RBerman

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.

I don't get them all, but I usually make some effort. For one thing, I often buy pages from stories I haven't read yet, and understanding the story increases my enjoyment of owning the art. Especially with modern art that lacks dialogue! Sometimes I read and/or purchase a digital copy of the story if a hard copy is not readily available.

I noticed that the "MARVEL COMICS GROUP" on the cover was originally black-on-white, but a white-on-black was pasted on to it for publication. Now only the initial "M" remains from the top stat., and a fragment of pure black under the CCA logo.

If USPS, UPS, and FedEx are all too lacksidaisical to be trusted with high-value art deliveries, is there a private courier service that has its act together?

I had not heard it put quite this way, but this is a fair point. In fact, some art collectors have bought booth space which which functions as a back door 'VIP' status to give them more direct access to earlier hours, artist contact in the green room, etc. I don't know any way around this with respect to either dealers or collectors, but it doesn't warm the heart to contemplate the possibility that the best pieces and best deals were already taken before the show officially opens. Regardless, I will be there to see the sights.

Artists have tables with their work so you can look through it up close, talk to them, and decide whether you want to buy anything. Dealers do the same; what they bring is up to them, though obviously a large dealer (or busy artist) has more art "back home" than they are going to bring to a convention. Most conventions (say, Comic-Con) have tons of stuff going on besides comic book art. At those conventions, most of the space is for booths selling costume supplies, Funko Pops, imported Japanese videos, T shirts, stuffed animals, etc. They have Hollywood actors there for photo ops and paid signature opportunities. A few conventions are more art-oriented. At Heroes Con this year, it took me three whole days of nonstop looking through portfolios on artists' tables, and I still didn't see it all. Lake Como put more of an emphasis on talking to the artists by, for instance, putting a chair on the outside of each booth, implying that it was OK to sit down and stay a while with each artist. Here is a video I took showing what that looks like, starting with an evening reception and then walking around the convention center the next two days. It's my understanding that OAX follows the Lake Como model rather than the Comic-Con model. Receptions where artists and collectors mingle. More artists per attendee, thus more time with each artist. More recognized and published artists, not just indie creators trying to break into the business. Also, collectors are bringing some of their collections to OAX so we can ooh and aah over each other's treasures and build relationships.

See you all there!

I wouldn't remove a previous dedication either. I have to say, though, that this piece has already seen a rough life, and the added texture of the removal is not the most noticeable damage to the paper. Whoever bought it on eBay got quite a bargain. I wonder how much they flipped it for.

That was a good page too.

I was looking over yesterday's European art auction results at Heritage. You can get some awfully nice 18th-19th century paintings for $10k-20k. But they don't have Wolverine (claws out!), and you didn't read them when you were eight years old. We buy B&W art because almost all the published pieces exist as B&W art, and likewise all the famous/nostalgic pieces. The production process does not generate many color originals. Even today, thousands of new B&W pages enter the market every month. When the occasional color piece manages to acquire historical significance (e.g. Lynn Varley's Dark Knight cover), it sells quite well.

Their spooky eyes and smiles are like, "Wellllcome, huuuumannn..... Soon you will be one of usssss...."

And now it's the final day of the auction, and the Wolverine one has changed to "Chris Bachalo," but the Death one still says, "Charlie Adlard."

I did so. They also had a Wolverine sketch by Bachalo mis-identified as Adlard.

I like it. Nicely rendered trees, cool lens flare for the sunlight, well detailed foreground swamp and figure. A commission of this quality would run substantially more than $380, regardless of the figure depicted.

I can understand its appeal. Ant-Man gained the ability to control spiders, which seems noteworthy.