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Your Predictions Please
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132 posts in this topic

30 minutes ago, Stan Singh said:

My assertion was that, like some rock stars, some comic artists' impact will live on long after their generations because they have surpassed their mediums to become icons. So while the exercise below is ridiculous, and I'm neither an OA or music expert, here are my comparisons for comic artists who's popularity and impact will live long past when the medium they used falls out of the popular culture. I see these artists, like these musicians retaining popularity or even experiencing huge resurgences in popularity over many generations to come. 

Miller= J. Cash

McFarlane=Jagger

Adams= Clapton

Romita=McCartney

Ditko=Hendrix

Kirby=Elvis

Frazetta=Bowie

You may lol now ;)

 

Also just noticed all of the musicians in your example are either dead or well into their 70’s...was this intentional?

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Just now, jjonahjameson11 said:

Also just noticed all of the musicians in your example are either dead or well into their 70’s...was this intentional?

Yep. Was trying to emphasize that icon status is ageless and used aged rock stars as the metaphor.  

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3 hours ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

This is truly difficult to predict as Millennials and Gen Z’a don’t read.  They play video games and watch you tube, Netflix, etc.  

If they show any interest in comic art, i think it would be based on TV and video games.

by the way, I’m sure we’ve already noticed HA and Clink offering graded video games and Magic/Pokemon cards for sale in their comics and oa Auctions...

Hey now! I read real good.

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TL;DR - I expect prices for pieces of some significance to continue to find new highs as long as Marvel and others remain integral parts of popular culture and new and larger generations of interest gain buying power. I don't expect Marvel or other brands to lose favor anytime in the foreseeable future. I believe this will also apply to other fantasy and sci-fi pop art including Frazetta, Magic: the Gathering, etc.

The pessimism in the comic and art communities is really surprising to me. I think we discount just how much pop culture (superheroes especially) has ingrained itself in the global zeitgeist. Marvel has been around for 80 years, has never been more popular, and is raising all new generations to love their brand. Discounting any global catastrophe, Spider-Man et al are likely to outlive every human alive right now. Based on some of the cynicism around age I have seen in the art community, I suspect I'm on the younger side of this hobby. I think that cynicism grossly discounts the astronomical amount of buying power that is going to enter the market as younger generations age and build wealth.

Comic art clearly requires comic books to exist and I've seen a fair bit of pessimism around that as well.. I'm not as up to speed on the statistics as I'd like to be, but I'd challenge anyone trumpeting the death of comic books as to whether it's the art form that's dying or the way in which it's delivered. The truth, in my opinion, is that the printed comic book commercial model is antiquated and inaccessible due to both the physical inefficiency of the format and the cost per minute of entertainment it delivers. Due to technology and a reinvigorated interest in the genre, I expect we will see a seismic shift over the next decade in how this content is delivered. I expect comic books as an artform to increase drastically in popularity over the next decade as commercial models are reinvented to meet our entertainment expectations.

There is a risk that the future increase in prominence of digital media reframes society's valuation of physical media and drives down the price of comic art. If I had to hazard a guess though, I believe the significance of comic art as artifacts of the origins of the medium through which cultural icons were conceived, its one-of-a-kind nature, and the inherent impermanence of physical media versus digital (i.e,; physical media can be destroyed or damaged) will cement significant comic art as one of the utmost premium collectibles for pop culture enthusiasts (of which there will be many more than there are now).

Edit: I want to clarify that I don't see much pessimism in this thread, but I see/hear a lot of pessimism about comics/art in general.

Edited by Varanis
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As I mentioned earlier, I suspect that some types of currently unfashionable art will one day be more collectible and desirable because they require no particular knowledge of the hobby to enjoy it. By way of example, this is a page which I spotted on Comic Art Tracker, and in my opinion, it is hoot. You can show the average person a Kirby fight scene, and they will probably consider it as no different than any other fight scene. This one, however, my gf really liked. Let me add that art with word balloons are likely to have more value than ones without them, all things being equal, because you can enjoy the content.

young%20romance%20179p1%20splash%201972%20%20%20300.jpg

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16 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

I think people are going to have to name names and specific books and runs when making predictions like this.  I used to think I knew what run of the mill and mediocre meant in the past, but there are big fans who swoon over said mediocre material now and with big price points attached to boot.  Without clarification, general predictions like this won't mean much.

