RBerman

Yes, I can understand that point of view.

If nothing else, this all teaches me to buy the prelims whenever I get a commission. I have a Bob Wiacek X-Men ink portrait which was copied off a Paul Smith pencil original from 20 years prior. https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1678284 I have a little heartburn listing it on CAF as “Paul Smith, penciler”, though in modern times it has become standard for pencils and inks to live separate collecting lives. It would be good for CAF to add a creator category to differentiate “pencils underneath the inks” vs “penciled on a separate page,” but I do not know how to succinctly state the difference for such a purpose. My solution is just to explain all this more verbosely in the item description. Here is another example for which the published comic credits George Perez with breakdowns but Nicola Scott with the pencils which I own. https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1820328 I likewise have some recreations of work by Frazetta and Perez, whom I credited with “layouts” on CAF but then explained that they never actually touched these pages. This seemed the best way to be transparent. I recently visited the Rodin museum in Paris, and the audio guide would say things like “This statue of a wounded soldier was based on the figure of Christ in a Pieta by Michaelangelo,” so the complexity of attribution we face today does have precedent throughout art history. if I had a prelim of someone else’s finished piece, I would link to its CAF page on mine.

That is the third time Jordi Bernet has come up for me in 24 hours! I will have to check him out.

It murdered its own potential by allowing fakery to thrive and failing adequately to segregate published published comic art from either prints or the ocean of cheesecake cartoons.

That is a good price. Epson expects to make its money on expensive ink refills, but if you use the device mainly for scanning, that doesn't cost a dime extra. It says the printer goes up to 13x19. Is the scanner that large as well?

I don't live there but will be visiting family for a few days around Christmas. If you're around then, talk with Alex and maybe we can meet up.

I see no image.

I generally detest the term "underrated," but I really do think that Geof Isherwood does not get enough attention considering both how good and how affordable his work is. He's also a super nice guy, and professionally prompt as well. He turned around a killer Arcturus Rann commission for me overnight last year. I have a bunch of his pages from the Epic Comics series Swords of the Swashbucklers and am gradually posting them here: https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=238408

The market has simply increased in value in recent years, so sticker shock is understandable for those who remember cheaper days. And yes, some of it is the add-on costs of the online auction process. But another thing that keeps bids high is anonymous bidding. Collectors like to be on good terms with their peers so they can enjoy each other's collections. If we were all in a room together (as indeed happens at places like the OAX auction and the Heroes Con auction), there's at least some incentive to compete less fiercely against each other and just congratulate the other guy on his new art. Not that Heritage is immune to collusive "gentlemen's agreements" among high-end buyers who like the same pieces. But it takes more work.

Ah, I must have clicked on a link that selected only the Gaiman- related items.

A Heritage Auction with nine items in it? Unusual.

He looks better in yellow than one might have expected.

Exactly. Why do I care whether you acquired the piece yesterday or ten years ago? The point is that you posted it on CAF last year for others to enjoy, and the awards are an opportunity to celebrate (and incentivize) that behavior.

It doesn't matter when you acquired the piece, only when you posted it on CAF. The process of submitting your pieces for consideration automatically locks out pieces submitted in other years. Lots of people have probably had art for a while before uploading it to CAF.

The Artgerm piece is not faded; he just favors pastel covers. He does spec pieces on blank covers and sells them at conventions. I picked this one up from him at Lake Como last year, for instance.

Some of them are nice commissions. But I would rather just have the commission without the attached comic book, let alone the slab. Pain in the neck to store.

Ok. I was confused by them coming to market simultaneously.

It was also reused as the cover for Vol 5 of the LSH "phone book" black and white reprints.

Is this the original or a recreation? I read recently about a recreation of this page for sale. It is a great image either way, but obviously the price would change dramatically.

That makes sense, since those works are inherently "quickies" compared to a published cover, a DPS, a commissioned painting, etc. That's why they can only be judged against each other. It would be nice if we could leave comments on the pieces when we're voting on them. Instead, I have to open a second tab and go to that same piece on the owner's CAF gallery to "like" and comment.

It's been a while since I posted new acquisitions in this department. Here's a pair of pages from the just-published Action Comics #1059. The new Supergirl, Otho-Ra, is facing Janan Al Ghul, the evil daughter of Batman from another timeline. Pencils are by Eddy Barrows; inks by Eber Ferreira. I love the layout on the first page. See them both up-close here: https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetailsearch.asp?artist=Eddy+Barrows&GCat=126562 Pages from the following issue just went on sale.

Joe Prado was at Heroes Con last year and did a character for a jam piece I'm working on. You might try to arrange a commission for him to bring to a convention like that. Scott Hanna is very active on the convention circuit as well.

This fits in to what we were talking about in the "figure study" thread. Yes, it's a prelim. Yes, it's small. However, it looks like a finished piece of art, so the price is understandable. Bolland puts more effort into these than a lot of people put into actual covers. If somebody bought it for $2750 recently, they got quite a deal. I have one of these for another issue of that run. It's not vellum, but it is thinner than Bristol. (The red stain is not nearly as visible in person as my scanner made it appear.) https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1815527

Several different things being discussed here, in my understanding: None of these are a "problem" unless you think they are something they are not. 1) "Figure study" could mean "practice drawing," an artist keeping up his skills, just like a musician practicing scales. However, some figure studies are potential poses for specific characters in a multi-character piece. 2) "Preliminary" might be a figure study of a single character but also might be a multi-character layout; these come in a very wide range of detail, sometimes being surprisingly close to the finished piece in attractiveness. Or, not. 3) Art for fans, like the Nick Cardy example mentioned just above. These are a final but simple piece, not a preparatory work. Rather than waiting for fans to request a specific quickie convention sketch, many artists have learned to prepare a bunch of quickly done, lower-priced illustrations to offer to convention-goers (or web site visitors) who just want a souvenir of their time with the artist. The experienced artist knows which of his characters are in how much demand, at what price points. The fan can see exactly what he's getting since it's already done, and should expect there to be numerous similar pieces in the hands of other collectors. Think of all the "profile of woman hero's head" that Adam Hughes makes, or all the Bruce Timm Batman headshots out there. I have a Ramon Fradon piece a few years old for which she did a nearly identical version more recently.

Nice to see a Morlock award category.