Mike R V

A lot of the modern artists I enjoy seem to work primarily digitally, but most of the later Hickman Era X-Men stuff (Swords of X, onward) from Asrar seemed to have sold out relatively quickly after they were released. Leinil I think is mostly digital but was traditionally inked by Alanguilin before he passed. I think after that he announced he was done doing interiors and only wanted to work on covers. Some of his Hickmen X-Men are being sold off. I got a page early on but now the prices on them are about 2-4X what I got it for, which I think sounds more appropriate.

If I see multiple 'owners' of a page (if I'm looking for a particular page), I usually just assume the latest entry is the most recent known owner. Seeing it show up multiple times can kind of be a testament to how 'popular' it is, despite it being let go of multiple times. When I have a page where old owners haven't removed the page from their galleries, I just think of it as showing a page's history of ownership. Maybe there is a better way to track this, but it's kind of interesting to see where the pieces change hands and the types of pieces previous collectors have, either to validate your collecting tastes or to get some inspiration from other collections, if you are new and looking to flesh out a theme. If it's a 'for sale' entry that is not updated, I would just comment "Thanks for the sale, piece came in great shape" or something similar to denote it has been sold without sounding rude, if that is a concern. If it's from a sale previous to yours, commenting from where and when it was sold again to you would seem fine and for someone observing, might actually be useful info.

Besides comiclink and HA, are there any other places/listings you check for OA that might be re-entering the market after being sold directly by artists or art reps? (I.e. specific Ebay sellers or other sites or off-website dealers) I thought it would be good to start a thread of dealers/shops or just networking to get a hold of pieces that might otherwise be difficult to find. Unfortunately not all the artwork gets listed on CAF, so it's hard to tell where certain pieces end up. For example, I collect primarily mainstream LGBT OA which is a very narrow market and has a very limited number of available pieces, both because of the limited timespan it's been published, and because most are from recent artists who primarily work digitally. I'm nearing the end of what's available directly through artists and their reps and looking for secondary markets.

Nothing before the 2000's in my collection. Partly because I didn't start reading comics till after the 2000's anyways..but also because it didn't become more mainstream until late. It is difficult to collect though, since most of the artists working on them now are newer or have transitioned into digital for most of the process.

I think the story behind why it was cut could make a page more interesting and valuable than a published page. For example, I collect comic art featuring LGBT characters and stories, so unpublished pages of LGBT storylines cut due to censorship is appealing to me, as it also gives some important historical perspectives into the cultural attitudes of the times. I have a sequence of pages from the New Mutants run that would have featured Anole's 'coming out' experience and suicide. His coming out ended up not happening until much later. The art and story were already fleshed out and created for several issues out and the pages were just about to hit the press, when overseers decided last second to pull it and ordered a rewrite because of how controversial it was. Some of the pages were reused but the original story I think carries a pretty heavy tone and deeper message worth preserving. Also having articles and forums dedicated to the unpublished story also make it appealing.

Which medium fades more quickly? pencil-only art or inked art? Everything from my collection is from 2010, onward, so I imagine most of the artists were using archival quality inks and materials, but I'm not sure their life-expectancy. How quickly have some of your pieces faded when exposed to minimal light, and once they start, does the fading get exponentially worse despite whatever you do?

Not a "big boy" collector, but awesome discussion idea. For those earlier collectors, what went in to your decision-making for those high valued pieces? Were you collecting based on popular artists/titles/characters/stories? Albeit strategies should change with the times, but it would be interesting to see any trends in what ends up becoming valuable decades later. Could be useful in driving/focusing our current/future purchases. With the surge in social media platforms, I've been basing some of my purchases on things that I've enjoyed and that I've seen other people rave about or that have made major headline news like on the Rolling stones, New York times, etc. I feel like those would draw in high value later, especially with controversial content. We have a better gauge through articles, discussion threads, podcasts, etc, for what people are enjoying or feel strongly about now and that people are more likely to feel nostalgic about ten or twenty years down the line.

Won this Astonishing X-Men #51 splash page from the Comiclink summer auction last week.

Does anyone use dessicant bags when storing art?

I've made these thick black foam board coverings that block out most of the light, if not all. There might be a tiny bit of refracted light getting in from somewhere, but not much. The top images, frames were too big so I didn't have a chance yet to make side closures like the bottom image, so those would be the ones to get minimal light if any. Is that enough protection or should I go ahead and add those sides in?

Thanks for the advice! I'll be getting those microchamber papers for sure, so thanks for providing the links! They will only be in their current frames for about a year until I get them replaced with actual archival quality framing. They are sealed with tape over the flaps in their mylar bags. I was just afraid the adhesive from the tape or other materials from the other contacting surfaces would leak in and start destroying the piece within that year before replacing the frames with a more permanent setting.

When storing art in mylar bags, should we still exercise extreme caution with storing them in non acid-free environments like mounting boards if framed, etc? I don't know how much 'protection' the mylar bags are actually providing. Currently I have my art in 2mm bcw mylar sleeves, no artboard backing, but then the mylar bags are tape-mounted to paper or boards and mats that might not be acid-free. I do cover up the frames during they day when I am not at home just to protect against UV damage, but none of them are in direct sunlight anyways. All of the pages are modern, so they're still in pretty good shape for the most part. What are some recommendations in this scenario?

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing

Curious to see what drives some of your OA collection decisions. Maybe this can spark some ideas for new collections.