With technology scattering pop culture like never before... 1 1

[MyNameIsLegion]

Excellent discourse all! Here's my 10-year outlook:

 

GA/SA/BA OA - Static/shrinking buyer pool. Prices plateau/gently decline. Prices increase for A/A+ level pieces.

 

CA/'90s OA - Expanding buyer pool. Prices gradually increase. Prices exponentially increase for A/A+ level pieces.

 

2000's OA - Expanding buyer pool. Prices remain static. Prices increase for A/A+ level pieces.

 

I've also discussed it in this article:

http://comicbookinvest.com/2017/01/13/artist-spotlight-jim-lee/

 

 

I like reading modern Marvel comics on Marvel Unlimited (because I read so many that the average cost is basically nothing), but it's a lot like eating Chinese food - it goes down tasty but then it's quickly forgotten and you're hungry again after a couple of hours.

 

You need to patronize better Chinese restaurants.

 

 

I"m going to have to disagree with your forecast here- namely because modern art is inherently an inferior object compared to GA/SA/BA/CA art- because of:

 

1. Lack of word balloons, digital effects, computer generated titles, etc...

2. inks over blue lines, and pencils without inks dilute the one of a kind-ness of the OA

3. decompression of storytelling= decompression of price appreciation potential.

 

If modern OA did not have the 3 factors above working against it, I would be willing to consider your outlook as possible. The changes from large art to modern did not fundamentally alter the content.

 

Basically, older art has a larger "middle class" of good art. You don't have to have Kirby or Ditko LA. You could have an iconic Sal Buscema Captain America or Spidey panel page, or a Cockrum second run X-Men page and have it easily clear 3-4K. why? because the art is "iconic" (hate that the word has gotten diluted, but it remains true) Beyond simple sale auction price performance, just consider the individual pages of art themselves. I bet any one of us that have read a title over the years, when presented with a random panel page from 1965-1993 could ID the exactly issue, or at least within a 5 issues span the exact issue number just by looking at the art without needing to know the artist or inker. Pick a modern decompressed page, even with the artists as a clue, and odds are you will struggle to pin it down. Modern art is BORING, and bereft of context. Outside of the cover, a splash, a pin-up, there simply isn't that much substance to take in. It could be well rendered, and there are some fine modern artists, but they will never be the BWS or Wrightson's of the future, with the same exponential price page growth, because there will be very few pages that stand out.

 

Comic art collecting is a mixture of nostalgia and aesthetics - modern art has diluted both dimensions for the reasons outlined above. Unless you start producing books exactly the way they were done 30 years ago, they will never follow the same market trajectory as they have in the past. This is not merely grumpy old man talk, and we haven't even factored in stratification of entertainment mediums and changes to consumption via technology that will take a bite out regardless.

 

The only "hope" for the future, like with the vinyl resurgence, is that a younger audience will tap into the longing for more genuine, substantive, tactile objects, but the fact remains, as Gene has pointed out - the next generation will have less time, space or money to really accumulate and curate the sorts of collections older guys have now. So that reduces the market to an even smaller niche, with less velocity, I suspect the oldest art, pre compression will retain much more value but Modern art will never break out in a similar fashion at any point in the future.

 

We must remember that appreciation of art is subjective, and collectors will individually assess the merits of Modern versus older art. Some may enjoy the larger, less cluttered panels of decompressed storytelling; or like that word balloons no longer obscure or distract from the art; or prefer the varied styles of Modern artists versus the sometimes homogenized look of older art.

 

Why and what art a person finds memorable, is a uniquely personal affair.

 

Do note, I'm not predicting that Modern OA will have the reach or appeal of '90s-and-older OA. What I am saying is that demand for Modern OA will naturally increase as new comics attract fans. I expect BA-and-older OA collectors to dwindle, as those with an emotional connection to the source material step away from the hobby. There will definitely be some younger collectors who step in to collect based on artistic and historic appreciation, but I don't expect them to fully replace those stepping away.

