Redartz: 2020 has been a remarkable year, in many ways. Remarkable, challenging, memorable, inconvenient, historic, odd, you name it. We all will remember this year for many reasons, both societal and personal.
One personal aspect of this strange year for me: it's the first year since 2006 in which I'll not be attending a comic book convention. Considering all that's going on, that's not really a big deal; obviously. Nonetheless, missing out on all the great aspects of a convention is a disappointment. There have been online 'virtual conventions', a couple of which I've checked out. They have been interesting, but it certainly isn't the same as attending a show in person.
Therefore, for me and for any of you who also miss the Con experience this year, we are having our own 'BiTBA Con' today. How, you may ask, is this to work? Read on, friends, and see.
There are four basic activities I love about attending a comic convention. Meeting creators, seeing displays of artwork, getting to know other comics fans, and (of course) hitting the dealer's room. Incidentally, I also like seeing the cosplayers, but that's out of my capabilities for now.
Anyway, we will sort of simulate these four activities as our topic this week. To wit:
1. Meeting Creators- leads to our question . At our 'virtual convention', we can offer the chance to meet any of our favorite Silver/Bronze age comics pros. So, given the chance, what one creator (alive or not is immaterial) will you choose to meet, and what will you ask them about?
2. Seeing Artwork- I hereby present a limited, but (I hope) enjoyable selection of original art pages for your perusal.
3. Getting to know other comics fans- okay, here we will share a little about ourselves, for the benefit of those who may not know or are newer to our group. Just pretend we're standing in line at the snack bar and decide to chat a bit.
4. Hitting the Dealer's Room- this means one more question for you. As times are tough financially for many this year, our funds are limited. However, each of us has somehow found 100 dollars (or the UK equivalent in Pounds) to spend as we like. What will you select?
To get the show going, I'll start off...
1. My creator: Will Eisner. I've admired his work since first seeing it in those great Warren magazines in the 70's. Later I learned just how huge a shadow he casts in the history of the comics medium. I would ask him what he thinks of comics today as published, digitally vs. print, and what he thinks is a realistic future for the medium.
3. A bit about myself: I've been reading comics for 53 years now, amazingly. I just love the medium and all it's genres; humor, horror, heroes, the whole works. And there are always new (and undiscovered old) comics to be found and appreciated. Spidey is my top favorite character, but I also love Archie, Sugar and Spike, the Spirit, Batman and the Avengers. Oh, and Neil the Horse. And my wife is great, totally understanding and supportive of my hobby. She always helps search at those flea markets we frequent...
4. With my 100 dollars, I'll try to pick up a sketch from one of the artists. They all are here, so I'll pick a Spidey sketch from John Romita. And expect to pay about 50 dollars for it. With my remaining fifty, I'll try to hunt down a couple issues missing from my "Sugar and Spike" run, and finish off with a few Marvel and DC horror anthologies (my latest craze, "Tower of Shadows", "House of Mystery", and so on).
Okay, that about covers my 'day at the convention'. I'll stand here and eat my overpriced hot dog while you all share your convention experience!
23 comments:
You decided against attending Trumpcon '20 in North Carolina then Redartz?
Sorry - I know thats a completely inappropriate comment, but I just couldn't help myself (;
Yes, it is disappointing, as I'd intended to go to Thought Bubble in Leeds again later this year. Still, its not the end of the world is it? (I hope not anyway)
A few pleasant memories:
The pleasure of meeting Howard Chaykin in London (what a charming human being he is), chatting with the late Berni Wrightson while he signed my Frankenstein hardback, and the mighty John M. Burns putting up with me looking through all the amazing full colour artwork he had with him one year in Bristol, even though he knew full well I couldn't afford to buy any of it.
-sean
I'd probably want to meet Mike Grell or Ron Randall (or maybe George Perez, as he's given up Con appearances).
My comics reading career started in the late 70s with Marvel and DC, but I eventually dropped DC and went full Marvel. Now I've come full circle and have been reading only Bronze Age DC for the last few years.
