Original Art vs. Comics — the Showdown 0

[mister_not_so_nice]

I purchased my first original page off of eBay for $130. At the time the book it was published in was a $30-$40 book.  Since then I couldn't justify spending money on a mass produced comic that could, instead, get me a one of a kind page.  Sure, my collection is mostly junk, but it's one of a kind junk 

I still have several long boxes of comics. After I read them and I don't think they are going to get a re-read and aren't worth the space to store them they either go on eBay (if they are worth shipping) or sold at a local auction house where no one knows a damn thing about comics.  

[Garf]

5 hours ago, mister_not_so_nice said:

I purchased my first original page off of eBay for $130. At the time the book it was published in was a $30-$40 book.  Since then I couldn't justify spending money on a mass produced comic that could, instead, get me a one of a kind page.  Sure, my collection is mostly junk, but it's one of a kind junk 

I still have several long boxes of comics. After I read them and I don't think they are going to get a re-read and aren't worth the space to store them they either go on eBay (if they are worth shipping) or sold at a local auction house where no one knows a damn thing about comics.  

+1

My head was spun in the direction of OA once that penny dropped. When you see people not thinking twice about dropping $200+ on the next hot modern or variant why not get the OA instead?

The only problem was that the well was really running dry on the 90's trash/treasure I love by the time I started looking for it... and I was still very much learning about myself as an OA collector as I went along which often held me back.

I still love picking up trades but not that many individual comics.

[Andahaion]

I started (and remain) a comic book collector first.  Big keys slabbed, but most others raw.  I always knew about the existence of OA, but never thought much of it until the last year or so.   Can't deny that prices achieved at auction definitely caught my attention.  I love the books because they are a full expression of the medium.  I love the color!  But OA has some really unique aspects I love too, chiefly it is art and in hand is a great reflection of a craft.  It's certainly more alive than a printed book, at least to me.   I also own trades and a few omnibuses of stories I enjoy.  In fact, I'll collect the comic books and the trades (to read) because I'm silly like that.  

I don't know how deeply I'll fall into OA collecting.  It competes with my fine art endeavors and if I have (for example) $5K-$10K to spend on art, I'm finding myself conflicted where that should be spent.  Maybe that's the OA threshold for me as it seems when I look at pages at that range is when I start to think about fine art that I'm leaving on the table.  

This has been therapeutic, thank you OP.

[Nexus]

Weekly visitor to my LCS. Non-stop for 30+ years. Still enjoy the thrill of seeing all the new books on the rack. Nothing else like it. Seeing a list of titles on my iPad is just not the same.

Continue to buy all the new hardcover collections of favorites, regardless of how many times I already own the same work in various formats. Yes, I'm the sucker targeted by publishers for repackaged material. But love how they look on the shelf. Once a book comes out in hardcover, I'll give away the trades.

I don't buy back issues, either slabbed or raw, and haven't for at least 10 years. Had gotten all the ones I would have ever wanted. Sold the valuable ones to pay for art. Everything else is just nostalgia stuff that has very little value to anyone else.

Mentioning all this as I do still enjoy buying/reading comics. Goes hand-in-hand with collecting art. But the budget is skewed heavily (99%?) toward art, with nothing for slabs.

[JadeGiant]

Guessing, I would say my purchases are at a 90/10 spread, in the favor of art. I still buy comics, mainly new stuff, trades I want to read, and an occasional back issue if I get the itch to go digging.  I visit my LCS (two actually) weekly and love the tradition of new books and the relationships with each of them. I would think they my entire year's purchases of comics is eclipsed in price point by most of my art purchases, save a few smaller sketch commissions I pick up. 

[J.Sid]

Two things:

1. Much as I love collecting OA, it's kinda ruined reading the comics for me. I find I'm constantly interrupted thinking to myself "no characters in costume on this page...."

2. I started buying old reader copies of Silver Age comics. Mostly Kirby Marvel books I'd never read. It's pretty great. The smell. The brittle paper. The stories.

[Brian Peck]

I collected comics regularly up until the start of the new millennium but had started to cut back on what I bought. I do goto my LCS on a regular basis but only pick up a few series here and there Mostly buy HC collections, artists editions or art related books. I never was big into buying early back issues, I read what was on the stands or fresh to my LCS. I had bought earlier issues that I had missed but the most I ever paid for a back issue was $175 for Silver Surfer #1 by Buscema/Sinnott. Slabbed comics never interested me. Why buy a comic you cant read?

I started collecting original art back in the mid 80s because I loved seeing the oversize original art from comics I grew up reading. I love the uniqueness of the pages, while I do like collecting covers and splashes it was the panel pages that really drew me to collecting. Ability to own the story to something I grew up reading, sometimes the dialog drew me to the page as much as the pencils and inks.

I loved How To Draw The Marvel Way when I first picked up a copy at my local library. While I found out I didn't have the skill or patience to draw comics, I think that book was a huge influence on my collecting the original comic art.

[AnkurJ]

My biggest purchase was an old comic (Detective Comics 27). I still enjoy reading new comics and get a thrill from golden and silver age. There is a lot more that's affordable in comics vs art. With art I tend to get more commissions as often times they're cheaper and easier to obtain.

So I'd say I'm about 60:40 with more towards comics.

[comicwiz]

I collect way too much to offer any percentages on what I'm holding, or to say which (if any) collectible category has taken over my collecting pursuits. My roots and nostalgic ties to comics and toys I owned as a 70's kid predominantly dictate my collecting pursuits now. I will say that the thrill of finding only example or preproduction items in the wild is what keeps my passion ticking. Being able to apply what I know to other pursuits such as offering appraisal services takes it all full circle, and it doesn't even feel like maintaining a breadth of knowledge or being dialed-in to all these areas of iinterest is work because I really love it. Because most of the items in my collection would be classified as scarce or rare, there are drought periods in adding or rounding out a certain area of focus, so I'm either building a war chest for when something springs up, or buying up collections of comics or toys I am offered when the opportunity presents itself. In the past year, the latter hasn't been happening with the frequency it used to occur even two years ago or earlier, but the uptick in competition has been a factor.