Do you “settle” for character drawn in other titles? 0

[KPR Comics]

I’m currently collecting pages of a title that had, like many others, various pencillers over the years, with the goal of collecting examples of as many of those pencillers as I feasibly can.  In some cases, a big name artist only worked on one issue so examples are hard to find or very pricey.   However, that artist may have pencilled the character I like but in a different title, for which pages go for much less.  I see having the “lesser” piece more as a placeholder, but second guess having it at all.  Just wondering what the OA guys think - are you ok with having the character by the artist but outside of the character’s title?

[BCarter27]

I'm in the "get the placeholder piece and upgrade it later because that may be all you can ever find" camp. We talk a lot about price here, but not as much about availability! It's a cruel mistress! (mister?)

[Brian Peck]

I collect characters but its more comes down to how much I like the page. So I don't do place holders. When it comes to getting a page from a story/issue I really love. I have bought a minor page from a favorite issue since access to better pages are hard to come by. Usually if I get a better page from that same book, I will keep the minor page.

[Rick2you2]

I buy to the character, no matter what the source. To me a comparison of different artistic styles is interesting, while creating continuity to the collection. Why pass up a nice piece of art which just happens to come from a different title? There were also some artists who wrote stories for the  Phantom Stranger books I don’t buy because I don’t like the style of art (or it is too expensive, a bad image, or some other reason)? Likewise, I also commission pieces with the character from different artists. Aside from a different style, I get to “write” the content by adding secondary characters, scenes or twists geared to the artist. In one case, for example, I asked a woman artist well-known for her advocacy of women’s issues and a subject of abuse in the industry do a female Phantom Stranger and selecting her own interpretation of what the character should look like.

[exitmusicblue]

Generally yes, I'm fine with it.  My only Bagley action page of a costumed Venom is from Ultimate Spider-Man.  While I'd prefer Lethal Protector or ASM, this has tided me over for years.

Edit: Until I picked up a couple pages from more recent Venom issues. :]

Edited May 24, 2019 by exitmusicblue

[T Shen]

On 5/22/2019 at 8:56 PM, BCarter27 said:

I'm in the "get the placeholder piece and upgrade it later because that may be all you can ever find" camp. We talk a lot about price here, but not as much about availability! It's a cruel mistress! (mister?)

My collection is mostly Hulk-centric and though most of my OA is from one of the various Hulk books, I have some that aren't just because I love the art. There's always room to trade/sell "up" but if you like the art, I say go for it. I agree, because we're dealing with one of a kind art, it may come down to the only thing that ever becomes available (for a long time at least).

[Pete Marino]

The time i can think that I've done this recently is I wanted an early Spider-Gwen page.  Robbi stuff from ESOV2 isn't "out there" that I've seen.  So I felt like the next best was a page by the guy who did the high value variant, plus one of her 1st half dozen issues in print.  So I grabbed 2 Greg Land pages from Spider-Woman and have not regretted it.

[Rick2you2]

What annoys me is how sellers don’t always list the characters on each page. I’m currently building my own list of all Phantom Stranger appearances, at least from the sources I don’t already know and may want. 

[Matches_Malone]

I do not consider it settling if the price tag is significantly  less.

Case in point JIM LEE's FIRST WAVE #6  cover currently up for auction.  The cover will sell for far less than a Batman or TEC book cover.  Nevertheless it's still a Jim Lee Batman. All Jim Lee for that matter , which is even  rarer.

[The Voord]

On 5/23/2019 at 9:56 AM, Rick2you2 said:

 In one case, for example, I asked a woman artist well-known for her advocacy of women’s issues and a subject of abuse in the industry do a female Phantom Stranger and selecting her own interpretation of what the character should look like.

Did you get the Phantom Stranger NUN?

[alxjhnsn]

My major theme is artists and the characters I most associate with them. I don't care which book as long as it's the desired artist/character combination.

[ESeffinga]

Back when I collected character work (Deadman), I bought work from titles I didn’t enjoy, just to get examples of that character drawn by artists that never worked on the character any other time. 

For instance I owned a Forever People page because I was able to add a published page with Deadman on it, drawn by Jack Kirby of all people. I had many such pages. And it was a collecting method that eventually wore thin for me.

I even had pages by some artists that I generally disliked and titles I was indifferent about, just to have more. Dan Jurgens for instance, did a number of Deadman stories in Action Comics Weekly. I had a few title pages of his. Thankfully all were cheap.

