Rick2you2

The knowledge base of members on this board continues to stun me. Great catch.

Why is pressing a fraud? I have some old books, badly stored, which, when located, were a bit curved in the middle (from being stored standing up, before there were boards). I simply placed them under a heavy box of old flatware, and turned them every few weeks. They are a lot better now.

Excellent artist. Just a shame I will never get a Phantom Stranger of his. 🎂

I don’t have a beef with the artist, and was going to respond to your earlier comment, but for my purpose, this will do. The point of this thread is supposed to be whether or not an offered price represents fair market value or not. It might be based on auction prices, private sales, or personal knowledge. In my case, I mostly work off listed sales on Heritage, things I follow, and bits from CAT or CAF, so my knowledge base is limited. Others on this board have way more knowledge than I do. Learning if a price is reasonable is valuable to people who like something they see, but are scratching their head about why it seems so high. It can also be just generic fun, like the stones which are regularly thrown at the Brothers’ pricing (as well as their other shenanigans). If you think a piece is about 25% higher than market, or 100% higher than market, or at or below market, please share. I would never consider Jim Lee’s pricing of commission work on this thread to be an appropriate subject. People readily pay it, so it is at market price. On the other thread, I think the question was more like “why is it so high?” To me, it isn’t worth it even if that is the market price. I have paid more than FMV if there is something I like because I will want to keep looking at it. And if someone gave me $22,000, and told me I can buy the Arak piece and pocket the difference, or the Spaghetti Western piece, I would spend the $300 and keep the remaining $21,700. But, that isn’t the point of this thread. And by the way, I do value your opinions, whether I agree with them or not, and have also been known to change my opinions. I value the people here, as well as their views, and would not want anyone to think otherwise.

I am sorry you don’t like the artwork in the Arak piece, but I do. I have seen other work sell for much more that, which to me, is incomprehensible. And, if you were a burger flipper, no you should not buy it. You would probably have a hard time buying burgers on that level of income. That is a sad reality of the situation. And yes, a lot of art seems overpriced to me these days. I still remember seeing Dillin pages in the $5.00 bin—and leaving them there. But price is supposed to be a function of demand, and nostalgia has kicked up prices on journeyman’s work. But as you pointed out, that is not the point of this thread. Can someone justify that Spaghetti Western Art for $22,000? Are there comp’s which have sold like that? Is there an outbreak in Europe for Americana which has not been reported? I would love to know. I still think it has a typo in the pricing.

You get the point. Questionable in my mind, too, after a quck search on Comic Art Fans. Why is that artist hot? The work is very good, no question about that.

Do you photograph/scan your art and code it to help you later if you don't get around to updating your database for a while? I have used a version of my code at work for years when I am working with MS Word documents. It makes things much easier to find later. There, I generally ID the recipient, date of sending, type of document (e.g., an "l" stands for letter) and a short discription of a word or two (in abbreviated form) after an underscore. The title is almost always tight enough to be visible in a listing. When not, I usually modify the code. Example: Smith012319l_R011919l (code for his Response to my letter of 1/19/19)(there, the invisilble part in a list would be okay as there would be enough visibly to check it more thoroughly)

The point of this thread is optimistic pricing, not "how brilliant is the art? In several of your posts on this thread, including this one, you keep evaluating quality of art instead of justifying the price based on the art itself. Remember the price point I am focusing on with Arak is in the $200-$300 range. Masterpieces are not expected. For a piece to command 20,000 euro's, or $22,000, it better be dam'n close to brilliant, involve a well-known market or both. For example, I am not a fan of Kirby, but based on comp's, I expect that a lot of posted pages are justifiable. Does anyone know if this page is justifiable at $22,000? As a piece of art, the Amertume Apache page does have a style, and a stiff style, as you have noted. Most artists have a regular style, too, be it Kirby or Infantino or DeZuniga or anyone else. That's a matter of taste, and I am a big fan of DeZuniga. In terms of subject matter, I don't have much interest in "Spaghetti Western" artwork, but again, the point is should it be valued at roughly $22,000? That is not a particularly collectible subject matter, and its lack of familiarity to most collectors works against the pricing. It is also a fairly conventional panel page, although better than a 6-panel. Nothing about the border work interests me. For $22,000, I expect better than a series of rectangles with art in them (unless the art itself is extremely good) and stiff artwork. I disagree whole-heartedly about your views on the Arak page. I think it is very good for the style it is following and definitely conveys the mood for that type of subject matter. That is not the more typical style for superheroes but more of an old-fashioned tableu sort of feel. I do not think the characters body parts are disproportionate, but the quality of art is not about the scientific rendering of scale. It is about rendering of mood, artistically, and how well it blends with the story. I agree that the bottom panel is not brilliant, but I think it has a nice balance to it, with two heads on either side of a window. Again, $300. I wouldn't complain too much about a word balloon above a character whose mouth is closed. The Amertume Apage page has 3 of them. Panel 2 has fingers on it which an amateur could have drawn better. Panel 7 is supposed to be a man leaning forward. He is pitched to almost fall over. And that bottom panel has a woman missing her right hand. But those are just details. At $220, I could see a buy. At $22,000, forget it.

