OA.. To have signed or not - Which is preferred?

[clickhere-migration]

Recently I brought 5 pieces of art to a Con to have an artist sign, for 2 reasons.

 

1. To show him how big of a fan I was to have some great examples of his art.

 

2. To connect a story to the art. I only asked that he not personalize or date the piece.

 

In my opinion, I hate a John Byrne November 2004 sig on a vintage X-Men piece. Yuck!

 

Yup, that is it for now.

 

Peace All!

[heartened]

Has anyone encountered a situation where the artist was angry about seeing a piece again that they believed had been withheld from them by the publisher?

 

I've never had this happen, but some people fear this as a possibility when encountering certain artists. Neal Adams, in particular, vehemently tried to get all his art back a while back, but has since curbed his crusade after realizing that it would be an uphill battle.

 

So, I wouldn't worry about this occurrence. They cannot confiscate the art, if that's what you're worried about. They would have to prove it was stolen from them, and that's something they frankly cannot do.

 

Personally, I feel that much of this is financially motivated. While an artist may have sentimental reasons for getting their art back, it's likely not a coincidence that their quest blossomed concurrent with increasing sales prices in the OA market. I wonder whether if you gave an artist their art back but made them sign a contract that they could never sell it, would they still be as interested?

[heartened]

Recently I brought 5 pieces of art to a Con to have an artist sign, for 2 reasons.

 

1. To show him how big of a fan I was to have some great examples of his art.

 

2. To connect a story to the art. I only asked that he not personalize or date the piece.

 

In my opinion, I hate a John Byrne November 2004 sig on a vintage X-Men piece. Yuck!

 

Yup, that is it for now.

 

Peace All!

 

I would never want an artist to date a signature!! But, a small discreet signature on the border is nice.

[cheekyj2112]

Well I do sometimes take art to be signed by artists as the artists often get a kick out of seeing it and you sometimes get interesting reminisces. For instance, a lot of the XMen/Alpha Flight pages that Paul Smith drew are inked by a host of different artists, though I don't believe they were actually credited. One page I which I always thought looked quite unusual turned out to have been inked by Barry Windsor Smith.It seems quite obvious now but at the time who would have expected BWS to be anywhere near that book.

Another point is that a signature is a form of authentication and if the artist signs it usually gives it some sort of legitimacy ie that it wasn't stolen. A lot of the Bolland Judge Dredd 2000AD pages which do not have his signature are usually one of the stolen ones.

 

Joseph

[*paull*]

I agree... no date on OA. If the piece was trimmed so that there was very little border remaining, I would probably have the artist sign the back.

[Mister Trent]

Has anyone encountered a situation where the artist was angry about seeing a piece again that they believed had been withheld from them by the publisher?

 

I've never had this happen, but some people fear this as a possibility when encountering certain artists. Neal Adams, in particular, vehemently tried to get all his art back a while back, but has since curbed his crusade after realizing that it would be an uphill battle.

 

So, I wouldn't worry about this occurrence. They cannot confiscate the art, if that's what you're worried about. They would have to prove it was stolen from them, and that's something they frankly cannot do.

 

Personally, I feel that much of this is financially motivated. While an artist may have sentimental reasons for getting their art back, it's likely not a coincidence that their quest blossomed concurrent with increasing sales prices in the OA market. I wonder whether if you gave an artist their art back but made them sign a contract that they could never sell it, would they still be as interested?

 

Several years ago, I staged an exhibition of Frank Bellamy artwork (famous British artist who died before Brits became popular working for USA publishers). Nancy Bellamy, Frank's widow, was in attendance. Prior to the event, I'd heard from one of the co-organizers that Nancy was a bit disgruntled about my holdings of her late husband's artwork - insisting the artwork should be given back to her. As a lot of the artwork I owned had actually been sold by Nancy in previous years, I suggested she be reminded of this (Nancy had been selling her husband's work since his untimely death). Anything she hadn't sold directly , I added, I would return to her if she would re-imburse my costs.

 

On the day of the exhibition Nancy was fine, and we got along just great. On a positive note, I ended up finding customers for her - to buy some of Frank's GARTH strips that she still retained originals from. She did well out of the ensuing sales, so something good came of this.

[cheekyj2112]

 

Several years ago, I staged an exhibition of Frank Bellamy artwork (famous British artist who died before Brits became popular working for USA publishers). Nancy Bellamy, Frank's widow, was in attendance. .

 

Where was this held, Terry? Does she still have any of his colour work? I'd heard that a number of outstanding examples such as Heros the Spartan (which I've still yet to read) had gone to the US.

 

joseph

[SignatureSelect]

I agree that it gives the piece legitimacy. I am going to buy some Jae Lee Pre-lim pieces and a convention sketch pretty soon. The guy I am buying them from is legitimate but most of the stuff has no signature at all. You can just tell it is Jae Lee. I want to take it to Jae Lee and Have him sign it so I am sure it is real.

[Mister Trent]

 

Several years ago, I staged an exhibition of Frank Bellamy artwork (famous British artist who died before Brits became popular working for USA publishers). Nancy Bellamy, Frank's widow, was in attendance. .

 

Where was this held, Terry? Does she still have any of his colour work? I'd heard that a number of outstanding examples such as Heros the Spartan (which I've still yet to read) had gone to the US.

 

joseph

 

It was held at Northampton's Museum, something like 5 or 6 years ago - to co-incide with a joint-exhibition of EAGLE memorabilia, hosted by David Britton.

 

All the good stuff, that Nancy held, steadily sold over a period of many years - so there are no choice items remaining.

 

Never read HEROS? Say . . . just what kind of a Brit are you?!?!?!

 

I have a nice HEROS example up on my CAF (part of this original was used in the TwoMorrows book, TRUE BRIT):

 

 

And here's a lousy scan of the original art that helped win Bellamy the award for 'Best Foreign Artist' in the American Academy of Comic Book Arts (early 1970s), after Al Williamson and Barry Smith put his work forward for consideration:

 

 

Yes, there are a number of American collectors who have examples of HEROS originals in their collections. In all, Bellamy completed about 100 of these FULL-COLOUR PAINTED ART originals.

 

People like Scott Dunbier, Al Williamson, Neal Adams and Jim Steranko are appreciators of Bellamy's art. It's a shame that more Americans don't recognize his genius.

 

In fact, a friend of mine who collects Bellamy art, lived over in America for a number of years. My friend told me about meeting Jim Steranko at a convention and showing him the three (unpublished) KING SOLOMON'S MINES strips that he possessed (I now own one of these, incidentally, which is up on CAF). Steranko wanted to buy them, and put a blank cheque in front of my friend, asking him to name his own price. My friend declined the generous offer . . .

 

Anyone who's seen the (Diana Rigg) AVENGERS episode, "The Winged Avenger" ought to be familiar with Bellamy's artwork . . .

 

My CAF Galleries, which includes a FRANK BELLAMY Gallery, at:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/Gallerydetail.asp?GCat=1865

[*paull*]

Wow... that Bellamy work is tremendous! What great line work and color! I can see why Steranko is such a fan. Speaking of Steranko, has there ever been an artist that worked in comics who was such a fan of other artists in the medium?

[Mister Trent]

T

Wow... that Bellamy work is tremendous! What great line work and color! I can see why Steranko is such a fan. Speaking of Steranko, has there ever been an artist that worked in comics who was such a fan of other artists in the medium?

 

Hey Puall . . ., with the double L . . .it's good to see that you're open to outside influences

 

To my mind, art is universal . . . who gives a sh*t about where the work was created . . . the only thing that counts for anything is the QUALITY . . .