I usually admired his artworks but....

[dupont2005]

Beaderstadt and Fricke did Trollords. What would Brian Augustyn have had to do with it?

 

 

I'm not sure what his exact title was. He was acting as a sort of direct market liaison when we met. He'd come to the monthly Retailers Association meeting our fledgling organization held and push several books, Troll Lords being one. Perhaps he worked as an agent for them, or helped in distribution? In those days, you had a number of people driving vans cross country stopping at comic shops to try and sell B& W comics to the shop. for example- the first two or three Comico products were horrible and my distributor dropped their line. Mark Hamlin drove up and down the East coast pushing their upcoming products, especially Mage and Evangeline. Crown wasn't distributing the book so I ended up buying Mage #1 direct from him.

Justice Machine was distributed the same way.

I think Brian briefly worked for Now, as well, before joining DC.

I've read stories of TMNT and RAW being distributed out of the back of station wagons at first. Makes me wonder how many small press comics would have major regional bias in availability?

[kav]

[shadroch]

My fiend, Ken Landgraf, used to self publish several books. He lived in Manhattan and used to go block by block, trying to find stores to take his books. He'd make bundles of 100 books, 20-25 each of a few books. Cover price was a dollar a book and he'd sell the bundle for $35-40. He didn't get rich but he's still in the game.

His claim to fame is he lucked out and was the artist on what turned out to be Wolverines first non-XMen story.

[dupont2005]

Wolverines first non-XMen story.

HULK 181

[RockMyAmadeus]

I enjoyed most of the Elseworlds books. Strangely, the one I couldn't stomach was the Legion one and they are,by far, my favorite all-time group.

I don't understand the pricing of SS books. Or SS sketches. An example, I had two blank covers that I had Herb Trimpe draw a sketch of Hulk 181 and they were also signed by Len Wein. Both were witnessed and came back in Yellow labels. One came back 9.6, the other was 9.4. Anyone buying them from me is buying them for the sketch and the two signatures, yet the 9.6 sold for about $150 more than the 9.4. Why? When I had GPA, I was blown away by the difference in grades for books that are only being bought for the sketch or the signature.

 

Because this market is stupid, ridiculous, and, the most damaging of all, refuses to listen to reason, telling people "yeah, shut up old man, we know better, that's old school, you think you know everything, but that's not the way WE do it." It thinks that there's a difference WORTH $150 (and much, much more) between 9.4 and 9.6.

 

It also puts an INCREDIBLE amount of pressure on CGC to not undergrade, while putting an INCREDIBLE amount of pressure on submitters to have a vaguely adversarial relationship with CGC.

 

The difference between a 9.8 and a 9.4, physically? A small bindery tear, maybe 1/16" or 1/8"...something most people wouldn't even notice...but the difference in price? Could be $1500 vs. $150.

 

It's absurd. That silly little number in the upper left hand corner means everything....to the point where even the level headed are infected, and I'm now ok with a book that has no business being in a 9.8 holder, so long as it says 9.8 in the upper left hand corner.

 

[Buzzetta]

he sees his signature on a CGC book adding $100s to the value

 

This isn't true.

 

It's true alright. All his new cover variants that only came out this Feb/Mar and still for sale at your LCS (for $2.99-3.99) are already going for way over $100 as CGC SS.

 

This isn't the same thing.

 

Whether something IS selling for more is not the same thing as what he KNOWS or THINKS.

 

Which is also different than whether or not it really IS selling for that much more. How much does the CGC SS in grade vs the CGC blue label, Is the difference hundreds of $$$?

 

Which is ALSO different than how much they are LISTED for.

 

I'm quite aware of that. A quick GPA search tells me that Detective Comics (2011) #49, which I purchases a few weeks ago for $3.99 sold on two occasions for $300 (CGC SS) in March. A couple of Batman #49s for $250 and $300. This is just a quick check of two of the 25+ cover variants. Remember, this is for regular circulation comics that are just one month old! It's ALL about the signature.

 

That would be inaccurate, and you've left out the bulk of the picture. Two sales of a barely dry book do not a market establish. The value for signatures, as I've said elsewhere, is like the cherry on a sundae. Great if you have a sundae worth putting a cherry on, not so much if you don't.

