BCarter27

And why aren't they on this Board? Assuming they skew younger...shouldn't they be even more plugged in than older, stodgier generations? Or are they not younger? Or is this Board "lame" to them for some reason (too many "old" guys around?!) This board is awesome, but it is the equivalent of "going deep". That's why something like a Tumblr feed or iTunes podcast about OA will be much more accessible to the younger and or newer and or casual collector. And everyone on here is a stodgy old fart with their own lingo, inside jokes, and agenda. :-)

You do see this a lot, but this is where a rep is needed to push those issues out the door as they come in... building the artist's market while the iron is hot. Of course, a lot of this depends on the quality of the artist and the book's profile/sales too. I think the thing about the vintage market is that a cherry-picking of sorts has already happened because we only see a fraction of it. Gobs of bad to mediocre stuff -- from even after the Big Two started handing art back -- must have been thrown away by the artists or their heirs. Or maybe I am wrong and it's all just sitting in closets somewhere. I have a few artists from the Copper era that I lust after and I can't possibly fathom where all of the art from their 20-30 year career went. It was either destroyed or just sold off piecemeal over the years. I seriously doubt there are collectors hoarding hundreds of pages, but who knows? Prices were so cheap back then. I guess it's possible. But it's more likely that there are just a silent majority of "soft" OA collectors out there sitting on 1-2 pages. That "dark matter" of OA collectors and their heirs might inadvertently prop up prices longer than we expect... even after all of the BSDs and known dealers cash out. Speaking of dealers, how are the major ones planning to close out? Will the business stay in the family, be sold off to a competitor, or inventory liquidated in progressive sales? Anyone know of any future plans? How have some of the retired, past dealers closed out?

About the museum donation thing... I don't know why this idea always rubs me the wrong way. Maybe the thought of so many pieces being out of play takes the fun out of the game and this is pure selfishness on my part. However, unless your art has some kind of social relevance (AF 15, GL GA drug issue, Ali vs. Superman, Crumb, Mad, Bechdel, etc.) I think there is a lot of hubris in thinking a museum/library/university would want it. They really aren't going to appreciate it the way your fellow collectors will. And it will probably just turn into a burden on the institution to be deaccessioned later. Meanwhile, we all will have to drive to the Univ of Toledo to see those What If and Blue Devil pages you donated!

I would think Mark Hay, Felix, Essential Sequential, and the like would have a better handle on the modern OA collecting population. ComicLink skews the youngest out of the auction house (outside of ebay). ComicConnect and Heritage are getting the older, wealthier crowd.

I think a correction might occur to vintage super-hero art at around the 30 year mark, but I don't think it will crash as hard as comics, vinyl, books, or sports cards. The one-of-a-kind aspect is still alluring enough and I think the remaining second-gen collectors (as in the group right after the group that bought the last physical art) will still be propping up prices to some extent. I think whatever changes to the modern indie art scene will happen much sooner than that. The new model may have settled in about 5 years.

Sprang Batcave !!!

A bit more on the indie stuff... One of the reasons for the indie comics explosion is because everyone is looking for that Hollywood money. That isn't going away any time soon. So, what happens many years down the road when a webcomic with, say, 10 years of serial storytelling gets turned into a massive TV hit? A new Walking Dead. It will have all been done digitally by a more mainstream-friendly artist. (I love Adlard, but how would TWD art look to the casual masses if it were more rendered by a Mico Suayan or an Eddy Barrows or maybe even if it were more cartoony like Tony Moore or a Terry Moore.) So there is no OA for this future webcomic/TV hit except for cover-quality commissions bought through a rep and those prices go through the roof? And they hold their resale because of lack of supply? Do digital con prints become even MORE popular as the con souvenir of choice in place of cheap interior pages? Thoughts?

