Aman619

Anybody worried about the Disney Fox deal failing due a competing bid by Comcast? Does FF go back in the dust bin if that happens?

can this show get any slower? Im still watching and hoping for good stories, but. we all complain about the Netflix Marvel series being stretched long and thin, but The Flash and Arrow are 24 episodes of wasted time around a few scenes of story development. crazy. Both DeVoe and Diaz are ridiculously uninteresting villains unable to sustain interest for an entire season

yes separations are when the desired final colors are "separated" into %s of the 4 ink colors. You seen what the comics colorists use to paint the comics, right? Basically a repro (stat or xerox) of the line art thats watercolored how they want the comic to look. They add notes as to the exact combination of each ink to mix to yield the tint they want for each area. Back then they were forced into a limited palette, just a few % levels for each ink. The people at Eastman Color would be tasked with creating the film for each plate by hand cutting "friskets" of red film (red photographs opaque (black) blocking the exposed film from being exposed. Its tedious work, but when they are dome stripping each % of each ink together they end up with film negatives with all the areas perfectly broken down areas of dots at the desired %s. You can also make operations from a color photo or scan. The difference is that you don't cut the areas... the %s are continuous, flowing from 0% to 100% of each ink color. These are made with filters that break up the image into just what is needed from each ink color to reproduce the original . I said a colossal waste of time to painstakingly PAINT all the dots of a comic book because a year later when you're all done (and it looked amazing!) it would STILL never fool the eye into looking real. It would look cool as hell! Like the Myers covers look amazing until you look closely and see all the painting that was done. They look fake... It would look like what it is: an elaborate painting of the colors that the dots look like to the eye -- they do not paint the dots. ( IIRC the only dot patterns on their books are whats left of the source comic book that allowed to show through their overpainting). The dots are too small and mathematically precisely spaced so that you'd need computers to produce them. and at that point, why not just reproduce the book by printing it like a comic book. Easier to try to isolate a clean b/w line art and recolor it just isolating the %s just like Eastman Color did. Greg Theakston had a method he used when hired to make the DC hardcover Golden Age reprints series. He actually destroyed a comic book in the process. He'd washed out all the ink except black in order to end up with just the black line art. It really wasn't perfectly clean without some hand painted work because some cyan and magenta dots sat ON the lines and his process couldn't get them 100% eradicated, so his line art was never as clean as the original brushwork the inkers used that DC shot when they made the original separations and printed the books Plus DC opted to go with glossy paper and the ink colors had a very different look than the cheap newsprint look. Chip Kidd had his own solution to reproducing old comics. He scanned them at high resolution so that he had enough pixel dots to describe the relatively large printed dots. His reproductions LOOKED just like the actual comics. But even still, the eye can tell the difference. He wasn't trying to recreate a comic, just the LOOK of them, yellowing paper and all. I prefer his method, especially when he'd enlarge a single panel to full page size, making the dot patterns a big part of the effect. Sort of what Lichtenstein might have been looking for if he were the thief many like to say he was. Rather than opting for a freehand redrawn interpreted version of the cheap and throwaway nature of the isolated panels. Its interesting to speculate however that if no one had done it yet, and computers were available, whether he might have gone for the perfect dot look . It would speak to his true intentions. But he was a painter in a time when painters painted and used real life for inspiration and weren't seeking technologically reproduced copies of what they saw. His challenge as he saw it was to take something so commonplace that nobody gave it a second thought and FORCE you to reconsider it. But not to reopen that whole argument... If you want make a comic book forgery good enough to fool any of us on the boards, you'd need access to the original art, the colorists notes detailing what %s each color was printed, (or a high quality printers loupe that will read the %s off a comic), and the same paper used by each publisher during each phase of comics production. (preferably aged and not freshly manufactured. You could probably use any printing press today, but, there are probably some who can spot paper handling effects (gripper marks etc) that would prove their recent vintage. I think the inks would be less of a problem, except to match the same cyan and magenta because Ive seen variations from todays accepted mixes of those colors. I agree that it can be done though. Not THAT easy, but sure.

Forgery won’t be possible, I think you mean counterfeit. Replicating printing dot patterns is @ colossal waste of time when recreating the separations would be so much easier... and by easier I mean still incredibly hard to fool the naked eye. Think of the Myers books to see what I mean. They look great, but not original at all

I’ll be here all night! ok here what I’m talking about: google this — four color printing rosette youll see how complex it is at printing dot size. And each image show the complexity at just one of the 100 possibilities for each ink color %. Even if you limited it to 25% 50% and 100% tones, that 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 81 possible combination sets of dot sizes to prep for. And that just for pre 1969 when NeailAdams lobbied successfully to add more %s to their deal with the separators.

