The Phantom: Original Art For Sale!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

If you've ever wanted to own a piece of original art from The Phantom comic strip, now's your chance.

My pal Terry Beatty is having an art sale and he's listed a bunch of Phantom Sunday strips on his site and they're just beautiful. Terry pencils and inks the strip these days, and he does a great job. The black-and-white comic strips have a very noir quality to them. Even if you have no interest in buying them, run over to Terry's site and have a look at some gorgeous art anyway.

You might just change your mind.

[Artwork: A panel from The Phantom, illustrated by Terry Beatty]

Cerebus Original Art

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,

Years ago, I owned a piece of original Dave Sim art from Cerebus. It was a page from Cerebus #11. I bought it at a New York convention from Dave’s then-wife Deni who was selling pages at their table. It’s the page just before the very first full page appearance of Cockroach.

It was the multi-panel page where Cockroach is off-panel, ranting like a nutcase and Cerebus is going through a number of twisted facial expressions.

If I was a true collector, I would’ve bought the page with the actual first appearance of Cockroach. But I really liked all the different animated expressions on Cerebus’ face. It was a tour-de-force of character drawing.

I bought it for $15.

I framed it when I got back home and it hung on my wall through various moves over the years. When space got tight, thought, I sold it off.

Click to continue reading Cerebus Original Art

Read More | Kickstarter via Bleeding Cool

Weekend Reading: Avengers, Joe Simon, And Don Martin

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Another sad week as noted comic book artist Ernie Chan passes away. As always, Mark Evanier has the best obituary, if ever an obit can be categorized that way.

Amanda Marcotte takes a look at The Avengers movie, specifically the male reviewers and their reactions to The Black Widow.

Another good catch by Daniel Best at 20th Century Danny Boy: a tale of stolen artwork involving Joe Simon and the FBI.

Comedy writer Paul Laikin (he wrote for MAD Magazine and was editor of Marvel’s Crazy) has passed away.

And speaking of MAD Magazine, I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like Don Martin’s work. Here’s a nice piece in honor of his birthday.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Avengers, Joe Simon, And Don Martin

Joe Shuster Superman Original Art Auction!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Collecting, Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,

If you’ve ever dreamed about owning an original piece of Superman artwork by co-creator and artist Joe Shuster, now’s your chance.

Longtime original art dealer Larry Shell is offering a rare piece of American comics history this week in a fast-paced auction.

It’s a full color Joe Shuster recreation to the cover of Action Comics #16 (the original issue went on sale in 1938). According to Shell, this recreation was drawn in 1983 and “is one of only a very few cover recreations that Shuster did and is 100% his work.” It was originally owned by Wendy and Richard Pini (Elfquest).

The original measures a large 15” x 20” in size and is rendered in lead and colored pencils, which gives the image the soft quality of pastels.

You can see a photo of Joe Shuster with the original piece here.

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Read More | Joe Shuster Auction

Brent Anderson: Astro City Art Theft

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Image Comics,

This was posted on Facebook and I’m reposting it here to help get the word out.

Artist Brent Anderson had his car broken into at the San Diego Zoo this week and a whole pile of his original art was heisted by the thieves.

Pages are from Astro City Vols. 1 & 2 & Local Heroes; Astro City: Dark Age Books 1 (#s 1-4), 2 (#s 1-4) & 3 (#s 1-4).

Keep an eye out and if you see them on the market via eBay or Craigslist or at conventions, please contact Brent immediately.

Also, the thieves might be dopes and not realize how hard it is to dump stolen original comic art without the whole of the internets finding out, so comic book shops, flea markets and pawn shops should also be wary.

Additional details can be found at the Comic Book Resources forums.

[Art: Astro City: Dark Age; cover by Alex Ross, not one of the missing pieces, but it's dramatic]

Weekend Reading: Sherlock, Gardner Fox, Atlas Comics and Watchmen

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Reviews, Television, DC Comics,

It’s all over the internets that the acclaimed business site iCV2 has invoked the “suck” word to describe direct market comic book orders for Q3 2010.

Offering your captive audience books they don’t want and prices they can’t afford no longer seems to be a viable strategy. What lessons will anyone take away from this? Cue another Metamorpho relaunch in 3...2...1...

Let’s see what else is out on the internets...

Gardner Fox: The prolific writer is said to have written more that 4000 comic book stories. He co-created The Sandman, created the concept of Earth-2, wrote Batman, Hawkman, The Flash, Justice Society of America and many, many more. He also had a career as a writer of many so-called “sleaze” paperbacks. Paul Bishop has a nice look at a bunch of them. So many of them in fact, that you might think of the author more as “Gardner Foxy.”

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Sherlock, Gardner Fox, Atlas Comics and Watchmen

Steve Rude Could Use Some Help

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Independent,

Steve Rude has been having some financial difficulties. His story has been all over the internets, but in the event that some of you people (gasp) don’t read Tom Spurgeon’s The Comics Reporter or Heidi MacDonald’s The Beat or Robot 6, I’m directing you to Tom’s story.

The Dude’s been auctioning off some of his sweet, sweet Nexus original art on eBay to cover his debt and give him a shot at keeping his home from foreclosure. The prices are nice, but more importantly, this is going to a good cause. Nexus, written by Mike Baron and illustrated by The Dude, was one of the big independent creator-owned comic books to succeed in the growing direct market of the 1980s, and owning a piece of Steve’s fantastic art is like owning a piece of history.

Years ago, at the request of First Comics’ Rick Oliver, I once gave The Dude a ride from the San Diego Comic Con to LAX. We should all live so long to have a 2-hour ride with him in the car. Heidi MacDonald was also with us. Good times!

If you can spare the cash, if you like original art, if you like Nexus, help out the Dude.

[Artwork: Nexus, © Mike Baron and Steve Rude]

Campaign for Drawing: Gerald Scarfe, Quentin Blake and Steve Bell

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Even though I’m not a big collector of original art, I love looking at it and the pieces that I own are very special to me—and they’re framed and mounted on the wall of my office. I love to thumb through originals when I go to Comic Con International. I like to feel the weight of the art board, see the underlying pencils and study how the ink line digs into the paper.

The Campaign For Drawing is a British organization that’s holding a silent auction. The campaign is devoted to creating a “new regard for the value of drawing to help people see, think, invent and take action. Its long-term ambition is to change the way drawing is perceived by educationalists and the public.” Their Big Draw Auction features original art by a couple dozen wonderful artists and cartoonists.

Over at the website, you’ll find some excellent pieces by artists Tony Husband, Steve Bell, David Roberts, Martin Rowson, Posey Simonds, Gerald Scarfe, Bill Stott, cartoonists from The Guardian and Private Eye, Ken Pyne, Lucinda Rogers, Robert Duncan, Rosey Brooks, Anthony Brown, Quentin Blake and lots more.

Click to continue reading Campaign for Drawing: Gerald Scarfe, Quentin Blake and Steve Bell

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