As for what I'd buy, I dunno ... I'd have to see what was available before I could decide. But a hundred bucks doesn't go very far these days, so I might not get as much as I'd like :)
Well, I haven't gone to a comic con since '77 so why not start again with this one!
Who to meet? Byrne is my favorite but I'd be too tongue tied. So Stan "The Man" Lee would be my choice, mainly because I know he could easily carry the conversation, and so many anecdotes.
I started reading comics in early '75, Atlas, Marvel and DC equally. I was done buying off the rack in late '80 but the art always stayed with me. The last few years I've been buying original art or getting commissions from those same artists from my reading days.
$100 bucks, I'll go with what you say about $50 a sketch. I've got some Byrne stuff already so I'll go with a Adams Superman and a Kirby Captain America.
Red, Red, RED, what are ya trying to DO to me here? I’m still recovering from LAST week’s challenge! Don’t you realize I have things to do this week? I can’t be spending hours and hours hanging out in your virtual con...
Really, I can’t. No sir.
Nope.
...
...
...
Well... MAAAAYYY-be...if I do just one activity at a time...
So, what am I gonna buy with my hundred bucks...especially at those ‘vintage’ prices...but that just makes the challenge harder....Red, you sadist, you...
My big thing at shows is still back issues. But I got plenty of those already. I never can resist $1 boxes tho, so if I can find some good deals in a QUARTER bin, maybe I’ll get some older comics.
Wait! I got it!
A buddy of mine told me about this little statue that Jeff Jones had sculpted, that he’d sell plaster castings of at conventions for about 20 bucks apiece back in 1970. Buddy said he couldn’t afford it at the time and has been kicking himself ever since. A few years ago, I found pics of it online and it’s pretty great. Supposedly rarer than hen’s teeth these days too. So im’a totally get me one of those. There are some good pix at Comicartfans, if anyone’s interested. Search for ‘Jeff Jones Young Woman Statue ‘. It’s lovely.
And here is a kicking myself’ story of my very own:
There’s this guy at the San Diego show that always has a big pile of vintage model kits. About ten years ago he had a bunch of the Glow in the Dark Aurora Monster kits in the square boxes (those are the ones I had as a kid) and in really nice condition too. They were going for about 50 bucks apiece, which was more than I wanted to pay at the time. Checked out his booth last year, he still has ‘em, they still look gorgeous, but they’re going for about THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS each! So now, I’m REALLY coveting those suckers. And I coulda gotten the four main ones (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf Man and Mummy) for a measly $200 bucks. What the hell was i thinking? AAARRRGHHH!
Well, now at least I can get ONE of ‘em for 50 bucks ; after the $20 Jones statue, I don’t have enough to get two. But which one do I get? Frankenstein is my fave... but that Wolf Man box art looks really great too... and Dracula was the first one I ever got... but then again...no wait, maybe I should...um...
Tell the truth, Red. You’re actually Satan, aren’t you?
b.t.
Tough, isn't it? When spending money at cons, my problem is what my mate calls "option paralysis" - with so much stuff to decide from, I frequently get nothing.
So my £76 - thanks Red, thats pretty good at the current exchange rate (the other way round, if I was going to the US and changing pounds to dollars, not so much!) - would probably go in the bar!
-sean
1) Oh, first choice here would be Herb Trimpe. . . ESPECIALLY because he passed away just a couple of days after I saw he was on the (early) guest list for the '15 Baltimore Comicon--which I believe he attended regularly. I kept having this "maybe next year" attitude when it came down to making the decision. . . and boy do I regret that reflexive delaying-mechanism now. Second choice (predictably) would be Sal Buscema-- who I believe still lives in our area (metro DC region). I've crossed paths with folks who did community theater w/ him, and I don't think I've ever heard a negative word said about him ever. . . such a mensch-!
