Poekaymon

Every time I look at one of these I wish it had a vs 2018 or 2019 average instead of only a vs 2021 average. Because I see the red but when I look at the number, everything I have on the list is still way, way up, and a whole bunch of green +100%s would put some perspective on this chart.

That face ain't right.

That’s what all people should be doing. Makes me sad when I see sealed omnibuses going for hundreds of dollars on eBay. Now I still have sealed ones myself but that’s just because I haven’t gotten around to them yet.

Boys don’t handle logs like that anymore.

When it's preferable for a company to dump something in a landfill rather than give to children's hospitals or something, you might want to rethink your system. Then again, there are many more such examples.

No one has mentioned Alex Ross. It's mostly been Liefeld. Oh and Fred Hembeck got a few votes.

His work in Daredevil Love and War was excellent. Dave McKean as well.

He's incredibly repetitive, it's true. In 2018-2019 I snapped up a bunch of JSC and then I started to realize that it was all the same lithe-form cheesecake. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But one day, a few years ago, I just resolved not to buy another JSC until I saw one that was truly different or noteworthy in someway (on top of being cheesecake). I have not yet bought another. Another thing is around that same time I discovered his tendency to shade the hell out of the woman's nose for some reason and it killed like 50% of his covers for me. I think it's still hard to deny him a mention as per the OP's question, but yeah.

Hard disagree there. What a lot of old timers might take for granted is how intimidating raws are to new people, and graded books make collecting easy, relatively safe, and fungible and therefore more accessible for the inexperienced. I don't see that diminishing as the years go on and the people who collect for love, nostalgia, or because they made a life through the hobby start dying off--rather the opposite. (And this is speaking as someone who doesn't own a single graded book.)

I used to have the same one up. And also this, though I have since lost them both.

Well, I definitely wouldn't call Turner a current one either [resisting urge to make a bad joke here] which is why he wasn't on my list. When I scan the new books every couple of weeks, for the last five years or so, I don't see much McFarlane compared with the other names on my list. Edit: I see now I wrote "this thread" without really even reading the entire thread. That's on me, as I disagree with several others here. But I responded to you because I'm a McFarlane fan and considered him and ultimately didn't list him for the reasons above.

I would struggle to call him a current cover artist, relative to all the other names in this thread.

I mean, in a cosmic sense, yes. The sun will consume the earth at some point. But if we're speaking of investments, over the next 50 years or so, I disagree that long term outlook is negative for nearly everything--housing and the broad stock market, for instance.

Personally, I don't think doomsday is coming and I'm not betting against the hobby. I think most people agree that superheroes, as a concept, will stick around, and the MCU, or its successor, will keep pumping stuff out, and comics, as a media form, will exist for some time. I'm just a skeptical that in the future, young people today, or those who have not yet been born, will be drawn to 20th century comics with enough gusto to replace all us old folks for whom comics were so vital. Doesn't mean the end is near, or that you can't do well in the short term. But I would have to call the long term outlook... negative. Disclosure: I have no intention of selling (or buying) anything at this point, so I really have no skin in the game. Will always have a soft spot for comics so I hope I'm wrong.

I only have more than one copy of a single book--Hulk 340, for which I have a single duplicate copy, of lower grade, displayed on the wall. I have too much OCD to have multiple copies, especially if different quantities. Would end up having to get two of everything, or three of everything, etc. Better to keep it simple and just have one of all.

Alex Ross, Mark Brooks, Adam Hughes, Gabriele Dell'Otto, and JSC. Almost there: Tyler Kirkham and Mike Mayhew.

I think it's this. XM Ghost Rider is probably the best ghost rider I've seen but I've never been a fan of the character.

Probably won't see much more until July, but I'm keeping my eye on the upcoming LBS Wolverine 1:3. https://www.collectorfreaks.com/threads/xm-legendary-beast-studios-wolverine-1-3.248057/

"Grail of collecting" seems a bit strong--I've seen the standing over Wendigo before on ebay and/or the Marvelous Statues group, but to each his own. From what I've seen, Wolfkiller is considered by many to be the "grail" Wolverine statue--but I personally don't like that one either. For the ninjas you're probably talking about this one. I actually forgot this was the brown costume and it is good. I had a chance to buy this last year and passed on it at the time because I felt it was too much ninja, and I already have too many Wolverines. But yeah this is up there.

I just can't handle the H181 costume. I think the one on the prior page is better than this one though, and these biceps look off. For brown costume, I haven't seen a custom I've liked yet, but the XM is pretty decent. Only problem is you have to view it head on or the neck seam is super visible. :/

Not sure about this. I would guess the people buying moderns are doing so because it is it is "their era," much in the same way I primarily collect Coppers. Assuming they have more money in the next 20 years to spend on comics (definitely not a guarantee when priorities like house and family, kids tuition, etc. often kick in around that time), then I would expect that person to just get the even bigger moderns rather than switch to golds/silvers instead of other investments like stocks and real estate.

Well they have been pretty faithful to the Hulk 181 Wolverine, but man that is just a godawful Wolverine. Even by X-Men 94, less than a year later, the costume was quite a bit better. Although I stopped collecting before X-Force, this is still my favorite custom Wolverine:

One time price drop.

It was on pre-order so long I accidentally ordered two copies. New and sealed. Below cost, free shipping.