Suggested Comic Art collecting category: Childern's graphic novels 1 1

[PhilipB2k17]

These things, often printed by publishers such as Scholastic, have print runs in the Millions. See also Raina Telgemeier.

https://www.newsarama.com/43063-latest-dog-man-title-gets-5-million-copy-first-printing.html

Seems like the original art from these books might actually have a longer term demographic advantage over other forms of comic art. Thoughts?

 

[ESeffinga]

Buy what you love...

Seems like I'm avoiding the topic, but really I'm looking at it head-on.

I collect for love of art, not for investment. I'm going to put my money into what makes my heart full, rather than speculate in areas that don't hold that same desire for me.

That said, I do have very fond memories of some children's books  (Frog & Toad, The original Pooh books, The Tenniel Alice books, some Wizard of Oz, etc), and a number of artists I greatly admire and collect have themselves ventured into doing children's books. I've been watching the prices rise on that material along with everything else.

That all said, I've no shortage of places to look for my art fix, a habit I'm trying to constantly break, without seeking out more. And much of the art that would interest me already interests many illustration collectors and there's no bargains to be found there. If anything that material will likely age out at the same rate as the comic art does for the same reasons (generational).

Just my .02¢

[Will_K]

Maurice Sendak's art sells pretty well.  That art may have staying power.

[John E.]

7 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

These things, often printed by publishers such as Scholastic, have print runs in the Millions. See also Raina Telgemeier.

https://www.newsarama.com/43063-latest-dog-man-title-gets-5-million-copy-first-printing.html

Seems like the original art from these books might actually have a longer term demographic advantage over other forms of comic art. Thoughts?

 

I have two little ones, thus we read a lot of children’s books. Some of the art is great and it has crossed my mind to start collecting it. There are a few things that hold me back. 

First I don’t assume that illustrators of children’s books have the same incentive to sell as artists of comic books. With comics, an artists is drawing up 22 pages a month which stacks up. A CB illustrator? Maybe 22 “pages” a year? Every two years? Certainly not a month. 

With less work out there it’s probably more expensive and I don’t feel comfortable inquiring about purchasing work unless I have the funds to back it up. But what would that be? $800? $5000? Well for that kind of money  I’ll would rather get another example from _____. 

Also, with less pages produced, the artist, I feel has a sentimental incentive not to sell. I approached one children’s book creator at an alternative comics expo who rebuffed my inquiry to buy some of his original art. Last October at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, this illustrator, Rafael Lopez, brought some of his OA to his talk which you can see here To me, he sees the OA as props. On the other hand, there’s Jeffrey Brown who crosses over from alternative comics to produce the Darth Vader and Son series, which is like both a comic and a children’s book. They are widely popular in their umpteenth printing. Jeffrey liberally sells his art so I jumped at the chance to get one which you can see here. 

This isn’t to say that’s it’s impossible to pry them loose or that there isn’t anything out in the market; these are just my thoughts. It’d be great to land the next Maurice Sendak, but I have also noticed that the quality of artwork in a book doesn’t always match the quality of the writing and I think you need that one-two punch. But to your point, yes, I think that right Book has the potential for investment because of all the eyeballs it can attract. Most books get read multiple times making it ripe for big time nostalgia which can pay off 40 years later, if you’re still alive.

To be sure, at next year’s TBF I’ll be after more sketches from illustrators and I’ll be sure to inquire about their views toward selling their OA. 

[Bronty]

Stuff aimed at 8 year olds like Dog Man skews too young.   If it had those same number with 12-15 year olds, you might have something

[delekkerste]

1 hour ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

These things, often printed by publishers such as Scholastic, have print runs in the Millions. See also Raina Telgemeier.

https://www.newsarama.com/43063-latest-dog-man-title-gets-5-million-copy-first-printing.html

Seems like the original art from these books might actually have a longer term demographic advantage over other forms of comic art. Thoughts?