 

My forecast is based on readership, age demographics and expected nostalgia. As noted in my article, "Present day 30-something year old collectors who were in their formative childhood/adolescent years when they read these comic books in the early-‘90s, are now hitting their prime income-earning years. As nostalgia for childhood pursuits kicks in and their spending power grows, this group of collectors will spend increasing amounts on OA (and other collectibles) from the 1990’s. This demographic also represents the last time that there was a critical mass of young comic book readers. From the late-‘90s onwards, youths tended to favour electronic forms of entertainment, and comic books increasingly targeted adolescents and adults."

 

 

@DeadPoolJr. - Great insight into the younger generation!

 

 

Ok, fair enough- but I think a 25 year old in the hobby now will have a dramatically different experience than that 30 year old- their wonder bread Years will be fully immersed in the modern OA style, as I outlined above, so the physical object of the OA is fundamentaly different than every collecting generation before it, augmented by a comics medium that no longer values continuous runs of books, but manufactures 4-8 issues story arcs and reboots the entire universe every 2-3 years. Continuity is dead, thus further fragmenting the collecting experience. We are well beyond "art is a subjective thing" No. this is not apples to apples, this is apples to kiwis and mangoes. this is a paradigm shift. Modern OA now is more akin to storyboards than sequential art. There will be a marked difference in how the baton is passed to the next generations, because the baton has morphed into a virtual pokemon creature of nebulous, fickle, transitory qualities.

 

Comics of old were ever a gateway drug to collecting- you collected every serialized issue, there was continuity, dozens and hundreds of issues. that is all mostly gone. Now it's just some corporations or some individuals creator's incubator for a story idea (storyboards again) to adapt to Television, Streaming video, or The Big Screen.

 

The OA in that regard is a distant afterthought. Its increasingly digital too- first the coloring, then the lettering, now sometimes the inking on a separate blue line, and sometimes all digital. Sketch covers may be the only thing left in 10 years, to give fans that tactile experience that they can buy at conventions and get signed, witnessed, slabbed, indexed. How soulless.

[otherworldsj33]

The last word of your post summed it up as good as one can. Excellent observation. It's soulless

[Eric Seffinga]

Let me add this.

 

The argument MYNAMEISLEGION makes regarding continuity assumes we are all talking about Marvel and DC, and ignores that the modern comic market and audience has fractured greatly. A surging demographic today among creators and audiences is towards creator owned books thorough alternative imprints. Whether it’s Dark Horse, or Image, or even one of the dozens (hundreds) of smaller publishers and indies out there. Didn't Image just pass DC numbers recently?

 

The reason I bring this up, is that MYNAMEISLEGION argument regarding continuity really only applies to the big guys that I am aware of. Many, if not most comic stories via these other publishers these days, don’t do that. Most of them have singular stories to tell. Either in a finite way as shorter run series, or in a long form way, like Walking Dead. Or even in the case of Mignola’s books, very long interweaving stories, that all follow one long continuity.

 

It’s a bit short-sighted to think that because Marvel and DC have turned the reboot into such a normal activity and are killing off interest, that other new comics follow that trend. There is a reason so many modern readers are a different demographic, have different interest, and are reading different books, and that the market shares are shifting.

 

Creators are doing exactly what we all said should have been done for Kirby, Siegel and Shuster. They are taking their ideas elsewhere. Image, as a publisher has seen a massive revival in the number and variety of books they are publishing, and it stems from the fact that their creators own their material. Simple as that. The quality of the material reflects the effort put into it, because it all rides on the creator’s efforts. These creators don’t have (or want) the history and characters to fall back on and bank on. They are plowing their own rows, and reaping their own rewards.

 

What does all this have to do with the topic at hand?