2) Original art never captured my fancy for making a purchase, tbh. I never spent much time looking through it-- although I've watched a couple of artists doing the request-sketch thing, which is itself a VERY cool process to witness. [Of particular note was a rather put-out Mike Vosburg doing a request to do a Wolverine portrait based on a Frank Miller cover from the original mini-series. Cripes, folks--- a little respect---] Mind you, that WWBN cover you shared would still be something I'd have to consider--- I love that image, and totally remember the cover. (WWBN was the CLASSIC example of a book where the covers were often the strongest part of the book as it got into its latter days, post-Ploog>)
3) Incredible Hulk fan. Big-time. Since 1968, when my pal Bryan & I started reading all of his older brothers' comic books. [Side note: Bryan & I & his younger brother brother happen to be members of a larger Silver Age FB group-- and they are now starting to realize that a lot of the beat-up books still in my collection were originally part of the piles of books accumulated by their older brothers. All acquired in above-board perpetual trading, mind you, but I can practically HEAR the eyebrows being raised when the topic is brushed against. . . yikes!. . . ]. Hulk Fan to the point where I did NOT love the TV series as much as everyone I knew assumed I would. . . because the Hulk was not a character, he was a mute, unthinking, primal creature. Not my Hulk at all. Hmmm-- in fact, this could very well be the eye-glazing fan-boy rant that I might fall into in the imaginary snack-bar line we're waiting in. . . AVENGERS is solidly my #2 book; then Spidey & the FF.
4) With that $100 I would probably head right to the $1 boxes (or whatever the equivalent of that is these days), and see if I could possibly find fill-ins for Bronze Age runs of titles (esp DC) that I rather liked after the fact, but never bought at the time. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (in Detroit, I think? As the group was failing under poor Aquaman?); JSA in its various iterations; THE OUTSIDERS; FLASH; GREEN LANTERN; CAPTAIN ATOM. And I'd keep my eyes open for Malibu's THE STRANGERS, which I enjoyed the first issue of. I don't buy any new comics at all, and have little time to read much of my sizable collection as it is--- so filling in existing gaps cheaply would be the best way to get that ol' Collecting Thrill, y'know?
HB
[PS-- I initially wrote something VASTLY more autobiographical for #3. . . and then realized it wanted to be more comics-centered-- BUT, I'm gonna go ahead and paste that mini-essay here as a post-script anyhoo, for a sense of completion. NOT required reading, folks---! HB, Out.]
[Dbl PS. . . PPS?]
{After posting, I realized I had over-ridden the "copy" of that about-me answer--- thus it is lost to posterity forever. Probably for the best all-around. . . heh. . . }
HB
Enjoying the show so far, guys!
Sean- Yes, Howard Chaykin is a fine artist and a decent fellow. Like you, I had the pleasure of meeting him. Got his signature on an issue of "American Flagg". And "Thought Bubble"? Presumably a convention; not familiar with it but absolutely love the name...
Mike W- Grell is also a terrific fellow. Very good choice for a meeting; and his sketches are quite reasonable. Bought a full pencilled sketch of Green Lantern from him last year. But you're right that 100 dollars doesn't go as far nowadays. ]
Glad you're enjoying some Bronze age DC goodness. It's always great to discover/rediscover books you missed/forgot.
Killraven- bet your art collection is something to see! Any notable pages or covers we'd recognize? Oh, and excellent sketch choices; but Adams charges 50 dollars just for a signature. Alas...
b.t.- you nailed me; I'm determined to devise topics meant to distract you from more important tasks, like sleep and eating.
Hope you get the chance to pick up a couple of those elusive Aurora kits. Sometimes if fortune is smiling, you might find one at a flea market for a pretty reasonable price. I found the Spider-man kit at one such a couple years ago for the sum of thirty dollars; a steal. Oh, and same room for HB and me while you rifle through those dollar boxes. And one more thing: followed your reference to comicartfans.com; great looking statue. And now I'll be lost for hours searching through all that original art...
HB- sorry you didn't get to meet Trimpe. Oh, those 'shoulda woulda coulda's. I'll never forgive myself for failing to meet Eisner when the chance existed. Oy.
Sal does community theater? How cool is that?
Regarding your take on the Hulk tv show- yes, it wasn't 'Our' Hulk, was it? I did like the show, but it was sort of like watching "Kung Fu" with a big green Kwai Chang Caine. Not much talking, more action, and lots of wandering around helping strangers.
