Rick2you2

I passed on the Jae Lee cover. I wasn’t willing to pay $1,300 for it 6-7 years ago. This time I went that high, not counting BP, but couldn’t like it enough to go higher. Nevertheless , if one of the other three PS Covers come up, that’s a whole different story…

On 11/18/2023 at 4:20 PM, alxjhnsn said:

You are soliciting commissions. 

 

I agree with Alex on this. 

Nice work, by the way.

On 11/17/2023 at 10:16 PM, redrighthand said:

My 1.33 cents. The Liefeld price is spot on, if not low.

it's his Mona Lisa. What do I mean by that? It's his most recognizable and well-known piece. People who don't know comics, know this.

Nobody gave a rat's anything about the Mona Lisa for 400 years. It's not DaVinci's best work. Not really even close. Nobody outside of the serious art world cared about it until it was stolen in 1911. Now it gets mobbed on a daily basis by people who think it's the most amazing art thing ever - it's not even the top ten best things in Louvre. It's potential value and its interest is derived from it being a historical artifact more than being a piece of art (whether the layman realizes it or not)

So there it is. It's the Mona Lisa.  

Prior to 1911, most people’s view of art was pretty much limited to landscapes (like the Hudson School), military monuments and family portraits. They were busy trying to grow food and earn a little money while not dying from disease or in one of those charming little wars the Europeans apparently loved so much. The Mona Lisa may have gained notoriety in 1911, but lots of people knew about the Mona Lisa before then. Napoleon even hung it in his bedroom. DeVinci also wanted to boost public interest in the painting by carrying it around while working on it in order to have it gain attention. The realism and pose of the woman were very unusual at the time it was done, and he knew it (as did his contemporaries).

The Liefield piece is ugly. Mona Lisa would not have been smiling if she saw it, except if she knew PT Barnum’s saying “There is a sucker born every minute”.

For fans of manga and anime, Yu Yu Hakashu is coming to Netflix in December. So, if you can find some OA, …

On 11/14/2023 at 4:37 PM, inscrutable said:

my dudes, just collect what makes you happy

Absolutely.

I’m still waiting for “Brother Power: the Geek, Part 1”

On 11/13/2023 at 10:51 PM, tth2 said:

Charles Schulz Peanuts sucks, it's an old comic strip about old characters that only old fogeys remember, with an old school art style that no one under the age of 60 can appreciate. 

Buying this piece would basically be dead money, especially when there are so many pieces by Liefeld, McFarlane and Lee in this auction that are much more relevant to the demographic that drives the OA hobby.

Look at the piece with properly modern disdain and then just walk away.

It’s reprinted in dailies. 
I do want to point out the Pogo was very popular once, but compare the prices now.

On 11/13/2023 at 8:25 AM, tth2 said:

The Great Crash--it's finally here!!!! 

That really isn’t the way “ overshoot and collapse” works. Whether this is evidence of a broader market retrenchment is a tougher question. When there is a “great crash”, there is usually a “hollowing out” of the market in which so-so pieces don’t hold their value. Then the hollow gets wider as better and worse pieces start to slip. Eventually, as with Persian rugs after the 1980’s, you get a stratification. The best pieces maintain their book value, even if no one wants to spend that kind of money, while the lower end survives. Don’t forget, even after Tulipmania ended, tulips still cost a little money.

For this auction, lots of possibilities. Perhaps the pieces just aren’t in a lot of people’s interests (tastes do change). Also, it may be that discretionary funds have tightened up now that the pandemic is over, and discretionary buys are down (go to any good restaurants lately?). Or, buying strategies have changed (why throw in a bid which is going to lose?). Or we are just seeing the continuing “aging out” process where older wealthier people don’t want to buy and not enough new comic buyers are stimulating demand. Or, too many prices were artificially inflated by dealers and speculators, and the chickens have come home to roost. 

Personally, I think it’s a mix. And, I wouldn’t count on yesterday’s hit staying at the top.
 

On 11/13/2023 at 5:10 AM, Matches_Malone said:

I know there are a few days left, but prices are exceptionally low. 

I stopped placing early bids which weren’t going to win since they just drive the final price up. 

On 11/12/2023 at 5:50 PM, KirbyCollector said:

Bill makes most of his money from dealer/auction house advertising... you don't disturb the geese laying your golden eggs 

Two pieces I had seen were posted by non-dealers (one is a part time dealer who doesn’t advertise) at exactly the same price they have been listed for already. I didn’t need to go through, what, 200 screens for that.

I can’t help but wondering if we’re just a bunch of “old f*rts” when it comes to pricing, and this stuff is still selling but to newer collectors.

Saw a Bruce Timm headshot for $400. No personal interest, and probably gone by now. Same with everything else. Nothing appealing.

On 11/9/2023 at 3:26 PM, KirbyCollector said:

Are you from NJ? Only people from Jesery are this big of a knob

Are you kidding? We used to be known as the Soprano State. We have a Senator under indictment who had gold bars in his house. Panty-wastes can go join Jimmy Hoffa’s body parts in the Meadowlands.

On 11/9/2023 at 10:42 AM, artdealer said:

What do you think?

Yea, well, maybe I’ll get lucky. What’s that old saw about if you ask 100 women at random whether they would sleep with you, one will say yes?

What I want to know is whether we will see another large pile of overpriced pieces and a teensy-weensy stack of good buys. 

On 11/7/2023 at 8:55 PM, redrighthand said:

Why own the art, then?  

