Rick2you2

May it sit there and rot.

You are looking at it from a different angle, but from that angle it depends on the circumstances. If someone sold me something "as a friend", he has a right to be mightily pissed off if it were flipped. If not for the friendship, he may have kept it. But if it is a semi-commercial deal, with 2 people regularly buying and selling to each other, then not at all.

I think it was something like "Jagged Edge". It also has a lot of "dead time" in which suspense was supposed to build. After several pages, I went into "skim and be done mode." I don't know where it is, but I probably dropped it off at Goodwill Industries with some others (An excellent place to send old comics which you don't want and aren't worth selling). The problem with so many books whch I have read is that I can no longer suspend disbelief to get through them--I know too much. How is it that any cities are being rebuilt after being devastated by some supervillain? The money would mostly come from property insurance companies, and they would be nuts to write policies in a place by Metropolis. Federal disaster relief aid would have to be consuming at least 25% of the budget in whatever world is occupied by the Hulk, etc. Yet none of this is ever brought up. And then, we have the bad science. For example (not the only one, just one I have handy), is in Howard Chaykin's recent series "The Divided States of Hysteria." A woman has a "snatch" nuclear device which blows up a city shortly after she gets off a plane. Guess what? No way. The radiation shielding would have to be huge to give her even temporary protection, and without it, she would start to be really sick within 20 minutes of exposure (vomiting, skin and hair falling out, physical weakness, etc). She'd be dead in 1-3 days.Then, there is the little matter of weight--uranium is the heaviest natural element in the world, and she would need about 15 lbs. of it, plus an explosive device and casing, for there to be a bomb. That's one big snatch, braced, persumably, to hold the weight. And while we are at it, how did it get through the metal detector? Uranium and plutonium are both metals. This is why I lean towards the supernatural where science goes out the window. I hope the writers on your list, who I may well try, stay with either personal interactive stories, or at least don't go with fake realism. Suggestions?

For all it is worth, my comment regarding art was really directed at the Big Two. I actually have bought alternative books, and have always done so. I bought American Flagg when it first came out, Rocketeer, Concrete (excellent), Badger, and a bunch of others. Some have been good. Others have been uneven, but with a worthwhile premise. One recent one, for example, is called "Mid-Life Crisis." The premise is about a middle-aged, mid-level powered superhero who never achieves stardom (except for his 9 month stint in the equivalent of the JLA), and has now reached his "mid-life crisis". Its focus, at least in the first issue, was about how it is impacting him and his family as human beings. The second issue, unfortunately, wasted a little too much time on the superheroing aspects instead of the human aspects. Maybe the third (which I haven't seen) will be better focused on the initial premise. When I go to shows, I also like to try and sample what is there. Some is interesting, some is derivative, some is just plain weird, like the book about a high school serial killer who is a good guy.

How can an ink job not lose value from straight pencils? Inks are (with rare exceptions) black line or no line. They only vary by thickness and can be used for fill. Pencils have shades of grey.

Yet another reason it is so hard for me to find comic stories I like, and want to read, as compared to skimming and abandoning. On to other stuff.

I wasn't referring to pages without word balloons, but no, sequential art loses something important without dialog--context. I offer the following as an example of what I mean. This is a Legends page on eBay (no, I am not a bidder). In my opinion, what makes the page work as commercial art is the dialog (and underlying plot). You get to read the philosophical debate of the 2 leads, and see how the art both complements and amplifies it. If you want to say it is a symbiosis, that's fine. But without knowing the dialog, it could be a really pointless bit of art: a ranging shot of a mountain and some mechanical rubbish beneath it, Darkseid pointing to something with the Phantom Stranger behind; and then a giant yelling at the sky. Here is some fake dialog to show how important the real stuff is: Panel 1: PS. "Hey Darkseid, can you please tell your minions to clean that junk off the mountain base? The locals are planning a road rally tomorrow and it's blocking a curve." D. "Sorry about that Stranger. Granny Goodness always was a slob." Panel 2: D. "Hey Stranger, why is that pizza delivery man outside our mountain hideway?" PS. "Uh, well..." Panel 3: B: "Where's that a-hole who gave me a credit card number which expired!"

Since I know there are some inkers who pop up here, any of them care to comment?

