Collection Cornerstones

[Jesusjon]

I have been thinking less in "grail" and more in "cornerstone" terms these days. Aiming for pieces that feel to me like they are so beloved I wouldn't be able to imagine my collection without them.

 

There's so much great art out there, and I love everything I have, but we all have our favorites, and it's just good to know that when push comes to shove, there are certain pieces that are the cornerstones of your collection. I think this is also helping me focus and prioritize on "less is more"...

 

I just had the good fortune to negotiate the acquisition of another collection cornerstone, to be unveiled at a later time, but some examples, for me, in my collection:

 

A Bolland Batman cover

A Golden Detective cover

The Death of V interior

 

What are some of yours? Do you feel the same way or are you headed in that direction? Is less more, or is more more? What are your current feelings about your collection and how do you stay focused? It's hard. I'm trying to be better at it.

 

JH

 

 

[Nexus]

When I started collecting OA, my idea was to get an example from each of my favorite comic works. I wasn't thinking "grail" or "cornerstone"...the focus was to build a collection that reflected my personal "top 20". That was the goal. Not a perfect analogy, but similar to a mix tape of my favorite music.

 

Now that I've found those examples, I would consider them to be the cornerstones to my collection. My collection wouldn't be my collection without at least one representative piece from DKR, V, WM, PREACHER, Y: THE LAST MAN, GOON et al. That's kept my collection stable. Once I get a cornerstone, it's staying put, unless there's a chance to upgrade. As it is, I'm content enough with what I've got that I'm not concerned with upgrading.

 

At the same time, I do recognize "grail" pieces. But would I trade my collection for a grail? Never say never, but it's unlikely. I've put too much time and work into building my collection and enjoy it too much to exchange it for a single piece.

 

As well, grail doesn't mean the same to me anymore. While I don't believe a commission can be a grail, I have gotten a commission that is my favorite piece in my collection and the last thing I'd ever get rid of (no, not my Miller commission). It wouldn't mean anything to anyone else, but it's important to me. And that's made me rethink the whole grail business.

 

 

[Brian Peck]

"Cornerstone" pieces for me are ones that influenced my collecting, strong a nostalgia and are very personal connection.

In 2014 I acquired one of my biggest "cornerstones", "How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way" book. I don't have the patience or skill to draw well but it really helped me appreciate the ones who can. Probably contributed to my starting to collect comic art and who I collected. It is a great example of John Buscema (my favorite artist) work.

Daredevil #47 Gene Colan cover and X-Men #153 by Dave Cockrum hold strong nostalgia. I have vivid memories when I first read the DD story growing up, and being a big fan of swashbuckler films, the Cockrum DPS I really connect with.

Last cornerstones are the very personal ones. I have commissioned a number of pieces, most turned out great but two came really close to my vision. One by Eduardo Barreto (another favorite artist of mine), the Starfire Commission. Eduardo took my ideas and brought them to life. Everything he did was perfect and he even added me to the finished piece. The other is 'AXA The Byte" By Enric Romero. I wanted to tell a short story over 5 newspaper strips. I had a start and an end to the scene, worked with Romero and was able to complete short story. I am not a writer but both took my ideas and the artist translated them perfectly.

[Eric Seffinga]

I've written about similar topics several times over the years when people have asked for collecting advice and experiences. The vocabulary has probably been somewhat different. I don't think I've ever used the term cornerstone before, but the concepts are similar. Really it depends on the definition one wants to use.

 

When one talks cornerstone, do they mean the first one, that all others are aligned off of, that form the foundation? Or do they mean the piece they assign ceremonial significance to as being the spiritual foundation?

 

For me personally, I have a couple that would fit both in a manner of speaking.

 

When I got into collecting, I did what we mostly all seem to do. I bought what looked cool and appealed to me. I consider this a typical beginner stage. It was not really started with the intent of being a "collection". I started young, and it was simply cool stuff, but just woke up to the idea of it being a collection at some point early on. I had collected stones, but no foundation built.

 

Which gets me to Cornerstone 1.

I had bought my first original comic page on a lark. It was from Shade the Changing Man, and was the first time I was ever aware that the pages COULD be purchased. I'd tried to find out if Sandman pages were available, but was told that they mostly sold up in New York or at Comicon. This would have been late in 1991 I believe. I soon resolved to buy a page of Sandman art. The Dolls House page from Sandman we have would be that 1st cornerstone. It didn't happen until 1994. It was what shifted my art collecting out of a collection of stuff into a sort of focus. It is also a huge nostalgia tick for me, and it was something my wife (then girlfriend) was with me when I bought. In fact, she spotted it. It was the beginning of what I have always considered our collection.

