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Comic Books to Comic Art... but now....
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39 posts in this topic

The ape asked for more discussion/topics, so here goes.... 

 

Where are you at? I was just about all out on comics book buying when I got hooked on comic art. In recent years my comic art buying has trailed off, now it seems like my interest in comic books is rekindled. I’ve been picking up a collectible back issue here and there.

I find I really enjoy the affordable little rush in added random semi key issue. I’m still a Marvel guy, but I have to admit if I see a old early JLA I just might buy it. 

Where are you in your collecting, any shift of focus?

 

I heard the Ape is selling all his bananas and moving into plantains. He wants out before the generational shift!

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I started collecting Comic art in 1986 and started to cut bak on my comic book reading in the mid 90s and pretty much all together in 2000s after Morrison up the X-Men. At that point too many comic fans starting writing and everything went down hill. I ended up just buying select comics by artist I liked or the occational series like Rocketeer Adventures. With COVID I pretty much stopped cold turkey havent been in a comic shop in 7 months. I rarely but any modern comic art since it lacks dialog balloons and many are digital.

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I was a comic book guy. Growing up in New York in the seventies. My brother and I bought everything we could get our hands on.

I started going after bigger fish when I became an earner in the 90’s. ASM 1 FF1 TOS 39

For whatever reason AF 15 eluded me. I even had a Sub Mariner 1 from the Golden Age. Over the years I sold them all. But I have runs of all my favorite reader books.

1996 SDDC John Romita Sr. and Golden Age Flash Harry Lampert cemented my commitment to original comic art.

I still toy with the idea of reclaiming a few slabbed classic books. But I probably won’t. Art has me hooked.

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With the cost of artists I collect (Byrne, Miller, McFarlane) generally climbing beyond my budget, I have turned my interests 3 ways to maximize the number of packages I get to open:

1. Mondo posters and Concert Gig posters. They're pretty standard size, so I've got frames for them and I can swap them in and out throughout the year to freshen up the rooms they hang in. 

2. Silver age Marvel Reader Copies. FF, JIM, ASM...nothing like the smell of 50 year old paper. It makes me happy. I can pick up fun books I'd never read for like $10-20 bucks apiece.

3. Sketchbook pinups. In 2020 I've gotten great drawings from Byrne, Kevin Eastman, Bruce Timm and Art Adams. They're not a published UXM page, but they scratch the itch.

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4 minutes ago, J.Sid said:2. Silver age Marvel Reader Copies. FF, JIM, ASM...nothing like the smell of 50 year old paper. It makes me happy. I can pick up fun books I'd never read for like $10-20 bucks apiece.

 

I hear ya... $20 is a good target for my comic books purchases. I will sometimes drift north of that but I really don’t mind the lesser condition copies. There’s a certain charm to a well read comic!

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I donated (gave away to a non-profit) about 1/3 to 1/2 of my comics a few years ago (mostly my pull list).  I still have about 30 short boxes (about 1/2 is pull list).  Should probably slab the best ones and sell all of them.  Not sure if I'll ever be able to read all of them "one last time". 

I know a lot of people credit their parents with encouraging their comics hobby.  Somewhere, there's an old picture of a very young me with something that looks like an open Batman comic (lots of blue).  Otherwise, my father definitely did not like that I collected comics.  Or rather, that I spent $$$ on comics.  A long time ago, he asked me if I had to actually PAY to store my comics, would it be worth it ??  My answer was something like "probably not".  Years later, this was borne out by the fact that I just gave away so many of them.  I think back on if I had spent the same $$$ on original art (or even con sketches) as I did on those comics, would it be worth it??  I think for sure it would've been worth it.  I definitely wouldn't have just given away a stack of comic art.  In the end, I got a receipt for my donations (e.g. "received 10 boxes of comics").  For tax purposes, I asked my tax preparer to just give me whatever tax deduction I could get without having to declare values on every individual comic.  On the flip side, I think whatever $$$ was spent on comics... that basically kept me out of trouble and doing something stupid, so there's that.

In the last 2 years or so, I've gotten mostly CGC 9.8s and some CGC 9.6s of particular comics.  Around 20 total, so far.  I'll stop at around 30.  Definitely stop by 50.  They take up SO.  MUCH.  ROOM.

Recently, I've been supporting some Kickstarters for collected issues (physical copies).  I've got a handful (armful) of IDW Artist Editions (or similar). 

 

Edited by Will_K
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Good topic. 
 

My collection habits have been all over the place. 
 

I used to buy raws only, in near mint condition, and get them signed by the creative team. I would get really into it and get paint pens, all sorts of colours, you name it. I got up to several thousand books. 
 

Then I realized that they were near impossible to flip and resell.  Most people would question the condition or authenticity of the signatures. I get it. But that wasn’t why I was collecting them, and the difficulty selling them really soured my collecting experience. 
 

