New Comic Art Appraisal Service

[delekkerste]

Looks like the Mannarinos are launching a new appraisal service for original comic book art (Comic Art Appraisal, LLC):

 

http://www.comicartappraisal.com/index.html

 

Thoughts? Anyone plan to use this service?

 

Gene (thanks to Ruben E. for the original post on ComicArt-L)

[Nexus]

They had all the promotional material for this new venture out at SD Comic Con. Did everyone else not see this? I was expecting a lot more discussion about it.

 

Multiply the degree of ambiguities and subjectivity associated with comic book grading by a factor of 100 and I think you'll have an idea of what will emerge.

[dem1138]

Gene,

 

Thanks for bringing this up. I don't like this service AT ALL. Many of their categories are entirely subjective and completely open to the interpretation of the viewer. Could you imagine this service for contemporary art? It would be insulting. I do not think that this does a service to the hobby in any way. And is anyone going to pay a premium if a work is appraised?!? Not me. Either I like the art or I don't - it's very personal - why would I care what some subjective service says? With CGC you aren't allowed to buy/sell comics to remain objective - but clearly the Mannarinos are going to still sell art - how do they remain objective. I just don't see anything positive about this service.

[Nexus]

Yeah, it's sort of hard for them to remain objective when they are selling the art they're grading. It's even more blatant than the CGC/Heritage connection.

[dem1138]

FF #100 is a great case in point. They own it and it's their appraisal example. Could you imagine the uproar if Steve Borock showcased CGCs services by grading a book he owned?!??

 

Another case in point - many view the FF #100 cover as cluttered, but according to the Appraisal service - that number of characters on the cover is a positive - not a detractor.

[aardvark88]

This is an excellent way for the Mannarino's to get leads on hi-end original comic or comic strip artwork to eventually solicit for their All Star auctions or simul-cons.

 

Art is very subjective but they have tried to come up with a 100 point scale regardless. I applaud their effort but don't know that many hi-end art collectors that would ship their originals to them in the mail just to get an objective grade, NOT current market value.

 

Then again, I thought this same thing with some rookie start up company named Cgc 5 years ago. Cgc got a tremendous marketing push via Greg Manning auctions & the big whale, J Parrino, to gain market acceptance/greed from other collector/dealers.

[Ares]

Looks like the Mannarinos are launching a new appraisal service for original comic book art (Comic Art Appraisal, LLC):

 

http://www.comicartappraisal.com/index.html

 

Thoughts? Anyone plan to use this service?

 

Gene (thanks to Ruben E. for the original post on ComicArt-L)

 

 

C OMIC AR T AP PRAISAL, LLC?

[comix4fun]

FF #100 is a great case in point. They own it and it's their appraisal example.

 

 

They don't own it...Tom Horvitz owns it.

 

Chris

[Solar]

Weak. I don't think the 100-point system works at all for art. As others have said, you can't quantify the subjective points of assessing an original.

 

It's comprable to CGC assigning a second grade to a comic based on the importance of it's content and quality of the cover art. It's a completely unnecessary service.

 

The only value at all that I can see coming out of this is third party authentication for top-end pieces. Forgery isn't much of a problem now, but who knows what could happen down the road.

[Durden08]

I agree with all of Solar's post. The ONLY potentially beneficial aspect of this is the list of restoration details for a high end piece. Like the FF #100 example they show "evidence of moderate restoration including ..."

 

All the "C" grading caterogies like "configuration, context, creativity, creator" are absolutely worthless IMO and add nothing for a potential buyer or seller.

[comix4fun]

Weak. I don't think the 100-point system works at all for art. As others have said, you can't quantify the subjective points of assessing an original.

 

 

The one category that trouble's me the most is "Creator" it is ranked on a 20 point scale. What if a creator is in the middle of his rise to prominence, how is he/she ranked?

 

For example would Bolland in 1983 doing Camelot 3000 be a 9 creator, and then a 15 at the time of Killing Joke and then a 19-20 when he was doing Wonder Woman and Animal Man covers?

Do you have to keep resubmitting the piece to get the "creator" portion kicked up a couple notches?

 

And what if the creator free falls like Liefeld? do you resist having the piece re-authenticated in the fear of getting a lower total score?

