ShallowDan

Thanks. As I mentioned, was just curious if there was any formal recognition or anything like that at play. I know Bill has always used the term "gallery" for member boards on CAF, so I'm guessing it's a distinction without a difference for the most part. But I'll happily take donations of all sorts, should anyone be so inclined!

That and possible tax write-off, I'm guessing.

Not trying to come across as a naysayer here, but what's the difference between such a virtual museum and an otherwise similarly curated Instagram account, or Pinterest board? That's to say in both case you're just dealing with .jpeg/.png images, right?

I missed Chop-Chop when first looking at the piece on Heritage, but once you know he's there, it's definitely a blemish on an otherwise amazing piece. I'm never one for trying to scrub things from the past (be it WWII era comics or the Looney Tunes / Merry Melodies "Censored Eleven"), but what makes this particular example so egregious is the fact that it was a horribly outdated take on the character even by the time the poster was published. DC had so long moved on from that design by the 80s that I suspect younger Blackhawk fans at the time would've likely had no idea whom they were even looking at here. Given that it's one small part of an otherwise amazing piece, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me personally (not that I'll have to worry about that, since this is going to be way out of my price range), but I can definitely understand why it would be for others.

Not that I expect there to be a good answer, but have they offered any elaboration to why "in light of the current health situation, your invoice can be settled by wire transfer only"? Are ones and zeroes being transmitted through Visa/MC's payment networks more likely to carry the 'rona than those coming through a wire transfer? It's probably just my stubborn sense of general principle kicking in, but I'd be tempted to make some equally silly, unfounded demand upon them that you require be done as part of the transaction "in light of the current health situation".

Might be my memory playing tricks on me, but I'd swear I did see someone ask about it during the live chat on YouTube. I'm wondering if Bill was specifically asked to not bring it up...

Technically in a situation like this, it's hard to say that there's even a market at all. Either way, congrats to the artists and Felix. Hopefully the OA doesn't disappear to never be seen again.

Give me the choice between the two and I'll take yours any day of the week. Now, I'm personally wouldn't/couldn't bring myself to pay $5,500 for either of them, but that's just me. Either way, yours is definitely a keeper.

Similarly, I chalk it up to being right piece offered at the right time. As always, you just need two guys willing to duke it out to see the price ran up. I've no idea (something I don't track/follow), but I wouldn't be too surprised if Wonder Woman OA in general has been on an upward trend the last few years with her being one of the more successful DC characters at the box office.

Yeah, to the degree I have any sort of gut feeling on this one, I'm guessing it's in the high five-figure / low six-figure range. It's one to keep an eye on either way.

While browsing Heritage for the upcoming January auction, I came across this sneak peak of what's in store in April's Signature auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/jack-kirby-joe-kubert-and-others-history-of-the-dc-universe I'd never seen the O/A for this before and don't think it's on CAF. The piece is pretty much a who's who of artists who were still alive at the time and includes Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Jim Steranko, Gene Colan, Michael Kaluta, Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Frank Thorne, Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin, Dave Gibbons and on and on. Anyone willing to take a SWAG at what this might go for? It's such a unique piece without any peers that I can think of that I can't even begin to guess.

Will_K's thinking of this guy: https://www.ebay.com/usr/stjohngreen I've picked up a couple of these from him over the years (a funny Hot Stuff gag and a golden age Wonder Woman for my daughter). I chatted with him once about the story behind these and IIRC, he has a friend who basically has tons of them. They were originally going to be sold at Universal Studios gift shops but things never worked out. I've no idea how the heck the licensing was going to work given the IP involved. The crazy thing is that they are all one of a kind (I've never seen him put up duplicates) and they go so deep with some of the golden age characters that I'm not sure who the target audience would've been for some of them. But like Will mention, I've never seen him sell anything other than the cels, so I'm not sure if it's the same source as you got yours from.

