Rick2you2

First of all, I really like it. Whether as a parody of Miller's work or just a middle-aged Batguy, it brings a smile. Go one step farther, and you can see the quality of the detailing combined with the way the artist created a mood for an image which is absurd for the mood. It's a lot of fun. So with art appreciation, I think the first question is whether it resonates with the viewer. If the answer is yes, it's good. If the answer is no, it can still be good but it might not be to the viewer's taste. Regarding your comment about Pollack, you are introducing that second level of consideration: the audience. I'm a big fan of Piet Mondrian, and in his own way, you might consider his work to be junk as well. But there, you have to consider the audience. Mondrian's work is deliberately cool: it forces the viewer to focus on the elements he brings to the fore: the balance between lines and shapes, color and shade. So too, but in a different way, with Pollack. There, you are looking for the balance between abstract splashes of color and shape, and the patterns which seem to form from randomness. That's why Pollack is brilliant, and imitators are not--he knew where the balance was. But again, it's the audience. With comic book art, I think you have to similarly look at it in the context of: (1) do you like it; and (2) will someone like it who knows what they are looking at. Moreover, it should be viewed in the context of what it is: something designed to illustrate a story. Artists who showboat are doing a disservice to their readers. They show off their technical skills to the detriment of the package. When looking at comic art, I like to see whether the art is designed to "move" the story. So, I am particularly appreciative of creative panel work, particularly if the artist is stuck with a lot of text. For commissions, I'm more lenient--do I feel what the artist is conveying? If so, it's good. The more I want to see it again, the better it is.

Gee, I wonder what dealer does that? [not really]

Then don't buy it. The worst he can say is no.

The potential seller may be testing the market, but if I really wanted the page, I would have made a starting offer. What's the harm in that?

The parking will be more expensive.

I would really like to get some artwork from the first Phantom Stranger Series, so, I guess the Holy Grail would be the first cover.

I'm not knowledgeable about how site scraping works, but why can't CAT scrape the underlying sites instead of CAF? That wouldn't be blocked. Is there an additional cost of doing business that way?

Let me give you a real life example. Let's say you want to build a building and you are a contractor. The job should take 4 months of "straight time". That is a "known known". For scheduling purposes, however, you should account for delays due to weather. You check historical records in the area, and discover that, on average, there may be 10 rain days in this 4 month period. So if you are scheduling a completion date, you add 10 days to the 4 months. That is a "known unknown." But, let's say a hurricane hits and it stops the work for another 10 days. Since your area typically doesn't have any hurricanes, that is an "unknown unknown." Clear?

I really like Anthony, and I understand what you are saying. But even if they are not full-timers, there are a number of dealers who seem to have a substantial amount of wealth tied up in OA. Now, let me add my earlier comment from a few days ago back into the mix: this is a hobby which has a declining long-term horizon. So, it isn't just those whales who are likely to get beached. I just hope that people who shell out for even Kirby/Sinnott FF realize that they can be burned just as easily as the occasional Dutch Tulip Bulb speculator did in the 1620's.

As someone with a bit of knowledge of economics and business, what happens in overpriced markets is a "hollowing out" effect. A price is set for a particular piece (generally based on market conditions which existed at one time), but no one else buys it at that price. The potential seller thinks the piece should sell for that amount, because another one had done so once before, and he/she won't lower it. So it stays off the market--until the seller has so much money tied up in inventory he has to sell at "depressed" prices. That's the "collapse" in the phrase "overshoot and collapse". Everything falls apart sharply (like with the Dutch tulip bulbs). I once spoke to a dealer in Persian rugs who had a "specimen" piece he bought in the 1980's and which was then worth over $1,000,000, he said. I knew the market for regular oriental rugs has dropped about 30% since then (due to oversupply, more so than "loss of interest"). He also admitted that at current prices, he didn't think he could get $500,000. But, he was willing to hold onto it because he wanted his price. Logically, that doesn't make sense, but that's the way it works. And, there are already whiffs of it. About 5 years ago, I saw a Neil Adams cover I liked. The dealer wanted $25,000 for it, which he said at the time was really high (no, it wasn't a Batman or GL/GA cover). The dealer is still holding it, but now he wants $80,000 for it because of the price of other Adams covers. By failing to turn over inventory to meet market, he's lost the opportunity to make profits on interim deals, and is essentially taking a piece off the market. So, while "sell, sell sell" makes sense, it won't likely happen until things get really, really off-kilter.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a Bruce Timm Phantom Stranger image they may want to sell?