 

Aside from refuting the idea that continuity reboots will eventually kill off comic art interest, I’d proffer that these new collectors will just come in a different door. Their interests will be adjusted to what are their norms. And us old guys will badmouth their style of collecting just like their music or their taste in clothing.

 

As Gene has said often, collectors of the future need some connection to comics in their past, in order to buy OA as an earning adult. I’m suggesting that their norms for what is acceptable in OA will be different then ours. They may fall in love with OA from a modern book, and only buy one or two pages in their lean, just-out-of-school years, but double back later on. That there will be some that migrate into collecting older material even. I severely doubt that they’ll prop up the market in any way shape or form, as we’ve come to know it anyway.

 

It will be a different market. And there will be OA collectors. Maybe it’ll go back in a way, more towards those early years where there were far fewer people seeking out the stuff, and the prices will take a hefty correction. Or mess will hit the fan globally, and no one will give a rats about OA, or guitars, or vintage cars, or paintings, or whatever, while we're all hung up on gas or water or other essentials? Anything can happen.

 

But the way I see the current trajectory, I’d see the market shrinking, but not entirely dying off. And I don’t see modern OA as soulless. Just different. And some people will continue to keep up with it, like old guys listening to Mass Gothic, or Sheer Mag vs. sticking with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana.

 

 

FWIW, I think we're all talking about different shades of the same thing. Just through slightly different viewpoints, with differing nuances.

 

-e.

 

FYI: I had to Google for the first 2. Heh!

[MyNameIsLegion]

Let me add this.

 

The argument MYNAMEISLEGION makes regarding continuity assumes we are all talking about Marvel and DC, and ignores that the modern comic market and audience has fractured greatly. A surging demographic today among creators and audiences is towards creator owned books thorough alternative imprints. Whether it’s Dark Horse, or Image, or even one of the dozens (hundreds) of smaller publishers and indies out there. Didn't Image just pass DC numbers recently?

 

The reason I bring this up, is that MYNAMEISLEGION argument regarding continuity really only applies to the big guys that I am aware of. Many, if not most comic stories via these other publishers these days, don’t do that. Most of them have singular stories to tell. Either in a finite way as shorter run series, or in a long form way, like Walking Dead. Or even in the case of Mignola’s books, very long interweaving stories, that all follow one long continuity.

 

It’s a bit short-sighted to think that because Marvel and DC have turned the reboot into such a normal activity and are killing off interest, that other new comics follow that trend. There is a reason so many modern readers are a different demographic, have different interest, and are reading different books, and that the market shares are shifting.

 

Creators are doing exactly what we all said should have been done for Kirby, Siegel and Shuster. They are taking their ideas elsewhere. Image, as a publisher has seen a massive revival in the number and variety of books they are publishing, and it stems from the fact that their creators own their material. Simple as that. The quality of the material reflects the effort put into it, because it all rides on the creator’s efforts. These creators don’t have (or want) the history and characters to fall back on and bank on. They are plowing their own rows, and reaping their own rewards.

 

What does all this have to do with the topic at hand?

 

Aside from refuting the idea that continuity reboots will eventually kill off comic art interest, I’d proffer that these new collectors will just come in a different door. Their interests will be adjusted to what are their norms. And us old guys will badmouth their style of collecting just like their music or their taste in clothing.

 

As Gene has said often, collectors of the future need some connection to comics in their past, in order to buy OA as an earning adult. I’m suggesting that their norms for what is acceptable in OA will be different then ours. They may fall in love with OA from a modern book, and only buy one or two pages in their lean, just-out-of-school years, but double back later on. That there will be some that migrate into collecting older material even. I severely doubt that they’ll prop up the market in any way shape or form, as we’ve come to know it anyway.

 

It will be a different market. And there will be OA collectors. Maybe it’ll go back in a way, more towards those early years where there were far fewer people seeking out the stuff, and the prices will take a hefty correction. Or mess will hit the fan globally, and no one will give a rats about OA, or guitars, or vintage cars, or paintings, or whatever, while we're all hung up on gas or water or other essentials? Anything can happen.

