Covid 19
It seems the whole world has been turned upside down with this Covid 19 virus and my thoughts are with everyone and their health and safety. Let’s take the necessary precautions and let’s put all our efforts and energies into…
Comic Book Daily
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Comic Book Daily
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
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Review | The Sandman: Overture – J.H. Williams III Gallery Edition
J.H. Williams III shows off his artistic range and skills in the pages of the new Gallery Edition of THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE, written by Neil Gaiman. Williams’ original art for the entire book has been meticulously scanned at high resolution for its…
Week 11: xx
March 8th was International Women’s Day and I really should have put this post up last week so apologies. There are some great female comic artists that I’ll be featuring all year long but this week lets reserve all the…
Writers
Honestly, I’m not even sure how valid my observation is this week. I’m doing it by feel, this is the way I feel about the subject and I’ve somehow morphed this feeling and lack of awareness into a full-blown summation…
The Man They Call Reveen
One of my guilty pleasures has long been magic. One of the oldest performing arts in the world, there is something about magic (be it illusion, stage magic, close-up magic and even mentalism) that find both extremely entertaining and intellectually…
Week 10: more free styling
My mind is all over the place this week so I thought it best if the splash pages were all over the place as well. Yowzers! This splash from Hangman #3 is just nasty. Comics.org has Mort Leav and John…
Covers: Part 1 – Good Girl Art
Covers! While the number one driver of comic book demand and value is and will remain character introductions (I have some posts coming on that topic too) there is no denying that cover appeal is the second biggest comic value…
Review | Original Art: The Daniel Clowes Studio Edition
Original Art: Daniel Clowes turns the spotlight on one of the medium’s most dynamic creators. A vital entry of the Fantagraphics Studio Edition series, this volume draws from Clowes’s nearly 30 years of comics art, ranging from his seminal one-man anthology, Eightball (in which Ghost World was originally serialized), to his most…
Week 9: The Early Marvel keys
As comic collectors, we’ve all seen the covers to these Marvel keys featured below. I did a thought exercise and I couldn’t visualize even one of these splash pages in my head. I was close on a couple of the…
Sort of Heroes
As many of you know, this column began seven years ago as part of my attempt to focus a newly minted retirement on something both interesting and challenging, albeit perhaps trivial in comparison to the struggles we all face daily…
Comic Cons
I’m getting those email notifications for the big C2E2 Comic Con happening this coming weekend in Chicago. C2E2 is the official launch of the mega con season, San Diego Comic Con is probably the best known comic con with all…
Week 8: Double the Fun
My pal Alan was in the shop yesterday and he gave me a suggestion for this week’s Making a Splash post: feature some great double-page splashes! Nestor Redondo outdid himself with this beautiful double-page splash for Rima the Jungle Girl…
Nostalgia Cycles
Nostalgia cycles exist and they have a great effect on collecting comics and other pop culture collectibles. The process seems eternal. As kids we enjoyed what we enjoyed then too suddenly we grew up and found ourselves in school. After…
Web Arted #363
Paul Smith just posted this collection of Spider-Man’s Sinister Six and it warranted a return of Web Arted.
Week 7: it’s in the air
I was thinking of going hard on a Valentine’s Day theme but decided against it; I still added a few to remind us of what really makes the world go around. One of my favourite Undervalued Spotlights was when I…
Origin issues
Like I mentioned in the first post of this column, I’m planning to cover a lot of topics with some being meaty and others a little lighter but still worth discussing. I’m not sure where the Origin Issue falls but…
The Pre-Vortex Works of Chester Brown
Chester Brown is one of the modern giants of Canadian comics. He is often cited as one of the major figures who brought autobiographical comics to the forefront of the 1990s comics scene. He first gained critical recognition for his…
Review | P. Craig Russell’s The Selfish Giant and Other Stories Fine Art Edition
This beautiful 12″X17″ oversized hardcover features complete stories scanned from Russell’s stunning original art. While appearing to be in black & white, each page has been scanned in color to recreate as closely as possible the experience of viewing the…
Week 6: Raboy gets his due
No theme again this week, and again I like where my A.D.D. took me. There have been some references to Mac Raboy lately so I thought I’d lead with a monster of a splash page from the man himself. We…
Scarcity of Grade
It looks like most of us have a very difficult time defining what kind of collectors we are; we seem to be opportunistic and have erratic buying habits. If we can’t be more focused on what we buy let us…
Review | Ed Piskor: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition
Ed Piskor: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition highlights the work of this Eisner Award-winning cartoonist, focusing on his two best-known series: Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design. In addition to excerpts from these two major comics projects, this impressive tome features dozens of…