Complex306

She does great work, some of the best art for the price in the business

Ghost Rider blank and a revsion on a Crain comic I did recently

Modern Slow Track Received: 8/27/21 Shipped:2/25/22 All 9.8s 🙂

Possibly. I've had books recently hit G/QC for 1 day and then hit shipped the next, and I've also had books recently languish in G/QC for months. I don't get excited at this point until it says shipped. Everything else is pretty meaningless in terms of use as a barometer for completion progress.

Thats beautiful

This is true, unfortunately they're not offering remarks or I'd be all over that. I got in touch with her directly about commissions, she took the time to respond and was very pleasant but basically said "con-only"

Lol, is there a reason you don't like Jonboy? I've never met him but I do admire his work. The name Jonboy comes with an air of "gym tan laundry" but I feel like there's more of a story here...

They seem to be charging at pretty much any part of the process now. In my last 4 subs I've been charged at: received, scheduled for grading, GEI, and QC, respectively. The most recent was at received, so they may be charging when they get them in now.

You could just setup mail forwarding, assuming you chose USPS for return shipping. Not sure if FedEx/ UPS offer something similar but might be worth looking into

Modern/ Fast Track - Received: 1/21/22 Shipped: 2/15/22 Modern Sig Series/ Fast Track - Received 1/17/22 Shipped: 2/15/22 My subs must've gotten selected for the ultra fast track service, I still have slow track subs with them from August. Also, all my SS books came back 9.8 again!

Yeah the order of processing submissions seems, well, out of order. As an example: Order A (modern, no extras) Received 8/27 SFG since Oct. Order B (modern, no extras) Received 8/27 GEI since Dec. Order C (modern, fast track) Received 1/22/22 at G/QC For those counting, my FT is at QC after only like 13 business days, whereas my other submissions are running 114 days and only one of them is even in grading. I'm seeing several other posts here where slow tracks received after mine have shipped, and fast tracks are moving much quicker than estimated. Now I'm happy that my FT is moving at the speed of sound, but my regulars are moving at the speed of sloth, and it doesn't sense much make. Its almost like orders are being pulled at random, or that orders placed in the room closest to the vending machines are getting pulled, but the ones in the room down by the copier are being relegated to the annals of history.

Yep, normal. CCS tats are longer than CGC. With no fast track you might get them back by xmas.

Is that supposed to be Demon Bear? I have no idea what I'm looking at

That Joker remark would've been awesome. I've always been wary about the artist discretion bit, I assume it's there for unreasonable/ inappropriate requests but then I see things like this from time to time. I do commissions for people and it would never even cross my mind to do something other than what they requested, although I'm very small time so maybe it's different when you're doing dozens of remarks in a day.

Shameless self-promotion/ recent commission examples of mine

That's absolutely beautiful. I might have to expand my horizons into wood-working after seeing this

I imagine 10 or so would be safe. More than that is probably a bit much. As a side note, am I the only one concerned by the copious amounts of tape attached to whatever-the-hell that is to the left of Captain Encapsulation (1st appearance)?

Probably not, I just started doing art a little over a year ago and commissions last summer, this was my 1st batch of SS books. I did just get a contract with a small indie publisher to be the primary artist on a new IP, and another piece was commissioned by a museum, so you might see my name floating around a bit more in the future if I'm lucky lol. My instagram is @mattbrosch if you'd like to checkout my work 🙂

Its a great remark, but that's not cool to straight up ignore a customer's request. Want to do a black and white Joker instead? Fine. Want to place it elsewhere on the book other than the area designated? Cool. But drawing an entirely different character alltogether? Wtf. Did you put the request on the window bag as well? That 9.0 stings too. Seems a pretty steep deduction for a minor defect on the back cover...

They're my sketches on blanks and I'm pretty careful in handling them, but I was still shocked all 6 got 9.8s. I was expecting 9.4-9.6 on a couple.

Signature Series Tier, no press, no fast track Received: 8/27/21 Scheduled for Grading: 1/8/21 G/E/I: 1/11/21 Grading/QC:??? Shipped: 1/12/21 All 9.8s btw, very happy with that

Modern tier, no press, no fast track Received: 8/27/21 Scheduled for Grading: 10/4/21 Grading/E/I: 2/1/22

I get what you're saying, it just depends on the defect and its severity, and again the individual grader. CGC says that defects are allowable on a 9.8 but have to be negligible, which is a fairly nebulous criterion. The following are typically allowed on CGC 9.8s. This list was compiled by Bry's Comics after exhaustively researching the subject and examining hundreds of slabbed 9.8s. It's what I go by when deciding which books to submit. Spine Ticks ⅛” or less Bindery Tears at the top and bottom that are 1/16” or less Spine Rub that goes the length of the spine from shipping and rubbing on the cardboard box Miswraps of 1/16” or less (sometimes more but definitely will pass if 1/16” or less). Color Rub measuring a total area of 1” or less. Slight waviness to the book. Overstreet has similar criteria for a 9.8. I personally have many 9.8s in my collection with multiple color breaking spine tics, the worst of which is a Venom 7 signed by Clayton Crain which has no less than 7 (appropriately enough) color breaking spine tics of 1/8ths length. I also have 9.6s that I defy anyone to find a single defect on. In general, minor defects are fine on a 9.8. That's what I've seen in my time collecting slabs & submitting raws at least. Appreciate the respectful tone btw, I'm not trying to say "you're wrong", just adding my perspective, and too many times on these boards people become rude/ combative, so I just wanted to specifically say thank you for not doing that lol. And you're right, the "spare a grade" guys are pretty accurate, but they tend to be a bit conservative in their estimates as well. Again, just my 2 cents, which are typically significantly less valuable than 2 actual cents.

Ah yes, back to the topic. I've had 1 modern tier batch received 8/27/21, scheduled for grading since 10/4/21. So almost 4 months stuck in "scheduled". I sent in a SS batch the exact same time, which I received in the mail almost 2 weeks ago, so I was happy about that. Will update when I get back the moderns.

A single color break on the spine isn't enough to keep a book from 9.8. Minor color breaking tics are allowed on 9.8s. Beyond that, Grading is subjective. If you have 5 experienced graders go over a random book you'll likely see a standard deviation of 3-4 grade points between them. Some CGC graders are super strict, have never given out a 10, and expect a 9.8 to be absolutely perfect. Other graders will give a 10 on occasion to perfect books, and will allow small creases, indents, bindery tears, or color breaking tics on a 9.8. All depends on the grader, and oftentimes their mood that day. Stuck in traffic this morning? 9.6. GF said we should see other people? 9.2. Dog died last night? 8.5. Stuck in traffic after GF broke up with me and murdered my dog? 7.5s all day.