 

But the way I see the current trajectory, I’d see the market shrinking, but not entirely dying off. And I don’t see modern OA as soulless. Just different. And some people will continue to keep up with it, like old guys listening to Mass Gothic, or Sheer Mag vs. sticking with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana.

 

 

FWIW, I think we're all talking about different shades of the same thing. Just through slightly different viewpoints, with differing nuances.

 

-e.

 

FYI: I had to Google for the first 2. Heh!

 

 

yeah, pretty much, we're just quibbling over the details of a gradual extinction of a hobby as it stands today. It had a good run 60-70 years, but its morphed into something else. Perhaps that's good, depends on your perspective, and I think that may in fact owe some of it's current lifeline to the very technology this thread was originally premised on: Movies. Our ability to make movies and other tantalizing spectacles out of these funny book ideas is what's keeping the medium on life-support. Contrast that with newspaper strips. Dead and buried. No Hi and Lois movies, Blondie and Dagood TV show. No Hagar the Horrible cartoons. Dead. No conventions, no cosplay, no halloween costumes. Dead. No OA either. Bloom County is back, and it's all digital. Dead. Some great art was produced, and if you have vintage Peanuts or Alex Raymond Flash Gordon, they will command a princely sum, but they are the exception, and in a generation, prices will flatline there too. Hobby's have a lifespan, that lifespan is determined by the medium and the culture it intersects with. As they evolve, natural selection takes over in the marketplace and they make it or they don't, but nothing lasts forever. Just look at comicstrips, pulps, stamps, sports cards, and, while not a hobby, the Greatest Show on Earth.

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by MYNAMEISLEGION

[delekkerste]

If the younger generation is mostly into online and tpb reading...they aren't accumulating things that can/will go up in value down the road (right?) How much of a (further) effect will that have on the next generation not being able to slab 'em and trade up to art (assuming they would care to anyway)...as the last two generations have?

 

I think there will be a huge effect. As I said on the Felix podcast, most established Gen X collectors couldn't even buy back their collections if they were starting from scratch now. What hope the Millennials who aren't getting in at 1995 or 2005 or even 2011 prices, have less financial resources, arguably worse lifetime earnings prospects and not nearly as much other appreciated assets that they can use to trade up?

 

I think it's obvious that the math simply doesn't work. People can talk about the impulse to collect, popularity of superhero movies, or whatever else they want to, but, at the end of the day, it's going to come down to dollars and cents. The only question is when we will see that tipping point really manifest itself in the marketplace, because, obviously, it hasn't yet.

[MyNameIsLegion]

I will also continue to beat this one dead horse however, because it's the most relevant detail in this entire discussion IMO. Modern OA as compared to older OA. The page you saw as a kid in that comic cannot be experienced in the same was as it once was by purchasing the OA. I have sequential pages of multiple books, and I can pretty much read the entire story just from the OA, just like reading a Marvel Essential or a DC Showcase in B&W.

 

Try doing that with Modern OA. Do you collect the pencils, with the inked blue line, and then xerox a page from the comics to see WTF was going one? Not to mention the digital color effects that were added, so most of the backgrounds in the OA are blank? That's what I mean by soulless. It's just . Let's not mince words. It's a novelty at best. Maybe some 25 year old will drop 200 bucks on a page or two, but they are never going to amass the sorts of collections some of us have, because they didn't start with collecting boxes and boxes of comics. They are consumers of content, not collectors. They read them on their phone. It's disposable entertainment. Fleeting, like Gene's bad Chinese food.

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by MYNAMEISLEGION

[delekkerste]

We must remember that appreciation of art is subjective, and collectors will individually assess the merits of Modern versus older art. Some may enjoy the larger, less cluttered panels of decompressed storytelling; or like that word balloons no longer obscure or distract from the art; or prefer the varied styles of Modern artists versus the sometimes homogenized look of older art.

