Best of 2014....... it Begins---------The Votes are in!!!

[alxjhnsn]

I thought the 300 GN was magnificent (if somewhat poorly bound). Praise for it does not surprise me.

[J.Sid]

I thought the 300 GN was magnificent (if somewhat poorly bound). Praise for it does not surprise me.

 

I've heard the 300 GN was a production nightmare.

 

Irony is, 300 as some of us know, was done entirely in Double-Page Spreads. Some of them were a single large panel, some of them were a big image spread across the page with inset panels, but every page had artwork that continued from one side to the next.

 

At some point during the hardcover production, they decided to use those long wide pages so that none of the story/art would be lost in the center/gutter (not that big an issue for the comic books, but could be a concern for a thick TPB that doesn't lay flat on its own when opened).

 

Anyways, the new layout made it so that when you are flipping through the Hardcover, there are now NO double page spreads because at best it's two spreads side-by-side.

 

[J.Sid]

Side note: I thought the two 300 DPSs might cannibalize each other in the voting.

 

Who knows? Maybe they did, but two out of the top four slots in that category sure ain't bad!

[Eltanin]

Thanks everyone.

 

I'm happy to see that 11 other people like my Petersen Astronomer commission.

 

That was fun to participate, and to see the pieces of everyone.

 

[Matches_Malone]

Howard the Duck??

 

Who knew? (was before my time)

 

My #1 pick for splashes. That one is pure classic Howard the Duck

 

 

Quality Frank Brunner doesn't come around often either.

[drdroom]

I was away on business with limited time and internet and so didn't get to vote this year, or, more importantly, write up an elaborately cranky rationale for each vote which I really look forward to every year. The first half of it would have been a discussion of why X-men 59 is the greatest comic ever, so you can imagine what you missed. Apologies to all, & I will do better next year. Thanks whoever voted for me, especially the stunning FIVE votes for Gaar Williams! That's gotta be a record(?). I'm amazed to tie with Stolzer's Milton Glaser piece (which would have gotten another vote if I had been voting). One might dispute it's status as a comic strip, but my careful analysis reveals that who cares?

[Sharkey]

This was my first year participating in the Lowry and it was also probably my lightest year for acquisitions in a while. But I was pleasantly surprised by the votes I got, and especially pleased that people liked the Hellboy With Horns sketch from one of Mignola's early convention sketchbooks. There are some great images in those sketchbooks and I was very pleased to pick one of them up.

 

I also enjoyed seeing what other people acquired last year - I definitely missed some of them over the course of the year and this was a great prompt to go look at some awesome art. Congrats to everyone who participated!

[J.Sid]

Maybe give sketch covers their own category? Is there a lot of crossover between Sketch covers and OA collectors? Could that be a way to get more people involved?

[Bird]

Maybe give sketch covers their own category? Is there a lot of crossover between Sketch covers and OA collectors? Could that be a way to get more people involved?

 

I am largely indifferent to sketch covers but this may indeed be a way to get more people involved.

 

Then we can show them our good stuff and get them to cross over to the dark side!

[J.Sid]

Maybe give sketch covers their own category? Is there a lot of crossover between Sketch covers and OA collectors? Could that be a way to get more people involved?

 

I am largely indifferent to sketch covers but this may indeed be a way to get more people involved.

 

Then we can show them our good stuff and get them to cross over to the dark side!

 

That is exactly what I was thinking

[Brian Peck]

I dont see there being enough sketch covers to warrant a new category. When commissons were broken out as its own category there were 73 entries.

[J.Sid]

I dont see there being enough sketch covers to warrant a new category. When commissons were broken out as its own category there were 73 entries.

 

That would be the point of adding the category (sketch covers). You had mentioned wanting to get participation up, and it could be a way to get new voters/contributors. I'd guess the "Best Of" is generally ignored by sketch cover collectors right now.

 

Tons of sketch covers get done each year, none get submitted.

 

 

[Nexus]

I second the suggestion for a sketch cover category. Worth a try on a trial basis (especially since no additions/changes are set in stone). I like the idea of being more inclusive and drawing in sketch cover collectors who may not be aware of the larger hobby outside their niche. No matter what, it will bring in more participants, which seems to be a goal.

