Aman619

i can't see this IHOP special hitting $75k but i'm sure i'll be proven wrong You could be right, but it's going to be one helluva party for the seller. How much did this sell for as an 8.5? You're right, still plenty of jack for the seller with a two grade upgrade..

This may turn out to be a less than successful upgrade. I mean that in general, S22 is already weakening in price after the huge movie run up... Plus, this copy may pick up the stank of a public upgrade such that the buyers primed to pony up for a true new 9.2 copy will pass on it, or , at least not pay nearly what they MIGHT have paid for the clean 9.2 they have been waiting for. We have seen this effect play out for other books the Boards have outed as embarrassingly obvious upgrades. And I don't remember predicting a 9.2... But sure, don't we all know how this is all playing out by now?

Since we are all kinda used to this kind of thing, and books getting improved are commonplace, maybe it's time to begin focussing not on the grade of the book, but rather the craftsmanship of the man responsible! It's all we have left of our once innocent hobby. Anyone ready to take a bow for the upgrade?

Sorry I offended you .. I only offered what most of us we think is good advice based on how we handle our books. But, I think one big difference between our approaches is that most of us don't display our valuable comics... So tucked in mylars with boards and stored safely and taken out to look at when we choose is the way we roll. If I wanted for instance to look at the cover art every day, I'd probably frame a cover reproduction. Putting a valuable book on the wall, or on display just puts it at risk: damage, theft and sun fading. Consider too that even CGC does NOT advertise their slabs as protective devices! They a selling grades.... The tamper proof slab is purely to protect their grade! Dropping your slab can actually damage your book. Another reason many of us don't pay to slab our books for display or safe storage... Again, unless a sale is imminent. Peace.

Because if you are looking at your long term value, why increase your cost basis NOW years before you may choose to sell? You admit to the al possibility that the books current value might be a flash in the pan, like 99% of modern hot books. And you are getting honest opinions and advice here on a CGC board because honesty like this doesn't scare or offend CGC. Thy aren't hurting for another few slab fees! To their credit.

Slab them because of the art that you will no longer be able to see? Mylars protect books just fine. The only reason to slab is to sell, or determine its grade and therefore, it's value!

I could see Kirkman killing Rick at some point... and widening the story all the way. But tat would be a wrenching decision. Maybe even financial suicide in the name of Art.

so I finally bit the bullet and read the whole 100 issues this week. never read any of them. hate zombie stories and ignored WD for ten years! but, just wow. I loved reading it all in large doses... Now that Im caught up I can't stand the idea of having to wait a month at a time!! I read every Cerebus month by month and it was tedious waiting, and was jealous of the guys who came later and could read whole phonebooks to catch up. The stories hold together better one right after the other. so here are my thoughts. thanks for asking! Im very impressed by the foreshadowing Kirkman lays in. I have not found any serious issues with the plot developments, the deaths, Ricks personalities or actions. I am really impressed that of late, Kirkman has made a strong point that in this new world of zombies, the most dangerous thing you face is NOT the zombies, but MAN himself. Tats eve scarier, as Rick realized in the 90s... killing zombies is just work. Something you just do to get where you are going. And Ricks recent overconfidence has been played nicely into failing once again, just as he was getting comfortable that he was truly mans best hope: the thinking mans considerate tough guy protector! Im looking forward to what Kirkman sees going on all around the country and the world. Im sure he's got plans for that. WHat about NYC? or LA? Paris? Didnt anybody take over a cruise ship? or an apartment building? anyway, I think this is a great series. Im not sorry I hadn't started earlier, just glad I finally read it. and I won't be buying back issues. I actually read it all on Comixology...

Hey Gregg's. How did you get 30 DIFFERENT books on ONE invoice??.?

well, if you are painting a likeness of a famous person, you have two choices: invite him over to sit for you, or, 2) begin with a photograph. obviously Shepard F had to go with option 2 since he wasnt even commissioned by Obama, was he? His problem was that this has been challenged before and photographers (especially AP photos ) are very good at protecting their property. Fairey should have known to get permission, but they may have quoted him 10-20K if they knew how widespread the image would be used (thats how they quote their fees). SO essentially Fairey was left with the choice to just use it and worry about repercussions later. I seem to recall his biggest mistake was lying about using it when caught. For THAT he got nailed hardest.