 

Why and what art a person finds memorable, is a uniquely personal affair.

 

I dunno...I know Modern collectors are OK with Modern art (otherwise, they wouldn't be collecting it), but, if Modern art had physical inking & lettering and old school compressed storytelling, wouldn't the vast majority of them like the physical OA even more? I mean, let's assume that you could have the original art to a complete story to a modern book. Right now, you're usually getting 1/5th or 1/6th of a storyline with no words, whereas you could be getting a whole story (or maybe 1/2 of one) with all the lettering so you can read it just like the actual comic book. Doesn't the latter offer an inherently superior visual & ownership experience?

 

I feel like people collect Modern OA in spite of its limitations, because they like the books themselves better than the older material, not because they link the OA itself presents better without word balloons and such.

[Eric Seffinga]

For me personally, it depends page to page.

 

I agree as a general rule, but there have been instances where the lettering actually takes away from the visual appearance of a page, or pages. At least in the way I approach collecting, which is to frame and hang.

 

Sometimes within the context of the story and dependent on what is taken away from the page, by removing the lettering blocks/bubbles, the page presents... cleaner. If the dialogue is a half finished thought, or a moment where the bubbles don't really add much or are just re-enforcing the action on the page.

 

Off the top of my head there was a page of Jim Lee's from Hush that had a great moment between Gordon, Batman and a lightning flash. The lettering wasn't there on the OA. I could see some folks liking that page/moment more with the dialogue in place, but I liked it better without the "speaking". It was more powerful to me, that way.

 

But on the whole, I'd agree.

[SquareChaos]

What proof does anyone even have that younger people don't prefer decompressed art if they were raised on decompressed art? This seems like one of those "if they were offered x, they wouldn't want their y" stories.

 

It's a guess that gets repeated pretty often. I'd hazard many may not even know what the concept means.

[delekkerste]

For me personally, it depends page to page.

 

I agree as a general rule, but there have been instances where the lettering actually takes away from the visual appearance of a page, or pages. At least in the way I approach collecting, which is to frame and hang.

 

Sometimes within the context of the story and dependent on what is taken away from the page, by removing the lettering blocks/bubbles, the page presents... cleaner. If the dialogue is a half finished thought, or a moment where the bubbles don't really add much or are just re-enforcing the action on the page.

 

I can definitely see that there might be instances where this is true, and certain examples from the Lee/Williams Hush collaboration are probably among the better examples of such. One might say that much of that series was seemingly drawn with OA after-market sales in mind. and (for Scott)

 

I think that The Walking Dead art has somewhat transcended the limitations of the Modern OA format simply because, between the wildly popular comic and the even more popular TV series, so much of the art is now instantly recognizable contextually, even with decompression and without the lettering. Though, I think this is very much an another exception to the general rule.

[Garf]

I will also continue to beat this one dead horse however, because it's the most relevant detail in this entire discussion IMO. Modern OA as compared to older OA. The page you saw as a kid in that comic cannot be experienced in the same was as it once was by purchasing the OA. I have sequential pages of multiple books, and I can pretty much read the entire story just from the OA, just like reading a Marvel Essential or a DC Showcase in B&W.

 

Try doing that with Modern OA. Do you collect the pencils, with the inked blue line, and then xerox a page from the comics to see WTF was going one? Not to mention the digital color effects that were added, so most of the backgrounds in the OA are blank? That's what I mean by soulless. It's just . Let's not mince words. It's a novelty at best. Maybe some 25 year old will drop 200 bucks on a page or two, but they are never going to amass the sorts of collections some of us have, because they didn't start with collecting boxes and boxes of comics. They are consumers of content, not collectors. They read them on their phone. It's disposable entertainment. Fleeting, like Gene's bad Chinese food.

