BuraddoRun

I think it's always more meaningful when you're able to contact an artist directly to either purchase or get information about art. I've had a fair amount of success with both, which kind of surprised me honestly. My most recent contact was concerning one of the manga pieces I recently won in an auction. I actually won 2 different pieces done by the same artist, and despite the language barrier, and the fact that neither piece had information listed from what books they came from, I was able to quickly figure 1 of them out through Googling. The 2nd piece was a bigger mystery, though. Finally, tonight, I Googled the artist's name in Japanese and found his Twitter account. He had an email listed there, but stated it was for "business inquiries only." Despite that, I sent him a short email in both English and Japanese. I typed it in English, ran it through Google Translate, and copy/pasted the translation in Japanese. I included both English and Japanese versions in my email. And I asked him to forgive me for emailing for non-business purposes. I attached a pic of the art and asked where it came from. He replied in about 15 minutes with a very nice email. So now I know this is from Samurai Leaguers, which you wouldn't know from my page, but is a baseball-themed manga with fantastical stuff like samurai, ninja, and wrestlers! If you're OK with sharing, what are some of your most memorable artist interaction successes? That is to say, when you've reached out concerning specific artwork.

Having a gun when you don't need a gun.

I imagine that thing must weigh a TON if it's made of pewter! I hope you don't plan on wearing it! Seriously though, that's another amazing sculpture!

It's a pretty great one, though! But then, I'm biased.

Ha! That was a fun read! Great full story to own!

This might be goofy, but I figure it's a fun way for us to show off art and impress and/or make each other jealous (like we don't do that enough already). The game is simple. Post art that relates to the previous poster's avatar. You may have to be creative, depending on what the avatar is, of course. Then, after 1 person posts, someone else posts art related to the latest poster's avatar, and so on. Mine is easy since it's an image of a mainstream comic character.

I've been on a Red Sonja kick lately, comic book-wise, and just recently ordered her 1st appearance (Conan 23), her first cover appearance and main story (Conan 24), her origin (Kull and the Barbarians 3), her first story in a chainmail bikini (Savage Sword of Conan 1), and a handful of other books that I wanted to own and read. As far as art goes, right now I only have 1 piece with her, a prelim for a cover to a commemorative issue done recently by Greg Hildebrandt. I'll attach it and the published comic image to this post. But I'd like to see other members' Sonja art, if you'll share. Regarding my prelim, I got it on ebay from the source last summer. Greg's gallery was selling prelims and the final pencil art for the cover on ebay that he normally would've taken to conventions. But since COVID cancelled the conventions, they were available at auction instead. I just picked one that I liked and was affordable. He ended up switching her stance to favor the other side, and of course there are other characters and details on the final cover. It's an homage to the Star Wars movie poster painting he and his brother did many years prior (I'll include it, too). The comic itself is a reprint of Marvel's Red Sonja # 1.

Serves him right. Sorry you didn't get the piece. Ha! I love seeing intentional "extras" that artists occasionally add, knowing those parts won't be published.

These kind of weird stories always add to the fun of collecting. Good luck with your search!

Nice pieces! I found a typo on your CAF you might wanna fix, but maybe it fits if you got these as a purchase. You have Strong Guy labeled as Strong Buy.

So, I have a theory. Regardless of who does the finished strip, Jim Davis is quoted in the NY Times article floating around from 2019 (here it is: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/arts/garfield-art-auction.html ) that he does all the writing. As such, wouldn't it stand to reason that those rough prelims out there are actually hand-drawn by Jim? So with that in mind, and this recent forum Garfield talk, and my unabashed love of the strip and desire to own at least 1 actual Davis piece, AND the fact that a lot of the prelims go for cheap...I bought one. It's not a favorite or anything, but it's cute, and has a gaffe that's the sort of behind-the-scenes stuff we collectors like that the public doesn't see in finished work. So yeah, I like it. Eventually I'll add 1 or more published finished strips to my collection, but this is a start and it counts as something I can cross off (at least partially) my wish list! I'll attach the pic of the prelim and a photocopy of the finished strip that came with it.

Ha! That's a pretty great suggestion! If I ever have the chance to meet him in person, I may just do that!

"The purchase of this NFT also entitles the buyer to the original acrylic paint on board 36x36 inches, framed, signed."

Uh...near miss?

Oh, Didio. That man did a lot of damage to a number of "less popular" characters that still had diehard fans. For me, it was Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), who went from having a big heart, firmly believing in justice & good, and recently began learning to read and write after adjusting to spoken language not too long before, to going straight villain, attacking old allies, and being fluent in Navajo which she apparently used to use for secret communication in written letters to Robin...in the span of 1 year in continuity. Regarding Byrne's X-Men, if Marvel put it under their "new" What If label like Zdarsky's Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow he could do whatever he wants. Well, to a degree of course, but it could work, I think?

Back stories always make pieces more special, and this has a great one. I always love seeing unpublished pages, too. Congratulations!

Great stuff! I'm glad you got the opportunity to do this. Thanks for sharing!

I occasionally see a listing or post where someone describes something as "twice-up." What does that mean?

And it even has Moira, who, while not super important in the classic mythos, IS very important in the current lore because she's finally unified the 2 ideals and mutantkind as a whole. She's basically the center of everything going on in X-Men right now, and with a solo book on the horizon, I suspect she will become a more popular character overall.

Congratulations, and great pickup!

@Unca Ben shared this: And in another thread, @Nuttzo shared this: And I got this a few months ago. I wonder how many pages were competed? If the full issue was done, I want to know why it wasn't printed. Does anyone have Pablo Marcos' contact info? I tried through his website but got an error message.

I see the Peanuts, but where's the Garfield?!?!

I got 2 pieces in today. I posted 1 in the manga thread so I'll link to it there if you want to check out Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Issue 5, Page 5 by Takeshi Miyazawa. The other piece I got is Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn: Issue 6, Page 7. This was one of the least expensive of the pages available from this series over at Essential Sequential, but I gotta say, even in this not-so-flashy page, seeing Matteo Scalera's work in person...it's really detailed and amazing. I'd love to add more of his work to my collection in the future. An interesting note if you're not familiar with the comic: in this issue, Harley is gifted a new suit by Batman that is black and grey, so the uncolored ink page still captures the new suit's look perfectly.

This is interesting. I got a piece in today from Takeshi Miyazawa. He's done a lot for Marvel and other Western titles, but he lives in Japan now and does his work from there. So, instead of this page being drawn on Marvel's branded board, it's actually on a smaller, Japanese board, the same size and brand that Yuusuke Takeyama used for one of the pieces in my post above. So, it's technically not manga (or maybe it technically is manga?), but it's definitely reminiscent of the typical manga style. This is from Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider # 5.

This sums up how I feel about this sort of thing. I don't necessarily like to see it, but it happens everywhere in the collectible world, and is just the nature of the beast. Regardless, this topic is fun. And it helps keep we potential buyers more informed.