215 is shocking. And it means that two people thought it sane to bid that high! It’s not the sole highest copy of the JLAs 4th appearance!

Forget the color chart... you can’t manually replicate the dot patterns. Each plate is set at a different angle to the others forming a rosette pattern. Maybe someone could successfully replicate ONE DOT HERE AND THERE... but there are 85 per inch on the newsprint pages, and 150 on the covers! if you think you can still do it, forget making your comics prettier and go directly into forgery! Trust me, I have printing experience and even asked for small cans of C,M,Y and K inks to do just what you are trying... until I faced the dot size and angle issue, and that the inks needed to be thinned ( they are like toothpaste ) as was pointed out. You CAN SUCCESSFULLY REPAINT AREAS AT 100% ink coverage... there aren’t any dots to deal with.

What do you mean by “touch them up”. If you’ve researched comics inks and printing, you know that there are only four inks and all areas of comics covers and interiors are derived from the visual effect of tiny dots of each ink, in varying sizes of dots, so, “touching them up” can’t work because you’d be painting with solid inks colors, or messily trying to match the dot patterns. take a magnifying glass to any comic and you will what I’m talking about. My point is that since you can’t manually replicate the printing effect, you might as well use crayons and markers.

It will take time nd more sales before we can be sure about books like BV 40. The 7.5 that sold for 3900 had three bidders snipe at crazy numbers and crashed into each other. So maybe that means it’s really worth that much... or it just another instance of the bidding process flaw that throwing “win at all cost” snipes can get you hurt when you win... once two more nice copies show up, we may see prices drop, as we have seen time and time again. Or they will climb, nd we will know for sure.

as of today, Stan Lee is suing Olivarez for all profits from this and everything the guy stole from Stan this past year. Stay tuned. but I misread your post, didn't see the joke "Mini Stan Lee" thought you said "Mr"

Who is buying these books at these prices?

watched the video. Stan was certainly awake for this! It doesn't prove he isn't under the control of others, just that at this time he feels he is in support of what they are doing, and more importantly, what they are telling (selling?) him about what they are doing. Bottom line for me is that he chooses to take the side of his daughters people now because its feels far better than to cut her off and be left alone... However one hopeful note is that when he hires these top lawyers, that Stan will get a chance to hear what THEY think about his current advisors. I think we ALL agree that elder abuse or not going on, that a man in his position SHOULD benefit from expert and capable counsel from professionals whose only vice would be the $975 an hour they will charge him! Better to be robbed by invoice than subterfuge, criminality and abuse of trust..

I hear you, and the handlers do have their own agenda and clock is running out on them. But as to telling people off? This is Stan... he rarely told people to F themselves, always trusting and trying to please... maybe a shrink would suggest it's to balance out his younger more aggressively selfish years? One aspect of all this is the double edge sword of both living well into ones 90s, AND having one person, his wife and partner, with him to handle all these areas that Stan has never been good at. Her absence has hit him at his most vulnerable period of his life. Stan may be mad at his daughter for this and that episode of childish ranting etc, but Id never see Stan cutting her off. He'd prefer that she benefit from his efforts even if she was ungrateful all her life. She is STILL his only kin. And there are always good times and bad times in families. So it is what it is and the prospect of a kids inheritance drives people to do awful stuff. At least Stan doesn't have warring siblings to deal with!

Lets go in a different direction here. Granted Stan is slowing down, and there’s some crazy stuff happening in his family and support group that is sad and verging on out of control. But focus on Stan, not the sideshow around him. He loves meeting fans, and puttin* himself out there for them. He just lots his wife. His relationship with his daughter has never been great, and is spiraling downward. so I think he gets his only joy out of the fans and the shows. Should he sit home or at the office? Allow Stan to live out his life as he sees fit. Ignore the sideshow... when the time comes they will have to live with themselves. Stan’s desire is to keep moving and doing. Hollywood Reporter has a long piece out this week about Stan. He’s being bounced around between all the factions around him. None of them sound particularly heroic. But again, if Stan prefers to spend his last years on the road greeting fans and making them happy, why wish that he spend his time at home in bed resting. Resting for what? Please don’t misread this. I have known Stan for years. This is who he is. Who are we to judge? At the heart of this all he has is his daughter, his fortune his celebrity and his desire to not disappoint people. His relationship with his daughter has never been great. His fortune has served its purpose, allowed him to live comfortably. And in the end it’s not his problem where it goes. We will all at some point face the fact that we have to let go. There are many famous people who are wealthy that just fade away. You don’t hear about them for years until one day they appear on the news and in obituaries. They have lived out their days in seclusion either from dementia, disease or weakness. Stan is doing it his way. He’s been having a ball the last ten years basking in what he (co) created.... as Marvel is bigger than ever. More power to him.

