Do You Still Have the First Comic Book OA Piece You Ever Got? 1 1

[BuraddoRun]

I know that a lot of us have an attachment to the first comic book we ever read, but is it the same with OA? I actually bought my 1st 2 pieces a little over 3 years ago on my birthday. I just wanted to own a piece of original comic book art from one of my favorite series and books. I decided to get 2. And between then and a few months ago I didn't buy anymore comic book art (I did get a few comic strips, though). Then this year, the bug just bit me, and I bought a few more pages, signed up here, opened a CAF gallery, and started really getting into it.

It's feels fresh still, and things may change in the future, but I don't think I'll ever trade or sell my first 2 pieces unless I leave the hobby or give them away to a younger family member. I do have that "first" attachment to them, on top of the attachment to the character and comic book. Of course, at the moment I want to keep all the pieces I have. But I know trading pieces is common in the hobby.

What was the first comic book OA you ever got? How and/or why did you get that piece? Do you still own it? Do you still enjoy looking at it after all this time?

[exitmusicblue]

Yup, this Ron Lim page from V:LP - https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1426997

And in fact, like our good OP here, I was very into regularly creating hopefully-insightful thread topics on these here OA boards.  Plenty boardies humored me back then... little did I know they were helping to dig the rabbit hole deeper.

[Rick2you2]

Sadly, my first OA is gone, but the story may entertain. The very first piece of art I bought was a Sunday section of the Phantom (NOT Phantom Stranger). I had seen an auction for illustration art in NYC advertised, and in the auction was the soft cover for a Spirit section newspaper insert (a good one, too, from around 1947). That interested me, so off I went.
 

Never having been to an auction before, I was curious what it felt like bidding. Before the Spirit section came up, the Phantom was offered. So, I put in a bid. No one else did afterward, so that became my first win. I also bid on and won the Spirit section.
 

Years later, a flood in my basement destroyed part of my little collection. The flood damaged the Phantom section and destroyed the Spirit. About 4-5 years ago, I gave away the Phantom section to another collector in a trade who thought he could get it restored. He had unloaded something on me he didn’t want, and which I still have, so I decided to reciprocate. I hope he had it fixed. It used to pretty nice.

[ESeffinga]

I do not. 
 

Back in late 1991 I went to one of the local comic book shows. The kind where every month the organizers would book a meeting room or ballroom or 2 in a hotel just outside DC. And so ever month or couple months, I would go into the room looking for comics.l, and occasionally an old toy or something fun. 
 

At this specific show though, I was looking at some comics on a wall and looked down at the dealer’s table. To his left, laying on the table was a nondescript low flat box with... original comic pages stacked in it. Not a lot. Maybe a few dozen or so. My mind was blown. I think many of us had this epiphany moment at some point. “You mean you can own the actual art pages?!?”

It was an instant connection for me. I was drawing incessantly myself. I was doing art in school, and just starting to work as a designer as well. So seeing someone else’s art work in the flesh was amazing on many levels. I had to have something. Flipped through the stack, and the only thing I recognized was a page from Shade the Changing Man by Colleen Doran. I hadn’t even read that issue yet. Just bought the page for a whopping $65. No one else at the show had any comic art. The internet hadn’t really kicked off yet, much less dealer sites. That was a long way off.
 

I took the page home like it was the Ark of the Covenant. Within the year I had it framed. I also started finding other art at the local shows. Bought from a dealer that I am pretty sure was Scott Dunbier, selling painted art from Jon Muth and Dave McKean at our local hotel shows. Then I discovered the print ads And want ad sections in Comic Buyers Guide, and started calling folks (cause that is how it was done), and I was off to the races. Many years later, in consolidating my collection, I looked at that Shade page and thought, artistically and story wise it wasn’t significant. It was massively significant in getting me started. A milestone. But I sold it, along with many other early purchases. I don’t miss it, but do think kindly of it.

[Twanj]

Sure do.

Ron Lim Silver Surfer #19

[Timely]

Here’s my first piece of OA, long gone! Mike Vosburg was my art teacher one semester at college, I think 1991. On the last day he brought in a stack of art and one by one gave out one piece to each student. 
 

Unfortunately there were about 30 students and I was about the 25th one called up, so my choices were very limited. I always wondered if that stack had some G.I. Joe pages in it before I got to it!

Edited August 29, 2020 by Timely

[Rick2you2]

48 minutes ago, Timely said:

Here’s my first piece of OA, long gone! Mike Vosburg was my art teacher one semester at college, I think 1991. On the last day he brought in a stack of art and one by one gave out one piece to each student. 
 

Unfortunately there were about 30 students and I was about the 25th one called up, so my choices were very limited. I always wondered if that stack had some G.I. Joe pages in it before I got to it!

Free is always good.

[thethedew]

Yup, a color guide, purchased in a misunderstanding long ago.

Managed to unite it with its parent page a few years back.

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=727909

[ADAMANTIUM]

Yes I do, and I'm only up to 2 pieces so the 1st is still here....

All I knew is that I wanted a "Detective Comics" page, preferably with the Bats, and I ended up with both Batman and Robin  

EDIT: bought it back in about 2017, and even have the Detective issue that you can see in the lower right! TEC #835  

Edited August 29, 2020 by ADAMANTIUM

[Benedict Judas Hel]

11 hours ago, BuraddoRun said:

What was the first comic book OA you ever got? How and/or why did you get that piece? Do you still own it? Do you still enjoy looking at it after all this time?