This is one of those areas where you can ask five people and get six different opinions, but I'd probably lean towards the cleaning / overlay route for the framed Valiant piece. It would have the dual advantages of removing the glue stains and bringing the piece closer to the published form. With the painted piece, I'd obviously hold on to all the original lettering bubbles, but since they're loose (and the piece looks great without 'em) I would personally be tempted to simply frame this one without the text.

Best of luck to you in this situation. As bad of the idea of a targeted theft might be, I think it's even worse when it's just a random person taking things they have no idea about.

Nico, thanks for your continued work with this invaluable tool. It's something I make use at least once every week. I'd never noticed the treading search summary until you mentioned it in the Richard Corben thread. It's a neat feature that was fun to check out. After seeing the results for top searches, I was very curious to know if you track traffic for users. I'm guessing you have more European users that I might've thought.

With regards to the bolded, one of the ironies of Mike generally being a good guy and having a fairly thick skin is that it seems to encourage more dog-piling at times than he might deserve. I'll note here that I've never bought anything from him and (in case anyone is wondering) yes I am aware of the generalities of the situation from a few years ago concerning his consignments with Heritage. I'm not sure if folks are more apt to pick at him because he's a good sport, or just because he's a dealer who is semi-active in threads here, but it seems like he takes more that his fair share of grief. Having said that, any sale of a piece at this end of the market naturally attracts attention and curiosity, thus the creation of this thread in the first place.

I'm guessing Mike merely meant that it was an outright purchase, with no trade involved whatsoever. However, if this was a dufflebag-full-of-Benjamins type deal, I'd love hear the details!

Well the central banks have definitely proven in 2020 that they can print new money a lot faster than you guys can produce new art, so I'm guessing it's a matter of just grabbing something and holding on for the ride.

Funny you should mention this. I've been renovating an older house with wide halls and high ceilings and decided that it could use something with more visual ummph than offered by a standard size piece of art. During Heritage's Fine Art auction earlier this year I picked up an oil landscape that is absolutely huge (65" x 43" IIRC). Same as yours, it was less than $500. The dedicated freight required to ship it was obviously much greater than a typical buy, but it's still the most affordable thing on a per-square-inch basis I'll probably ever have hanging on the walls.

How are the commissioning efforts that you mentioned going? It seems like 2020 would've been pretty good for opportunities on that front, given the fact that most all of the big cons were cancelled.

Not weird at all. It's always easier to spend your future self's money than it is to spend that from your present self. One of the better pieces of advice I've seen given to young people trying to rein in spending is to pay cash whenever possible. It drives home the cost in a way that swiping (even if swiping a debit card, rather than credit card) never does. I've definitely saved up for a purchase, only to have the thrill of the potential buy wear off by the time I got to my goal. And as you allude to, the discipline of saving can be self-reinforcing.

Thanks for the link! Like grapeape, I would've assumed that he was talking about the ASM cover. Personally if I were buying a DKR piece, I'd want something from the original published series and don't think I'd be willing to pony up this much for the cover from a re-release. As far as the art itself goes, although the color on the cover as-published is minimal, I think it makes a huge difference in this case.

Glen's screenshot has you wearing a Felix the Cat shirt with a Basil Wolverton on the wall, so I'd say it's off to a great start!

Thanks for the reminder; I'm definitely looking forward to this one, Glen. I love seeing all the silver/bronze age super hero stuff as much as the next guy, but I really like it when you guys have a chance to chat with folks who have broader interests.

I mentioned earlier that a great thing about the O/A hobby is there's something to be found at every price point, but this is another great aspect of it: how unique each collector's interest is. Everyone brings their experiences and points of nostalgia to the hobby and with O/A being one-of-a-kind, each collection thus reflects the individual collector in a way it doesn't with something like slabbed books. A couple of pieces I'd most love to find are from Charlton comics (and not even Ditko ones). They were battered, flea market pick ups that I loved as a kid, with covers I made amateurish copies of. They represent a bit of nostalgia that is unique to me. So, yep there's no point trying to explain your particular nostalgia. Everyone's is different.