You mean like John Buscema? :kidaround:

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2 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

As I mentioned earlier, I suspect that some types of currently unfashionable art will one day be more collectible and desirable because they require no particular knowledge of the hobby to enjoy it. By way of example, this is a page which I spotted on Comic Art Tracker, and in my opinion, it is hoot. You can show the average person a Kirby fight scene, and they will probably consider it as no different than any other fight scene. This one, however, my gf really liked. Let me add that art with word balloons are likely to have more value than ones without them, all things being equal, because you can enjoy the content.

young%20romance%20179p1%20splash%201972%20%20%20300.jpg

I put this type of thing in my survey response as well. 

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2 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

As I mentioned earlier, I suspect that some types of currently unfashionable art will one day be more collectible and desirable because they require no particular knowledge of the hobby to enjoy it. By way of example, this is a page which I spotted on Comic Art Tracker, and in my opinion, it is hoot. You can show the average person a Kirby fight scene, and they will probably consider it as no different than any other fight scene. This one, however, my gf really liked. Let me add that art with word balloons are likely to have more value than ones without them, all things being equal, because you can enjoy the content.

young%20romance%20179p1%20splash%201972%20%20%20300.jpg

I could see this piece having crossover appeal...up to about $150. :fear:

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I've seen Elvis mentioned a number of times as being 'iconic'... but correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no collector, but hasn't Elvis memorabilia fallen off a cliff? Maybe that isn't a great example if so.

Edited by SquareChaos
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1 hour ago, delekkerste said:

I could see this piece having crossover appeal...up to about $150. :fear:

I have my share of DC romance art and I wouldn't buy it for $150. 

For Win Mortimer/Vince Colletta art, I'd hold out.  And if one or more pieces of the paste-on art falls off, even Rick's wife may totally lose interest.

And I think your point is the OA market is not going to be supported by $150 pieces.

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9 hours ago, delekkerste said:

I could see this piece having crossover appeal...up to about $150. :fear:

I think you are undevaluing it for the future. It is a walking, talking exaggeration of 1970's pop culture, but unintentional. In my view, it has all the underlying appeal of a Roy Lichtenstein, without the color or the actual artist and a helluva lot cheaper. As someone who lived it, I think the piece is funny. Not all Romance art is in that category, by the way.

When the 1970's enjoys a popularity reboot (like it did about 15 years ago), this will be appreciated when superhero's are considered stale.

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8 hours ago, Will_K said:

I have my share of DC romance art and I wouldn't buy it for $150. 

For Win Mortimer/Vince Colletta art, I'd hold out.  And if one or more pieces of the paste-on art falls off, even Rick's wife may totally lose interest.

And I think your point is the OA market is not going to be supported by $150 pieces.

I don't think in 20 years you will be seeing much of an OA market with buying and selling at the current high price level. Instead the market will hollow out with some stars, at the top, a dead middle, and most buying and selling at the lower end. Notice how General Motors kept Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet, but killed the Pontiac and Oldsmobile? Same situation--the low priced stuff always has a market somewhere, and GM hoped the high end would, too. Similar situation in the market with department stores (prior to their most recent collapse. Look at which ones have gone out of business--remember Gimbels?

You will notice I didn't mention the actual artist of the piece. For this kind of art, I don't think it matters as much as the scene itself. The scene stealer is the dialog, not the art. I love it.

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1 hour ago, Rick2you2 said:

I think you are undevaluing it for the future. It is a walking, talking exaggeration of 1970's pop culture, but unintentional. In my view, it has all the underlying appeal of a Roy Lichtenstein, without the color or the actual artist and a helluva lot cheaper. As someone who lived it, I think the piece is funny. Not all Romance art is in that category, by the way.