In my view, comic art must be viewed in the context for which it is created. Fine art is context-independent--who cares where the Mona Lisa hangs? But comic art is like architecture, and that is very much dependent upon the surroundings. If you ever read an architectural review, you will see how the reviewer always comments on how a structure fits in with the surroundings. In the case of comic art, the surroundings are the story--because the art is designed to move the story, not the other way around (unless you are Neal Adams writing a Deadman mini-series which seems more designed to later maximize OA sales than present a good story). Looking at a panel in which a character is expressing, say, exasperation at someone, without knowing why, loses important information. Did the artist fairly illustrate an emotion and response based on the subject at hand? That's why word balloons matter. If you don't care whether the artist is doing justice to a story, you may as well buy sketches. As for overlays, I don't plan to spend hours doing a clip and glue job. If someone wants to run a business and charge me $25 per page to do it for me, let me know. You said "embrace change." If the change stinks, why should I? I may have to stomach it, but I sure won't embrace it.

Got anything for sale while headed on the way down?

No, you've got company on that one. As it is, I think the art is less interesting without the word balloons. The art is supposed to move the story, and the word balloons tell the story.

No. I was really tempted to write something snarky, but the guy is doing to the best he can at a part-time job.

Don't know, but it sounds interesting if anything is posted.

An update. I sent Spencer an email and he promptly responded that he was running behind. So, no, we have not been forgotten.

That is a 56% return on investment. You will excuse me, but yes, that would annoy me as a flip. It would not annoy me as a 2 year hold.

Honestly, I find it outrageous to have to pay $50+ to park in NYC, let alone get there or put up with the noise, etc. If this were a regular comicon, that's different. There is more to see and do. But for this stuff, I would rather have a smaller, less expensive, quieter environment. Maybe next year, it can be moved to a different Borough, or out of NYC entirely. But, good luck on your new venture. The more competition, the merrier.

For those of you who like to generally think about OA, and have a little time on your hands... What makes an ink job great? We have all seen great looking inked pages, but if you separate the ink from the pencils, what exactly does the inker do to improve the piece? A pencilled piece is easy to figure out in the sense that the penciller works with a blank piece of paper. The inker, however, is part of a "sandwich" between the penciller and the colorist. He doesn't get to use shades, like a penciller, nor colors, like the colorist. But inkers do get the blame by some pencillers if they don't think their work was well inked. Supposedly, Mike Sekowsky used to complain about that regularly, but to be frank, his weird anatomical positioning of characters can only be his own fault. And about "greatness", I don't mean something generic, like the inker "pulls out the pencils". I mean specific things you have seen by specific artists which demonstrate greatness as an inker. How they do something different which sets them apart. If anyone has inked two copies of the same pencil page, that would be a terrific way to show the difference. But whatever your thoughts, have some fun with this.

Pencil art is for thinking; ink is for pop. Sometimes, I feel like thinking; sometimes I want pop.

No.....

It was sold for $7K!

You're a lucky man. It's a shame that no one can do a pencil/ink matching program.

That makes me feel a lot better, and squares with the suspicion I had just posted a few seconds ago.

Do you remember Sherlock Holmes? He used to say that if you eliminate all the alternatives which are impossible, then the one you are left with, no matter how improbable, is the right answer. I've seen a lot of misunderstandings turn into unnecessary arguments by people who have skipped that step. Why not just ask him why he feels he has to sell the cover? What happened to the guy who offered $2,800? See if the bits of information string together into something which makes sense, no matter how implausible it may be. As I've said before, I like Dave. I wouldn't want to change my opinion of him based on a misunderstanding.

I've also dealt with Dave before, and he's always struck me as an honest, decent guy, too. When looking closely at what you wrote, it said: "So yesterday Dave emails me and says that he has the piece, describes the condition, tells me his payment conditions, BUT theres "another guy" who's made an offer for $300 more than I did, so someone has offered him $2,800 for the piece. " Did he actually say that he wouldn't sell it to you unless you went to $2,800 (or more), or is it possible that he was just trying to convey the idea that you got a good deal and said it poorly? If he could have been trying to say the second thing, this may have been a misunderstanding, and it would square with my sense of him that he was an honest dealer.

My ex used to dictate the value of peace.