Collecting Original Comic Art or Why I hate Lee

This week crept up on me fast and yet I had four or five weeks between posts. I had a bunch of different ideas like a review of the Kickstarter projects I have backed and I am backing. A post I was going to call “The Reading Game”. The idea was to talk about current,versus older stuff versus prose books.  A review of Twin Earths newspaper strip (from late 50’s early 60’s) and on and on. I’m never at a lost for ideas. I’m at a lost for time to type up stuff and put together a semi-coherent post.

Jim Califore who appeared at my store

I settled on collecting original art because it is something that has become a bigger passion for me over time. When I had the comic books store but it the early nineties (crap was that over 20 years ago) I picked up a few pieces of art when an artist did an appearance at my store. Compensation for the artist and something neat to frame and put up in the store. I also picked up a coupe pieces for cheap when I went to a show in New Jersey.

The habit laid dormant for a while and then I met and becomes friends with Lee. Lee is a collector of original art and he would constantly and I mean constantly talk about his artwork. Slowly the itch to collect art started to rise to the surface again.

Lee almost forced me to buy this page

Mike Grell Nice Guy

At first it was going to a comic show with Lee at my side saying buy it, buy it. Like a parrot on my shoulder. It’s a good deal, get it, get it. It’s your price range – buy it. I would talk to the artist and often get them to sign a page. I was paying like $50 for a page here and there nothing too dramatic.

One year at Balto-Con I made the mistake of having a few hundred dollars with me and picked up about 3 pages – pricing now between $100-$200. Then I moved to Florida. Of course, with the advent of the ability to stay in touch Lee has continued to be that temptress in the dark emailing me pages and the constant refrain of buy it buy it continues to echo.

Tomas Giorello

Worse I stared to wheel and deal on my own. I contact artist directly on line and negotiation buying art from them. Often, I would buy 3 pages to get the price down on individual pages – so paying $600 for 3 pages made an odd sense as opposed to $250 per page.

Mike Ploog POTA

Then I was buying original art off Kickstarter projects. Just pay an extra $200 get the book and a page of art. I cashed in my 60^th birthday present from my 4 siblings and wife by having them pay for a Mike Ploog Kickstarter to get a POTA page – a grail piece.

Of course, I have been out and purchased from various art dealers on the web. Next, I have now bid and won auctions via auction web sites and picked up a page or two off Ebay.

Tim Truman Commission 

You would think it would end there but it doesn’t. Then you start to commission art for stuff you would like to see but it doesn’t exist. You know you have gone down the rabbit hole when you purchase a complete story. About the only thing I have avoided buying is a cover page.

I have the complete story

My collection went from like maybe 6-8 pages before Lee to over 100 pages in my collection now. Most you can view here at my Comic Art Gallery

I have learned a lot about what makes pages valuable in some ways. In other ways comic book art is a collector item – meaning your next-door neighbor wouldn’t pay you a dime for a page but get the page in front of the right people and you can sometimes turn a tidy profit. My advice buy what you love and enjoy and if down the road you sell it and make a couple bucks great, but sometimes you might lose money to sell a page.

Still I must say I love having the comic art and enjoy getting some of it framed. Each page is a true original and shows you the skill and talent that goes into making the art.  The variety of styles and type of art is amazing. Plus the only way to get the parrot to shut up is to buy something occasionally.