 

Cornerstone 2.

This one came in 1998. I had long admired the painters of comic work. The guys that came out of the field especiallly influenced by Jeff Jones, and merging in fine art influences like the Austrian/Vienese guys like Klimt and Schiele. I was very much following (and buying) comic work by Jon Muth, Kent Williams, George Pratt, Dave McKean and so on. The guys that became very well known for their contributions to Epic, some misc. Marvel projects, and then ultimately to the newly formed Vertigo. And when I happened on a chance to buy one of Kent's fine art pieces titled Foul Weather Mask, another era of shift hit my collecting habits. Having something take up more than 9 square feet of wall space, without glass or anything, just living breathing oil paints... it really caused a bit of an impression.

 

I'd always been interested in art outside of comics. In fact for me, they were always a bit symbiotic. Just part of my environment as a whole. And so from those 2 pieces, many of my other collecting choices have been derived. I've had pieces that have straddled the lines of art and nostalgia, and I can certainly understand where they fit in in so many people's collections, and their attachments to them. But I've been a bit more ruthless in my own collection. I got rid of some very seriously nostalgia heavy pieces in favor of pieces that have little to no nostalgia behind them, but a very severe aesthetic attachment.

 

In the years since these acquisitions, I've excised a lot. I've used the funds to step upward and outward in terms of tastes and interest from my own perspective. I have a lot less comic art than I once did. Much of it is both based on nostalgia and on aesthetics. If it doesn't satisfy to a degree that feels right, it has been sold onward in an attempt to find pieces that do. Curating my collection has been a 20 year thing now. But I have long since left behind things like check-boxes to tick off lists of artists or works to buy things by. I am all too efficient at that, and yet those pieces seldom last in my collection.

 

I've pared it down to the things that make us happy when I walk through our home. The work on display and lived with. I've realized over the years that certain works don't handle light and exposure so well, and given that I've decided that those are very important things to me, I've let certain things go. Things with marker, or really light sensitive dyes. If it doesn't hold up, and I have to dig it out and flip through it to enjoy it, it tends to have a shorter span of time with us, or not get purchased at all.

 

In the end what I always tell people is to be honest with themselves. Learn their own true likes. Buy for themselves and to make themselves happy. At the end of the day, when CAF is closed, the computer turned off, the money is gone, and it is just you and your artwork in the room. Do you enjoy it? That is all that really matters.

 

People on this board also dig into the financials, and return on aftermarket sales, etc. And sure, I suppose we all consider that to a degree. But I've also "overspent", plenty, to get things I know would be among the last things I sell if I even end up being driven to live on the street. I know I'll likely never get the full return. Maybe not even a fraction of it. But the joy it brings outweighs the money spent. Not unlike a wonderful vacation that leaves so many lovely memories after the money is gone. Only I get to live with the pieces every day. That has value beyond assets, and returns or losses. That is why I collect what I do, irregardless of other opinions. And it is why some of my pieces have been with me for more than 2 decades. And pieces that I have overspent on at the time. So many have matured and at a point when something was sold, I ended up doing better than I ever thought I would. Sometimes pieces selling for multiples of value, though when purchased I'd never have expected it. I don't know how much I've sold at a loss over the years, but it's been severely trumped by the gains I have had. And I've never bought a piece to flip or "for profit".

 

Also, we have some pieces that my wife loves, and if I sold them, she'd kick my .

 

-e.

[chromium]

Probably my EC pages...I read EC comics as an 8-9 year old way before I discovered superheroes. Didn't read any again till I was in my 40's and it was like being reunited with an old friend.

Every time I manage to win a piece of EC OA I'm over the moon and go and read the issue where the page came from again.

 

Plus cornerstones have to be big and sturdy and it's hard to find larger art than the 50's ECs

[alxjhnsn]

My theme is art by my Favorite artist featuring the characters I most associate with them. That theme is combined with a preference for a personal connection in the creation of the art or a particular issue or story.

 

So, you might have the greatest Kirby Cap page, but I wouldn't be attracted to very much because Cap is the character I most associate with Kirby and because I don't have any connection to Kirby Cap stories. I read a bunch, but they didn't do much. BTW, this does not mean that I don't appreciate the work, just that I don't feel the urge to buy a piece.