Some great points. However, I'm not sure you can decry the volume of modern OA pages on one hand while lamenting the lack of supply (due to digital penciling/inking) on the other. Also, indie art will always be more transitory than the 80-year superheroes. Someone getting priced out of Neal Adams Batman can look at an Eddy Barrows Batman and still feel some continuity there even if they aren't reading the current run. Indie art collecting is much more story-driven, than character- or aesthetics-driven. I feel like indie explosion of recent years will lead to the indie OA market following the trend of other media... It will find its small niches of fans and collectors. Maybe that will keep pricing down for those fans and maybe that will be a good thing. The cost for entry into the hobby will be lower, stimulating participation for a web comic reader to pickup a page here or a cover there. Will there be another Jimmy Olsen-level circulation book? No, but as an article in the NY Times pointed out recently, nor will there be another ubiquitous All in the Family. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/technology/how-netflix-is-deepening-our-cultural-echo-chambers.html) And maybe that is a good thing. No more homogenized society. OA (and comics) will live on because it will break into a multitude of smaller pieces. (Unrelated, but I think you could then make the counter-argument that the quality of art will suffer because the big paychecks will no longer be there as an incentive for a working artist to soak their time into greater works. Maybe indie art collecting will devolve into only con sketches or commissions.) Moving forward, I think indie OA will have even MORE collectors than the current Gen X and Baby Boomer crowd. However, the prices may be lower and the collections may be smaller. Volume up, price down. I think the proliferation of reading digitally will mean that the fetishization of the object itself, which is the true heart of collecting, will be diminished. I think this is a good thing as well. People may finally learn to pursue the experience rather than the material goods. Maybe this will spill into OA. Maybe it should spill into OA. But back to vintage super-heroes... In 30 years, what happens to all of the pages from today and back? If everyone is producing digitally with greater frequency, does it all become irrelevant garbage or does it then become truly collectible -- because now it is its own category in the history of popular art and it has a finite supply? I keep looking for models of comparison in other collecting areas. Certainly, pottery and ceramics went through a similar change of production methods. Or Old Master fine art has similar name recognition of a dead group of originating pioneers. But neither collecting field has the mass appeal of comics. Maybe someone more knowledgeable about vinyl collecting could weigh in... Are the overall number of collectors up or down? Are prices up or down? How many super-collectors are out there buying up the collapsing market for pennies? (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bus-magnate-whos-buying-up-all-the-worlds-vinyl-records.html)

That Sibyla piece is stunning in person. Congrats! And congrats on that marriage thing too. ;-)

Firestorm 1 cover! So cool!

This is EPIC. Thanks! You've got some amazing pieces by him as well. It really ticks every box - fav artist, nostalgia, Bats, DPS, even a nice mat setup. Credit to my wife who saw it and was trying to grab the mouse out of my hand to buy it right away!

Just heard back... No dice on my one request this year. But glad others are getting their picks!