 

Yikes.

Chris

[aardvark88]

I wonder how Mannarino defines "context." e.g. Something to do with weather the art is from a key origin issue vs non-superhero /out of costume page.

 

e.g. 20 point spread to help define demand for Byrne/Austin peak period vs Byrne layouts & inking himself.

[Solar]

Weak. I don't think the 100-point system works at all for art. As others have said, you can't quantify the subjective points of assessing an original.

 

 

The one category that trouble's me the most is "Creator" it is ranked on a 20 point scale. What if a creator is in the middle of his rise to prominence, how is he/she ranked?

 

For example would Bolland in 1983 doing Camelot 3000 be a 9 creator, and then a 15 at the time of Killing Joke and then a 19-20 when he was doing Wonder Woman and Animal Man covers?

Do you have to keep resubmitting the piece to get the "creator" portion kicked up a couple notches?

 

And what if the creator free falls like Liefeld? do you resist having the piece re-authenticated in the fear of getting a lower total score?

 

Yikes.

Chris

 

Exactly! Their example book provides perfect support for your arguement. Even IF FF 100 Kirby merits a perfect "20" score, is D.C Kirby still a 20? How about Devil Dinosaur Kirby? Pre-hero Kirby?

 

Is it simply a score based on name recognition? That's about the only way it could possibly make sense and if that's the case, Liefield is still right around a 20. For better or worse, we all know who he is...

[Hart1000]

they be smokin' that crack pipe if the think they can put a numerical value to our hobby!

 

[artdealer]

Won't work, because he is playing God with your art. What he says goes? That's [embarrassing lack of self control]!

An Appraisal service for insurance purposes is one thing. I used to do it all the time. But when someone actually has the gall to porclaim what your art is worth, when he, overall, has such little knowlwdge is just wrong.

He has very little experience with contemporary artists, or even many older artists. I won't even get into illustration art, which he know virtually nothing about.

 

Mitch Itkowitz

[Thomas]

That's crappy and entirely amiguous. I won't be using it anytime soon.

 

The grading thing doesn't work with OA.

[Hart1000]

Here's my "Potential Points" criterias for comic art:

 

T&A - 50

Panels with DSL: 10

Girls in G-stings: 10

Pole Dancing Scenes: 5

HOT CHICKS!: 25

 

TOTAL: 100

 

"Gimme some Sugaar Baby...It's good to be the KING!"

[delekkerste]

The whole thing reminds me a lot of that scene in the film "Dead Poets Society" where the students are supposed to numerically rate the quality of a poem using the quantitative methodology of the fictional academic Dr. J. Evans-Pritchard. The greater the resulting area when connecting the points on an X-Y axis, the higher the value of the poem.

 

I agree, the criteria used are way too subjective to be of any value - only assessing the condition, detecting restoration, authenticating and determining the provenance of the work and appraising its value would seem to have any real value and I would be surprised if there was even that much of a potential market for those services in comic art. I wish the principals well in their endeavor, but I would really love to know what kind of market research they did and what kind of feedback they received. Given the near-universal opposition both here and on ComicArt-L, I can only hypothesize that maybe they've signed up a major auction house that will push a large volume of business through their service, because otherwise I just don't see it catching on.

 

But, instead of speculating, I know some people here know the Mannarinos pretty well; perhaps they could ask Joe or Nadia to come on here and on ComicArt-L and sell us on the merits of the service. I am willing to keep an open mind about it...

 

Gene

[adamstrange]

Here's my "Potential Points" criterias for comic art:

 

T&A - 50

Panels with DSL: 10

Girls in G-stings: 10

Pole Dancing Scenes: 5

HOT CHICKS!: 25

 

TOTAL: 100

 

"Gimme some Sugaar Baby...It's good to be the KING!"

 

You left off Ninjas and Dinosaurs on your list. They are clearly an important component of any serious work of art.

[aardvark88]

The 20 points for Creator makes sense if u break it down into 5 points for writer, 10 for penciller, 5 for inker. e.g. Claremont, Byrne, Austin or Denny O'Neill, N Adams, Giordano or Stan Lee, Kirby, Joe Sinnott.