silver/Bronze Age comics. But I can always tell when it's drawn by Kirby. It is is distinctive and evocative and still feels modern. Can't say the same about the writing in the comics he worked on though. I cannot speak for all millennials, and certainly not for the younger ones. But overall I don't think my position is a special case. Overall the things (art) millennials of today will be willing to throw stupid money at 30 years from now will be things they are growing with now, except for a few special cases like Kirby/Ditko/Action Comics 1 etc (assuming those characters are still relevant). As an aside, I should mention that my personal (albeit limited) experience is that vintage dealers are not particularly welcoming of younger people. Five or six years ago (I was a student and in my mid 20s) , I wandered over Bechara's table and asked how much something was. The reply I got was something along the likes of "too expensive for you". He was right, but it left a distaste. That was my first experience of vintage art/dealer and it was very different from how welcoming pretty much anyone behind a table at comic cons usually is (at least here in the UK).

This art below is another one of my pages that I've had since before I began collecting. I doubt anyone here will recognise the artist unless they're familiar with the British small press scene. The art is by an artist named Rob Cureton from his self published book Scene City. The image is of a celebrity literally being manufactured. I might be biased because Rob is a friend and peer, but I genuinely think that he is one of the best cartoonist of his generation. I'd like to get more art from him him but unfortunately these days he is more focused on his animation career. If you get time, do check out his diary comic on www.orfulcomics.co.uk

I'll have to force myself to keep this mind if I'm feeling impulsive. I'm a fairly new collector, but was recently fortunate enough to get a small Moebius published piece. Kirby is next on my list.

I guess my proposed life cycle of OA pricing in the post above is its most simplified version, and there are other variables that complicate matters. For example, I have never read any silver age comics. I tried reading Dr Stange after the movie and after a few pages, I felt like slitting my wrists with a rusty blade. Nevertheless, I would very much like a Jack Kirby or Ditko page because they are auteurs who created something that stands the test of time. There might be a similar variable for any given art/artists. And if a handful of non nostalgic collectors are influenced by such a variable the prices stay up. Which creates a feedback loop of generating more confidence in the market for that art. This in turns gives more confidence to other non nostalgic buyer to invest with the thought of reselling. But all of this aside, I guess the point I was trying to make earlier is that OA allows for a certain amount of democratisation of pricing in a way that fine art doesn't. Fine art seems completely arbitrary whereas even the few things that can seem artibary with OA can be understood if we take a step back and apply a certain degree of social psychology.

It seems to me that fine art market is somewhat arbitrary. There might be 5 artists who can be called good if you look at their art objectively; but maybe only one of them comes from the right social background or has enough of a marketing machine behind him. So his art sell for thousands whilst the others sell for hundreds and eventually they give up altogether. With comic art on the other hand, if both the art and the writing are good, then the book will (should) be a best seller. A portion of those readers will be comic art collectors. So the more people who read the book, the more the art collectors there will be and more demand for the pages. The more the demand for the pages, the more the price. Add another 20 to 30 years, children who read the book are now in their 40s and 50s and have more disposable income than they have ever had in their life, and are willing to pay stupid money for that same art. If enough people in their 40s and 50s feel that way, the prices go up even more. Add another 30 years, those people are now dying. The younger generation doesn't have have nostalgia for that page (say something like Neal Adams Batman pages) and the prices go down (albeit it takes another 10 years or so). Alternatively, the original book is objectively good and hasn't aged despite the passing of years (say something Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen), this means that newer readers are coming in year after year. As those new readers get disposable income, they start buying. If enough new readers feel that way, there will be confidence in that market. So they prices stay high despite the change in generation. Overall, I feel that original art prices have (or at least will have) a clear life cycle and allow for democratisation that fine art doesn't allow. That said, as a comic art collector, I am biased. So it would be interesting to hear from any fine art collector.

The only point is that, on your picture, the artwork seems to be cut but I don't see anything on DM's picture ... It looks like after the picture on the Daniel Maghen website was taken, they separated/cut out the image and then writing and then changed their mind and taped it on the back. That's how it is now. But I think overall it's safe to say that this is a real Moebius art. Thanks for all the help guys.

Thanks for locating this. I didn't understand everything the owner said because of the language barrier. But I believe that this piece along with the other pieces he had (including a color piece) were supposed to be sold at another place, but that got cancelled for some reason. Or something along those lines. This this probably the site he mentioned. He also said that all these pieces originally came from someone who knew Moebius