BuraddoRun

I just can't go in on monoprints like I do pencils and inks. I even felt kinda weird getting my Stegman piece that has his digitally printed blueline roughs, even though the finished work has his detailed pencils and his inks over those roughs. To me, a monoprint feels like any other print, even if there literally won't be any other print. But high quality monoprints, just like giclées or any other high quality print, can still look very nice and be something desirable to own. There's just something about owning THE original, something done by hand that can't be 100% reproduced to exactness, that seems more special than any reproduction. The problem is that digitally produced stuff CAN be 100% reproduced to exactness. The original is a digital production, something that automatically gets backed up within the computer where it was made anyway, and where copies are sent to colorists, letterers, publishers, etc. I won't fault anyone who wants to buy and collect them, but they're not for me, at least not as long as the hand-drawn stuff is available. I will say that I highly doubt monoprints will ever be reproduced officially, except maybe in those artist's edition books. Hmmm, have we considered that possibility yet? But I think an "original" monoprint would be honored by both the artist and publisher, especially in this hobby where the old ways are still used by many artists.

Most of my wants but not yet haves from artists are because of prohibitive cost and availability. But here's some artists I'd love to get pieces from, in no particular order: Art Adams: early 90s stuff John Byrne: She-Hulk (but X-Men or FF would be fine, too) Mike Mignola: I actually really like his X-Men Classic covers Marc Silvestri: Wolverine! Ron Lim: Silver Surfer or Infinity Gautlet George Perez: Infinity Gauntlet or Teen Titans Erik Larsen: Spider-Man Todd McFarlane: Spider-Man Tim Sale: Batgirl cover Bruce Timm: something published Jim Lee: X-Men, but Albert still has affordable pieces from newer stuff and I'm working toward one of those Then there are the older artists like Jack Kirby and John Buscema that'd I'd love to have works from that I may never get. But hey, collecting is as much an adventure as it is a hobby, so never say never!

Well, once again I'm kind of cheating, because this is from animation and not comic art, but here's a douga, or drawing used for the creation of a cel, from Bio-Booster Armor Guyver. Although Guyver was a manga before the anime came out, so there's a comic link here.