As for your second choice, Avengers- gotta ask; what is 'your' Avengers lineup?
So now I gotta choose who I want to go meet. I’ve been very fortunate to meet MANY of my ’heroes’ over the years. Most of them were just a quick, awkward ‘HUGE fan, wanna shake your hand’ thing. I’m not sure I said even THAT much to Will Eisner (but DID get his autograph). Had a lovely little chat with Dick Sprang once. Chaykin is charming in his rascally way, Walter and Weezie Simonson are both warm, friendly people. I’ve met both Stan and Jack (seperately of course) , Len and Marv, Denny, Roy, Johns Romita and Buscema . Big John was one of my all-time idols and I was amazingly lucky to shake that big mitt of his and tell him how much his work meant to me, as he passed away from cancer less than a year later.
Also met designer/packager/Not Quite Comics entrepreneur Byron Preiss once at San Diego, shortly before he was tragically killed in an auto accident. We were both digging through longboxes and as we swapped boxes I happened to see his name tag and started fan-gushing. He seemed kinda surprised (but pleased) to be noticed, as I name-checked his WEIRD HEROES and FICTION ILLUSTRATED books, STARS MY DESTINATION and EMPIRE, his ILLUSTRATED ELLISON and ZELAZNY books, etc. I’d been digging his stuff since the mid-70s , so I was kinda surprised how YOUNG he looked (he was in his early 50s, I think) which of course made his untimely death a few months later even more shocking to me. He was kinda controversial, I guess — he loved comics as an art-form but always seemed to want to CHANGE them into something else. But I admired his restless quest for innovation, and enjoyed many of his projects, even if they weren’t always entirely successful.
Well, THAT was an unexpectedly long ramble. Now I’m pooped. More later.
- b.t.
Who would I want to meet? Judo Jim Starlin.
What artwork would I like to see? Prompted by the above post, plenty of unfinished sketches by Gil Kane. I've always been fascinated by how he constructed his figures.
What would I buy for £100? Probably whatever 1960s FF comics I could get for that money.
Oh man, Red-- the "what was YOUR Avengers team?" question is exactly the kind of thing that could get a conversation started, you've hit upon a winner there-! It was the informal go-to ice-breaker on the Boards at Van Plexico's old "Avengers Assemble" site, in fact. Long, long, LONG thread on that one. . . (that's also where I spontaneously picked up "Humanbelly" as a moniker-- heh--).
Issues #57-66 for me, that's where I started. #58 ("Even An Android Can Cry") was the FIRST issue I read, in fact. Talk about starting at the top...golly. And that was a run that featured astonishing changes in the roster, in artists (John Buscema, Gene Colan, and Barry Windor-Smith), and wildly shifting locales-- but I still tout it as a contender for Best Run Of Any Title Ever. In spite of the fact that it is MASSIVELY transitional.
Therefore, the REAL Avengers will always be: VISION (front & center); Hank Pym (as Goliath, than as Yellowjacket later on); THE WASP; BLACK PANTHER; HAWKEYE/GOLIATH2 (a tough trick to pull off, which totally worked for me); and then a happy by-product of that run is that we still have CAP, THOR, and IRON MAN as a presence, so there's a strong connection to the old-guard. NO idea who Wanda, Quicksilver, Swordsman, Wonder-Man, or Hercules (this version) were at that point. Just figures from some dim, unfathomable era in Avengers history. . .
HB (Careful whatcha wish for!)
Now, back to my quest for a comics creator that I never met and would like to chat with.
I’ve seen lots of creators at cons whose works I’ve long admired, that I just never made the effort to walk over, introduce myself and talk to. I REALLY should have made the effort to talk to Marie. Not only did I like her art, but she was a huge iconic presence in comics history, both as a knockout colorist at EC and as a vital member of the legendary Marvel Bullpen. Really should have done that. Dammit.
But I’m also pretty shy. It’s very difficult for me to make small talk, especially with strangers. Plus, some of these folks were/are GIANTS — when I did actually meet someone like Kirby or Frazetta or Wrightson or Moebius , I was just so intimidated that I could barely say ANYTHING and had to break off contact as quickly as possible to avoid just babbling incoherently and making an utter fool of myself.