The Wife and I had our biggest OA year by far, both in dollars and in volume. We have really shifted our collecting habits (following a lot of great advice found on these forums and in Felix's podcast interviews) and I think the results speak for themselves... Wonder Woman 165 page 4, pencils by Phil Jimenez and inks by Andy Lanning Jimenez's design and layout here exceeds even the great George Perez. His WW model is both perfectly Amazonian and super-heroic. And his line work is brought to exquisite life by Andy Lanning. I mean, look at her hair! This page encapsulates everything you need to know about the character... a bridge of peace between the gods and humanity. http://www.comicartfans.com/LowryPiece.asp?Piece=8511 Detective Comics 617 pages 17, 18 & 19, pencils by Norm Breyfogle, inks by Steve Mitchell This thing is seriously HUGE! This piece repeatedly makes The Wife stand up and yell, "I am the Bat!". Breyfogle upended the way Batman was drawn and brought him into a new era. His cape and use of both regular and inverted silhouettes brought an energy at least equivalent to McFarlane's webbing. Norm's work on Detective was illustrative and emotive in the faces when necessary and then flatly graphic and even downright geometric when things needed to get really intense! http://www.comicartfans.com/LowryPiece.asp?Piece=8512 Joker (2008) page 16, pencils, inks, and wash by Lee Bermejo, inks by Mick Gray Lee Bermejo is a phenom. Look closely at his strange, self-taught geometric shading technique. I've never seen anything like it. And his level of rendering puts most fine arts painters to shame. This is a great example of both his wash as well as his gnarly pencil style with inks by Mick Gray. Appropriately, his "Black Dahlia" take on the Joker was likely an inspiration for Ledger's seminal Joker interpretation. Every time I look at this page, I mutter, "wtf!" http://www.comicartfans.com/LowryPiece.asp?Piece=8514 Gotham Central 15 page 14, pencils by Michael Lark "Zut alors! I haf missed one!" "Soft Targets" is likely the 2nd greatest Joker story ever told. It is a pity the dialog is not on this page, because this was THE SCARIEST MOMENT in a comic book I have EVER read. And Lark was the one who sold it. A scary man in clown makeup breaks out of holding, kills a cop with his handcuff, and then starts shooting the rest in the head, until it's just you (the secretary) and him! Greg Rucka once described Michael Lark's work as not photo-REALISTIC, but photo-JOURNALISTIC, which I think says it all. He is a master of body language and a true storyteller. http://www.comicartfans.com/LowryPiece.asp?Piece=8519 Nexus: God Con 2 page 18, pencils by Steve Rude, inks by Gary Martin Steve Rude may be the greatest comic artist of all time. Yeah, I said it. He out-Kirbys Kirby. His line is perfect (especially when Martin inks him.) His acting is equally full of comedy and drama. His design work on every costume, location, nut, and bolt is downright exhausting. And his layouts are so instinctually brilliant that they trick you into not noticing all of the other amazing things I just mentioned. The symetrical layout, the borderless "panels", the expressions, the over-the-top villain design, and the balance of blacks all really come together here. Steve Rude goes for broke on every page, never phoning it in. http://www.comicartfans.com/LowryPiece.asp?Piece=8520 Honorable Mentions -- Nexus: Executioner's Song 3 page 22, pencils by Steve Rude, inks by Gary Martin The Dude can do super-heroes. The Dude can do drama. But The Dude does madcap comedy like nobody's business. This page is PACKED with site gags and detail. It's the kind of page you can hang up and always find something new to see in it... like Maggie Simpson?! How many artists can balance Dr. Suess, Groenig, Loomis, and Toth on one page? Nexus: God Con 2 page 21, pencils by Steve Rude, inks by Gary Martin VAM! Vootie! Star Wars 20 cover prelim, pencils and inks and watercolor by Mike Mayhew Mayhew brings every bit of his trademark energy to this prelim and then some. No one makes naturalistic or photo-real drawing look as easy Mike. Winter Soldier 7 page 11 pencils by Michael Lark, inks over bluelines by Stefano Gaudiano Lark and Guadiano are pb&j. This scene is perfectly staged and draws you into an action movie in progress. Excuse me while I pick the broken glass out of my face! Other notable 2016 pickups- Batman Earth One by Gary Frank and Jonathan Sibal Nightwing by Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira Catwoman commission by Unknown The Exterminators by Tony Moore and Dan Green Samurai: Heaven and Earth by Luke Ross Pat Savage by Kewber Baal Army of Darkness: Furious Road by Kewber Baal

Leave it to Chance and Hellboy... pb&j!

Nice! Early and tough to find.

Might be stretching it a bit since these were anthologies- BWS- and Frazetta for the win-

John Bolton again- Bradstreet-

Matt Wagner- Dean Motter-

Breyfogle- John Bolton again-

Another nice Wrightson- and Don Newton- Hannigan and Giordano- Aparo-

Another category or just expand the con drawing one. Looking at alot of the sketch covers in CAF most look similar to con drawings. I don't think we would get enough entries if there was a separate sketch cover category. I actually like the delineation between con sketch and commission which you have now. Some sketch covers fall into either category. So my vote would be to keep it as is for sketch covers.

Problem with value categories, no way to verify. The other categories are easily to distinguish from their description, under $200 is all up to the person. Don't want to deal with the inevitable emails "That looks like its cost more than $200. It would be the honor system, for sure. Still, it might be worth a try. Would people honestly email you to complain? I find that astonishing. You guys are organizing this as a fun event for the community. Da noiv of some people!

Would you consider an under $200 category? Any type of piece can be entered, but can't be posted in its formal category.

BWS- McKean- I think you could argue that McKean changed the course of graphic design in all media with his Sandman covers. His influence was everywhere in the years following.

Grindberg- Bingham again-