The Fifty - Starman 3 cover painted by Tony Harris

Tony Harris - Starman 3

I was so happy to be able to acquire this cover in 2012 (Thank you Elizabeth!). It is a masterpiece. The vibrant colors, the art deco stylings, the Zodiac imagery used in so many early Starman pieces...if you are looking for a piece to represent Tony Harris' early paintings this one would serve that purpose well as it is all here.

I sold some of my Harris art recently, and am a bit regretful even though the money was well spent. At the time I was pressed a bit about this cover and offered it for $5000. That offer would not be made today, as I took the money from that sale and used some of it to frame this cover. As it stands now the plan is for it to stay on my wall for a decade or three. In fact I am over selling the bigger pieces for a bit (at least until my 11/29 birthday sale perhaps) and won't be selling any Harris at all unless something changes.

So getting framed means being placed in The Fifty. I sent another piece out along with this one, so there are more additions to the Fifty to come soon. But for now it is "welcome to The Fifty" for this exquisite cover! I now have 25 items in the list and 15 framed pieces of art on the walls!



The Fifty
1  BWS Storyteller Young Gods page 4 (framed)
2  Tony Harris / Ray Snyder Dr. Strange WIRED Magazine cover  (framed)
3  BWS Weapon X page  (framed)
4  Tony Harris Starman 3 cover  (framed)
5  Tony Harris Starman 53 cover  (framed)

6  David Mazzucchelli Daredevil 233 page 19

7  JHW3 Milestone Forever pinup

8  Simon Bisley Dr. Strange vs The Mindless Ones
9  Paul Smith Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom  (framed)
10  Dave Sim Mars Attacks variant cover
11  Gene Colan / Tom Palmer Tomb of Dracula 44 page 1 splash  (framed)
12  Dan Green Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa splash (framed)
13  Tony Harris 1994 Starman pinup  (framed)
14 Bill Sienkiewicz Superman 400 pinup recreation

15  Ted McKeever Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom in Hell
16  Dean Ormston Dr. Strange & Eternity

17  Bryan Talbot Dr. Strange commission
18  Dan Adkins Dr Strange 170 page 11  (framed)

19 Ulises Farinas - Dr. Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum

20  Rudy Nebres - Dr. Strange, Dracula & The Scarlet Witch
21  Mike Allred - Doctor Strange, Clea, The Ancient One, Wong, and Rintrah...A Day Off
22  Anna Merli Clea
23  Mitchell Bretweiser Dr. Strange watercolor
24  Jae Lee Dr. Strange
25  Darwyn Cooke Wonder Woman  (framed)

Starman 53 cover - Tony Harris and The Fifty once again

I have in my possession three painted Starman covers. I also recently consigned one to Comic Link and it will be in their Summer Featured Auction; there is a strong chance it will be back for failing to meet the (very reasonable) reserve but you never know. I also sold an Andrew Robinson Starman cover a few years ago. But I now have 3, 4 if you count the consigned piece which I technically shouldn't. Painted covers, that is. I have pen/ink stuff as well but that is for another time.

Of these covers in my possession, I have 2 real beauties. Issue 3 is bright and bold in its' color palette, has strong Jack character content conveyed, and is just a thing to behold. Early Tony Harris just in your face.

Then there is this one, issue 53.

Starman 53 cover - Tony Harris

This piece is near the end of Tony's association with the series and has strengths all its' own. That is why I decided to have it the first painted cover framed and put on my walls. This cover is spectacular. I love the shots of both Jack Knight and Adam Strange. The space setting is sad as that storyline was the dividing point between Tony and James Robinson and Tony left soon enough. This has colored pencil in there as needed and smacks you in the face in person with its' vibrancy. I am paring the collection down and had to seriously consider an attempt to make The Fifty as many painted Harris Starman covers as I could, shooting for fifty total. But I don't think that will happen. It may, but I am not adverse to moving 35 and 28. but 3, and this one - 53- are not going anywhere. And since this one had the frame ordered today, it can officially join The Fifty.

The Fifty
1  BWS Storyteller Young Gods page 4 (framed)
2  Tony Harris / Ray Snyder Dr. Strange WIRED Magazine cover  (framed)
3  BWS Weapon X page  (framed)
4  Tony Harris Starman 53 cover  (framed)
5  JHW3 Milestone Forever pinup

6  Simon Bisley Dr. Strange vs The Mindless Ones
7  Paul Smith Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom  (framed)
8  Dave Sim Mars Attacks variant cover
9  Gene Colan / Tom Palmer Tomb of Dracula 44 page 1 splash  (framed)
10  Dan Green Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa splash
11  Tony Harris 1994 Starman pinup  (framed)
12 Bill Sienkiewicz Superman 400 pinup recreation

13  Ted McKeever Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom in Hell
14  Dean Ormston Dr. Strange & Eternity

15  Darwyn Cooke Wonder Woman  (framed)

16  Dan Adkins Dr Strange 170 page 11  (framed)

17 Ulises Farinas - Dr. Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum

18  Rudy Nebres - Dr. Strange, Dracula & The Scarlet Witch
19  Anna Merli Clea
20  Mitchell Bretweiser Dr. Strange watercolor
21  Jae Lee Dr. Strange


ps       A frame was also ordered for the Darwyn Cooke Wonder Woman piece. I will let you see the finished piece when it is done, along with the cover above, in two weeks or so!