When the 1970's enjoys a popularity reboot (like it did about 15 years ago), this will be appreciated when superhero's are considered stale.

I think it's a cool piece too, but, why would anyone think to pay up for it, either now or in the future?  Anyone into comic art will see this for what it is - generic genre art from the period. Superheroes will never become so stale that nondescript character art is going to be more popular than the IP which the medium is best known for. 

And as for crossover appeal, how would anyone even think to seek something like this out in the future? And to the extent that anyone does come across it, it's not going to have any of the appeal of a Lichtenstein to someone who collects fine art - or, do you think that these people will come for comic art the future (and, if so, why would they come for romance art, which is like the red-headed stepchild of our hobby?) I don't see its universal genericism being a big draw; it's not like being broadly relatable is helping it at all now. At best, it has less air to come out of it than hero art, but, I don't see where a resurgence of demand for this material is ever going to come from. A '70s comeback? Sure. A '70s romance art comeback? Doubtful. 2c

Edited by delekkerste
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1 hour ago, Rick2you2 said:

When the 1970's enjoys a popularity reboot (like it did about 15 years ago), 

Not holding my breath for that, nor the same for the 1930s ;)

Total cultural period reboots only happen once. The 1980s ain't coming back again either.

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To add my 2c, you feel like there’s a lot there for your money so you figure it will be in demand.   

In my experience, price doesn’t drive demand for the most part.    Demand drives price.     In other words, for the most part people want they want and pay they have to in order to get it, rather than changing what they want.  

That doesn’t bode well for this type of material.   If it was ever going to get hot, it would have been hot already.

Edited by Bronty
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27 minutes ago, Bronty said:

it would have been hot already.

It was. Early oughts when it ran up from $5/page to $75/page. Now they sit for $150 unless by Jay Scott Pike, John Rosenberger, Romita, Colan, Kirby...which aside from the first two has more to do with cheap entry for big names. The first two names are girlie artists (and Romita too, let's be honest), same as  Dave Sevens, Ward, et al. That's the draw "girlie genre" not "romance".

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38 minutes ago, Bronty said:

To add my 2c, you feel like there’s a lot there for your money so you figure it will be in demand.   

In my experience, price doesn’t drive demand for the most part.    Demand drives price.     In other words, for the most part people want they want and pay they have to in order to get it, rather than changing what they want.  

That doesn’t bode well for this type of material.   If it was ever going to get hot, it would have been hot already.

I agree; no one is going to seek this material out just because it looks like good relative value.  This is art you buy because you collect comic art already, and you wouldn't mind owning something you like at such a cheap price, not because it's ever going to see a resurgence in demand.  

I used to own a few really nice twice-up Modeling with Millie pages by Stan Goldberg.  Bought them for $20 each in the mid-2000s and sold them for $50 each about 5 years ago just as a curation move for my collection (when I started to get more focused).  In hindsight, I wish I'd kept them, because they are fun/cool, and worth more than $50 each to me.  They are certainly good value for money - twice-up Marvel art with well-drawn, relatable content and pretty ladies!  But, it's simply never going to have crossover appeal to fine art or fashion or even as a cheap home decor alternative.  It will always just be part of a neglected little corner of our hobby, selling for whatever one considers to be a cheap price (depending on the purchasing power of the dollar) at any given point in time. :sorry: 

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5 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

I wish I'd kept them, because they are fun/cool, and worth more than $50 each to me.  They are certainly good value for money -

This is why they could see a slight increase. They are impulse buy territory, good price for gifts from wives and girlfriends to their comic loving men. People might see them while browsing at a con and bang, sold. Their low value is why they have room to grow, it isn't an investment just a fun buy on a day out. It isn't about crossover appeal. I think generic GA art could also see slight increase in demand and therefore price.

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