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Peter L

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  1. Up to now, I have been bullish on comic art and believed it could continue to go up. I have a different opinion now. A lot of my opinion was that comics would still be relevant, especially Marvel because Disney was such a smart organization on how to keep their IP relevant. Based on the poor choices at Disney management, it looks like they are destroying every part of their empire. I read they just sold the rights to make physical media for their films to Sony. Disney looks like they are bleeding money making flop after flop for choices other than what fans want to pay for. Of course I am trying to explain this in a non-political way, but if you know the context, I'm sure you understand this. Making money and making fans are not the priorities of Disney as it has been in the past. Comic store owners I speak to also explain how Disney is hurting their businesses with bad distribution deals and bad business practices that take short term bucks over long term investment decisions. I am taking a huge loss on the Disney stock I own. WB Discovery is also making bad business decisions for other reasons, but also quite a mess. I suppose both corps could be bought out or have new management but I wouldn't bet on that or that things will turn around or be ok for either company. The comic book industry is suffering from downstream bad corporate choices. They are not making new fans. There is a big collectors swap meet like show called Frank and Sons in Los Angeles. I use it as a barometer for what is popular among kids. It used to be mostly comics and some cards maybe 20 years ago. Now it only has a few tables for comics, and a few more rows for sports cards, and a lot of pokemon. Times change and kids nowdays do not seem interested in the latest political message comics for some reason. The best selling comic in the US is Dogman now. They are actually good but they are for kids. I spoke to a huge comic store owner who is my friend and he never heard of Dogman even though he has a kid. I have and read every Superman comic from something like the early 80s to early 2000s, and some after but they became harder and harder to read. The new comics are mostly awful and unreadable, not just for politics but storytelling flaws. Comics used to be disposable and cheap. In an era where everyone is being squeezed by $18 Big Mac meals, most kids don't have money to throw away on 18 page decompressed comics of mostly art and little plot and with perhaps objectionable or insulting messages. I think Pokemon will be relevant and see the 30 year bump in values down the road. After we die off, I don't see new comic readers being created who will be interested in the art that is left. I tried reading early Marvel Masterpieces (first few Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spider-man) to kids recently and no one was interested. No one was interested in any new book or Star Wars show or Marvel tv show. I'm not going to show kids the comic where Superman was raped in prison. History will look back at the last few years of the destruction of Disney and WB and the comic book industry as a turning point as we do as the start of the Silver Age or the release of DKR and Watchmen. This is a big inflection point and we are going to look back at this time with sadness where things could have been different but the worse case scenario occurred. If something I really want comes up for a good price like a particular DKR page or something I liked, I would still buy it at the right price. I'm young enough to appreciate it before I enter the retirement phase and need to sell before my death. But as an investment or even for fun, all of the modern bad current iterations of the characters are staining my previous good feelings towards the characters.
  2. I'm not a fan of Andrew. I have bought from all major dealers, and mostly who I have good things to say about for the most part. Even when I had some issues, I would still buy from all of them again without reservations. I would try to avoid dealing with Andrew if I could. In my dealings, because of Andrew's activities, it cost his client artist money. If I was an artist, I would go to a rep who would not cost me the best opportunity to get the most money.
  3. For me, the value of CAF Live is the small collectors putting up their stuff for the show. I have been trying to buy a piece from a collector for years and he kept refusing for sentimental reasons and he told me the story. Saturday morning I saw it on CAF and bought it immediately. It was more than FMV, but I knew I wanted it and if it sold, I wouldn't see it again, maybe not for 20 years or more. It does take a long time to go through all of the pages. I happened to be in a spot where I was able to spend a few hours and do that on Saturday morning and a little on Sunday, and had a really inconsistent hotel wifi, but I could see others not having the time. There was another piece that I liked but could not justify pulling the trigger on because it wasn't published. It was just a nice expensive piece of art. It didn't sell. I am acquainted with the seller and so I just dropped a line telling him the art is great. I think he would have negotiated with me, but I am poor right now and saving up for some other art. I am thankful to Bill for doing this. I have always found hidden treasure at CAF Live.
