Who/what got you started on your OA journey? 2 2

[exitmusicblue]

This section of the CGC boards first piqued my curiosity several years ago.

Finding Lim and Bagley Venom: Lethal Protector (i.e. childhood nostalgia) pages for cheap got me hooked.

Acquiring a Seven Seas #1 Matt Baker page from Jeff Singh ensured there would be no escape.

And Frazetta madness has succeeded in severely denting my comic book collection as the crusade continues....

[Twanj]

I was buying other art (local & regional) and wondered if I could find some Ron Lim Silver Surfer art.

 CAF

Edited May 6, 2019 by Twanj

[aokartman]

Who/What.  Great topic! 

Who?  I honestly can't place a who within my family, though many are of artistic bent.  Perhaps my early clay art professors, Dave Dobson, and Hideo Okino, are candidates since they were my early guides into the art world.

When my interests were eventually leaning toward purchases of original comic art, there was a serendipitous comic convention in Burlington, Vermont where I arrived early enough to plow through a bunch of Ed Hannigan's covers and made the plunge into buying more than I could really afford!  So, over the years, I have become a very small time dealer, and our tax preparer still calls it hobby income, so my returns are not good, but that's not why I really trade comic art.  

It's more to just get a little more art I haven't seen or desired previously!

David S. Albright

 

[batman_fan]

For me it was when In was 12 and sent off for the San Mateo comic art catalog and saw the amazing OA in it.  A few years later I spent a fortune ($20) to order two pieces of art from them.  Long since sold off.

[aardvark88]

I had most of the late SA and BA Marvel runs completed by circa 1979 so bought my first published page of Dave Sim early 'Cerebus' original art that year mainly because I enjoyed the humorous writing, art, inking and he was in Canada. Might have got my first commissioned Arthur Adams full body pencil drawing of Galactus around 1980 for the princely sum of $10 for, at the time, a no-name artist. Still have it.

[AnkurJ]

 Chicago comic con 2002. Saw Alex Ross’s booth and bought an original. Stared at it for a while in awe. Started looking at more and more since then.

[mister_not_so_nice]

Saw OA creeping into the comics section of eBay in the late 90s.  Nothing really struck a chord until I saw a page from a series I liked. At the time the issue the page was from was $30-$40. I ended up winning the page for about $130. After that I could never justify spending as much for a mass produced comic as an original hand drawn page cost. 

[KirbyJack]

Early 90s or maybe even late 80s. I was as usual, haunting my favorite comic store (I sometimes went twice a day back then) and the owner, Bob, pulled out a page. It was the first one I’d ever seen in person, and Bob had no idea what to do with it. Sal Buscema Hulk, Chan inks, Hulk in most panels. Sold to me for $5. 

[Brian Peck]

My first page I owned was Incredible Hulk Annual #7 page 46. My father who was never into comic books, went to a local comic shop Big Guy's Comics in Mountain View, CA in 1986. He bought the Hulk Annual #7 page by John Byrne and Bob Layton. Unfortunately I no longer own the page, traded it for an Uncanny _X-Men #112 Byrne/Austin page which in trun lead me to getting two Kirby X-Men pages. That is one of the pages I do regret letting go, but love the X-Men #8 (first x-men book I read) Kirby page I ended up with. 

 

 

[spracknetch23]

Meeting artists at cons in the '90s and buying their original art pages for $30-35 a pop. Things sure have changed. 

[thethedew]

I had been collecting 'non-sport' trading cards during the NS Boom of the late 1990's.  Some movie stuff but shifting to Marvel with Skybox and Fleer.  My focus further narrowed to sketch cards late in the decade, with the release of Skybox's 'sketchagraph' cards in 1998.  I tried to focus on Doctor Doom, since 'Micronauts' and 'ROM' were licensed properties no longer owned by Marvel, and not really produced in quantities to collect.

I was awaiting a sketch card commission from a foot-dragging artist, when a larger-than-expected package arrived.  The tardy artist had included a full-color 11x17 blueline piece as an apology for the wait. 

 

   I realized that the blue formatting on the sketchagraph cards was a miniature of the formatting of 'official' comic art.  I had found a way to collect the art from my favorite comic book.