 

 

...but it's all just pages from comic books for kids? Some bloke who puts on lycra and jumps around shooting webs out of his hands whilst walking up walls and battling man vultures and goblins is a novelty with or without words and a KAPOW effect ... or some dude who turns green, grows muscles and throws his toys out of his pram because people made him sad right?

 

The way I see it anyone who buys modern art knows exactly what they are buying and probably has very similar reasons for buying it as you do with what you collect. Does that sound far fetched? I doubt they are going to be trying to put sequential pages or complete issues together to read on their walls. That would be a very expensive pull list.

 

 

 

 

I think it's obvious that the math simply doesn't work. People can talk about the impulse to collect, popularity of superhero movies, or whatever else they want to, but, at the end of the day, it's going to come down to dollars and cents. The only question is when we will see that tipping point really manifest itself in the marketplace, because, obviously, it hasn't yet.

 

IMHO the math doesn't work from the ground up. Single issues are getting really pricey when it comes to getting value for your pocket money or loose change if you are a kid, let alone collecting multiple runs. That has to be hurting the future of the hobby a lot. I recall being able to get quite the haul on a weekend with a bit of pocket money, which got my collecting off of the ground.

[delekkerste]

What proof does anyone even have that younger people don't prefer decompressed art if they were raised on decompressed art? This seems like one of those "if they were offered x, they wouldn't want their y" stories.

 

It's a guess that gets repeated pretty often. I'd hazard many may not even know what the concept means.

 

I can totally believe that large numbers of today's comic book readers prefer decompressed storytelling to old-school storytelling - I'm definitely not arguing otherwise. Not everybody likes to read shorter storylines with more words in them. I love reading decompressed stories - you can read hundreds of pages in a fraction of the time it used to take. Again, I think it's very much like Chinese food - quick, easy and tasty, though not necessarily more satisfying over the long run.

 

I don't know if anyone has done a poll on what that means for the art, but, to me, while many may prefer decompressed storytelling, from an OA-centric point of view, it means that a smaller % of the story is happening on any given page of art. That's just simple math. As such, are there "key pages" anymore? Instead of 32 pages or whatever from the Death of Elektra storyline, now it takes 132 pages to tell the same story and so singular pages are simply not as impactful as they used to be. Also, often what is so memorable about those older pages is the dialogue! If Daredevil #181 was redone today, it would take an extra 100 pages and the art would be missing classic lines like "You're pretty good, toots. But, me, I'm magic." The pages just wouldn't be as special, IMO, and I think most would agree.

[BCarter27]

The longer this thread goes on, with the more posters concluding that the fallout is imminent, the more the answers to the OP might be irrelevant...

 

If the vintage OA market corrects/collapses in 15-30 years, then WHEN TO SELL? Answer: doesn't matter. Most collectors here on the boards have said they will welcome a drop in prices because they can finally afford art that has been out of reach. And those "dark matter" collectors, they aren't heavily invested enough to care about when to sell off either.

 

Everyone will divest on their own schedule, until they reach that personal point where fetishizing the object is no longer important to them. Most have come to terms with the fact that the money is burned anyway. ("Collect what you love", right? Really means, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.")

 

Modern OA will live on in its own different market with its own time line. It will fragment and niche along with the rest of new media.

 

I can't help but think these "sky is falling" threads are just to crash prices in order to pickup pages on the cheap. . The Anti-Cabal has risen!

[Bronty]

On the other hand, every single physical cover now is "more special" by the old metrics as they all fanboy-perfect standalone shots and such. Few floating heads w/ a buttshot like asm121

 

Kidding and poking fun, but serious too... if we are going to use the old metrics then it's worth mentioning that even with the dialogue and trade dress taken away, modern covers are often the 'perfect shot' that yesterday's collector would want.

 

I don't think any of this matters if you don't have the large readership, but playing devils advocate...

[BCarter27]

from an OA-centric point of view, it means that a smaller % of the story is happening on any given page of art. That's just simple math. As such, are there "key pages" anymore?

