BuraddoRun

Nice one!

That's a fantastic page! I hope to add a cosmic Lim page to my collection one day, but in the meantime, I did just get this Avengers Next Lim page in today. I know a lot of us rag on Anthony's selection, but he does have some gems available, and he gets new stuff in all the time (in which you can find gems as well).

That's why I didn't even bother. It's hard to be patient, but I can wait until 2021 to pick one up.

I started collecting comics as a kid in the mid-to-late 80s. I got in and out of comic collecting a few times over the years, but I never stopped liking the books from my time or the characters. I've picked up my reading of current books since COVID-19 appeared, mostly due to the decline in social activity. Collecting comic book OA is new to me, and honestly, it's weird that I came to it so late, because I've been collecting animation cels for a number of years now. I also have some random commissions here and there (from artists comic-related and not), but my current focus is published comic book OA. It's fun to try and hunt down the old art I love, but also to jump in on the new stuff I enjoy before it jumps up in price. It's a fun hobby. Oh, and comic-wise, I'm a raw collector, because I like to read what I buy. I don't have any HUGE key issues (though I do have some pretty good ones), but I'd go for those raw over slabbed any day, and yes, I would carefully read them once before bagging and boarding them. I do have 9, just 9 CGC books, but they aren't anything super desirable, just cool covers or signed books, all modern. Coincidentally enough, it was during the year I worked at a comic shop that I was able to meet Ray Harryhausen. He came to Dallas for a small film exhibition and our store had various product for sale relating to his films, so we worked out a deal to set up a little booth. The manager asked for a volunteer to attend the event, and I was excited to do so because I, too, loved his movies when I was a kid. I didn't expect too much out of it, and I was perposefully trying to take a back seat at the event, because there were folks attending that had to wait in lines for a while to get in. But for the film and Q&A presentation, the organizers sat me up close. Not only that, but when the line for autographs was made, they lined me up at the front of the line as well! Ray was very proud, but also had a humility to him, as weird as that sounds. He respected his work and was grateful for being able to do what he did. The only thing I didn't agree with was his disdain for Godzilla, because I love that big beast! But I understood. Harryhausen's work was so intricate and detailed, and the time he spent with his artistry just isn't matched by many other special effects. It's the same with OA, right? The old-school artists who did everything by hand and collaborated with the inkers, letterers, etc. to complete a piece...that time and detail given is unmatched by today's standards. I got this overwhelming feeling seeing Ray speak, learning his history, and finally meeting him, that he was one of the artistic masters that the world would soon lose. Sure enough, just a few short years after that event, he passed. I will always be grateful for going to that event and meeting him in person, and I will hold onto my favorite movie of his that he signed for me for as long as I can.

Some of these, especially the older ones, have some very nice artwork. Has anyone reached out tho Chick Publishing? They're still around despite Jack Chick's passing. In fact, after reading this thread, I ordered some Thanksgiving tracts! https://www.chick.com/

I would pay $500 for this page. No Wolverine, but I still like it and it's from a great book. But...I saw this thread after the auction ended.

This was one of my favorite pages in the book. Very nice piece! Congrats!

Art appreciation is subjective, of course, but I really don't ever see the pioneers losing their "greatness" in the eyes of fans and collectors. Even if the artwork itself becomes less visually appealing, they'll still be part of the defining history behind longstanding characters, and I think that will help maintain their staying power.

This isn't technically on the front of a page, but it arrived taped to the front of a page I got in today. It's just a small sketch and note about the background behind the page, which I find interesting. Marco Galli assisted with the inks, but wasn't credited in the published comic. I wonder how often that happens, when inkers or even artists have assists that aren't credited. It used to be common in animation that in-betweeners weren't credited, I know.

From dealer to dealer, yeah?

Ha! Nice! I picked this book up as well, and as I flipped through it, I considered hunting down some of the artists for pages, too! But ultimately, I didn't. I applaud you on your treasure hunt, and I'm glad you were able to get some of your favorite pages from it! This really was a cool tribute comic.

I've had some slowdown recently from USPS as well, but it still got to me eventually. As long as it's in their possession and not showing delivered yet, you should hopefully be good.

I will admit (don't shake your fingers at me!!! ) that I prefer the works of Lee over some of the older big artists like Kirby and Romita. Truth be told, it IS a generational thing...mostly. I grew up with Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefield (I like him, but I don't consider him "great"), and other late 80s early 90s artists. But there's crossover. John Byrne's art was still strong during that time and he's in the top part of my favorite's list. When I was a kid, I didn't like Kirby or Steranko or Romita's art. Buscema I liked, but he wasn't at the forefront of my appreciation. It wasn't until I got older and paid more attention to details and framing and appreciated history more that I came to like the pioneers of superhero comic art. I have broader tastes now, and find myself picking up older comic issues (can't afford a lot of the older artwork right now) by some of these pre-1980 artists and spending a lot more time actually looking at and appreciating the artwork. It's good stuff. It will be weird when the next generational shift occurs, and these post-2000 artists start to shoot up in popularity and price. But the greats will always be great. It's just that new artists will continue to join the Hall of Fame, is all.