I think what they are doing, unintentionally, is recreating the infamous Dutch Tulip Bulb mania in the 1600's. There, prices of tulip bulbs kept going up in price, and people decided they could make a lot of money at it. They bid up the prices even higher, bringing in more speculators. Eventually, the prices got really high, too high to sustain the market. Everything crashed and a lot of people lost a lot of money. To this day the story is taught to young economics students--it is an example of "overshoot and collapse." I like buying and looking at art as a hobby. Some of it is really good. But this is commercial art which is substantially targeted at a nostalgia market and it has limited general appeal. Furthermore, its future isn't that hot; there aren't a lot of kids buying comics these days. How many books sell 100,000 copies per issue? As many of us slowly age and die off, interest will go the way of antique marbles and train sets. As that happens, prices which were once reached will never find an equivalent buyer again. The market will get hollowed and crash--like the Tulip bulbs. I give it around 20 years before a major re-set. I don't know how many people spend gillions of dollars on art, but for their families, I hope it's throwaway money.

I'm pretty much in the same place as you are, and frankly, I think the prices on some of the stuff I have seen is really stiff. This is a small market with limited appeal, and I think it's an ageing one, too. So who is going to be spending this kind of money in 20 years when a lot of collectors are in their Social Security years?

Why is it famous?

First, let me say that this a terrific site you have. Second, if you are interested in another project, have you considered a "pencil and ink" linker? A growing number of artists don't sell inked original art (working digitally), and as for me, I generally won't buy pages which consist of just pencils. Perhaps there is a way in which the inkers and pencillers can scan in their work to a site and the program automatically links the two pages? It would also automatically combine what each artist wants to be paid into a single price. Then, someone could buy the inked and penciled pages as a unit.

If I bought a flatbed, what do you do about over-sized pieces of art (or 2 page spreads)? Do any of you know of easy-to-use stitching software?

I see it's considered as a filter in Photoshop. I'll have to play around with it.

I do use the keyword selector, but it only picks up keywords from people who post art which includes the character I am looking for in their description. By looking at a decent-sized thumbnail, I can pretty quickly see if the hat and cloak of the Phantom Stranger character appear.

I have been taking photo's of my artwork with my cellphone, and I haven't been too pleased with the results. The detailing is excellent, but the photo's make the artwork look skewed or off-center. While I can partially fix the basic images, they never look as good as some posted art in which the pages make perfect rectangles, perfectly centered. Is there a way to make those great images I sometimes see without professional machinery? I do have Photoshop, but I don't think that will solve my problem (or at least I haven't figured it out, yet).

Is there some way to make the thumbnails slightly bigger? I collect by the character, and it can be hard to spot the characters on small thumbnails. Were you saying that you plan to have a hover feature which expands the thumbnail to a larger size if we keep our cursor over it? If not, is that doable?

Just tried it out, and it's really good. Since it is still in Beta, is there any way you can increase the sharpness of the thumbnails for viewing (without slowing it down)? Sometimes, the detailing is too blurry.

You can find things at con's which you cannot find on-line; and for the most part, they are from artists who have things which were buried in the basement. But sometimes, you can also find dealer stock which either the dealer did not put on-line or has labelled (or mis-labelled) it in a way which made it impossible to find. And by the way, one of the nicest parts about going to the con's is to talk to the artists and writers themselves. They will tell you things they would never put on-line (including really juicy stories and some savage opinions).

Hi everyone, First, let me say that I am new to these boards. I didn't know they existed until recently. I am a Phantom Stranger fan, and I collect Phantom Stranger artwork. I am always on the lookout for interesting items to add to my collection, and I was wondering if anyone has any they would consider selling? If you would only consider a trade, and there is something for sale "out there", I would also consider buying it and swapping (I've done that). I prefer original artwork, but also buy commissions and sketches. My current unsatisfied obsessions are Bruce Timm and Howard Chaykin, but anything can interest me (more so on the published work than the commissions or sketches). If you have already posted it in Comic Art Fans or eBay (and the character's name is in the title or description), you can assume I have seen it and have passed it by (at least for now). PS is a unique character, by the way, and I wish he were better used in the comics than he is. Other characters focus more on trying to stop bad acts. The "classic" PS (not the Series 4 version) is more focused on trying to change a bad actor's motivation. That's got to be a tough sort of plot to write. Anyway, thanks for reading this. Rick