It took me about 6 or 7 years to off load them all, at a loss I’m sure. 
 

Since then I only bought CGC SS slabs. But only a very small few, as I’ve found that my feelings for buying comics have really been soured. The rush and excitement I got buying books was tainted and only buying super rare slabs has helped. 
 

Now I’m trying to get in the OA world, but I’m trying to learn from my collecting mistakes so I’ve taken a lot of time trying to figure out my next steps. 

Edited by D2
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I would like to order more commissions since they create custom art while supporting the artist more than buying a tenth hand 1970s page does.  But the knowledge that they depreciate is a definite disincentive. Likewise for buying existing secondhand commissions with that added concern of forgery. (Having already been burned on a Kirby forgery last year)

So published pages it is, mostly. I have never been interested in collecting books that musn’t be read.

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I was comics first, then both, then primarily art, and now back to both but generally spend more on art and art purchases are more carefully considered - whereas comics provide more opportunities for impulse buys.  I do agree slabs take up a lot of room but I buy both slabs and raw.

 

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I started collecting comics in 1976.  Mostly off the news stand, used bookstores, friends, etc.  

Discover Robert Bell and did mail order, entirely Marvel Silver and Bronze aged books.  

Picked up my first page of original art in the 1980s but never felt I could afford to buy really cool stuff.  

I started to pick up older stuff finally ending up chasing Golden Age comics through the 80s to present.  

Started buying cheaper OA in 2000 and just slowly increased the max I paid per piece.  Quickly decided to buy mostly splashes and covers

Became obsessed with Charles Schulz Peanuts original art in 2016 and scored my first piece in 2018 after losing out on several pieces.

Now Charles Schulz artwork is my main focus.  I still pick up a few graded comics but have start selling off my dupes and stuff I don't really have an interest in.  I have about 10,000 comics I am trying to sell off over the next several years.

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Like probably most of us I started collecting comic books and gradually shifted all my spending power on OA.  In comic collecting I unfortunately missed the grading wave, so I ended up with a decent late silver age and bronze age collection, relatively high grade on average but unslabbed.  I am tempted going back buying some slabbed comics whose covers I really like, especially for the colours (XM 50 and Avengers 57 come to mind).  But I get discouraged by the cost to get a high grade example.  For those kind of books we are talking 1000 dollars at least, and at that price level I can get a good contemporary OA page and several average bronze age pages.  But eventually I am sure I will go back to buying some CGC comics.

Edited by Carlo M
Typo
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12 hours ago, Drummy said:

I've been going back and forth on this topic for fifteen years.  I was all in on the Marvel SA keys, then almost all in on Bronze age Marvel superhero art, then -- when prices started going way up between 2010-2014, I sold the art and went back to the keys thinking they would be cheaper in the long run (which has surprisingly proven true despite the MCU and other bumps).

Now, though, I have 16 of the 22 books I really want to own/display, so I'm looking at a few art pages again on the side.  Once my grail books are all in hand, I figure I'll keep going with collecting the art so long as it's semi-affordable and a nostalgic joy.

My latest pick-up is below for any Sal Hulk fans out there, from issue #208!

Dan

 

Hulk 208 p 7.jpeg

Nice snag Dan, you were quick on this one and I was slow. Congrats!

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I am firmly planted in the art camp at this time. I pick up an occasional comic, reader key maybe or something that hits a nostalgic spot, or maybe to fill out a run ... but no big expenditures. Moving soon and will have considerably more room to explore the comic collection that has been packed away in long boxes for a decade or more. I keep telling myself that I will go through it and pull the nice books to grade and trade off (read: grade, sell, buy art with proceeds). Time will tell if and when I do this but for now, they sit.

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13 hours ago, D2 said:

Good topic. 
 

My collection habits have been all over the place. 
 

I used to buy raws only, in near mint condition, and get them signed by the creative team. I would get really into it and get paint pens, all sorts of colours, you name it. I got up to several thousand books. 
 

Then I realized that they were near impossible to flip and resell.  Most people would question the condition or authenticity of the signatures. I get it. But that wasn’t why I was collecting them, and the difficulty selling them really soured my collecting experience. 
 

It took me about 6 or 7 years to off load them all, at a loss I’m sure. 
 

Since then I only bought CGC SS slabs. But only a very small few, as I’ve found that my feelings for buying comics have really been soured. The rush and excitement I got buying books was tainted and only buying super rare slabs has helped. 
 

Now I’m trying to get in the OA world, but I’m trying to learn from my collecting mistakes so I’ve taken a lot of time trying to figure out my next steps. 

Ha! ....There is a big thread around here somewhere about the 'dos' and 'don'ts' of getting your OA signed by the artist

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