More Than a Hobby

Back in the late 80s, I started to hit local comic conventions in search of back issues to fill out my growing collection.  I ended up putting together decent runs of the Spider-Man titles dating back to the early 80s.

In college, I had more money to invest because I was working full-time.  I noticed a number of dealers selling art from their booths.  Curiosity led to my first original art purchase and after a few more pages I decided to make a hobby of collecting original art.  Art, rather than back issues, became the focus on my convention experiences.

In the late 90s, I took a break from comics and only came back to my local comic shop when my son was on the cusp of reading.  It was a good excuse to get out of the house, and he really liked the Capstone super hero books that DC was putting out.

Around the same time, I dusted off my portfolio and began evaluating my investment.  It turns out that *all* of the pages appreciated in value about 4-5 times my original investment.  Enough time had passed that I was able to evaluate my emotional attachment to each piece of art objectively.  I sold many things (pics included at the end of post), made additions to my collection, and began feeling good about the hobby again.

Fast forward to last year.  I had been keeping tabs on artists who posted their work on the original art groups I frequent on Facebook.  I was looking for an excuse to commission something.  That ended up being with John Watson, a British artist best known for his covers on Hawkman for DC.

My son (and daughter by extension) were both wildly in love with the new Legend of Zelda game Breath of the Wild so I figured that would be a great subject for the commission.  I contacted John, who had never actually played a Zelda game, and he was willing to humor me.

A few months went by before John found the time to dig into the background I provided on what I was looking for in Zelda and Link. No big deal, the art would be a gift for Christmas and there was no rush.  More than anything I was curious to see what he would come up with.  A few more months passed before I saw preliminary sketches.  Not long after that the originals arrived from across the pond.  As you can see, John did a fantastic job.

I had to shut my mouth for a couple months.  When Christmas arrived, the kids were blown away by such unexpected and cool gifts.  They decided to hang their art next to each other.

After a great first experience, I decided recently that I needed to scratch that original art itch again.  This time around I saw a  post for open commissions from Souradeth Phimmasone.  After seeing an example of a Spider-Man he’d done recently, I decided to double dip on a Peter Parker and a Miles Morales.  Surprisingly, I’ve never owned any Spidey originals.  These turned out great!

I guess it’s a good thing I’ve been willing to part with so many pages from my collection.  I don’t have nearly enough wall space to display everything.  Here are most of the pages I’ve parted with, some really great pieces I must say:

 

Tags: Adam Kubert, Amanda Conner, Chris Bachalo, Dan Jurgens, Gary Frank, John Watson, Kaare Andrews, Mark Bagley, Norm Breyfogle, Peter Gross, Souradeth Phimmasone, Tom Grummett, Tony Harris, Travis Charest, Wayne Nichols