Hopefully they're recovered and returned to her. I wonder about the stolen art "market." Obviously, with the fandom and honest dealers out there with open eyes, stolen artwork can't circulate openly on auction sites or sold to a reputable dealer. It either goes to someone who wants to keep it all to themselves and not display it publicly (or privately among certain guests), or it sells on some underground black market for stolen artwork. I always wondered about that sort of thing in movies and books as well, when something worth huge $$$ or even considered priceless is stolen. The rich folks that can afford just keep it hidden until...what, they die? Or it continues to circulate underground where only the dark underbelly of affluent society appreciates it? Like Catwoman, a high-class thief?

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up! I just ordered a nice GL action page from an unpublished Justice League issue!

I prefer FedEx. I've had some recent delays with USPS but the packages from them have at least still arrived undamaged.

I'll go with... Buscema Finch Byrne

Why do people bid on this stuff? I mean the really terrible ones, just...why!? They are so obviously fake and look horrendous. I truly don't understand...

At the bottom of this Exiles 2 cover by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray, you can see that the title Deadpool and issue 53 are scratched out. Exiles 2 was published in Sept. 2001, and Deadpool 53 was published Jun 2001. Sure enough, that issue's cover was also by Williams III and Gray. Just think, in an alternate universe, doppel-me is the proud owner of the Deadpool 53 cover.

I got my first cover in this weekend! It's the variant cover for Exiles # 2, drawn by J.H. Williams III and inked by Mick Gray.

I don't have anything cool to contribute to the "back" OA thread, unfortunately, but I have a couple of neat things on the front of some of my pages. On one of my Power Pack pages, there're some blue pencil notes in the bottom left corner. One says "overlap balloon," referring to the word balloon in a panel that they wanted moved up to overlap the panel above. Below the to-be-moved panel, there's another note that says, "On stat (don't cut or paste on original), move this panel up & to the right as shown to overlap 3rd & 5th panels." And then there are markings on the 3rd and 5th panels to direct the overlaps. Another cool thing of note is that this page was done during that period in the 80's where Marvel did those gross corner & top cutting of the pages when pulling them off the rollers. However, this page was not cut at all. My theory is that because they apparently used a fully stat page to move that panel, it's the stat page that went on the roller, and thus the original pencil and ink page borders were preserved. Good on the artist or whoever left the instruction to not mess with the original art! And I just got an F5 page in this week that's interesting. It came from the Preview comic, and each panel drawn on the page is treated as a separate showcase part, rather than a sequential story. There are 4 pieces of art on the OA page, but the top, facial picture went unused. It wasn't even inked, because the artist left a note in pencil that said "don't do" with an arrow pointing toward it for the inker. He put a note saying, "Kevin do" with arrows to the other 3 arts. Kevin Conrad is the inker. The gun has no border, and actually overlaps one of the panels a bit. In the final published page, that gun was moved into a kind of floating space with what I assume is a digitally done wallpaper-type background, and the panel that it originally overlapped was cut just a tiny bit and rebordered so it wouldn't have a weird indent or require minor redrawing. The published page has a different face pic, which I've seen the OA for on CAF. On that page, there are, I think, 4 faces that were all used on different published pages. There's also 1 additional panel which I assume is on another page of OA somewhere out there. Finally, there are various other notes on the page that of course weren't published. There are some funny captions for the 2 panels: "Sasha Ho Big Action" and "Sasha Ho Slim Action." The gun has an owner designation (original and final) and model: Sasha Ho's [formerly Molly's, because her name is scratched out] gun; MK-23 SOCOM. And there are even a couple of personal notes in the outside borders. One says, "Pay McCallum," and another says "Tom Cho XXX-XXX-XXXX," except the X's are an actual phone number. Who are McCallum and Tom Cho? Neither of those names are listed as having to do anything with the published book. Oh yeah, and at the top there's a weird number in the Issue designation: 60606. It also says Page 1 but the published page is actually 5. I just think it's neat how sometimes OA has an interesting story of its own beyond the story it tells in a book. What are some interesting notes and things on the front of your OA?

Hopefully never. Yeah, I'm one of those fans.

$785,000!

The throwback cards are cool, but I also dig the crazy subsets and variants like Chrome, refractors, patch cards, 3d or lenticular, etc. And of course there are the 1/1 things like printing plates that are pretty great. And yeah, the memorabilia and autographs, too. And those Topps NOW cards usually have neat moments and fit that "limited time only" mold. Collecting and what people do with their collections of anything is similar to artwork collecting, no? You don't do much with art besides look at it most of the time. Even if someone doesn't read stats or bios on a card (though some do), they often do look at their favorite cards, players, and teams I think. I've mentioned it in another topic I think, but I sorta collect baseball cards now. I collected them big time as a kid, but now I play Fantasy Baseball with friends every year, and I like to get cards for each player on my team. And I keep it up all season, meaning when I drop and add players, I'll get cards for my new players and move the dropped players to a different part of my notebook. I don't collect like @delekkerste does by any stretch, but my Fantasy notebooks hit a lot of nostalgic points for me. Seeing cards in a binder, watching the season and collecting "my" players as I watch them live earning points for me, and trying to pick up fun cards. I'll buy a few packs each year, dig through my collection for veterans I already have cards for, and hunt down cool singles on the internet. A few years ago Topps did a Garbage Pail Kids MLB crossover subset. I also used to collect GPK, so of course I had to get the GPK card of my player. That cost me around $50. Anyhow, on a practical level, getting cards of MILB callups and rookies I draft helps me see their faces and recognize them when I see them on TV.