My first 2 pieces, that I got together a few years back, were emotional, as I suspect most of our first pieces are to us. But the 2nd big emotional milestone was when I recently got 3 June Brigman Power Pack pages. When I was a kid, I read lots of books, but I skipped Power Pack because I thought they were lame. Why would I want to read [what I thought was] a kid's comic, when there were much cooler heroes out there like Wolverine and the X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, etc.? Over the years, I kept seeing Power Pack comics on the shelves, at the used book store my family frequented, and I even got one in a comic grab bag I bought, which is a fairly vivid memory of disappointment. LOL. There were reboots in my adult years, but I ignored those, not feeling any sort of way toward them at this point. I worked at a comic book store in my mid twenties for about a year, and at some point my manager told me that Power Pack was one of his favorite comic series. I laughed and made fun of him, having not actually ever read it, still. Then not long back, about 2 years ago, I was perusing cheap back issues at a second-hand store and I stumbled upon an issue of Power Pack that guest-starred the X-Men. I remembered my initial distaste for the book, then my old boss' mention that it was one of his favorites, and I said, "what the heck," and bought it. That issue was a self-contained story (that kind of expanded in subsequent issues, but it was fine as a one-off), and I thoroughly enjoyed it, enough that I decided to spring for the whole collection on ebay (it was cheap). Then I started reading from the beginning, and it was magical. It took me back to my childhood in a different way than reading old books I had already read as a kid. This was like discovering something new that I had missed when it was actually new, and it resonated with that part of me in a lot of ways. I was literally the Power kids' ages during the entirety of their initial run. The book ran from 1984-1992 (if you include the Holiday Special that acted as a bookend to the series). Katie, the youngest of the pack, was 5 when the book debuted (I was 4 going on 5), and Alex, the oldest, was 12 (my age when the Holiday Special released). The first few issues were a grand sci-fi adventure that stood on its own apart from the bigger going-ons in Marvel. I grew up on sci-fi. The book had an air of innocent fun, and the way the kids acted when they did things like meet their favorite heroes, watch and talk about cool movies (like Star Wars), and even act with each other as siblings, it all touched my nostalgia buttons in a new way. Heck, even the ads in the comics themselves, like for videogames or Saturday Morning Cartoons, were all nostalgic beats. Plus, the book itself, the stories of these kids gaining extraordinary powers, learning to be responsible, messing up and learning from mistakes, hiding their powers from their parents, and just getting into crazy hijinks, is just good. It's a FUN comic book, at least at the beginning, when Louise Simonson primarily wrote it and June Brigman primarily drew it. As I started to really get into collecting OA, I wanted to get something from this series. June Brigman's art is beautiful. I figured the 80s weren't that far back and Power Pack has more of a cult following than mainstream appeal, so surely finding OA wouldn't be too hard... I searched ebay throughout the months. No luck. I Googled and found various websites. No luck. Actually, Anthony has a piece on his site and ebay that he attributes to Brigman, but it's actually done by a different artist. I think Brigman did the layouts, but the finished work is definitely not hers. Anyway, I emailed the dealers that had listings, including Spencer Beck (June's rep), and Cool Lines Artwork (this was prior to me signing up here and learning...things). Spencer replied that he was out of all Brigman PP. Cool Lines emailed me a list of everything they had PP, none of which was Brigman's. I found leads on 1, just 1 cover, but it was out of my range (in the thousands) so I didn't follow that trail. I just wanted a good interior page. Eventually, I found this forum, and decided to sign up. My very first post was 2 months before I started actively reading and posting here. I put it in the buy/sell subforum: I got no replies. So then I became more active here, and got pieces from other books and characters I like. I still searched for PP, and got a nifty non-Brigman piece from Anthony, but still had no leads for what I really wanted. Then I spoke to some of you here about CAF. I set up an account, posted my collection, and reached out. I searched the classifieds to no avail, but from posts here learned that a lot of times collectors have reached out about NFS pieces and actually been able to work out deals, so I tried that. I emailed multiple CAFers about posted pieces, and eventually got 1 reply. The owner didn't want to sell. At least he was polite and responded to me. Finally, I found a gallery where the owner had a lot of nice comic art. He was clearly a collector who has probably been in the hobby for years, and definitely spent some $$$ to acquire pieces. He also lived in Singapore. He had PP covers, which were awesome, but I assumed out of my range even if he dropped the NFS tag for me. So I inquired about an interior. He replied and said he wanted to keep that piece. Sigh... BUT! He said he had some other interiors that he might be willing to make a deal on, and these weren't posted on CAF. He sent me pictures, and we worked out a deal on 3 pages I really liked. Of course then I had to go through the payment, which wasn't bad at all, but the shipping made it worse because it cost as much as a page of artwork. Then I had to chew my nails while waiting for an international package to arrive. Oh, and Paypal froze my account for a day due to a refund error (this was cleared up quickly, thankfully), and the whole communication process took some time because of different time zones and work business, which sucks when you're an anxious buyer. LOL. But it all worked out, and I'm really glad I was able to get them.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother, but that is a wonderful gift from him and rendition. Whatever his art teacher may have thought of his assignment, he recognized a master's work, indeed.

Are there any artists whose style has changed enough that you actually prefer their old look to the new? I can name 3 that come to my mind: 1. Art Adams. I loved his stuff in the 90s on the X-Men, and the New Fantastic Four. Those were his golden years for me. His stuff is still great now but he started making his characters' faces wider at some point, and it just isn't as appealing to me now as it was back then. 2. Tony S. Daniel: I first discovered his art from his book, The Tenth, in the late 90s, and while it fit the typical Image mold of flashy, posy, anatomically incorrect art that was everywhere, I still really felt like his stood out from the pack. Now, his artistic ability has certainly gotten better, but it looks very different from his Tenth days, and I prefer his old, less-experienced ways. 3. Takeshi Miyazawa: His art is reminiscent of manga, but his newer stuff seems more loose. He used to take more time, it seems like, as the art was more careful. This is especially true in his faces, which used to be rounder. His looser current style works well in action scenes, but it loses some of the detail his older work had in the human moments. His technical ability has gotten better, though.

