2009, Reflecting back ...

[batman_fan]

2009 will go down as a great year for me relative to picking up long term keepers for my collection. I added quite a few covers which was totally unexpected. Here is a complete wrap-up of 2009 for me. How did other people do?

 

 

[mister_not_so_nice]

Great stuff. A banner year for you, definitely.

 

Beginning this year I have kept all new additions in one CAF folder to make it easier for me to find my "Best Of" when CAF has their annual poll in January.

 

I was going to post some of my favorites, but going through the folder I could narrow it down, so decided to just POST A LINK instead. I got a couple of PREACHER pages, which is nice.

 

And I think I discovered I'm more of a BATMAN fan than I thought. 5 BATMAN pieces (7 if you count the Arseface cover and gallery pieces).

 

 

 

[Shootydog]

It would mark my first real foray into original art and it would also mark the year I picked up my grail piece from my alltime favorite artist. So I guess you can say that It was the beginning and the ending of my search. Now anything else is icing on the cake.

 

I picked this up from Mike Grell...the cover to Issue #4 of the latest series. OA cover from a published Mike Grell cover. A cover containing my all time favorite comic character...Warlord. AND I have the Signature Series book on its way to me now from CGC (9.8..yay!). Only thing left is to frame them together and put them in a place of honor on my office wall.

 

[innocuous]

What a great year. I like the Flash cover, as he is my favorite character.

 

I'm still waiting on one piece which I hope to have before the end of the year. So, hopefully, I can add to this thread then.

[Weird Paper]

Nice group of pages. I'm not quite ready to wrap up the year yet or I'd post my retrospective.

[wca140]

Great collection of pages congratulations and thanks for posting them!

[nickwire]

2009 was te year i finally bought my 1st OA. i know my budget wont let me get what i'd love, but getting pieces here and there is good enough for me. 2 pieces and counting!

[delekkerste]

Here is most of what I got this year:

 

Marcel Dzama - "Will Work For Food" watercolor

Jose Gonzalez - Vampirella #44 Complete Story

James Jean - Fables "Arabian Days and Nights" TPB Cover

Alan Kupperberg - Obnoxio the Clown vs. the X-Men #1 Complete Story

Bea Paul - Playboy January 1963 Cover Diorama

Sanjulian - Vampirella #38 Cover

Tom Sutton - Vampirella #1 Complete Story (1st Vampirella story)

Barry Windsor-Smith - Conan #23, p. 15 (1st Red Sonja page)

 

(All this and more can be seen on my CAF page: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=2354)

 

The BWS, Sanjulian and JJ pieces checked off some big boxes on my want list. Since then, I haven't purchased anything in the second half of the year as I've gone into a state of semi-retirement from the hobby (I will only be looking for a few select pieces going forward). I have to say, I'm rather enjoying not always being on the lookout for the next OA acquisition, not to mention all the money I'm not spending.

[Nexus]

Since then, I haven't purchased anything in the second half of the year as I've gone into a state of semi-retirement from the hobby (I will only be looking for a few select pieces going forward). I have to say, I'm rather enjoying not always being on the lookout for the next OA acquisition, not to mention all the money I'm not spending.

 

You say that every year, Gene.

 

I do the same thing. Every year I tell myself I'll spend less than the year before. Hasn't happened yet.

 

Nice pickups, everyone (thumbs u

[delekkerste]

You say that every year, Gene.

 

And the #'s don't lie - barring something unexpected, my OA spending will be down in 2009 versus 2008 and my purchases will have plunged 100% to $0 for the second half of the year. It's not just idle talk.

 

 

I do the same thing. Every year I tell myself I'll spend less than the year before. Hasn't happened yet.

 

Yeah, but you're not even trying - whereas I am recreational OA user, you're a full blown crack addict.

[Nexus]

Yeah, but you're not even trying - whereas I am recreational OA user, you're a full blown crack addict.

 

 

Well, if I really was trying, and failing, then yeah, I'd be a crack addict.

 

(How come I'm so shaky and my lips so dry?)

 

Congrats on your six month chip. Don't go all self-righteous and preachy on us now.

[Brian Peck]

This has been another great year, nothing that matched the Cockrum X-Men DPS from last year. Though I did fill in some artists missing from my collection including:

 

Charles Schulz - 2 Peanuts pieces, Snoopy for an Ice Skating program, Charlie Brown (Butternut ad) Didn't think I would get one (let alone two).

Doug Sneyd - Playboy Bunny Pin-Up

Frank Thorne - Marvel Feature page with Conan and red Sonja

 

NightCrawler mini page including Bamf - Dave Cockrum

Warren Vampirella #2 prelim - Bill Hughes (earliest Vampi I own)

3 Ironwood colour covers - Bill Willingham

 

I usually don't get alot of commissions I can be very picky, this year I have gotten more than in any other year.