[Bird]

Yeah, the fact that so many sketch covers get put on CAF and we didn't see that represented in the Best Of 2014 is an opportunity I think. they do not seem to be on comicart-l much as well. I think places like statue forum and the cgc boards here are crazy with them though. CAF may grow as well if we get the word out. I thought sketch covers would be a fad but it seems not.

[malvin]

Some sketch covers were entered as sketches no? I'm not seeing a big different between con sketches and sketch covers.. but of course con sketches can be bigger than a comic book while sketch covers are limited in size (unless its a wrap around cover)

 

I'm all for expanding participation so I would be ok with sketch covers as a separate category

 

Malvin

[Get2TheChoppa]

I dont see there being enough sketch covers to warrant a new category. When commissons were broken out as its own category there were 73 entries.

 

That would be the point of adding the category (sketch covers). You had mentioned wanting to get participation up, and it could be a way to get new voters/contributors. I'd guess the "Best Of" is generally ignored by sketch cover collectors right now.

 

Tons of sketch covers get done each year, none get submitted.

 

 

I submitted a sketch cover for this year because it was genuinely very cool (in my opinion) and it did scratch out 3 votes in the commission category. I'm sure it was hurt because it's on such a small canvas versus the more traditional commissions, but that didn't deter me from adding it.

 

The idea of a standalone category sounds good on paper, but I don't really know how many people on comicart-l collect sketch covers. A trial couldn't hurt.

 

Lastly, I wanted to thank Brian and Bill for running this as it's a great time to reflect on the year and review some great art that may have been missed. Thanks to all of you who used a vote on one of my pieces, it was a pleasant surprise to see a few votes on the sketch cover I entered and a good number of votes on the Katniss given that the character is a bit outside the box. Already looking forward to all the goodies of 2015.

[Eric Seffinga]

This was my first year actually participating. I've been around since it started, but I've just never felt like art collecting was an Olympic sport that needed judging. I've also not had too much interest in what others think of my collecting habits. I also rarely buy things anymore. I've seen posts on here about how individuals have cut way back on their buying and they only had a few dozen pieces to chose from. I think I might have received 5 art packages all of last year, if that. And most were of nothing special to anyone but me. Loose drawings and the like. I had 1 big commission from Phil Hale and 1 med/small buy from Jon Foster this year. Those were what I submitted.

 

What brought me around to participating this time out wasn't the competition side of it, because that holds so very little interest to me. I was actually quite intrigued to see that the 2 pieces that I submitted managed 10 votes each. Something I gather is pretty good. They fell right in the middle of the pack it seemed. Given how little views and commentary my CAF gallery pieces accumulate (compared to the more popular material on CAF) I was a bit surprised by that actually.

 

I viewed my participation more as a chance to expose a few more folks in the hobby to the art that I like. Material which I daresay is easily on the fringe of the hobby, but has proved to be very influential to it and outside of it. And material I imagine most of the voting block wouldn't go out of their way on CAF to search for ordinarily.

 

I've found over the years, that there are certain more modern artists whose work doesn't easily categorize, but are regularly listed as major influencers by so many very popular artists. Not just in comic art, but Sci-Fi and Fantasy illustration fields, illustration and fine art in general, and so on. This dichotomy between the artist's artist and the fanbase has always been one I've found fascinating. Whether it happens with filmmakers, musicians, painters or here with comic artwork.

 

I'm not sure how many votes on my pieces were from people familiar with Phil Hale or Jon Foster in advance of the voting, but I did take the time to read many people's vote lists, where they explained their choices. I was thrilled when one of those vote lists mentioned that the voter was not familiar with Phil's work but enjoyed it. Just that comment made participation worthwhile to me.

 

I REALLY want to thank the folks that voted and then qualified their reasoning behind their votes. I found that sharing to be more satisfying than the actual reviewing and voting myself. I wish I'd had the forethought to do the same when I was placing votes. I remember some internal struggles in a couple categories. Reading other people's conflicts and thought processes gave a bit of insight to that collector, and I tried to visit each voter's CAF for a bit after I read their commentary.