I gotcha. I'm about to make one now.

Well, most here probably won't agree with me, but my Prime childhood comic collecting was late 80s, early 90s, so it's Jim Lee for me. He was the first artist whose work I actually cared about. That is to say, I liked comics since a very young age, but Jim Lee was the first artist whose work I recognized and whose name I made note of. Plus, his style has remained consistent for 30ish years. He's still very detailed, very dynamic, and has the best poses, but his style itself hasn't changed as drastically as some other artists over the years. He's simply refined his style.

Fun Fact: In 2007, I was at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas with a friend when i noticed a lady nearby that caught my eye. I told my friend, "hey, that looks like Tia Carrere." I stared for a bit trying to decide if it really was her and she eventually saw me looking and looked back. It was kind of an expectant look, as if she was saying, "well, are you gonna say something to me?" I told my friend, "nah, probably not" and we walked off. Around the hotel I saw signs about an event going on that weekend, the Spike TV Video Game awards, so I looked up the guest list on the internet and sure enough, she was the hostess of the show. Moral of the story is the same as our hobby: chances like that don't come up often; take it when you get it! In this case I just mean saying "hi," getting a photo, etc. But you know, I missed it.

I thought Shatterstar was cool when I was younger. C'mon, he's got a double-bladed sword! That's XXtreme!!! Also, feet!

So.............................I just got a Simonson Beta Ray Bill page in today. OK, OK. Mine is his better half's page (Louise Simonson), and she just wrote it. It was drawn by the wonderful June Brigman. But here it is for your enjoyment. As for random thoughts, I find myself thinking about OA when I read comics now. I'll pull out a book I just picked up on a Wednesday, like today, and as I'm reading it think, "Ooh, I wonder if this page will be up for sale." Of course, a lot of dealers sell pages before the comic hits the shelves, so that can throw a wrench into things.

I got 3 pages from Power Pack drawn by June Brigman and inked by Bob Wiacek in today! I've been looking for Brigman Power Pack pages ever since I made my first post here, which was in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum and was a "will buy" for just that. I had no luck until I found a CAF member who generously sold these to me. I'm very grateful he did so, because I really love the series and Brigman's art. The pages are pretty funny, too, if you feel like reading them (the 2nd and 3rd, anyway).

Now I know I should bring a lucky quarter with me whenever I go to conventions! But seriously, that was a great episode!

I'm not a big Templesmith fan, honestly, but I have to admit that this Doom is pretty dang cool! And your Mouse Guard piece is pretty snazzy, too.

CAF solicitations sounded weird to me as I read through some of the posts in this topic, but then I actually got a solicitation just today after I posted some new pieces in my gallery. It wasn't Rubinstein. A dealer linked his CAF gallery and invited me to come look at his client's stuff. It felt strange, but I guess it's no big deal. It lets me see art I might not have known was available that I may be interested in.

I'm cheating because this isn't comic art, but here are some animation cels I own that are sports related. 1. Princess 9 anime 2. New Star of Giants anime. I have the hand-painted background for this as well, so it's a nice, complete setup. 3. Bo Jackson from the ProStars cartoon

Coincidentally, I was in this exact situation just recently. The artist I engaged with said he wanted to keep all of his published comic art, but if the right offer came along, he might let something go. He also said he'd be happy to do a commission, even a recreation. I was pretty sure my offer wouldn't be enough (it wasn't), but I just politely told him the truth. I told him I was only looking for published works right now. But we both stayed cordial and even exchanged a few more emails back and forth. He told me about his entry into comics and something he's working on currently that isn't out yet. He seemed genuinely flattered that I reached out to him, and he said I could always reach out again in the future because he may be willing to let things go at some point. All in all, it was a very positive experience for both of us. My suggestion is to do what I did. Be polite and honest. You could always leave your door open as well, if you think your collecting wants may change. That is, you could say, "right now I'm focusing on collecting published works, but I may reach out in the future to see if you're still willing to do a commission."