 

So, with that background the pieces that grab me the most from my collection are probably:

• My Swan Superman - the first piece of art I ever bought by my favorite artist of my favorite character
  
  
• A page from JLA 29, my first ever comic, by Sekowsky/Sachs
  

From there, I've been lucky enough to pick up pieces ranging from A to Z (literally) featuring my favorite combinations:

• Aragones – His cast of insufficiently_thoughtful_persons
  
• Bastian - Curse Pirate Girl
  
• Brunner - Dr. Strange
  
• Brunner - Howard the Duck
  
• Cardy - Bat Lash
  
• Cardy - Teen Titans
  
• Colan - DD & BW
  
• DeCarlo - Archie
  
• Grell - Legion
  
• Grell - Warlord
  
• Heath - Sea Devils
  
• Infantino - Flash
  
• Kubert - Sgt. Rock
  
• Lynde - Rick O'Shay
  
• Mayer - Sugar and Spike
  
• McDonnell - Mutts
  
• Mooney - Supergirl
  
• Naifeh - Princess Ugg
  
• Peter - Wonder Woman
  
• Peterson - Mouse Guard
  
• Smith - Bone
  
• Stewart - JL8
  
• Swan - Legion of Super-Heroes
  
• Wright - Carol Day "Problem Child"
  
• Zahler - Love and Capes

and on and on... Some are commissions for me, some are published pieces, and some were specialty pieces bought in the open market, but all have a connection to my comic buying experience.

 

A few that don't fit the pattern have slipped in for one reason or another, but this is the theme and the core.

 

[JadeGiant]

Good topic. Is ‘cornerstone’ and ‘grail’ interchangeable? Is there a difference? The G word gets thrown around a lot and it means different things to different people and it can be a moving target (definition) as you mature in the hobby and gain experience (and likely more funds). I like the term cornerstone better because it sounds like items that are more attainable but extremely significant. To me, a grail is something that was (at least at some point) not accessible/available and something I would not think I was likely to be able to own. Cornerstones are similar in that they may be hard to acquire but could be met by more examples that are out in the public eye (and thus there is a possibility, even if remote, that I could add it my collection). I have a few cornerstones but not what I would consider a true grail.

[Terry Doyle]

Problem with me, is that my priorities in life have changed in recent years - and to help fund lifestyle changes, I’ve ended-up shedding a lot of prime pieces from my collection along the way. As such, I can no longer say (with any certainty) that I will be destined to have a collection of keepers, grails, cornerstones (call it what you will).

 

At this moment in time, key examples (that reflect my life as a comic-book/original artwork collector) can be distilled to the following core selection:

 

Stumbo the Giant by Warren Kremer:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1011658

 

The Harvey kiddie titles were the first American comic-books I avidly read as a kid and Stumbo was my favourite character.

 

Tales to Astonish # 98 cover by Dan Adkins:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=198519

 

During the 1960s I was a big fan of the Marvel Comics superhero line and this example, for me, exemplifies that interest (even if I became disenchanted with those books during the 1970s onwards).

 

Sea Devils # 25 cover by Howard Purcell:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=208964

 

Never a big DC follower, but the Sea Devils was one of the few titles I actively followed during the 1960s (mostly for the work of Russ Heath . . . but here Purcell does a wonderful stand-in on art chores).

 

Kelly’s Eye – The Vampire of Raffino by Francisco Solano Lopez:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=875705

 

As a UK resident, I was also reading our home-grown stuff during the 1960s. From the Kelly’s Eye comic-strip (that featured in the Valiant anthology title), an all-time-favourite storyline featured Tim Kelly doing battle against vampires threatening a town in Italy.

 

The Steel Claw – Max Kruger by Jesus Blasco:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=740120

 

Another memorable strip from the 1960s Valiant, with outstanding artwork by Jesus Blasco (here doing his take on the Pit and the Pendulum for this sample page).

 

Captain Atom # 80 cover by Steve Ditko:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=144580

 

During the 1960s I was a huge fan of Steve Ditko’s artwork – not just for Spider-man, but also his creations for the Charlton comics line. Although the Blue Beetle was my favourite character outside of the Marvel stuff, I also enjoyed the adventures of Captain Atom. Very few 1960s Ditko superhero covers are known to exist – and this is one of three such examples I’m blessed to own.

 

Space Family Robinson Lost in Space # 25 cover painting by George Wilson:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=583221

 

Huge fan of the Gold Key Lost in Space comic-book series, and this one’s my all-time-favourite cover from that title.

 

Vault of Horror # 33 cover by Johnny Craig:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=332390

 

Towards the end of the 1970s I discovered the old EC comic-books of the 1950s and a few years later would commence collecting EC original artwork (of which, one time or other, I’ve owned several hundred pages – now mostly gone). This particular cover remains a personal favourite.