To look at it when I am not in my home-office, like traveling, or too lazy to get out of bed, among other reasons.

On 11/7/2023 at 12:21 PM, alxjhnsn said:

I should have mentioned this on my first post. I my best pieces framed and hanging, but I also have a book stand upon which I place a portfolio. Each day, I turn the page to see new art. It works for me. Here are some pictures of the book stand in use:

 

Here's the framed and hung art.

Jeremy Bastian Cursed Pirate Girl on the far left. Art Baltazar's Action Cat. David Wright's Carol Day - consecutive strips from my favorite story, Problem Child. Percy Crosby's Skippy cut off the top. Curt Swan's Superbly, Mon-El and Shadow Lass. Boring/Shuster Superman strip. Frank Brunner's Howard the Duck vs. Donald Duck. Kaluza's Shadow and Margo.

Sheldon Mayer's Santa and Rudolph (front and back covers tell a story), Colored print of a LSH commission by Yale Stewart. LSH painting by Agnes Garbowska

Frank Brunner's Dr. Strange and friends. Tolkien's Middle Earth map recreated and scaled larger by me. Al Plastino's Adventure 247 LSH splash re-created. Sekowsky/Sachs JLA 29 (my first comic!) page. Gene Colan DD & BW commission.

David Petersen's Mouse Guard (Kenzie). Sheldon Mayer's birthday card for his mom. Swan Superman. Patrick McDonnell Earl and Mooch. Sheldon Mayer's Sugar and Spike (his sample Sunday when he tried to sell it as a newspaper strip). Carey Bat Lash. Stan Lynde's Rick O'Shay at Christmas.

I just scan them into my computer, put them on a thumb drive, and look at them on my iPad. Not as good as the binders, but very convenient and portable.

Looks like it is just an overlay of word balloons on what is probably a copy of the art. Not much value there, but interesting.

On 11/4/2023 at 9:40 AM, AndyFish said:

I'm probably re-iterating what a lot of you are saying with this, and Christos especially-- as an artist who is selective about commissions I'll do-- the best ones are always what do you feel like drawing?    At Salt Lake City last year or the year before I had a guy who came up to me with a pile of reference, all of it female manga type art-- and he throws a pile of cash down and gives me incredibly detailed instructions as to what he wants.  I hand him back his money and tell him I'm going to pass-- he looks at me like I have five heads.  I tell him I'm not going to be happy drawing this and you're not going to be happy with the results.   Important to note he chose me after looking through my portfolio of Dark Knights and Zombies/Vampires-- how did he think I fit into his teen girl cleavage theme?

On the flip side, the few times I will order a commission I exclusively go with "do what you feel like drawing today" and I've always been happy with it.  My wife often commissions with a specific character in mind and I'd say she's happy about 50% of the time.

So yes, there is a gamble, but you're paying for a commission and for many of us even if you're an editor of a major company if you over art direct there's a good chance we aren't going to take the gig.

The other thing I'm adamant on is communication-- I don't ghost anyone and I don't make up phantom relatives that have died.   I keep you in the loop, because that's how I want to be treated.  I have a well known artist who still owes me a commission and we're going on seven years now.

Maybe he wanted something like Zombie Tramp?
I have heard more than a few artists complain about excess direction, but the question the  potential customer should ask is how much is too much? Presumably, positioning arms and legs is a no-no. Does it otherwise vary by artist? 

On 11/4/2023 at 8:04 AM, AnkurJ said:

Most genius people are initially questioned. 

So are m***ns , but I think I’ll well enough alone.

On 11/3/2023 at 11:33 PM, Michael Browning said:

There’s too much good art out there for me to waste my time and money …

Which is why the amounts people will spend on some art is, and remains, astonishing to me.

On 11/3/2023 at 8:14 AM, KirbyCollector said:

Spent the year collecting whatever caught my eye, high or low. It was fun, but I am going to spend 2024 unwinding my older pieces to raise cash. If what I think happens will happen with the economy, 2024 will be analogous to 2008 -- meaning there will be tremendous opportunities to buy everything (real estate especially) at a discount in 2025 and for a few years afterward. 

I think 2024 will be a mixed bag. Reasonably solid positive economic growth through April, slight down, stable thereafter (unless there is a major war). There is no reason for a crash. Commercial real estate will even stabilize.

I broke my promise to myself after buying a big piece (for me at least) in March, and still bought a bunch of little ones afterward. I remain annoyed that budgeting cost me a prelim to Animal Man 26 (I doubt I would buy the final if it ever came up). But, those little ones included some gems which make me happy. Still would like to end the year with a bang. So would my better half.

On 10/31/2023 at 7:43 AM, Michael Browning said:

None of that really matters, though, unless you want to sit around and agonize about a loss, thinking “what if I’d only bid another $1,000?”, right? If you don’t go big as you can, that question might always linger in your mind.

Not my mind, though, because I go big when I really want something that badly and I’ve never lost doing that.

Yes, I might jack up prices on all future Ambush Bug, US 1, Team America and Crystar covers, but that’s a natural progression in this very young collecting community of ours for all original art. Like Overstreet always told collectors, your comics increase in value every year. It’s the same with OA.

I will take the blame for setting the bar high on those Ambush Bug covers, so anyone who goes after the next one needs to know I always go big on those and you’d better bid as high as you can to beat me. 😉

I don’t think he ever appeared with the Phantom Stranger, but I will keep it in mind.

Go East, young men. (apologies to Horace Greeley).