I always took the price pr point discussions as just parlor talk-- casual observations about the direction of pricing on books that trade often and for greater sums of money. Obviously (to me) like all our other metrics at use (GPA, Overstreet) it's no more a perfect math system for valuing all books in all grades!

These covers are amazing!

What I remember happening with GA comics in the 90s that was referred to as a crash, was that with the onset of Sotheby’s and Christie’s opening their doors to comics, and having great success moving GA and SA Keys , prices rose dramatically. Remember that this was comics finally eaching the mainstream of collectibles. but at the same time, the red hot bull market was happening! It became clear to the collectors with 50k and more that while they loved comics and they were increasing, that far more money was being made much quicker with tech stocks — Wintel, Cisco and phone and internet companies etc. so the big money was diverted away from comics. Why go for doubling your money in ten years when you could double in 2 months. when the stock market crashed in 1997, comics gained back the buyers, and baseball cards took off as a sure bet collectibles that were more fun and wouldn’t crash like Wall Street does. So GA comics didn’t t crash, they stalled, meeting buyer resistance at the top end due to greener pastures. Meaning it was hard to sell since the usual buyers were elsewhere. ironically, in the long run, while Wall Street has obviously done very well (so long as you stayed in it) our comics have done far better in certain sectors, having had so much room to grow from their seemingly lofty prices that look so cheap today.

Spades... groovy.

Is anyone in a position to have an educated opinion that Stan is actually nearly broke? All the reports just state that a total of around a million or two was stolen, and there are already steps being taken to recover what they can. In any event, Stan has earned millions, been buying houses in his Hollywood Hills neighborhood, and ought to still have plenty to live on and pass onto his daughter. im a Stan guy, but I’d find it hypocritical to worry too much about “poor Stan down to his last millions...” when we all know of many comics artists and writers who are in truly dire financial straights. Stan’s a bit isolated and hasn’t been paying attention, trusting the wrong guys too much as always... just needs competent professional help to find the thefts, stop the bleeding and set up protections going forward.

I liked the invisible ink serial number aided when it first came up 15 years ago. Who would care about a small identifyin* mark somewhere inside the book that would affect the what you see in a slab? Would it be “damage” if it was part of the hobby’s security procedures? And done in a m8 8mla method on an 8nterior page? i often hoped CGC was doing it anyway to help them regrade a book too. I don’t think art collectors care about provenance notes on the backs of their canvases, do they?

I believe Stan ceded future royalties to all Marvel interest in his cash settlement. And his Marvel income would cease with him. IM not sure what other investments or Stan Lee related income streams he has other than the Sigs which will also cease, unless he did a Dali and stockpiled signatures for later sales. there are so many influential and smart people in his circle and there must be some who are willing to step in and help Stan sort this out. Or maybe he has isolated himself over the years and no one thinks he needs help. Now they do.

Stan was always too easy going in his business dealings. Too trusting. I'd hoped that Peter Paul was the last snake to get in his good graces and take advantage of him... but this is all so much worse. Even crook Paul got Stans new internet company Stan Lee Media to a valuation greater than all of Marvel at the time... before it fell apart. paging Mark Zaid?

Lois Lane 1s have topped out at 8.0 for many years now. And the census kept adding a few more 8.0s over the years which diminished the highest graded status die to being shared by a small pile of 8s. Normally an 8.0 at the top of the census isn’t usually a great bet to keep its Highest graded status forever. So now that finally an 8.5 appears, it’s not hard for me to imagine that two ardent collectors went all out to snag the best copy. And ran into each other so that the higher crazy bid won it. And DCs from this era may in fact turn out to not have any 9.2s or 9.4s at all. Or at least until the last big time collector finally decides to slab and sell their books they have owned for decades already. So the buyer should be happy with his new book — except maybe for being maxed out on his bid.

... more like FF1 getting hot again will drive up the slabbed supply! the book has been so dead for so many years its no wonder the # copies is so much less than AF15 which has been on wildfire until recently.

I’ll take it!