 

Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future – Reign of the Robots

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=385365

 

A 1950s British strip that I discovered during the late 1980s. Frank Hampson has since become an idol of mine – and this particular example is, to my mind, an absolute prime example of what made his artwork so special and admired.

 

Montgomery of Alemein double-page strip by Frank Bellamy:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=220085

 

Another artist I discovered during the late 1980s. Along with Frank Hampson, Frank Bellamy is considered to be one of the all-time British greats. This is another standout example from a highly-regarded artist’s career (John Byrne is a Bellamy collector, by the way, and owns some of my old originals).

 

Magic the Gathering book cover by Kev Walker:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1165888

 

A discovery of recent years (thanks to his work being highlighted to me by American collector Lloyd Braddy), I’m now heavily into the better Magic the Gathering painted artworks. This particular example came from the collection of Kirk Dillibeck. Something I wasn’t expecting him to part with, but when he offered it for sale in recent months I immediately swooped-in to buy . . .

 

 

[delekkerste]

What are some of yours? Do you feel the same way or are you headed in that direction? Is less more, or is more more? What are your current feelings about your collection and how do you stay focused? It's hard. I'm trying to be better at it.

 

I'm going to put aside the "grail" vs. "cornerstone" aspect of the argument, especially since the term "grail" means so many different things to different people, and focus instead on your question of "Is less more, or is more more?" For me, "less is more", but only up to a point. I mean, sure, I'd rather have one A-level Byrne X-Men page versus, say, two B+ pages or three B pages. That said, the math breaks down for me at some point, at least for the type of art that I'm mainly interested in. I mean, I'd much rather pick up all the art I bought last year (~80 pieces) than just getting a small number of very high-end pieces whose prices are inflated by a huge embedded "trophy" premium in many cases. Removing the personal aspect of acquiring "grails" and just focusing on A-level "cornerstones" vs. A+ level "trophies", I'm all for trading up to pieces which can legitimately be considered A-level, cornerstone pieces, but feel like the true trophies in this hobby (key issue covers in particular) have largely gotten out of comfortable reach in recent years.

[rsonenthal]

It's an interesting topic, and there is a lot to like in many of the answers above. Felix generally summed up my feelings on cornerstones. I have a number of pieces that I believe are good representations of certain artists and eras. They set the tone for my collection, and I don't see myself moving those unless it was to upgrade the choice.

 

I think that's different from a "grail." For me, grail has a more emotional connotation. I have only one of those, and while the artwork is great, it's the more personal ties that make it what it is for me.

 

Ron

[Comix4Sale]

Hmmmm, cornerstone pieces:

 

- The Hobbit (Eclipse) #1 page 13 painted by David Wenzel

- Betty #94 Cover with sketch to extend the hockey cover by the late Stan Goldberg

- Batman vs. Riddler painting won at a charity auction

 

I don't toss the "Grail" word around lightly but this is it for me:

 

- Strangers in Paradise v3 #1 variant cover by Terry Moore and Jim Lee

 

I'd never thought a SIP cover would ever become available after a long search and a dream came true when I found it as I was scrolling through an auction sites large listing. Time to identify a new grail - an almost unattainable piece due to scarcity or price. I've already given up on a Bone page as Jeff Smith has given/donated/archived? the entire run to his college.

 

Honestly though, I don't see myself wanting to part with any of the pieces that I own. I'm in the process of framing one piece from my CAF Gallery each month to fill my Man Cave walls.

 

James

 

 

[Bird]

Okay, cornerstone pieces. I would say the Tony Harris Wired magazine cover with Dr. Strange is probably one. Page 1 issue 0 of Starman, the first published page of the comic - too cool! So that. Starman cover issue 3. Then BWS Weapon X and Storyteller splash. After that it gets tough. I have a Winsor McCay I got this year that I am over the moon for,but would upgrade if the chance presented itself. My Simon Bisley Dr.Strange and the Mindless Ones commission is another, perhaps my only commission (well,maybe PMS Doom/Strange as well but as of this moment, no). I have more than most as I am questing to get 50 "cornerstone" pieces and nothing else.

[Alex B]

I used to focus on my favorite artists, but only the "looking good factor" mattered at the time. I did not care if it was a famous published piece or just an obscure commission. Life was easy then !