 

On the flip side, the common complaint about modern superhero OA is that the artists are so mindful of possible OA sales that they load up an issue with splashes. And most big-money collectors buy covers and splashes. So what do they care that panel pages have less story in them?

 

This goes back to my own worries about ending up with a collection that is all covers and splashes simply because I have tricked myself into worrying about resale. The art of layout and storytelling won't be as well represented in my collection, if I am not careful.

[BCarter27]

On the other hand, every single physical cover now is "more special" by the old metrics as they all fanboy-perfect standalone shots and such. Few floating heads w/ a buttshot like asm121

 

Kidding and poking fun, but serious too... if we are going to use the old metrics then it's worth mentioning that even with the dialogue and trade dress taken away, modern covers are often the 'perfect shot' that yesterday's collector would want.

 

I don't think any of this matters if you don't have the large readership, but playing devils advocate...

 

Yup. Beat me to it.

[delekkerste]

Kidding and poking fun, but serious too... if we are going to use the old metrics then it's worth mentioning that even with the dialogue and trade dress taken away, modern covers are often the 'perfect shot' that yesterday's collector would want.

 

Nah. Whatever positives accrue from having glamour shot posed covers is more than offset by (a) lower readership, (2) totally generic/forgettable, (3) near-limitless supply. I read a lot of modern comics by this Board's standards and I couldn't tell you what more than handful of specific issues' covers from the past 15 years looked like, "perfect shot" or no. A perfect shot is no longer a perfect shot when it has nothing to do with the storyline and there are dozens and dozens of similar examples. Bo-ring!

 

That said, it's great when you can find modern covers which transcend the boring sameness out there and become iconic in their own right.

[Bronty]

Kidding and poking fun, but serious too... if we are going to use the old metrics then it's worth mentioning that even with the dialogue and trade dress taken away, modern covers are often the 'perfect shot' that yesterday's collector would want.

 

Nah. Whatever positives accrue from having glamour shot posed covers is more than offset by (a) lower readership, (2) totally generic/forgettable, (3) near-limitless supply. I read a lot of modern comics by this Board's standards and I couldn't tell you what more than handful of specific issues' covers from the past 15 years looked like, "perfect shot" or no. A perfect shot is no longer a perfect shot when it has nothing to do with the storyline and there are dozens and dozens of similar examples. Bo-ring!

 

That said, it's great when you can find modern covers which transcend the boring sameness out there and become iconic in their own right.

 

I guess if you're caught in logical inconsistencies , changing the focus is not a bad strategy

[Bronty]

K A perfect shot is no longer a perfect shot when it has nothing to do with the storyline and there are dozens and dozens of similar examples. Bo-ring!

 

That said, it's great when you can find modern covers which transcend the boring sameness out there and become iconic in their own right.

 

such it ever was, such it ever will be. Its an obvious point, that every cover is "perfect" now, so perfect isn't perfect anymore. Perfect will shift to be something else.

 

The discussion here is taking a turn into how the pie will get sliced up. The size of the pie is more relevant.

 

You may not like the flavor of the pies being baked today, but someone will. Maybe they will only like the crust of the pie (covers) but as you said, the bakeries today are putting out an endless amount of crust, so being a crust collector is certainly easy if you have the funds.

 

Again, as I said, this is all playing devil's advocate. Someone will like the art. There may just not be enough of those someones for the price to get silly.

[rocket1312]

As someone who collects both vintage and modern OA, I will say that for the most part I much prefer the vintage stuff (I just wish I could afford more of it). The lack of word balloons on modern OA is a bummer, but it's not a dealbreaker for me as long as the page tells a coherent visual story. In my opinion, digital coloring and backgrounds are the much bigger issue. The large areas of blank space (or x's to denote black) that you sometimes get with modern OA leave the pages feeling incomplete or off-balanced. I'm not really interested in a page that looks like a collection of random figures or headshot doodles with no discernible context.