Ed Barreto - Starfire commission (favorite 80s New Teen Titans artist) (My favorite piece of the year)

Byrne - Marvel Girl iPod

Pablo Marcos - Tales of the Zombie iPod

Chris Sprouse - Tesla iPod

 

Thanks to a fellow CAF member and his Rock Art gallery, I picked up a sweet original for a Black Crowes poster. Now I have another area to collect, Rock Art

 

http://cafurl.com?i=13710

 

 

 

 

 

[batman_fan]

Man have people picked up some sweet stuff this year

[CollectingFool]

I may not buy as many big items as Gene but my net purchases were down 38% this year. Insanely escalating prices, the lack of art I must have appearing, the economy and general fear of unemployment have made me cut back too. Truth is, I still bought tons more than I would have wanted to had this just been a hobby and not a crippling addiction!

 

I suppose my more notable purchases this year were:

 

Nice Finlay illo

A mess of nice Salinas strips

A pile of Toth art

Some 70's Hostess ads

I got my Peanuts ad piece back

Thor 314 Cover

and a mess of other stuff

 

 

[Artemaria]

Every year I tell myself I'll spend less than the year before. Hasn't happened yet.

You know this is all too true - and quite funny. Happy to learn that I am not the only one. Last year, I was thinking that I should cut back this year, and it didn't happen. This year, with the hopes of cutting back, ended up with the following:

 

2 Avengers full page splashes - one by Jim Cheung and one by George Perez

1 John Cassaday Red Sonja cover

2 Green Lantern pieces - an EVS Cover and an Ivan Reis full page splash (with lantern and oath)

1 1970s Starlin Warlock full page splash and

1 Justice League Cover - exclusively featuring Batman, by Ron Garney

and a few other pieces, some of which I've posted and the rest of which I should receive and post before the end of the year.

 

Again, only scratched a couple of things off the ol' 2009 want list, but I'm really really committed to spending less on this stuff next year. For real. . . . . just like everyone else on this list.

 

Congratulations to everyone on their exquisite 2009 pick ups and best wishes to everyone for a better 2010!

 

Best regards.

 

- A

 

[ShaneTurgeon]

While late 2008/2009 wasn't the first year i picked up OA, this was definitely the year i started buying some choice art representing my favourite characters. Earlier this year, I picked up pieces that i'm happy to have representing THE piece i want for a character in these two:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=481980&GSub=75617

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=481977&GSub=75617

 

And then later this year i picked up these two Secret Wars toy line packaging pieces from Bob Layton:

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=544887&GSub=75617

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=544885&GSub=75617

 

I picked up a modern GI Joe cover and few other pieces of toy art from GI Joe and Star Wars and more animation art as well but haven't them uploaded them to my CAF galleries yet.

 

2009 isn't over yet and i still have a couple other deals to close out. Hopefully 2010 will be another good art year for me and i can add some other "definitive" pages for some other fave characters too.

 

 

[Royd]

Hmmmm..... it was a fairly quiet year for me but then I didn't go to SDCC and acquire a number of pieces as I did last year

 

However, I did purchase the following during 2009:

 

Howard Chaykin - American Flagg #23, Page 6 (Title splash) Thanks Felix for helping me realise an art goal in obtaining a decent AF page!

 

Dave Gibbons - Rorschach commission (Awesome commission arranged with Dave who delivered it to me in person at Supanova Con in Perth).

 

Bryan Hitch - Captain America: Reborn #1, Page 4

 

Doug Wildey - Rio page (Eclipse Monthly #5, Page 14) and unpublished DPS from Savage World title. (Fulfilled one of my goals in obtaining a Rio page).

 

John Byrne - Alpha Flight #16, Page 10 (featuring Wolverine).

 

Best,

 

Royd

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=111

[jjonahjameson1]

2009 was had a lot of unexpected twists and turns for me.

 

In 2008, I stopped collecting for approximately 6 months, and decided to change focus in 2009 and re-enter the market slowly.

 

Didn't happen.

 

Lots of stuff being offered that was previously locked away in permanent collections; escalating prices, and extended time payments all led towards 2009 being the highest spend year for me.

[kimik]

2009 was a decent restart to OA collecting for me, I guess. I picked up a couple of pieces the last couple of years but the only one of note was the Ethan Van Sciver cover for Countdown to Mystery #8.

 

This year I decided to get a bit more serious at the SDCC and have since acquired the following two pieces:

 

 

 

I am looking at adding another GL cover or two to the collection before the year is done, if finances work out (i.e. I don't get stupid with spending on Christmas gifts again this year).

[mtlevy]

I remember this thread last year and I achieved my goal of cutting my net spend (buy-sell). In 2008, I spent too much and I am happy to say my 2009 net spend was ~1/3rd of 2008--and if I sell a piece or two perhaps I can drive it down to 1/5th.

 

Of course, there is also one month left to buy as well...this week was not helpful as I spent some time on line and picked up Bisette/Totleben ST page (From CLink, no ST but nice page), Heath Haunted Tank page and Colan DD end page.

 

My earlier pickups included:

- Two 70s Nova pages

- Colan/Everett Captain America 137 page

- Guay "Odette" Painting, at SDCC

- Kane/Anderson Showcase 36 page (In CAF)

- Kirby/Everett Thor 170 page

- Lloyd V page (In CAF)

- Ploog WWBN 15 Splash (Available)

- Sale Batman DV page (came in trade)

- Severin/Everett MSH 20 Cover (In CAF)

 

So overall, I stuck very close to my want list and was comfortable with my spend--not all my willpower though..simply not as many must-have items popped up on my radar this year.