Years ago, I noticed Paul Gulacy at a table at some show, just a few fans in line to talk with him at the moment. I was tempted to join the queue, but then talked myself out of it. ‘Seriously, b.t., what are you going to say to him beside your usual stammering Fan Mantra?’ I’ve done that literally DOZENS of times with Neal Adams. It’s actually become kind of a ‘thing’ with me — there have been times where there was literally nibody standing in line at Neal’s table, not a single person, he’s sitting there all alone with a kind of expectant, hopeful smile on his face, and I actually get a jolt of anxiety, avoid making eye contact and give his table a wide berth as I flee. Sad!
Jim Steranko is intimidating as hell, but he’s also a showman, a performer, and loves to ‘hold court’ and entertain. Sometimes he’s talking ‘at’ you instead of ‘with’ you, but that’s perfectly fine with me. If he’s a guest at a con I’m at, I always make it a point to swing by and say hello. He lights up when he sees me, barks my name and gives me one of those exaggerated ‘put her there pal’ -type handshakes. The kind that leaves you massaging your hand afterwards, making sure he didn’t break any bones. Dude is tiny and getting up there in years but MAN, he’s strong. He is made of Awesome.
I had a really fun chat once with Frank Doyle, George Gladir and Dan DeCarlo, about twenty years ago. They were sharing a booth at SDCC, the two writers kinda boisterously ping-ponging off each other while DeCarlo mostly held back, a shy grin on his face. I didn’t actually interact much with them much, but it was great to see these long-time colleagues enjoying themselves and soaking up the Fan Love.
So, that’s a factor too. I need to think of someone that I could possibly have a genuine conversation with, more than just ‘LOVE YOUR WORK, ‘BYE!’
Wally Wood is one of my personal Panthéon Short List people that I never met — he actually died right before I went to my first con so I never had the opportunity in any case. But he seems to have been so self-destructive, possibly bi-polar or manic depressive , that I’m not sure he would have been all that much fun to talk to. Sorry Woody, I love you to pieces but — pass.
Y’all know my love for Tom Sutton — from interviews I’ve read, he seems like he’d be an absolute hoot to talk to.
I think I’m gonna go with Harvey Kurtzman. I’m not sure how easy he was to talk to, but I’m such a HUGE fan that I’d be willing to give it a try. From the EC war books to ‘Hey Look!’ and MAD and Little Annie Fanny and all those short-lived humor mags and weird experiments like THE JUNGLE BOOK, he’s been a huge, constant inspiration to me since my early teens, ever since borrowing THE BEDSIDE MAD from a friend back in Jr. High and having it rock my world. I’ll bet he’d have some stories to tell too.
-b.t.
Steve DC- you can't go wrong with Gil Kane. Good point about his figure construction. That cover above has such energy! It would be great to see a whole exhibit devoted to his work.
Also, you can't do wrong with Silver Age FF. "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine"; that weren't kidding.
HB- you know, we might just have to do that Avengers team topic here soon. If for no other reason than to get the Untold Origin of HB!
B.t.- man, I'm loving your tales! Watch out or I may tap you for a guest post one of these days.
Wow, you met some serious greats from Archie. What a threesome to listen to. That must have been fascinating. Incidentally, one wonders what DeCarlo would have charged for a sketch. Whatever it was, I'd have paid it gladly.
Excellent choice with Kurtzman. An indisputable genius. And you're quite right, he'd have some fabulous stories...
Jeez, where is that time machine so we can go back and meet all these people?
Late to another conversation; real life has really been slamming me this year.
Anyway, here are some of my answers, such as they are:
1. I've only met a few creators, all of them here in Zagreb. Naturally, I got to know and became friends with a few of the local artists who gained some measure of success on the US market, like Goran Sudzuka and Dalibor Talajic. I also met Howard Chaykin back in 2010; chatted with him for about 20 minutes while he drew me a sketch of Monark Starstalker - like b.t. noted, he's an utterly charming guy. Also, very briefly, met and talked to Stan Sakai about 2 years ago.