The problem is that anything that comes out these days (over the past 20 years, really) competes with SO much other stuff for share of mind and share of wallet.  People consume more content now than at any point in human history by a wide margin, and it only seems like moar moar moar is coming out every year.  Does anyone even have time to get nostalgic about things anymore with so much new new new content coming out all the time?  All kinds of content gets consumed by the millions all the time nowadays, but, it's here today, gone tomorrow.  

I say buy it if you love it, but, I'm skeptical that much stuff from this era is going to be worth much in the future (not just comic art, but all sorts of art & collectibles, like movie/TV props as well).  All this content is creating an exponential increase in the supply of items available for sale, while purchasing power is basically stagnant, especially for the indebted youth who are meant to be the future buyers of this stuff.  

[MIL0S]

I loved the 'Three Investigators' series as a kid and would love an original illustration (or cover) but I've never come across any.

[Garf]

13 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Stuff aimed at 8 year olds like Dog Man skews too young.   If it had those same number with 12-15 year olds, you might have something

Short answer is I totally agree with Bronty on this. There are comics that I read as a young child which had high circulation but I don't have any interest in collecting the pages or covers I see on eBay from time to time.

...the earliest comics I want to collect are the ones that gave me a unique or what was then a "new to me" experience. It made them stand out, and in general I guess it started with comics that sometimes had a darker storyline.

As an example Batman comics weren't the same as the TV series or cartoons I had watched. People didn't die or get damaged on screen, so I never got all that invested in them. Whereas comic writers would happily slap me in the face by showing me they could just as easily take away a character I loved as create one.

[artdealer]

Children’s book art does not sell well here in the U.S.

there are a couple galleries here that sell the art. There is no shortage of artists trying to sell their work. I tried several years ago to no avail.

the main problem is most of the artists treat their work as fine art, and prices reflect that. Seek out these galleries and look at the prices. Most of them are quite high. How many parents are going to buy their kid a $1000 - $10,000 illustration from a contemporary kids book. That’s the reality of the market.

You have artists like Adam Rex and Tony DiTerlizzi who have a decent collector base. But it’s not like their art goes flying out the door. And you have Sendak. For every Sendak that sells, which are mostly sketches, there are more that don’t sell. I agree with Will that Sendak has long term collectibility.

So while Dog Man has a pre order of 5 million copies, very, very, very few would buy Dave Pilkey’s originals.

The market overseas for Children’s book art is another discussion.

MI

Edited December 11, 2018 by artdealer

[adamstrange]

I love Garth Williams and was thrilled to get a piece by him when Heritage handled the art from his estate.

[adamstrange]

An investment winner, for sure.

[adamstrange]

Sadly, that is an actual book from a popular series.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/slredirect/picassoRedirect.html/ref=pa_sp_atf_aps_sr_pg1_1?ie=UTF8&adId=A02723616HQPQIP6VGV3&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNinja-Farts-Disgusting-Adventures-Snotrocket%2Fdp%2F1484905849%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1_sspa%3Fie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1544557999%26sr%3D8-1-spons%26keywords%3Dninja%2Bfarts%26psc%3D1&qualifier=1544557999&id=2620400724433230&widgetName=sp_atf

[PhilipB2k17]

This is the art from "Dog Man," BTW. 

[PhilipB2k17]

Here's an OA page from Pilkey that I found on CAF.

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1184149

[adamstrange]

3 hours ago, adamstrange said:

An investment winner, for sure.

It's too bad Lichtenstein isn't around anymore.

[▫️]

12 hours ago, Will_K said:

Maurice Sendak's art sells pretty well.  That art may have staying power.

Would love to have something by Sendak that I could pass down to my daughters. I of course read WTWTA to them when they were little. 

[The Voord]

On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 11:08 PM, adamstrange said:

It's too bad Lichtenstein isn't around anymore.

 

[The Voord]

On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 7:39 PM, adamstrange said:

An investment winner, for sure.

There's always the UK's Viz comic-book . . .