Cornered markets, bots, and the OA hobby 0

[Taylor G]

On 12/2/2022 at 8:36 AM, barneythecantankerous said:

Couldn't you make the argument that collectors buying up an entire issue is greedy?

It depends on what you want to believe.  If you believe that the art form is all about the story, and whole stories are the gold standard of collecting, then collecting whole stories is all about preserving the art form.  For example, although they get lots of bad press here, kudos to Los Bros for not breaking up Master Race and selling it page by page, and now it looks like it will end up in a museum where it belongs.  Meanwhile the rest of us have the artists edition if we want to look at the art (Again, kudos to Los Bros for sharing it that way).

But plenty of people don't agree with this perspective and it's a free country.  As Upton Sinclair might have said, It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his OA collecting depends on his not understanding it.  On the other hand, an argument that people who collect entire stories, who may feel that they are trying to preserve the art form, are being greedy does seem to be a progression from denial into entitlement.

I do not believe that the Jusko paintings being discussed are part of a shared narrative structure, but it's not really my area.  I guess a distinction could be drawn between a BSD who is a Jusko masterworks completist who wants to own the complete set, versus a dealer or collection of dealers who want to corner the market and set their own floor on the price.  Is the latter "greedy" or just SOP in this hobby?

Edited December 5, 2022 by Taylor G

[Bronty]

I think we start to smell our own farts and like it when we say that having the whole book is preserving the art form.   It’s already preserved, well enough, in the printed matter.    (You could argue better than in the OA given the absence of color in the OA).  
 

Having a complete book is a wonderful and extraordinary luxury but that’s all it really is IMO. 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Bronty

[Taylor G]

On 12/4/2022 at 1:36 PM, Bronty said:

It’s already preserved, well enough, in the printed matter.  

Completely wrong.  If you look at the Marvel Masterworks program for reprinting all the classic Marvel work, the worst form of reproduction is based on scans of the printed work.  A large part of the reproduction involves restorers redrawing the original lifework.  In many cases, that Kirby linework you're looking at is actually Mike Kelleher's redrawing of his linework. If you've got the original films that were used for printing (that can be a big if), then that can help a lot, but you're still relying on cr*ppy printing technology from years ago, and on the quality of the films.  Just look at Marvel's reprinting of their B&W magazine content.  

The best example of reprinting of classic content are the slipcased EC archives from Russ Cochran, all shot from the original art.  Compare that with the garbage reprinting of golden age horror from PS Publishing, where they just scanned the comics.  As another example, look at the sad Absolute George Perez Wonder Woman that was published just before he died, with all the deficiencies in the printed work made obvious when it was blown up to absolute size.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Taylor G

[Rick2you2]

On 12/4/2022 at 1:36 PM, Bronty said:

I think we start to smell our own farts and like it when we say that having the whole book is preserving the art form.   It’s already preserved, well enough, in the printed matter.    (You could argue better than in the OA given the absence of color in the OA).  
 

Having a complete book is a wonderful and extraordinary luxury but that’s all it really is IMO. 

I think Taylor makes a legitimate point: it's something that separates fine art from commercial art (including OA).

Fine art is self-contained: you admire the picture for the picture. Commercial art, however, is designed to sell something. As an example, consider the Saturday Evening Post.The cover pictures may be loved for the imagery, but those covers were selected by the publisher to sell the magazine. With comics, the cover entices the reader to buy it, while the internal pages sell the story to the reader. Same thing with ads that mix imagry and text.

The one thing that the whole story allows the viewer to do is appreciate how well the artist (and writer) has matched the plot with the art. You can't get that without the whole story.  I think strip art more easily shows the importance of selling the story with imagry. Just ask a Peanuts buyer. Same principle.

With that said, there is nothing wrong with admiring OA like fine art. Lots of us do. It powers the hobby. And getting a whole book together is expensive--not worth it for a whole lot of stories. But yes, I do think that having the whole story gives you a better "picture" of the quality of the art.