But does the market justify 20,000 euro's? From my perspective, I'm not enamored with it. If I were in a buying frame of mind for something different, I would go with this Infantino/DeZuniga piece for $300 in CAT:

I will let you know after I go price some stationary supplies. Do you prefer colored pencils or crayons?

Can I sell you a recreation by Siegel of Action No. 1? It may not be real, but I think I can make the signature look pretty good.

What am I missing here? It is by Christoph Blain, and apparently, this is page 22 of AMERTUME APACHE. The bargain price is only 20,000 euro's. And if you like it, there are a whole bunch more which were just posted from 8,000 euro's to 20,000 euro's, as well as some colored pieces which are a bit more. I am guessing this was a misprint, and he meant to write 200.00 euro's. Tony Daniel made a similar mistake on two other posts recently (I sent him some email about them). But if this is really 20,000 euro's, he is really over-valuing the market for this puppy. I don't think I would go for 200 euro's.

Thanks.

Does anyone know how to reach Javier Fernandez (via email) to buy some art? I see that he is represented by Nutopi, but what I am looking for isn't there. I have sent an inquiry to them, but they might not respond. I also found him on CAF, but he hasn't posted anything for 30 days, and he may not be very active.

But then, you can't move the art around to different Itoya's (which I do). "I do try to keep track of what I have and where it is from, but I also move art to different places and Itoya's. That throws off the recordation of information. Now, I mostly use a shorthand title, like "AparoPS20-4" for Jim Aparo, Phantom Stranger issue 20, p. 4 or "Barry:S-2019" (Barry Sketch, 2019)." Since you asked, I take photo's of all the artwork and save it on my computer. Then, I use a naming convention to let me know what it is in list form in Windows. "AparoPS20-4" tells me it is by Jim Aparo, Phantom Stranger issue 20, page 4 (he was only the artist for the Second Series. If he was the artist on multiple series, the code would be Aparo2PS20-4. That would be the Second Series, same book and page number. I also abbreviate where I can to try and keep the name short (e.g., Brave & Bold would be BB or B&B). Same with names like Sienkewicz which would get shortened to "Sienk". The "S" designation tells me it is a sketch or commission.

"Fresh to Market" doesn't entice me to buy; it does tell me I won't find a prior history of sales on the piece. That's useful information, and might mean the price for sale of the piece can vary more than pieces which are a little shopworn. Unless the Bros. have it.

How do you tie the physical location of a piece to the information on your spreadsheets? I like to move my art around, and it has frustrated my attempts to find related information on any sort of organized table. Do you assign a permanent number to the piece which you add to the spreadsheet and track it that way? Any ideas?

Following up, I keep thinking of starting a thread on dubious Bruce Timm artwork. Someone has the signature down pretty well, but there have been more than a few suspicious eBay pieces I have seen this past year or two.

I understand the need to know what you've got and where it is from, and for those who sell and trade, it makes more sense to keep some detailed additional notes, but that's not my situation. I do try to keep track of what I have and where it is from, but I also move art to different places and Itoya's. That throws off the recordation of information. Now, I mostly use a shorthand title, like "AparoPS20-4" for Jim Aparo, Phantom Stranger issue 20, p. 4 or "Barry:S-2019" (Barry Sketch, 2019). Do others use photo titles as a way to record important information in a systematic way?

For what it is, I don't agree. It is a head shot. Head shots, by and large, do not lend themselves to great art. To me, they are like an artist's signature more than art itself. I have a personal bias because of the subject and artist, but I know its limits. Besides, who wouldn't want Leslie Neilson in a trench coat? (There was another actor who it looks even more like, just can't place the name). Look at all the headshots done by Perez or Adams floating around lately Their skills may be evident in the piece, although not always, but they are simply not great art. The point I was trying to make, however, is that if you compare the fluidity of the line in Barry's piece, it has a certain sense of experience to it. Now look at the fake Shusters. They have a hesitancy to them, particularly the coloration, like the artist wasn't sure about what to do next. And sometimes, like the bystander's face in one of them, they blow it. A pro may do a bad face, but not one that looks amateurish, different sort of mess-up.

Did the artist use crayons on it? Sure looks that way.

I'm sure. Watch out for papercuts.

It just seems to me to be lousy artwork. Would you buy a lousy Picasso just because it had his apparent signature? Frankly, I am no expert on his art, but it doesn't look like the artwork of a professonal artist. This piece is simply crude. Look at the image I posted from Sy Barry, who is in his early 90's, and it doesn't show the sort of crudeness in this piece which would evidence a skill deterioration. I have also seen Ramona Fredon's recent sketches, and while they are not at the level of her published work, they are not crude like this either.

I hope all you spreadsheet fans know how this sounds? Who needs art: we've got our spreadsheets.

That I understand. 👍