That 'lightbulb moment' was quickly followed by my first Micronauts Art purchase - which turned out to be... a color guide.  I had a lot to learn.

To this day, I rue that I was so late to the OA party, and wonder what gems were sold on eBay and elsewhere before my... awakening.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2019 by thethedew
Formatted with smaller pics

[Rick2you2]

Went to a comic book show in Manhattan around 1980. Met a young John Byrne, Joe Rubinstein, Rudy Nebres and some others, as well as a dealer selling art. Picked up an Adams Phantom Stranger cover and Aparo cover from a fanzine, as well as some sketches from the above. Went the next year, too, although I may be mixing some of the dates of procuring art up with 1981. The Byrne/Rubinstein piece (he did the inks) was the first time Byrne said he ever did a Phantom Stranger commission. I get a lot of that. 

The next year, I got this image from Hembeck.

 

[Reba]

Love hearing everyone's tales. I was buying art for my house about 6 years ago and looked at a lot of 'mainstream' art in galleries before being honest about what my eyes loved most! I knew original comic art existed but had never considered buying any so was pretty cautious and looked at lots of pages for months before buying my first page. I genuinely thought I'd only buy one or two things for the wall so I wanted to be sure to choose something I wouldn't change my mind on. Ended up going with a pretty modestly priced Immonen/von Grawbadger page for my first purchase and held it in my hands...and became a collector! At which point, caution and fiscal responsibility fell by the wayside - lol. Yes, my first piece is still on the wall and I'd still buy it now.

[Timely]

Borock got me into collecting OA.  I was not one who liked b&w art at first, I liked colorful art, but most art isn't. Well, he had a beautiful framed piece by Budd Root & I fell in love with it. We did a trade. So I collected BR art, amassing over 50 pieces in just 4 years.

It was only later that I started to appreciate b&w art more. Now I can't get enough!

[cstojano]

This exact piece and Google image search. Yes I know the piece is now signed and yes I know I am unlikely to pry it from its current owner.

Edited May 6, 2019 by cstojano

[BCarter27]

Spencer Beck sold me and my wife an Aparo Batman page at a show in White Plains. Then, at a show at the Garden a few months later (iirc) he hosted Aparo and Giffen at his booth. We hit a buying spurt for a year or two after that circa 2005 maybe? Then, came back to the hobby in earnest in 2014-2015.

Edited May 27, 2019 by BCarter27
grammar check by @adamstrange !

[Will_K]

A young teen, the first time I saw (and became aware of) original art was at a NY convention.  Someone had the Action Comics 419 cover (Neal Adams / Murphy Anderson, Superman up flying at you, see: https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=464156 ) and Flash 223 (Nick Cardy, Flash racing on land, water and air) on the wall.  Just couldn't miss it.  You had to go past that display to get to another room.  Obviously I noticed it but I don't recall being awed.  It would be a few more years before I got my first piece (convention sketch)

This thread is kind of related to this one:

 

[zhamlau]

16 hours ago, batman_fan said:

For me it was when In was 12 and sent off for the San Mateo comic art catalog and saw the amazing OA in it.  A few years later I spent a fortune ($20) to order two pieces of art from them.  Long since sold off.

One of the few times you will hear the Donnellys brought up in a positive light on these boards lol.

[zhamlau]

I think it was like 86 or 87 Motor City Comic Con in Dearborn Michigan at the civic center. I had seen art before the few shows earlier but it was this time I ended up buying New Mutants 39 pages and some others from Keith Pollard for 5 dollars a piece. That was my start. I was only about 10 years old but soon after I started setting up selling at local Mike Goldman Motor City Conventions shows they had every month. I would usually buy any art that was offered at those shows as well.

It just sorta snowballed from there.

[CartoonFanboy]

I became aware of original comic art in the early 1990s thanks to (of all things) Wizard magazine. They talked about original art and Bart Sears had the Brutes and Babes column which would often times show original art for learning purposes.

My interest in owning art came about in the mid-90s when I saw a piece of OA up close for the first time at a small comic convention. It wasn't until the internet opened up the accessibility of OA in the late-90s however, that I finally got my first piece as a senior in college.