  4. If it is the A Williams with the first art in the upper left a Luis Royo and then a Greg Williams as the second art in the featured area, then I can absolutely vouch for the person.
  5. Does anyone know where this art is? I would like to track it down to see if the owner would sell. This is from Youngblood #3 and by Roger Cruz and Danny Miki. It sold at Heritage in Jan 2021.
  6. Yes quite a bit. There is a facebook group called Comic Art Buyer Beware. Jae Lee seems to be the most frequent name and a kind of Hall of Famer in his own way.
  7. This is terrible to hear about Jae Lee. It sounds like everyone should stay away from him. I am surprised that the San Diego Comic Con still allows him a booth.
  8. Hi all, I'm trying to track down Ted McKeever art. Does he have a current rep? I found an old CAF profile but it apparently has dead links and not working email address listed. Thanks!
  9. I was really happy with a piece I bought. It was probably more than many of you would think it was worth, but it was worth it to me because of the high prices on published stuff by this artist. I would think it helps the seller to not have the number of who inquired first revealed, so the seller can decide if the top person is reliable or not. Most likely most of the bidders will be legit, but sometimes they may not be as reliable as the guy who backed out on a bid.
  10. I recall seeing him at one convention and he was painting on a commission at his table and he was amazing to watch.
  11. Hi, Does anyone have any Invisibles art? I am looking for some for my collection.
  12. Out of the blue with no notice, I got mailed one of the commissions. I think the disappointment that made me start this thread was because I was led to believe I would get both commissions at the cons where I gave the money. Subsequent messages also confirmed my thoughts and later messages confirmed that they would be produced soon. We can say this should be worked out at the time of payment but when the artist doesn't come through, what recourse is there? Sure we could cause a scene or get mad and stuff like that, but where I am in my life stage right now, I don't really feel like expending that energy. At no time did I ever think I was going to get stiffed and never see the work with these two artists. I had a famous/infamous contractor design and build my office. I knew him for about a decade when I hired him. I was warned by some not to use him, and confirmed by others on how he does great work. He gave me an estimate that it would be ready in about 8 months. I doubled the time estimate in my mind, knowing his history. He came in right on time in my mind. I think if either of these artists/reps had said it will be an undetermined time frame, I would have probably accepted that better. I may not have commissioned them or might have. Regarding Frank Miller, at a recent con I inquired about two small commissions. I first was told he couldn't because he didn't bring anything to do them with, but then said if I bought him the pens, pencil and eraser he would. So I did. I was told it would be ready by the end of the con in a few days. I got a call before the con was over and the commissions were ready early, in fact so early I wasn't prepared to physically pick them up yet. So the bottom line is that we can say this and that and make excuses for artists, but Frank Miller came through really fast ahead of schedule with what looks like quality work.
  13. I remember reading a comic and it changed my life and view of the world. I thought someday it would be great to have that page art, and this was even before I knew about collecting art as a thing. About 15 years later, now I am working and I discover art collecting. In my first year, after I have maybe three pieces, it appears on ebay and my friend buys it for me. I figure I am done collecting at that point. Then later I run across a few other pages that I recall thinking when reading the comic when I was young, that I would like to have that page. I found those too, mostly on ebay. Then maybe 5 years later, I see Heritage has an art cover that I had thought that would be my last one collecting. Then I won the auction. I guess that means I have been blessed greatly. I still collect art, and there are a few things that I would want that I am looking for. But fortunately I got pretty much all of the grails that I had originally wanted.
  14. I think that was really nice of Jim Lee to do that and it must have a great sentimental value to you. If I were you I would put the art in a mylar and then put that in a routine frame you can buy inexpensively online for display in your room or office or house. I not sure it would have much resale value personalized like that which is why I would not custom frame it. The reason I don't custom frame my signed baseball jerseys is because the frame is often more expensive to do than the jersey.
  15. Hi, there is an App called Clear that was acceptable in San Diego and other locations. The App is available on iphones and android phones. You just upload your ID like a passport, and your vaccination card and then it checks it and then issues you an ok, especially if it is to an event. For the SDCC, the event was listed for it. However they accepted seeing a vaccination card, or a digital vaccination card which is given in the US.