 

Those were 9.8 copies. 9.6 copies? Now we're down to $114, almost 2/3 less.

 

How about the "regular" variant in 9.6? $105.

 

How about the same book in 9.2 or 9.0? $53 and $52 respectively.

 

In other words....those people lost money, and quite a bit of it, when all costs were factored in.

 

All SS copies, all signed by Neal Adams.

 

It is NOT "ALL about the signature", and not only do creators NOT understand that, but no one seems capable of explaining it to them.

 

It is all about the CONDITION OF THE BOOK, which creators have not a single thing whatsoever to do with.

 

This wrong headed thinking has GOT to be addressed, or prices will spiral up and up and up and up with no end in sight.

 

If creators are going to get angry because "people are making money off of their sig", they should also get angry with publishers and printers for bothering to print high grade copies of their work. Obviously, that logic doesn't quite work, does it...?

 

 

I've seen pricing and you are correct for the most part. What you stated holds true for most signature but there are a few exceptions. When it comes to signatures the outliers are the expected poorly placed or blotchy signature where a 9.8 will command less than a 9.6.

 

However there seems to be a greater deal of subjectivity when it comes to sketches. I, myself, have paid more for a 9.6 than a BIN 9.8 because the sketch was superior and I've seen that happen more than a few times. A recreation of a famous scene or cover seems on a 9.6 seems to go for more than a simple head doodle on a 9.8.

[Buzzetta]

 

Jerry

[Comicopolis]

i'm going to be 58 this year, and from conversations we had, I'm going to guess he is no more than a couple of years older than me. I have not seen him in a very long time- i'm thinking the Philly Fan Fest in 94 so I cant speak for his health or if he is still working. I saw his name in a blurb a couple years back but don't recall what it was for. I hope he is well.

He did a very nice job at DC and was one of the reasons it made the gains it did. I read Gothom by Gaslight but really don't recall it . It was one of the first Elseworlds books, no?

 

Gotham by Gaslight is great - Jack the Ripper, Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell.

[shadroch]

 

Jerry

 

Jerry's kids

[Dick Pontoon]

i'm going to be 58 this year, and from conversations we had, I'm going to guess he is no more than a couple of years older than me. I have not seen him in a very long time- i'm thinking the Philly Fan Fest in 94 so I cant speak for his health or if he is still working. I saw his name in a blurb a couple years back but don't recall what it was for. I hope he is well.

He did a very nice job at DC and was one of the reasons it made the gains it did. I read Gothom by Gaslight but really don't recall it . It was one of the first Elseworlds books, no?

 

Neal is 74. If he was your age he would have been in his early-mid teens when making the iconic work he's known for.

 

Just to keep the record straight, not trying to take a jab.

[jools&jim]

 

i'm going to be 58 this year, and from conversations we had, I'm going to guess he is no more than a couple of years older than me. I have not seen him in a very long time- i'm thinking the Philly Fan Fest in 94 so I cant speak for his health or if he is still working. I saw his name in a blurb a couple years back but don't recall what it was for. I hope he is well.

Wikipedia says that Augustyn is 61:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Augustyn

 

 

 

[shadroch]

i'm going to be 58 this year, and from conversations we had, I'm going to guess he is no more than a couple of years older than me. I have not seen him in a very long time- i'm thinking the Philly Fan Fest in 94 so I cant speak for his health or if he is still working. I saw his name in a blurb a couple years back but don't recall what it was for. I hope he is well.

He did a very nice job at DC and was one of the reasons it made the gains it did. I read Gothom by Gaslight but really don't recall it . It was one of the first Elseworlds books, no?

 

Neal is 74. If he was your age he would have been in his early-mid teens when making the iconic work he's known for.

 

Just to keep the record straight, not trying to take a jab.

 

We are not talking about NA , rather we are referring to Brian Augustyn.

Get with the program

[RockMyAmadeus]

i'm going to be 58 this year, and from conversations we had, I'm going to guess he is no more than a couple of years older than me. I have not seen him in a very long time- i'm thinking the Philly Fan Fest in 94 so I cant speak for his health or if he is still working. I saw his name in a blurb a couple years back but don't recall what it was for. I hope he is well.

Wikipedia says that Augustyn is 61:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Augustyn

 

 

 

Thanks J. He's not looking too good for his age.