The creators I'd love to meet are Walt Simonson, Sal Buscema and Ramona Fradon. And since you said living or dead, I think it would have been cool to shoot the breeze with Marie Severin and/or Gil Kane.
3. I got bit by the comics bug in the early spring of 1975, when Marvel Tales #59 was put into my hands. So naturally, my first favorite character was Spider-man; later I got bit by the X-men bug, but also became a lover of the comics medium in general, i.e., besides superheroes, I like other genres, like Archie comics, the Disney ducks, SF, crime, 'real-life' drama (e.g. Love and Rockets), etc., etc.
4. I think I'd spend that hypothetical $100 either a) trying to find the highest possible number of deeply discounted tpbs full of new or reprinted material, or b) a copy of the complete Stars My Destination adaptation illustrated by Howard Chaykin.
Edo:
I forgot about those Croatian guys. I met Esad Ribic once — KILLER artist, and kind of a ‘character’. He has such a larger-than-life personality, it made him pretty easy to talk to (he did most of the heavy lifting). I was still smoking in those days, so he designated me his Smoking Buddy for the con. He’d come find me every half-hour or so , ‘Let’s have a smoke!’ and out we’d go. Good times.
I’m also a big fan of Goran Parlov —love love LOVE his stuff. I think of him as ‘Garcia-Lopez and Alex Toth had a baby’ as improbable as that sounds. I would definitely choke down my shyness and meet him if given the opportunity, even if it was just to do my ‘Big Fan, Shake Your Hand, BAMF!’ routine.
- b.t.
b.t.: Ribic and Parlov (as well as Stjepan Sejic) are among the few of the local, Croat contingent that I haven't (yet, I hope) met. And yeah, I really like Parlov's style as well. A few years ago, just after he drew Millar's Starlight mini, a bunch of his pals over here did a parody comic about him called Parlight Starlov. You can see a few pictures of it in a brief write-up I did about it last year.
Edo:
That RULES! And the contributors didn’t just sign it, they went to frickin’ town. Amazing.
- b.t.
[Quick tangential observation on the WWBN cover: If that visual sequence were to continue realistically, the next panel would show Wolfie flat on the back of the cell floor underneath the window bar assembly. . . heh, physics. . . ]
HB
Quickie Nerd Auto-bio:
My interest in comics became an obsession in August of 1973, the last weekend before going back to school (the Jerry Lewis Telethon was on that night). Our local grocery store had a new spinner rack and Mom let me buy a few. TOMB OF DRACULA 17, FRANKENSTEIN 6, AVENGERS 118 and the mighty WEREWOLF BY NIGHT 10 came home with me that day— I loved those four comics to pieces but kept thinking about all the other four-color beauties I HADN’T bought. The store was in walking distance so I re-visited that spinner rack a day or two later after scrounging some spare change in the seat cushions. And a day or two after that, I realized I could spend some of my lunch money on comics too, so back I went. Few months later, my addiction was so out of control I was stealing stray quarters and dollar bills out of my mom’s purse (I’m not TOO ashamed to admit).
Silver and Bronze Age Marvels are still my favorites, but I’ve also got stacks of DCs, Charltons, Atlas, Gold Key, First, Pacific, Éclipse, Dark Horse, Warren, Skywald, etc. War comics, Westerns, Horror, Humor, Romance, Sci-Fi, Crime, Undergrounds, as well as super-heroes.
There have been periods where my comics consumption waned a bit, but never completely went away. Before COVID, I was still hitting my LCS every week, but these days it’s mostly for back issues. Kinda driving me crazy not being able to dig thru them longboxes once a week.
- b.t.
Art-wise, I guess I’ll flip thru some of those big binders at the art dealers’ tables. I don’t buy much original art anymore, the prices have just gotten too stratospheric the last ten years or so. Most of the stuff I’d really like to own is well out of my reach these days. Used to be that decent Romita and Buscema pages were pricey but not insane, but these days FUHGEDABOUDDIT.