Back from the Framer's with Tony Harris Starman

I just got back from picking up one piece and dropping two pieces off at the frame shop. Here is the first one done. Full deal, glare-resistant protective glass, all the mounting perks to keep it unattached and an extra half inch on the bottom to pull the eye down.

Before:

After:

Here it is one the wall, with its' new companion piece.

I had a Starman page in this spot, one that I purchased framed but one I would not have chosen to have framed and will eventually have switched out for another piece. In the meantime, I think these two look nice together here.

The Fifty - Tony Harris Starman pin-up

Okay, I know I just posted about this piece,but since you all see it down there in the previous post it is kind of obvious that it will be in The Fifty. So why delay the obvious, and without further eloquence, ladies and gentlemen - Tony Harris places Jack Knight in the Fifty.

That won't be the last time I write that last sentence; you'll see it at least once more and likely 3-4 times more. But this one is special.I like it a lot, despite not being overly familiar with the image. I love the raw edge on it that the best early Starman pieces have, before Jack began to look too much like Tony himself! (That is just a joke really, Tony got better but that is maybe why I like the earlier pieces as well, because they contain embryonic Jack and Tony within.) Sentiment aside, the piece speaks strongly to me. I love the attitude that the figure's stance conveys. The colors are used well; it may be black and white but it is not "just" black and white, or "only".

I also own this.

I love it as well. It is from Starman 81, a gimmick issue bred of Green Lantern and the addition of other colors to the GL ring mythos. Well eventually they brought back dead characters, and in this case a dead series, and gave them black rings to wield. Starman 81 was published in 2010 after the series had been finished with issue 80 in 2001 and they brought back James Robinson to write it and Tony Harris to draw the cover.however, Tony had not yet begun painting up the storm he subsequently conjured with his brushes and did this one in pen and ink. it is technically better by far I think, but the early one is in the Fifty right now and ol' Dickie Swift and dead David Knight are on the outside looking in, in my opinion. So far, at least. There is still a lot of room in The Fifty, even if I can count at least 5 spaces reserved for pieces I currently own drawn by Tony without Starman 81 making the cut!


Wow. The Fifty is up to sixteen pieces now. We're getting there. Four are framed and on the wall as we speak. There are also two others from The Fifty not yet unveiled but framed and on the wall as well.


The Fifty
1  BWS Storyteller Young Gods page 4
2  Tony Harris / Ray Snyder Dr. Strange WIRED Magazine cover
3  Gene Colan / Tom Palmer Tomb of Dracula 44 page 1 splash

4  Simon Bisley Dr. Strange vs The Mindless Ones
5  Ted McKeever Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom in Hell
6  Dan Green Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa splash
7  Tony Harris 1994 Starman pinup
8  Bill Sienkiewicz Superman 400 pinup recreation

9  JHW3 Milestone Forever pinup

10  Darwyn Cooke Wonder Woman

11  Dan Adkins Dr Strange 170 page 11

12 JH Williams 3rd / Mick Gray Promethea 24 double page spread

13  Rudy Nebres - Dr. Strange, Dracula & The Scarlet Witch
14  Anna Merli Clea
15  Mitchell Bretweiser Dr. Strange watercolor
16  Jae Lee Dr. Strange

Third Original Art Acquisition of the Year! A Tony Harris Starman gem!

TONY HARRIS 1994 Starman pin-up / later DC house ad

I was really excited to see this piece in the Comic Link auction a month or two ago. I saw that a "Starman 0 pinup" was previewed but there was no picture. However, I had a definite idea what piece it was that was likely coming up for sale. First off, I have Starman 0 and there are no pinups in it. But I had seen the term used before more than once in association with a specific piece. And that piece was for sale once in a while. I was intrigued that the piece I had in mind was going to come to auction without reserve.

But I was wrong. When a picture was finally posted sometime around the day of the auction it was the piece above. My piece, now. I had seen the image before but was did not know where it was from. I did not want to draw attention to it publicly so my research was limited to going through my Starman comics. I went through a few of the earliest issues and...nothing. I went through the first Starman Omnibus, which has a lot of extras and prelims (a few of which I own!), and found...nothing like the above piece.

