Collecting original art.
This wasn’t something I thought about doing until I got into making comics. And in the beginning I focused on pieces from books that I wrote. I even took the time to get the pages framed professionally. I have pieces by Walter McDaniel, Tim Vigil, Kieron Dwyer, Steve Ellis, Tone Rodriguez and others. They cover a wall in my office and I really enjoy looking at them.
This was all well and good until I started talking to Steve Niles about his collection. Suddenly I’m out on eBay looking at all the original art pages and I end up bidding. The sad thing is I only started buying original art in September of 2004 and I already can’t remember the first piece I bought. I’m pretty certain it was a 3 pack deal of Gary Frank pages from Supreme Power but I can’t swear to that.
In the first year I became obsessed. I bought a portfolio to display them in and quickly filled up one so I had to buy a second. I got pages from Darrick Robertson, Bernie Wrightson, Ashley Wood, Keith Giffen, John Byrne, J. Scott Campbell and Phil Hester. At Wizard World Los Angeles last year I got into the big poker tournament and won; and with that money I bought two Jim Lee pages. In other words… I REALLY like original art.
Now I was trying to figure out why. I think its knowing that not only do you own something original, one-of-a-kind but also the knowledge that thousands of others have looked at a print of this but only you can say you own it. I can flip through my trades of Hush or Forever Tomorrow and find the piece of art history that I’m in possession of. And as history shows, the value of the pages continues to go up… so they are an investment into your future (or at least that’s what I tell my wife).
Now the problem I have is that I still have that urge to frame and hang up the art; but I now own over 60 pages. I couldn’t afford to frame all of the pieces and I know I don’t have the wall space to hang them. So I have my two portfolio books full of these little treasures and I still spend time looking out on eBay for my next acquisition. Now I’m not buying at quite the pace I was that first year… I think I dropped about $5,000 on pages in under twelve months… but now I look out there for a good bargain on pages for an artist I really like.
I still want to find a Jack Kirby page, something from Gil Kane and a page from Captain America 195 by Frank Springer would be awesome… as it’s the first comic I ever read.
There’s also something extra special about buying the page directly from the artist. I bought a Defenders page from Erik Larsen while at Wondercon and a Cuda cover from Tim Vigil at Wizard World. Though it was through eBay I just got a Grim Jack page directly from Tim Truman, which is very cool. There is just something special about owning a piece of art history and I highly recommend it to everyone… but be careful, it can be addictive.
This wasn’t something I thought about doing until I got into making comics. And in the beginning I focused on pieces from books that I wrote. I even took the time to get the pages framed professionally. I have pieces by Walter McDaniel, Tim Vigil, Kieron Dwyer, Steve Ellis, Tone Rodriguez and others. They cover a wall in my office and I really enjoy looking at them.
This was all well and good until I started talking to Steve Niles about his collection. Suddenly I’m out on eBay looking at all the original art pages and I end up bidding. The sad thing is I only started buying original art in September of 2004 and I already can’t remember the first piece I bought. I’m pretty certain it was a 3 pack deal of Gary Frank pages from Supreme Power but I can’t swear to that.
In the first year I became obsessed. I bought a portfolio to display them in and quickly filled up one so I had to buy a second. I got pages from Darrick Robertson, Bernie Wrightson, Ashley Wood, Keith Giffen, John Byrne, J. Scott Campbell and Phil Hester. At Wizard World Los Angeles last year I got into the big poker tournament and won; and with that money I bought two Jim Lee pages. In other words… I REALLY like original art.
Now I was trying to figure out why. I think its knowing that not only do you own something original, one-of-a-kind but also the knowledge that thousands of others have looked at a print of this but only you can say you own it. I can flip through my trades of Hush or Forever Tomorrow and find the piece of art history that I’m in possession of. And as history shows, the value of the pages continues to go up… so they are an investment into your future (or at least that’s what I tell my wife).
Now the problem I have is that I still have that urge to frame and hang up the art; but I now own over 60 pages. I couldn’t afford to frame all of the pieces and I know I don’t have the wall space to hang them. So I have my two portfolio books full of these little treasures and I still spend time looking out on eBay for my next acquisition. Now I’m not buying at quite the pace I was that first year… I think I dropped about $5,000 on pages in under twelve months… but now I look out there for a good bargain on pages for an artist I really like.
I still want to find a Jack Kirby page, something from Gil Kane and a page from Captain America 195 by Frank Springer would be awesome… as it’s the first comic I ever read.
There’s also something extra special about buying the page directly from the artist. I bought a Defenders page from Erik Larsen while at Wondercon and a Cuda cover from Tim Vigil at Wizard World. Though it was through eBay I just got a Grim Jack page directly from Tim Truman, which is very cool. There is just something special about owning a piece of art history and I highly recommend it to everyone… but be careful, it can be addictive.
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