Since I am a new collector of OA (started last year) and am a hardcore “keeper” rather than a seller, you bet I still have the first piece I bought - 1973 Avengers # 114 p. 21:

 

And the piece framed:

I’m not sure what prompted me to begin collecting OA as I was mainly collecting toys, comics and video games before.  But since I pretty much collected almost any childhood interests, I guess it was only a natural progression from the comic book collecting.  Hopefully I will continue to add more excellent pieces to my gallery...

Edited August 29, 2020 by Benedict Judas Hel

[BuraddoRun]

2 hours ago, Benedict Judas Hel said:

And the piece framed:

I’m not sure what prompted me to begin collecting OA as I was mainly collecting toys, comics and video games before.  But since I pretty much collected almost any childhood interests, I guess it was only a natural progression from the comic book collecting.  Hopefully I will continue to add more excellent pieces to my gallery...

I really love that frame, with the art, the published page, and the book cover there together. I wouldn't do it personally (wouldn't want to tear up the comic), but it looks really nice. Unless those are copies or prints and you didn't have to disassemble Avengers # 114?

[Benedict Judas Hel]

41 minutes ago, BuraddoRun said:

I really love that frame, with the art, the published page, and the book cover there together. I wouldn't do it personally (wouldn't want to tear up the comic), but it looks really nice. Unless those are copies or prints and you didn't have to disassemble Avengers # 114?

Thank you very much, B-Run!  My framers do an excellent job which is why I keep going back to them.  And since I’m the type of person who likes uniformity in the displaying of OA, I have all of them with the same frame, matte, glass, etc.  The only thing I change is the color of the trim to match a dominant color in the printed page or cover.  Commissions  are different as I consider those wholly unique creations and individual expressions of the artist’s vision so each commission gets a unique frame that matches the art.

As for disassembling the comic, yes.  I do disassemble original comic books for framing purposes.  Fortunately, the OA I have acquired so far have not come from any “valuable” or rare comics so I don’t feel too bad in the process.  Also, when I look for a comic to display with the OA, I don’t really look for a pristine copy (9.8 CGC).  I just look for a decent copy (F or VF) to purchase as I know what I am going to do with it.  I haven’t spent more than $15 shipped on any comic book I used in my displays (in fact, Avengers #114 was the most expensive book I had to acquire at $14).

Edited August 29, 2020 by Benedict Judas Hel

[Carlo M]

Absolutely!  Two beautiful interiors from Jae Lee's run on Inhumas, and I was hooked forever.  I doubt I will ever part with these two pages

[Brian Peck]

First piece I ever received? No

In 1986 my father who was NOT a comic book fan bought Incredible Hulk #7 Annual page by John Byrne and Bob Layton. Which got me collecting comic art. 25 years later someone was trying to put the book together and offered me a Byrne X-Men #112 With Magneto fighting Phoenix and Cyclops. I ended up trading away my first page (and cash). Though later in the year at SDCC, Anthony was breaking up X-Men #8 Kirby, and offered me the page I had been inquiring about for year. So I sold the X-Men page and unded up with a X-Men #8 and #16 (Kirby layouts). I was sad to see it go but ended up with a page from X-Men #8 first X-Men book I ever read.

As for the first page I bought. Yes I still own it, X-Men #160 Brent Anderson and Bob Wiacek from Donnelleys at Wonder Con 1987 (its first year).

 

 

 

[Ecclectica]

For me, it was a Gene Colan page from "Tomb of Dracula", bought 25 years ago, more or less.

I still have it, still love it and apply today the same view I had at this beginning of my collection regarding the acquisition of a new piece of art : questionning deeply myself if I would keep it forever, and buying it only if the response is "yes".

[alxjhnsn]

Yes, I still own it. It's my favorite character by my favorite artist and was bought with money that my grandmother left as an inheritance. It's not going anywhere. Full story on the CAF description, just click on the image.

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by alxjhnsn

[Skizz]

 

On 8/29/2020 at 6:40 AM, BuraddoRun said:

What was the first comic book OA you ever got? How and/or why did you get that piece? Do you still own it? Do you still enjoy looking at it after all this time?

This is very first page of comic art I ever bought (or even saw in person). Picked it up at a local comic mart in Birmingham UK for a mere £10. Although it didn’t lead me to collecting OA (that bug came later), this piece of unpublished art from Marvel UK’s Deaths Head II by Salvador Larocca has been on display on my wall for nearly a decade now. 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Skizz

[dichotomy]

As a new collector, absolutely! I was reading Yale Stewart’s JL8 online and then he started posting some pieces for auction on eBay. He did a Zatanna I really liked but lost out on, and then when this piece came up I made sure to snag it. It didn’t kickstart my collecting though because the strip and art are still outside mainstream comics for the most part. But paying for it helped me absorb prices at my first con, which resulted in some spectacular pieces that I might have balked paying for had I not been indoctrinated with this piece. I have the original in my den, and a color print that Yale sent hangs in my son’s room. 

[MagnusX]

Yes I still have THEM...
It is a 5 page complete Archie story:
Archie's Pals 'n' Gals # 183 "Two for one"
Published September 1986
by Stan Goldberg.

2014 was the year I begin buying published OA.

[Bronty]

The very first piece of art I ever got was probably a sketch on the back of a backing board.   I don’t have that.   The first published art I bought in the early 90s was a Vigil page from Omen.  I didn’t have the money to keep that through college and so on either.  
 

Next pieces of art were three paintings used on the covers of Nintendo games that I bought in a single purchase in 2008 or so.   Still have all three of those and it would be difficult to sell any of them because I still like them and because they were my first pieces from my ‘real’ beginning in collecting art. 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Bronty