RBerman

On 4/20/2024 at 12:42 PM, MichaelM said:

Anyone happen to know if he's done another since?  I'd love to get an opportunity to get something of his.

I believe he is still working through the previous list. I was on it and got this Captain Raader piece.

On 4/15/2024 at 10:19 AM, Kevn said:

I think you make some great points, but one thing that bothers me about your Wiacek X-Men portrait is that it is 'signed' by both Wiacek and Smith, and the Smith signature is very much in his authentic signing style. Yes, there are dates with the signatures, but to me having the piece apparently signed by someone who didn't touch the page is potentially misleading. I've seen artists sign such pieces with something like "Wiacek '16" and, immediately below write "after Paul Smith '97" without imitating the original artist's signature. An artist's signature is the gold standard for provenance, and imitating it could confuse someone down the road, or be used by an unscrupulous seller. 

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.

On 3/31/2024 at 12:09 PM, Rick2you2 said:

In my case, there was never a lot it, and what there was of major artists, I already have representative samples of almost all of them. For example, I really don’t need an Aparo cover; I have 3 panel pages, and a fanzine cover. But, why I can’t find images of PS from Impulse? Captain Adam (missed one, once)? When they have slipped through, it’s usually because I already spent my spare cash on something else, or really don’t care for the image. And then I live to regret it for years. 

And by the way, I do buy outside my area on occasion. I commissioned Keith Williams for a Martian Manhunter piece I am waiting for, and I am just barely resisting the urge to buy some Jordi Bernet art. He is really terrific.

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

On 3/27/2024 at 8:45 AM, Xatari said:

eBay honestly has the best fee structure on higher end art but just doesn’t seem to get the eyeballs or sales. It’s too bad. 

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.

On 3/27/2024 at 8:39 AM, alxjhnsn said:

Amazon has the Epson Workforce Pro WF-7820 on sale for $180. That’s a good deal.

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.

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.

On 2/14/2024 at 11:34 AM, NicoV said:

I see 54 items in the comic art section: https://comics.ha.com/c/search/results.zx?term=&dept=1938&auction_name=7364&mode=live&comic_category=3242

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

A Heritage Auction with nine items in it? Unusual.

On 2/8/2024 at 10:58 PM, mtlevy1 said:

The lady in yellow pants is....Everett!

He looks better in yellow than one might have expected.

On 2/9/2024 at 7:54 AM, John E. said:

I think of this celebration within the community as the “Best Post of the Year” more than “Best Acquisition.”

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.

On 2/8/2024 at 8:39 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

I knew that. But it seems like some of the pieces being posted were not actually acquired during the past year, but only added to CAF. I don't know how you could police that in any case. I only submitted pieces that I had acquired during the year. 

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.

On 1/24/2024 at 1:51 PM, Shemp said:

The Jack Kirby original will go up for auction in the next ComicLink auction.

The Mike Royer recreation was offered on Facebook and is clearly labeled as such.

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

On 1/20/2024 at 10:20 PM, Ted_L said:

Belated comment on the Cardy Superboy #197 cover -- that was the first issue where the Legion took over the book from Superboy, so for Legion fans, it's basically the #1 issue of their longest running series.  This is equivalent to Incredible Hulk #102 or Captain America #100 -- a first issue without the #1 on it.  I guess I'm a big Legion fan, because that price didn't seem so crazy to me and it's also a nice image by Cardy.

I agree that the replacement stat is ugly!  Hopefully the new owner will have that redone by a professional.

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

On 1/23/2024 at 7:57 PM, g-man said:

Impressive New Gods splash by Kirby coming up in the next Link auction. 

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.

On 1/23/2024 at 3:27 AM, The Voord said:

I didn't have any problems selecting fives entries for this year's competition . . . as I only bought five pieces of OA this past year (four in December), all of which were Movie Poster paintings.

Only problem I'm having is finding anything I can muster up any enthusiasm for in the Sketch Cover/Commissions and Mystery Sketch categories which are proving of little or no interest to me, personally (sorry, it just ain't my 'thang') . . . 

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.