And then something awful happened : I was reading again one of my favorite runs and thought "how cool this could be to own a part of that?". My collecting habits changed radically, as well as the rarity of the pieces I wanted, their price and most importantly their immobility (both towards me and away from me Having a connection with the art I collect really changed everything for me. Gone was the time of buying/selling to upgrade/buying again/changing my mind/etc on a monthly basis, in came the time of spending years chasing just one page.

 

Nostalgia of course plays a huge factor in my collecting habits now : without it, I'm not sure Byrne's X-Men or Perez' NTT would remain so fun to read. But nostalgia has its limits : there are stories that I loved when they were published but that do not work for me today. I would never buy pages from Jim Lee's X-Men or McFarlane's Spider-Man (even though I admire their artists) as I don't enjoy reading them anymore.

Basically, I collect pieces of runs that I love reading TODAY. They can be 40 years or 3 weeks old, I don't care as long as they are from the runs that I'll keep reading again and again.

 

So, for each of these runs, I'm trying to find pages that are amongst my top 10 favorites of the run, removing the categories that are out of my reach obviously (yep, I'll never have a Byrne X-Men cover... but I'm very happy with a great panel page!). Sometimes I've been lucky to get not just one of the top ten but my absolute N°1 favorite page of the run. It can certainly help to have different tastes from everyone : who would chase for years one example of JMS' Spider-Man run without Spidey swinging nor fighting? My wallet wishes my tastes were always that original ;-)

 

Finding one of his own "top 10 of a favorite run" is scarce and most of the time expensive and it can mean buying only 4 pieces like I did last year (and having to sell beloved pages).

 

For me, if it's not worth framing, it's not worth owning. Once a piece is framed, it becomes a part of my home, of my family's every day life and THAT makes it a cornerstone of my collection.

 

It's not all cornerstones yet, but I'm getting there ;-)

http://cafurl.com?i=10591

 

[Weird Paper]

I don't have a huge collection, but I have a number of pretty special pieces. The top of the pyramid has to be this, though. There's just not a lot of Frazetta comic pages floating around out there, and I really got lucky with this one.

 

[Terry Doyle]

Fabulous page . . . am I right in thinking that some of the panels are pasted onto the illustration board? Looks like they might be, but I could be wrong (just curious to learn more about Frazetta's working methods).

[Weird Paper]

Fabulous page . . . am I right in thinking that some of the panels are pasted onto the illustration board? Looks like they might be, but I could be wrong (just curious to learn more about Frazetta's working methods).

No, they're all drawn directly on the board, Terry.

[JadeGiant]

That's a great page. Cornerstone, grail, this one really fits the bill!

[Terry Doyle]

Fabulous page . . . am I right in thinking that some of the panels are pasted onto the illustration board? Looks like they might be, but I could be wrong (just curious to learn more about Frazetta's working methods).

No, they're all drawn directly on the board, Terry.

 

Okay, thanks, must have been the heavy border lines that made me think that way!

[F For Fake]

The semantics are interesting, and will vary for each of us, I'd imagine. To me, a "grail" has always been something that is to be searched for, hunted, and most likely never attained. Something that will likely always be out of my reach.

 

But a "cornerstone" would be the piece of art that the rest of my collection circles around, and that I'd never give up.

 

To look at my CAF, I'm definitely not a high roller in the original art world, but I have sold more art than I've ever owned. I've sold a lot of pieces that I really thought were great, fantastic images, but which proved to not be permanent residents of my collection.

 

Therefore, my collection is very random and odd, no real major theme seemingly being adhered to. In fact, it's kind of a mess.

 

Although I have a lot of love for everything I've held onto, the truth is that pretty much everything has a price, if someone wants to pay it (although some pieces would take a significant chunk of change to be pried from my grubby claws.)

 

But the one piece that I simply can't imagine selling unless I was absolutely down and out, we're gonna lose the house and we have to mortgage the cats, is my JLI #4 cover. The Giffen/DeMatteis run on Justice League meant so much to me as a kid, and in addition to that, the cover has historical value as it introduces Booster Gold to the team. It's one of those things that when I was younger I thought I'd simply never have a chance to pick up, and yet there it is, hanging over my desk.

 

At one time it was the cornerstone of my JLI collection, but I've since whittled that down to just the two covers (the other being the AH! cover to #40). So now it's just the general cornerstone to what has turned out to be a very random, odd little assortment of things that, through desire or just default, I've decided to hold onto.

 

[Vikingreed]

I have "grails", and I have "Holy Grails".

 

That's how I classify books I want, and are attainable after some sacrifice and hunting, and books that I have less than 1% of ever owning.

 

Everyone basically has the same thought process, but just names them differently.