you reminded me of another aspect of this we havent thrown into the mix. The question of why the artists never sued for their rights is explained by the fact that as work for hire, they couldnt do the suing. but why didnt the publishers sue? Well, Stan Lee, jumped on the bandwagon of the the sudden stardom and interest in comic book imagery by re-tagging his entire line of comics "Pop Art Productions!" He and later DC with the gogo checks rather than sue for rights to worthless images sought to capitalize of a lucky break in the media! Which further cements the reality us oldtimers remember well (but kids living with todays comics etc dont "feel") that comics were a guilty pleasure and a throwaway entertainment form having little more value than the ten cents plunked down for the latest indistinguishable installment created by men lucky to be making a living during very hard times in publishing.

This is the kind of high-brow talk that really gets my goat...in this day and age, where does someone get off calling comic book art "low"? I can hear them now saying: "I say, ol' boy that Lichtenstein is a genius! He took lemons and made not lemonade, but champagne!". Beats the hell out of THIS conversation: "Well gollee, Leroy, I just got me one of them there dogs playin` poker posters. It shore is purty!" "What did ya`ll just say, Cletus? I can`t hear a danged thing you`re sayin` over the sound of them Nascars!" Did you happen to see what the "dogs playing poker" original painting sold for at auction? This conversation is happening across the income strata. at this point, after years of all of us thinking the dog paintings were just the lowest kitschy trash, Id like to own one of the originals because they are a true original American art. They have stood the test of time. How many are there? Ill bet there are not that many and probably a great investment! Maybe a couple dozen pieces?? I mean, look at how far pinup art has come? Sure they're more fun to look at, but dogs playing poker? At this point, they feel classic to me.

I am not an artist but for me it's statements like this that make me automatically want to attack "Lichty's" art. You just said you couldn't understand how artists don't "get it". Well, as an artist, how can you call someone else's work throw away? IMO most pop art is not great or even good art. It's 99% hype. It was a novel idea and had one or two examples been created to make a point it would have been an interesting footnote. I'm sure most people here that object to the adulation and millions heaped upon Lichty wouldn't be as upset if the community that embraces him wasn't so dismissive of the source material. How would the art world react to a photographer going to an artist's show (someone the art world elite embraces), photographing the artwork (in a specialized, artistic style) then published the prints? Yes, they are visually different but obviously derived from someone else's work. Would the gallery be happy about it? Would the artist be? How would fans of the artist react if the photographer said "the source material was throw away, I'm the real artist by forcing society to see it with new eyes." This is a circular argument that will never end. I wanted to avoid contributing to the thread but I found it... funny?... to see an artist calling out other artists for not getting Lichty in one breath and calling comic artist's work "throw away" with another. well, thats not quite a fair comparison, but I get your point. However, no gallery would show such photographs of paintings. and if they did, I dont think the show would be successful enough (not enough of a disctinction between the two forms) so we;d never have to worry about the photos stealing from the painter 50 years later!

I am not an artist but for me it's statements like this that make me automatically want to attack "Lichty's" art. You just said you couldn't understand how artists don't "get it". Well, as an artist, how can you call someone else's work throw away? IMO most pop art is not great or even good art. It's 99% hype. It was a novel idea and had one or two examples been created to make a point it would have been an interesting footnote. I'm sure most people here that object to the adulation and millions heaped upon Lichty wouldn't be as upset if the community that embraces him wasn't so dismissive of the source material. How would the art world react to a photographer going to an artist's show (someone the art world elite embraces), photographing the artwork (in a specialized, artistic style) then published the prints? Yes, they are visually different but obviously derived from someone else's work. Would the gallery be happy about it? Would the artist be? How would fans of the artist react if the photographer said "the source material was throw away, I'm the real artist by forcing society to see it with new eyes." This is a circular argument that will never end. I wanted to avoid contributing to the thread but I found it... funny?... to see an artist calling out other artists for not getting Lichty in one breath and calling comic artist's work "throw away" with another. before I slog thru 37 new posts, Ill answer. ALl these artists are commercial artists. ALL their work was throwaway and under the control of their clients/bosses. Very few of them fetishized their quick comics assignments nor asked or expected their "artworks" back. That was the way it was for them their whole careers. dont project your ideas of what they should have thought about what they did for a living. They lived job to job, check to check. meeting a deadline, NOT "creating art" beyond their personal responsibility as craftsmen, and knowing that doing too poor of a job would mean no more work and they be manning a rubber cement pot in the bullpen at an ad agency.

