Rick2you2

Regarding the earlier suspicious activities about Dillin artwork, the above piece with Despero just sold last night for $850, or with the Buyer's Premium for $1,020. That's in line with Lee's earlier predictions of price and slightly less than another piece from the prior week. Which means, that the two Dillin JLA pages which sold for well over $3,000 each are clearly outliers and remain as apparent examples of shill bidding used to drive up the market price. It also supports my theory that what all of us write on these boards influences the prices being bid. The prices came down after I attacked those earlier $3,000 amounts, as well as his artwork, and many people who commented felt the Dillin prices were more a function of nostalgia than anything else. There are a bunch more coming up on Heritage in 2 weeks. I'm curious if we have seen the last of the $3,000 Dillins.

Curiously, I've been doing the same thing.

I went to NY Wintercon recently, found nothing I wanted, but decided I still did not want to leave completely empty-handed. I had remembered for a while that DC brought back the Legion of Super-pets, so it occured to me that maybe the Phantom Stranger needed a pet. And what could be a better pet for him than a banded Ferret? It even came with its own mask. So, here is Kristen Gudsnuk's rendition. The spelling is mine. No, it will never be considered a masterpiece of OA, but it's still fun.

I think the answer to the question is partly dependent on the amount he gets for pages which he can sell. I would not be the only buyer.

I had brought up the subject to Howard Chaykin, who does separate panels and then assembles them in Photoshop. He pointed out how much time it saves and the ease of correcting errors. I responded that his older panels pages made terrific use of borders which he can’t replicate using his current approach. He didn’t disagree, and was a bit wistful, but he went back to the economics of it. So I bought some panels.

No, they have always had fans. But the benefit of the medium just became better appreciated. So, why not help it along a little here? I can live without a typical 6 panel by John Doe. But I was sad to learn this 2 page spread can never be for sale (even while I can see how using the computer would aid layout):

They also said that about vinyl records.

I wanted to mention that as I write this on Friday morning, this Dillin piece's last bid is $234. With the homage to JLA #1, I would expect this to do better in the bidding right now if this were a normal market. Who knows? Maybe it too will climb to over $3,000.

Maybe doing the layouts and basic images on the computer, lightboxing them onto Bristol Board and then doing a little pencilling plus inking for a final product. But I'm no artist and I don't know if that works. It does seem to me it would give the benefit of efficiency and still preserve an orignal product.

Without asking you what you make, and is none our business, would you know what sort of range is more realistic? From a techical perspective, so you basically do a rough layout on the computer and then do a detailed drawing by hand? But is the reason solely because of potential sales? What I'm simply trying to figure out is a way to encourage production of future original comic art for sale. Any good ideas?

I'm good with that. There is a single final product.

You can do that easily in Illustrator.

Great information. Interesting how DC pays more for colors than inks, but Marvel is the opposite.

There are special programs for 3D imaging of people. For simple objects, rotation and revolution is easy. The more sophticated objects don't necessarily work that well. But, for traditional work, an artist can also use a paste-up, too. Any idea what a typical DC or Marvel page rate for combined inking and pencilling might be? Perhaps Mr. Inkin' can share his knowledge?

The artist in question changed to using computers 3 years ago. He volunteered that. I play with Adobe Illustrator. It can make some parts of the work easier, and others tougher--the learning curve is stiff.

Be that as it may, how does the money issue break down? That's what I'm curious about. You would be surprised how many people in their daily lives don't evaluate costs and benefits very well. If I find an opportunity to make money or save money, and there is no major downside, absolutely.

I was disappointed to learn recently that a very nice page of artwork was not available because it was done on the computer. Since there is an original art market, I was wondering if that is really a smart trade-off for artists to make. For example, assume a completed page earns the artist $250 (I don't know the answer to this). If done on the computer, it only takes 6 hours or $41.67 per hour. Using traditional methods, it takes 8 hours which would be $31.25 per hour. But the traditional method lets the artist sell the artwork later, so assume he or she can get $100 per page for it. That is an hourly rate of $43.75. In that case, using the computer only makes sense if there is some other value to it (flexibility in preparation, ease at fixing errors, that sort of thing). Perhaps some people here would know the answer. If it's favorable to OA collectors, I would love to pitch the point back at the artists.

Tell me about it.

I don't follow this artist. What should it be?

If I were bidding and could tolerate the pricing, I would have gone with wedding. I have a soft spot for scenes like that over typical action scenes. Do you have any idea how rare romantic Phantom Stranger pages are?

It wasn't just the JLA page with the Phantom Stranger on it. It was also $3,840 for the Adam Strange wedding page--a character so lacking in current appeal that DC just cancelled the planned two volume reprint of his Strange Adventure stories. I would be surprised if this happens again for a long time.

It ended higher at $1,380 with BP. Higher than previous market but not insanely higher. I could see that as the result of regular bidders. If that price holds, well, I hope the owners enjoy their wins.

Something else to consider are the power of words posted here. Since my lively debate with Vodou on Friday evening, I have been monitoring another Dillin piece on Heritage. It was moving up nicely, and as the discussion ended, no more bidding—leaving it exactly within your predicted range. While bidding is still open as I write this, it leads me to think people are paying attention to what we write, and we are contributing to setting prices.

If it were in my wheelhouse, I could see how the Adam Strange wedding page could have gone for a little over $1,000.00. Hell, it could have been drawn by anyone and generated some money. But $3,500+? Sekowsky, IMO, was a better artist. His art is addressed to children, which may become evident if you look at how he displays anatomy and character poses. Showy and not necessarily realistic.

I hope you are right. It is Saturday morning and the current JLA Dillin piece is at $700 already with about 36 hours to go.