 

I agree with others, that it would be great if the voting pieces were directly tied to the listing in each CAF, so I could more easily leave comments for those pieces. There were some amazing things on display, and even though I try to peruse CAF from time to time, checking out other galleries, I would likely have never stumbled across some of them had it not been for this voting exercise.

 

Thanks so much all.

[alxjhnsn]

There are two things that I really love about the Best of ...

 

1) The chance to see the best of what is posted on the CAF in an easy to review format.

2) Reading the "my Best of .." lists when they include commentary on each piece

3) Reading the criteria for selection

 

I spend a fair amount of time on my "my Best of..." because I enjoy others so much. I often am drawn back to pieces that I missed or to which I didn't pay attention.

 

I'm glad you participated Eric. More to see and enjoy.

[furthur]

I was happily surprised to see my Paul Smith Spirit commission rise to the top of the heap. Of course I love it, but there were some cool commissions out there this year. I felt like Paul had a really good handle on the character after seeing his work on the Spirit/Rocketeer book and took the plunge after buying a page from the book.

 

The thing that I found most interesting in the voting was how popularity did not follow market values all that well (a good thing in my opinion) but I wonder if that would have changed some if the sample size of the voters had increased. I don't know if there was information given out about the total number of individual voters this year, but I figure it was under 100 just from a rough look at the totals and knowing each voter had 5 votes in a category (even if some didn't vote for 5 each time)

 

Next year I will have to hustle out and get my comic art friends to stack the deck for me and then I can dominate across more categories!! ;-)

[Weird Paper]

This was my first year actually participating. I've been around since it started, but I've just never felt like art collecting was an Olympic sport that needed judging. I've also not had too much interest in what others think of my collecting habits. I also rarely buy things anymore. I've seen posts on here about how individuals have cut way back on their buying and they only had a few dozen pieces to chose from. I think I might have received 5 art packages all of last year, if that. And most were of nothing special to anyone but me. Loose drawings and the like. I had 1 big commission from Phil Hale and 1 med/small buy from Jon Foster this year. Those were what I submitted.

 

What brought me around to participating this time out wasn't the competition side of it, because that holds so very little interest to me. I was actually quite intrigued to see that the 2 pieces that I submitted managed 10 votes each. Something I gather is pretty good. They fell right in the middle of the pack it seemed. Given how little views and commentary my CAF gallery pieces accumulate (compared to the more popular material on CAF) I was a bit surprised by that actually.

 

I viewed my participation more as a chance to expose a few more folks in the hobby to the art that I like. Material which I daresay is easily on the fringe of the hobby, but has proved to be very influential to it and outside of it. And material I imagine most of the voting block wouldn't go out of their way on CAF to search for ordinarily.

 

I've found over the years, that there are certain more modern artists whose work doesn't easily categorize, but are regularly listed as major influencers by so many very popular artists. Not just in comic art, but Sci-Fi and Fantasy illustration fields, illustration and fine art in general, and so on. This dichotomy between the artist's artist and the fanbase has always been one I've found fascinating. Whether it happens with filmmakers, musicians, painters or here with comic artwork.

 

I'm not sure how many votes on my pieces were from people familiar with Phil Hale or Jon Foster in advance of the voting, but I did take the time to read many people's vote lists, where they explained their choices. I was thrilled when one of those vote lists mentioned that the voter was not familiar with Phil's work but enjoyed it. Just that comment made participation worthwhile to me.

 

I REALLY want to thank the folks that voted and then qualified their reasoning behind their votes. I found that sharing to be more satisfying than the actual reviewing and voting myself. I wish I'd had the forethought to do the same when I was placing votes. I remember some internal struggles in a couple categories. Reading other people's conflicts and thought processes gave a bit of insight to that collector, and I tried to visit each voter's CAF for a bit after I read their commentary.

 

I agree with others, that it would be great if the voting pieces were directly tied to the listing in each CAF, so I could more easily leave comments for those pieces. There were some amazing things on display, and even though I try to peruse CAF from time to time, checking out other galleries, I would likely have never stumbled across some of them had it not been for this voting exercise.

 

Thanks so much all.

I voted for your Johnny Badhair and your Mopibot. Probably two of my favorite pieces in this year's offerings.