Happy Birthday @AnkurJ!

Heh. I just posted about this artist not too long ago: Douglas Shuler. He's a nice guy. I got a commission (2.5" X 3.5" oil painting on a Magic artist proof card) from him. I think there's more to it for some, especially with Magic. Kinda like someone eventually falling in love with someone they initially weren't attracted to, and then they they did become attractive to them. Demonic Tutor is a staple in Magic to this day. There are lots of players who pulled out wins due to this card, so many who may not have liked the art genuinely do enjoy looking at it now, even enough to call it "beautiful" (for an ugly demon, you know LOL). I was never fond of this particular piece, but I do carry a fondness for the artist's work in general, and it's a combination of it being there from the beginning, some of it looking nice to me, and some of his cards being favorites of mine and in many of my old decks. Nostalgia + grown fondness + actual admiration (in some cases). From the original Magic artists, Anson Maddocks was my favorite. I have an original piece of his as well on a card-size (3.5" X 2.5") Living Artifact artist proof. I didn't commission this one. I just bought it from him. But yeah, Magic art today has less freedom than it used to, but a lot of the art is still very nice.

If I were to start an Aunt May collection, this cover would be my personal grail. The first appearance of Golden Oldie!

Art Adams is one of my wishlist artists, as I'm sure he is for many of us. Congrats on getting an awesome cover!

I was watching Comicartfans Live tonight on YouTube a little while ago and it turns out BOTH of these pieces were featured as sold on ebay. It may seem crazy to us sometimes what a seller asks for, but it just goes to show that we all have different tastes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one man's trash is anoth...you get the point! Hmmm...but did they sell? It looks like the Oz piece is relisted for cheaper: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-John-Buscema-Original-Art-The-Wizard-of-Oz-the-Wicked-Witch-of-the-West/224167198998?hash=item3431680116:g:ggwAAOSwd39fU0lK @Carl Elvis, did yours sell or was that an error with CAF's data? If you did, congratulations!

Marvel Fanfare had so many great pinups! Marvel Comics Presents had some nice back cover pinups as well.

I recently got a piece by Ryan Stegman in, and I noticed that there was blueline print underneath the pencil and inks that looked like rough layouts. I asked Felix and he confirmed that typically, Ryan does a basic layout on his tablet. Then he'll print that out, do the detailed pencils, and finally ink it. We talked about this type of blueline in the other topic I realize, so it's funny I got a piece that was done like this not long after. My pics aren't great, and the blue is very light, but you can see the blue roughs underneath.

I got my 2 (out of 3; 3rd should be payed off soon) layaway pieces in! The first is from Felix (thanks again Felix!). It's a Ryan Stegman page from ASM: Renew Your Vows issue # 7. The second is my very first splash page, Elektra VS, Batgirl from Wizard # 121's Last Woman Standing, by Damion Scott. This image/feature was actually my entryway into Batgirl, so this is a personal grail for me. At the time this issue came out, I was pretty much a Marvel fanboy. Last Man Standing was a thing Wizard did where they got series artists to do an original piece for their mag, which featured 2 characters in a who-would-win battle. I incorrectly guessed that Elektra would win, because Marvel. After reading that Batgirl would not only win, but that it wouldn't really even make her break a sweat, I checked out her comic out of curiosity. She quickly became my favorite DC character, and the other 2 pages of Batgirl OA I currently own were my first comic book OA purchases. I got this one from Albert Moy, so thank you Albert!