Last thing I bought was a kinda impulse-buy three or four years ago, an AVENGERS page by Bob Brown and Don Heck. Never in a million years would I have even been specifically looking for an original by either of these gentlemen, but I’d been flipping through this one dealer’s wares, most of it ‘journeyman’ type work by artists that didn’t interest me at all, a few nice pages here and there by artists I do like but priced CRAZY high, and I stumbled upon this Brown/Heck page and it surprised me how nice it looked in black-and-white. It was clearly banged out at Warp Speed but there was a spontaneous liveliness to it, especially in Heck’s bold, juicy inks, that appealed to me. Not a ‘great’ page by any means, but a decent one, and the price was right (especially after the dealer reluctantly knocked another hundred off the sticker).
So, though I’m not looking for anything in particular these days, it’s still fun to browse, and you never know when you might find something that’s both appealing and affordable.
Also, some artists’ originals have such a completely different feel when you see them in real-life. The spot-blacks on Mignola’s originals are never solid, always kinda watered-down and misty, which gives them an added layer of muddy atmosphere. Maybe he’s just too cheap to buy a new bottle of ink when he’s getting low or something, but the effect is dreamy and super-cool. And on the other end of the Ink Spectrum, the blacks on Frank Robbins’ originals are shiny, deep, jet-black, almost like shoe polish, and up-close the dynamic shapes and textures he gets out of those lickety- split brush-strokes just punch you right in the face. I totally get that he’s not to everyone’s taste, but I can’t get enough of it. I actually own quite a few Robbins originals — because of his ‘GOD I HATE THAT GUY’ status from most fans , his pages have always been inexpensive, and still are. I literally used to buy JOHNNY HAZZARD dailies in BULK, that’s how cheap they are.
Actually, I AM still on the hunt for Tom Sutton pages. I have just a few, only one of which is his pencils and inks, the others are him inking other pencillers. In his case, it’s not that they’re expensive, it’s that no one bothers to bring them to shows, because of a percieved lack of buyer interest, I guess. Whenever I ask if a dealer has Sutton pages, the response is either ‘Who?’ or a confused look that screams ‘Why the hell would anybody want to buy THAT crap?’
If anyone has a Frazetta painting, I’ll get up really close to it in order to marvel at the brushwork and soak in the translucent, glowing, buttery texture of the paint.
- b.t.
Gosh, lookit that, I still have ten bucks left. Maybe I’ll take one last spin around the dealers room, dig thru the dollar and quarter bins. Hopefully Red hasn’t snagged all the dog-eared WITCHING HOURs and UNEXPECTEDs...
- b.t.
B.t.- you obviously eclectic tastes mirror my own. And it seems the comics bug bit you severely in that Summer of 73! A fine batch of books to start off with, indeed.
By the way, great comments regarding original art! Quite true that most examples have priced way beyond affordability. Unfortunate, however some can still be had reasonably as you mentioned. I picked up a page with Betty and Veronica from Dan Parent a couple years ago for about 30 dollars. Of course, a John Byrne page would have been another matter entirely. And artist sketches are a great way to acquire an original piece, with the added bonus of getting to watch it's creation.
Oh, and I'll try to leave you some horror comics (no promises with House of Mystery, though).
HB- yep, your description of Wolfie's fate is spot on! One could probably do a whole series about 'a moment after' the cover action...
Red, your mention of the inexpensive Dan Parent sketch reminded me of the time I got a Mary Jane head sketch from John Romita, on the fly-leaf of that nice JR Sketchbook published by Vanguard. He was only drawing MJ or Gwen, which was totally fine by me (what, I was gonna request Man-Mountain Marko?) and of course I chose The Redhead. It took him just a few minutes to draw but it’s quite lovely, and IIRC it only cost twenty bucks. Which seems RIDICULOUSLY low to me now — Holy mackerel, what a bargain.
Just now pulled it off the shelf to bask in the glow of its graphite goodness, and noticed it was dated ‘2002’. In my head it seems like it was just a few years ago but it was almost TWENTY. Which makes the low sticker price seem a little less insane but still. I remember thinking at the time that I would have happily paid 5X as much.
But more importantly — for fart’s sake, how did those 18 years go zipping by so fast?
- b.t.
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