Rick2you2

No. Not typical at all. You have a right to be suspicious. The DC logo extends beyond the borders of the cover, leading me to think it is a fake. It doesn’t even look like the logo was pasted on. I suspect it is a copy.

Actually, you've just justified a higher price for inks over original pencils: it's harder to get it right.

When I think of trust, I think of something approaching fraud. Do you feel he lied?

Harsh. I suggest you read some of the Donnelly Bros. threads if you want to see real “trust” issues. What was your complaint, other than organization, speed, or reliable communications?

Didn't buy it; not worth the price for the disappointment.

More seriously than my earlier post, forgotten OA masters of the Golden Age.

Sadly, it is the only example of a published Javi Fernandez Phantom Stranger I am likely to find for quite a while. It is the only one he has done so far. As it is, his prices are not exactly low.

No, it's the original. The coloration of the page threw off what I expected in the OA. To be fair, the more I am looking at it, the more I am wondering if I may have over-reacted. It still just doesn't hit it for me.

Here. It actually does look a lot like that in the published version, but the coloration on the page made me think it would look normal.

You buried the lead. I thought that one transaction you mentioned was done? Care to elaborate?

Good point. I saw a page in a comic I liked recently. When I contacted the artist about it and he sent me a copy of the original art, it turned out he was able give a shadow effect to the printed face of the Phantom Stranger by making him look like a minstrel. I am not easily offended, but on that one, I passed.

After seeing that title, I was hoping this thread had something to do with Omaha, the Cat Dancer.

I definitely do not have an unlimited budget; I just don’t treat my hobby as an “investment”. And, I also won’t spend big bucks on it, either. For investing, I am perfectly comfortable with the stock market, thank you, and other non-collectible items. As for art just being “decoration art”, well sure, art is supposed to be decorative. I doubt the first purchaser of the Mona Lisa bought it with the intention to sell in a few years. When I buy art, it is to enjoy a pleasant memory of days gone by; a present day way of meeting like-minded collectors, as well as artists and writers, a way of learning things I did not know before, and a future of anticipated enjoyment of the past. And what the kids do with it, I don’t give a dam’n.

Personally, I have no problem with it, but some people on another thread claimed that for comics, at least, this qualifies as "pressing" and hence, restoration. I don't consider it restoration.

I have copies of most of the books in which I have the original art for reference, but in some cases, even relatively new books can be hard to find. Ever try to find copies in the dollar bins of Scribblenauts? (Double cover, including PS).

Can someone please fill in some dealer’s names in the “underpriced” quadrants?

I would just run an x/y table of Good Business Practices v. Good Ethical Practices. For the ....overly serious....you can also include a weighted table of values, say: 15% speedy sending of purchased items; 20% accurate description; 20% untampered product, 10% well packaged shipping; 10% deep inventory, 15% quality of communications, 10% accurate and available pricing. I wouldn't include level of pricing; that's a business decision. But, fair disclosure about it is different.

From Phantom Stranger (Second Series), No. 5. I have wanted this one for a very long time, but didn't expect to find it for sale. The pencils were by Mike Sekowsky while the inks were by Murphy Anderson (filling two gaps in my collection). I am told that Sekowsky used to complain that his pencils weren't inked well by others; personally, I think this one was. You can see some of the pencil lines from the sound effects, and from the ones that are visible, it looks like Anderson improved their proportions. In terms of content, the text strongly supports a theory that the Phantom Stranger was always an agent of God, who can eventually return, when his "mission is over". This runs contrary to the idea in the New 52, pushed by DiDio, that PS was doomed to walk the earth as punishment until he paid his price for betraying Jesus. Given DiDio's new un-job status, one might conclude that it is never a good idea to mess around with the Phantom Stranger (who has been known to "break the fourth wall" in his stories). Sound effects on the half splash were by Tala, his chief nemesis for the time. While called a "temptress", or just evil, she was basically created in the image of Freud's Id (lustful, impulsive, animalistic) to PS's Superego (conscience, rationality and good). Eventually, that theme ran out of gas, and she just became a high level demoness. Shame, I liked her better the way she was created. Id can be a force of good, too, unless you live in that period of time at the end of the 1960's/early 1970's, and want to keep children's desires still wedged into the 1950's.

Me.

Alex, you left out Genesis 3:1.

AT&T would be crazy to kill DC print comics. They are literally sample story boards for new movie ideas, providing a test of what might work, or not, on TV and in film. Despite some misses, that is where the big money is, plus merchandising. The print comics are the core of that fan base, so even losing a little money on print, which is a drop in the bucket to AT&T, they provide plenty of return.

DiDio was an enthusiastic supporter of comics, but that doesn’t mean he had the right “Big Idea”. For example, I like he brought back the Phantom Stranger in the New 52, But I do not like what he did to the character. I suspect he knew his time would end when his status was essentially reduced to a co-publisher instead of a publisher.

Getting back to the topic, what about Didio? Was he good, or good riddance?

I certainly don't claim to have the encyclopedia-level knowledge of a fair number of you, but I do know the price range of Phantom Stranger art, in general, and Aparo pages, in particular. $3,500 from Archangels is over-optimistic to say the least. Two K is about the limit for panel pages (but this is a good one).

I put them on both sides of each Itoya page, but I store them flat. Anything really valuable or delicate (commissions drawn on paper, for example) first goes into its own top loader before being placed into an Itoya. So far, no problems.