If you don't love the artform... 0

[RockMyAmadeus]

2 hours ago, the blob said:

Some of us can enjoy the medium, but also have financial issues, kids to pay for, roofs to fix, etc. So when some previously worthless dollar box book is now a $50 book, whatever fondness I have for Jack Kirby's chunky human form goes out the window and the book gets sold. "How much is it worth" can also just be an evaluation of priorities. So even if you're collecting its triage...space concerns, money concerns, upgrading concerns. With that said, while I have done close to $2700 in sales the last 2 months... Alas, it seems that less than $1,000 of that went into my bank account! But I do have some nice books to show for it! (And probably a few I now regret...)

Not my point. I'm talking to people who know nothing, and care nothing, about the book in their hands, other than "how much is this worth?" Having interacted with you for well over a decade, I know that's not true of you.

[the blob]

21 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Not my point. I'm talking to people who know nothing, and care nothing, about the book in their hands, other than "how much is this worth?" Having interacted with you for well over a decade, I know that's not true of you.

Don't make me feel guilty for money grubbing! But yeah, I'd like to think if you are in this hobby you'd start having an appreciation for some of this stuff at least. I wish I didn't always have to think about $ while participating in this hobby.

[KirbyJack]

3 hours ago, the blob said:

I love what appears to be an eye roll from Ben

It’s absolutely an eye roll, and I laughed out loud when I first read it. Now I mostly just marvel at Kirby’s mastery!

[Buzzetta]

On 2/2/2019 at 4:35 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

...and all you see in a comic is "how much is this worth?", you're depriving yourself of universes of wonder, joy, and lifetimes of excitement and fun.

Short background: I got into comics at the age of 17, not having read them as a child. I found some comics at a used book store for 50 cents, comics that had cover prices of $2.50 and $2.95...including this one:

I thought I had stumbled on a get-rich-quick scheme: buying these comics for 50 cents, then selling them for cover price to others. Who wouldn't want to pay cover price for old comics, after all...?

Oops. 

But, in the process, I discovered something about comics: they're actually not half bad. In fact, some of them are pretty great. I developed an eye for artists, and an ear for writers, and learned to follow their work. I learned about what motivated Magneto, why Batman needed a Robin, why Wolverine was so angry all of the time, and how Guy Gardner got taken out with just one punch. One punch! And unlike Black Canary, I didn't miss it.

And while I appreciate (no pun intended) the fact that comics can become more valuable (sometimes rather quickly), and I like owning those books...because then I can buy more books!...that's not the reason I collect them. There are entire universes out there to be explored, and there is literally something for everyone, whether you like super heroes, melodrama, price variants, Disney, mini-series, first appearances, artwork, heck, even letters of comment...comics has it all, and then some. 

But if you have no interest in the artform, when the crashes come, and they always come, there will be nothing to keep you. And the less interest in the artform there is, the harder the crashes will be, because there will be nothing to keep others like you. I understand where you're coming from: we're in a period right now, with all the movie excitement, that is unprecedented. Comics are worth more than they ever have been, and since 2009, it doesn't look like anything has really lost its value; indeed, prices today are setting records over and over again. Just when you think "this CAN'T go higher!" it does, and then double that, and then triple that. 

Eventually, however, the culture will move on, as it always does, and when that happens, it's going to be bloody.

This is not an anti-speculation screed. Speculation is not necessarily bad, in an appropriate context. Speculation is exciting...I get it...but if all comics are to you is a vehicle to make $$$, if you care nothing about the book in your hand other than "how much is this worth?"...you're cheating yourself of one of the greatest artforms ever created. 

It's an amazing artform. An American classic, just as rich and diverse as any film, TV production, or novel. There are worlds to discover, right at your fingertips. 

 

PS. I still have that copy of Alien Nation #1, that I bought 30 years ago this summer, in a used book store in a little town called Willits, CA. Never did manage to get rich with it. 

 

My takeaways: 

1. You are right 
2. You are old
3. In a a little more than a few years I will be old too but still younger than you and I will still perceive you as "old" and me "young."
4. I like my AF15s not because I want to get rich off of it but because I really hold Spider-man right up there with Mickey Mouse and Superman and to own a few copies of his first appearance means the world to me. 

And you know I am fooling around about most of them but I am dead serious about 1 and 2

Edited February 6, 2019 by Buzzetta

[mrwoogieman]

2 hours ago, the blob said:

2 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Not my point. I'm talking to people who know nothing, and care nothing, about the book in their hands, other than "how much is this worth?" Having interacted with you for well over a decade, I know that's not true of you.

Don't make me feel guilty for money grubbing! But yeah, I'd like to think if you are in this hobby you'd start having an appreciation for some of this stuff at least. I wish I didn't always have to think about $ while participating in this hobby.

When you don't have tons of available cash to just toss in your closet, monetary concerns drive how and why you collect what you collect. For me, the rise of the internet and especially eBay have allowed me to participate in the hobby to a far greater extent than my finances would have otherwise permitted, both in terms of volume and in terms of value. So, although it is correct to say that my participation in the hobby is primarily driven by economic considerations, the underlying motive to participate thusly is due to "love of the art form".

Even when I buy something outside of my usual wheelhouse just to turn a profit, going through the sales process can be quite enjoyable in a non-economic, hobby-related sense as well by providing access to read, view and enjoy books I would otherwise never get to touch.

 

[kav]

2 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

It’s absolutely an eye roll, and I laughed out loud when I first read it. Now I mostly just marvel at Kirby’s mastery!

I had a comic -script that included an eye roll. I told the writer you cant draw an eye roll as it is a motion all I can do is draw the irisis in various positions which one would you like.  Kirby here has successfully accomplished it.  

[kav]

Being an artist and curious, I studied the drawing to see how he did it.  I realized it was a combination of the goofy claim by magno man, and the Thing looking at the audience that accomplished it.  If it was just that pic of the Thing and nothing else in the frame, and Reed was say stating some science stuff, it would not come off as an eye roll.

[the blob]

On an unrelated note..  I am a little surprised Kirby came up with something so goofy... As if he couldn't conceive of a magnetic creature without a traditional magnet on his head? Then again, magneto was not shaped like a magnet. Or was this a spoof issue?

[kav]

1 hour ago, the blob said:

On an unrelated note..  I am a little surprised Kirby came up with something so goofy... As if he couldn't conceive of a magnetic creature without a traditional magnet on his head? Then again, magneto was not shaped like a magnet. Or was this a spoof issue?

I read that issue-I think what it was was he wanted to show Ben fighting a bunch of numbskull blowhards before he got to a real challenge.  Comedy timing.  Ben was always the comedy relief of FF so it was kind of necessary.  

[KirbyJack]

Well, Ol' Jack had, at this point in his carreer, made a conscious decision to stop giving Marvel his best ideas. I always considered The Magno-Man's design just the most straight-forward way to communicate the powers of a throw-away character. 

[musicmeta]

I had been reading comics that other kids had for a little while before I actually bought some.  I read all types of comics,  Archie, Harvey's (Little Dot, Baby Huey, Richie Rich..etc), Disney (Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse), Heckle & Jeckel and of course 
Marvel and DC stuff.  I actually hated Marvel at that point in my life because they "continued" the story in the next issue and most of my reads where at random.  Great story and art but they always ended on a cliff hanger. 
The very first comics I actually bought were Western comics.  They were good at the time.  I don't read as much as I used too.  Reading Saga right now..It's pretty good.

[Arkadin]

It's a pure and perfect art form, that's for sure - but now so valuable that it's inherent beauty is always going to be secondary to it's "worth." Oh well...