And then I had Deadman pages by other artists whole work I ether enjoyed, or at least appreciated. Guys like Alan Davis (The Nail), Jose Luis Garcia Lopez ( Deadman mini), Alex Ross (Kingdom Come), Ty Templeton (Gotham Adventures), etc.

Obviously I had things I loved as well. It was a character that didn’t have his own title, so he popped up here and there. Brave and the Bold Batman/Deadman pages from Neal Adams of course. Art from Kelley Jones’s first Deadman mini. Etc.

For me it became a case of trying to buy work from any artist that had touched the character. First the big ones, then ever and ever smaller appearances. Detective work and keeping my eyes open and tracking it down bit by bit.

Not a collecting method that really worked out for me in the end. I owned a whole lot of stuff that once I got over the “cool” factor of having all this work in once place, I realized I didn’t want to be a museum of Deadman, and I didn’t want it all over my house. I later shifted gears in my collecting. My collection got much more personal than me just liking a character, and most of that “themed” work is long gone, along with the many dozens of commissions, and the website I ran.

-e.

[vodou]

14 minutes ago, ESeffinga said:

I had many such pages. And it was a collecting method that eventually wore thin for me.

I had the same problem, slave to a certain form of nostalgia, for roughly my first decade collecting art. I ended up with so much art (hundreds of pieces) that only fulfilled one Purpose but were otherwise, dare I say...utter garbage?

Then I just dumped* that Purpose, broadened in many directions, and have never looked back   (j/k...we're all nostalgic fools here!)

 

*But not the art, much of which has now come into it's own weird nostalgic demand. It appears there will be a payoff after all for just tossing it all in a closet!

[Rick2you2]

6 hours ago, ESeffinga said:

Back when I collected character work (Deadman), I bought work from titles I didn’t enjoy, just to get examples of that character drawn by artists that never worked on the character any other time. 

For instance I owned a Forever People page because I was able to add a published page with Deadman on it, drawn by Jack Kirby of all people. I had many such pages. And it was a collecting method that eventually wore thin for me.

I even had pages by some artists that I generally disliked and titles I was indifferent about, just to have more. Dan Jurgens for instance, did a number of Deadman stories in Action Comics Weekly. I had a few title pages of his. Thankfully all were cheap.

And then I had Deadman pages by other artists whole work I ether enjoyed, or at least appreciated. Guys like Alan Davis (The Nail), Jose Luis Garcia Lopez ( Deadman mini), Alex Ross (Kingdom Come), Ty Templeton (Gotham Adventures), etc.

Obviously I had things I loved as well. It was a character that didn’t have his own title, so he popped up here and there. Brave and the Bold Batman/Deadman pages from Neal Adams of course. Art from Kelley Jones’s first Deadman mini. Etc.

For me it became a case of trying to buy work from any artist that had touched the character. First the big ones, then ever and ever smaller appearances. Detective work and keeping my eyes open and tracking it down bit by bit.

Not a collecting method that really worked out for me in the end. I owned a whole lot of stuff that once I got over the “cool” factor of having all this work in once place, I realized I didn’t want to be a museum of Deadman, and I didn’t want it all over my house. I later shifted gears in my collecting. My collection got much more personal than me just liking a character, and most of that “themed” work is long gone, along with the many dozens of commissions, and the website I ran.

-e.

While I primarily collect Phantom Stranger art, I haven’t been quite that diligent and have passed on quite a number of pages where I just don’t like either the art or artist. Likewise, I will sometimes buy other things. But, I really do like style comparisons, not just the total image,  and focusing on a single character also helps control my spending. You can’t buy what you can’t get. Some pieces have gotten “better” as I have aged; others have headed in the other direction. 

[Timely]

I would not say I was "settling" per se, but sometimes it just makes sense to go outside the mainstream title. For example, if this Romita Green Goblin cover were part of the regular ASM series it would have cost 4-5 times as much. And I don't love it any less!

 

[DeadpoolJr.]

Yes, sometimes buying a character you like that appeared in another title can save you money that otherwise would cost you a lot more for a page of the same quality if it was from their main title. Spider-man is a great example of that. Another reason is that it might be the only time the artist working on that title ever drew the character you like when they made an appearance in it. Having something like that is interesting.