Do You Still Have Your First Piece of Original Comic Art? 3 3

[Dr. Balls]

Despite my lifelong philosophy of selling my hobby stuff to buy other hobby stuff, I miraculously still have the first comic art I ever bought. In 1996, I had local Marvel inker Mike Halblieb do a meet-and-greet session at my comic shop, where I bought three of his pieces from What If #84 he inked over Mark Pacella (an easy purchase for me since they were X-Men pages and only $50 each). Comic books come and go, but the art I bought that day was a reminder of the event and I always cherished them. They even survived my massive art selloff in 2015 to finance my restaurant launch - where I sold every piece I had, except these.

Wondered how many people here still have their first piece.

 

[Rick2you2]

Yup. 

[westform]

No

[RBerman]

Yes, but I only got it four years ago, so...

[Twanj]

Yep, hope to hold on to it.

[DeadpoolJr.]

Still have it. Despite my collection being mostly Marvel, it was this DC page that got me to pull the trigger since I just really liked the dialogue.  

[Dr. Balls]

On 7/29/2023 at 10:56 AM, RBerman said:

Yes, but I only got it four years ago, so...

Such a clean Paul Smith piece, and immediately recognizeable. Was that a commission?

 

On 7/29/2023 at 11:06 AM, Twanj said:

Yep, hope to hold on to it.

Did you pick that up at a convention? That's a crazy first piece!

 

On 7/29/2023 at 11:11 AM, DeadpoolJr. said:

Still have it. Despite my collection being mostly Marvel, it was this DC page that got me to pull the trigger since I just really liked the dialogue.  

The dialogue and movement is really nice on that, with so many different effects going on. How long have you had it?

Edited July 29, 2023 by Dr. Balls

[RBerman]

On 7/29/2023 at 12:53 PM, Dr. Balls said:

Was that a commission?

Paul Smith puts several of these up on his web site sporadically throughout each month, usually in the middle of the night. His price is clearly too low for the market since they are typically gone in minutes. I happened to log on at the right time and got this one, not even knowing how lucky my timing was.

[Dr. Balls]

On 7/29/2023 at 11:55 AM, RBerman said:

Paul Smith puts several of these up on his web site sporadically throughout each month, usually in the middle of the night. His price is clearly too low for the market since they are typically gone in minutes. I happened to log on at the right time and got this one, not even knowing how lucky my timing was.

Very cool! That doesn't happen a lot in this day and age. 

[boomtown]

On 7/29/2023 at 10:55 AM, RBerman said:

Paul Smith puts several of these up on his web site sporadically throughout each month, usually in the middle of the night. His price is clearly too low for the market since they are typically gone in minutes. I happened to log on at the right time and got this one, not even knowing how lucky my timing was.

I did the same thing with Chris Bachalo. When he has an art drop it usually sells out in a few minutes, happened to be on his site when it dropped.

Here's my first piece, bought directly from Dave in the early 90s when he did his world tour.

[Will_K]

Still have my first convention sketch from the early 1980's, Deadman by Michael Nasser on 11 x 14 in pencil.  No longer have my first published original art, Deadman (mini-series) 1 p 21 by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.  I really wish I kept it.  I got it from Scott Dunbier (late 1980's ?) when he was still selling JLGL's art.  I had to decide between this page and another Deadman page (from the same series).

Edited July 30, 2023 by Will_K

[Ecclectica]

Yes, until death tears us apart.

[Benedict Judas Hel]

On 7/29/2023 at 11:35 AM, Dr. Balls said:

Do You Still Have Your First Piece of Original Comic Art?

Yes, I still have my first art piece as I have never sold anything.

[sfcityduck]

Bought my first art around 1978 or 1979 or so from Comics & Comix in Berkeley (my parents generously made a side trip on the way to SF on a trip with my grandmother who lived in Sacramento- lived in Oregon spent every Christmas in Sacto). Used up all my Christmas gift money to fund the $75 acquisition:

I bought it because I loved New X-Men and the visual joke by Austin on the computer screen in the first panel made it irresistable. It says something along the lines of "Hiya John, how ya doing? You still drawing funny books huh? When are you get a real job (gonna get)?" The right margin had a big streak of white out which my 13 year old self very carefully scraped off to reveal a note from Byrne to Austin stating: "Terry: Let's have a bit of glow around Jean's arm -- as he's just zapped herself starkers!"  Heady stuff for the young me.

Kept it in a drawer until around 1997 or so.  Sold it on eBay to fund my purchase of two pieces of fine art. But, I know where it is, as the current owner has it posted up on CAF.

 

[GotSuperPowers?]

My memory is fuzzy but I'm pretty sure this is my first.  An eBay buy for sub $100 in 2000 or so.  John Bolton Classic X-Men backup page. 

[Xatari]

On 7/29/2023 at 4:31 PM, sfcityduck said:

Bought my first art around 1978 or 1979 or so from Comics & Comix in Berkeley (my parents generously made a side trip on the way to SF on a trip with my grandmother who lived in Sacramento- lived in Oregon spent every Christmas in Sacto). Used up all my Christmas gift money to fund the $75 acquisition:

 

 

I love that!  I am just outside of Sacramento and remember Comics & Comix at both Birdcage in Orangevale and also downtown Sac.  Growing up, one of my favorite days of the year we our annual class field trip to see the Nutcracker where I would sneak away to go to Comics & Comix to load up on back issues nowhere to be found in my hometown of Nevada City.

[G.A.tor]

Yes. Bought it around 2010 I think. 
 

[Dirtcheap31]

Yeah it’s a jock Batman 44 panel page love jocks work!

[Azkaban]

Don's wife gave me some of his art for selling his books for her. This is one of them  I'll cherish them forever

[mtlevy1]

Here is mine...free con sketch from a very creative guy!

Didn't get another piece for quite a few years...I believe my first piece of published art was part of a deal I made for a bunch of Studio artist portfolios that had BWS and Jones in it - I didn't collect original art so I sold the pair of Wrightson Swamp Thing pages at an early SDCC - live and learn !