Also, not to try to spurn any ill will (I appreciate scholarly debate from all perspectives), but have you ever taken an art studio class or actively engaged in producing art? Can you speak intelligently on being in a darkroom until 2 am finishing a series of photos? Or spending hours making a sand mold, only to be left praying that, as you pour molten iron fresh out of the cupola, that it doesn't burst at the seams? Or ripping through sheets of thumbnails trying to nail down your composition before starting a large watercolor painting? Again, my point is not to stir up any sort of class warfare type of situation, but it seems to me that until you've literally sweated and bled into a piece of art, then you lack a critical piece of this complicated issue: the feelings of the artist. It's interesting that you state your artistic experiences as giving you the insights and opinions you stated about Lichty. I have been reading this thread and gotten frustrated that all the anti Lichty people are clearly NOT artists, and come across as just comics fans bemoaning the theft of a few meaningless panels in long forgotten funny books issues. But as an artist, I'm baffled that you aren't on Lichtensteins side! As an artist I'd think you'd celebrate Roy's creative rethinking of the comics medium. I do. I'm an artist and view these paintings as great successes. More and more over the years. To come up with an idea, and spend the hours and hours (as you do) perfecting my craft in making these canvases, is something we all dream about. Most of us all make a living or a great living as commercial artists never daring to take the main stage of ART. Lichtenstein did, and he came with a daring creative and bold approach that tied in low art and high art. I'd think you'd appreciate the larger theme and creativity of that and not the work for hire paid by the hour artistic reality of the type you mention, that 98% of all artists like us deal with every day. He took something throwaway, forced society to look at it with new eyes, and made people think differently about it! THey said back in art school that painting was dead. This was a way of saying that art was now about ideas, not brushstrokes. Lichtenstein was a player in the efforts that made that kind of thinking a reality. And I thought I was done with this subject. As for Delly, sure he's an academic that discusses art, studies art, buys art and appreciates it but doesn't make art. But he gets it! Why don't you toiling in the trenches? Do you identify so much with the comics guys who "got ripped off?" over the guy who took it to a whole new level? Russ Heath is one of my favorites. He's an amazing draughtsman. But his dreams were small. Different men. Different goals. I don't think he lost sleep over some fancy pants artists who showed him a new way to look at his long forgotten panels he banged out at midnight many years ago for a lousy paycheck. I hunk he said to friends at parties! Gee why didn't I think of that? And laughed. THen cried a bit when things were slow, but took pride in his talents that afforded him a good living.

comics are comics. movies are movies. different media and experiences. The movie got a lot right but it didn't add up to anything special. It didn't move you. Its not fair to co,pare a 10 page comic book story from 50 years ago to a film released today. We all bring so much more dramatic experience from TV, bilks, comics and movies that a film can't afford to have you questioning plot developments. Takes you out of the ride. GL did that for most people. Just didn't keep them in their seats (minds).

14.5K GL is BACK!

looking at the Capt Storm cover I was thinking boy, this guy cant draw feet very well! then I remembered Storm has a wooden leg! : ) Is that Ross Andru?

That's not a given. Prices have risen greatl and in man cases time will no longer bail out a bad purchase to too high a price.

Id go for the OAAW 83 on your list. But, lately 3K wont buy you much, not as much a just recently... So Sgt Fury#1 would be my second pick. Cant go wrong with an undervalued Marvel SA first appearance! There arent many left. Frontline Combat is low in the census, but for lots of reasons that dont really speak to a scarcity. Marvels have a much larger fan base so there are lots more copies graded in all grades. OAAW 83 is truly scarce in High Grade. So the question becomes will 3K buy you a HG copy? The sales have been volatile this past year, so I cant answer that with any certainty.

Or, it's inked from a two minute Kirby layout, without tight penciling the inker could embellish...

Looks Ike someone trying to draw LIKE Kirby, but not Kirby pencils. Doesn't ahe the right angles and line placement.

That was a great story, and well drafted too. Funnyhng about time travel stories, they always arrive late. Don't they get the irony? Just set the time machine 5 minutes before the event happens and you'll be there to stop it.

ahhh. good old Nester Redondo! loved his work.

Don't slab 6.0s. Even to sell them.