So I just sniped the hell out of it and bought it. It was really as simple as that; I bid a few hundred more than what it cost to buy in the end, and that was good as I waited to really snipe it at the bitter end and there was no time for another attempt.

My thought was that it was probably the rejected first cover for issue 0. Tony Harris did painted covers for all the issues of Starman, at least all the ones he did on his main run.But I have also seen that his earliest attempts were just pen and ink. hence my guess that this was a rejected and early version of Starman 0, with whom it also shares some subject matter.

So after I bought it I was able to ask publicly. Turns out I was wrong again. Actually at first I was contacted by the person who consigned it to ComicLink, and he bought it in 1994 from Tony at Heroes Con and thought it to be a Starman 0 pinup. But I was quickly shown a house ad from a DC comic book published in 1996 in which this art is used as a house ad for the James Robinson / Tony Harris Starman comic. tony also chimed in a said as much.

But that does not really make sense. It has a 1994 date on it, which I think is one of the main factors why  Clink attributed it to Starman 0, which was mid-94. So for now I have to go with the house ad attribution, although I think it is far more than that. It has the angular look for Jack that Tony had very early on and the '94 date is unmistakable. Why would he make art for a DC house ad when the comic started coming out of a 5th week stunt - remember "Zero Hour"? Well, wonders never cease I guess.

ps  I should have my fourth 2014 piece, another Tony Harris original, in hand any day now.Perhaps even today. I also plan on acquiring one piece at the comic art con next Sunday. One is definite, other(s) are possible but unlikely.

First new art of the year...Tony Harris! Surprised? NOPE!

I used to get new artwork on a regular basis. I am in fact expecting another package tonight FEDEX that may or may not come. But after a three day game of tag with my local post office, including a day when he had my art but no electronic thingamajig for me to sign so he would not give me my package.

I remained calm as he drove away into the night. Yesterday.

Today I went there three times but in the end came home with my package. Here it is, Starman 3 page 1. 1994 James Robinson writer with Tony Harris art inked by Wade von Grawbadger.

Starman 3 page 1 James Robinson writer, Tony Harris penciller; Wade von Grawbadger inker 1995 DC Comics

It is interesting how I got this page. This is my version of reality and some conjecture, so it may not reflect the seller's reality but here goes...

I am selling off a ton of my original art collection, including some Starman stuff as well. I have been somewhat shocked at the lack of a market for Starman pages not drawn by Tony Harris. Many pages from key issues in the series - whether Steve Yeowell in the memorable Christmas/Santa issue or even the early Sins of the Child story arc that used different artists like Amanda Conner or Stuart Immomen on different story parts for a few pages each - can be had for less than $150 and more often than not less than $100. That is, if I am not in the market buying them apparently! (I will still buy pages from the Matt Smith Showcase issues with The Shade and The Flash for $100 each - 2x market - or more, but I digress.)

So after watching pages by Gene Ha, or Immomen or Conner or Yeowell or Matt Smith or Peter Snejgjerg, go for less than I was comfortable with I listed a page or two of Harris Starman art as well. Not at low starting price but listed for sale all the same. A page sold by Scott Eder of Harris art from the 30s or 40s went for over $500, so I listed a sweet splash from early in the run at $450 and waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing.

But something else strange happened then as well. Another great Starman collector and enthusiast listed a nice circle page from issue 3 with a BIN of $675 (if I recall correctly). And no one bought his either. Now I liked that page right away when I saw it and wondered if it being up for sale was at all a reaction to the pages I was selling in the weeks just prior. But like me that seller was only willing to sell at a conservative price, one near the top of the market. And he didn't get more bids than mine either. We both still had our pages.

So I listed mine at $9.99 start and no reserve. A few hours later I regained my senses and ended the auction. If I am going to sell (some of) my art in order to better my life circumstances and also buy more new art I am going to keep those Harris pages until the bitter end. I don't mind letting other things go at ridiculous prices, not too much at least, because I enjoyed owning them and am happy to watch the paypal balance grow without worrying too much about the bloodshed necessary to get it there. (I just yesterday made two ebay sales, both starting prices of $9.99 with one bid each, and one of those pieces cost me fiddy (Shane Davis) and the other may even have been a hunnert originally (Elvin Hernandez, although 75 is possible as well). But I'll be damned if I am going to use my Harris pages that way.

But perhaps not everyone felt that way because the other page appeared again around this time as well. Not at a low starting bid but at a BIN I found reasonable. Just barely but definitely fair. It lasted a few hours overall and only a minute or so once I saw it.

So I started out trying to sell my Harris Starman art and ended up with one more page and a few hundred dollars poorer. It took a nice Cheung page from Illuminati 2 and a few other pieces to cover the cash but heck yeah I came out ahead. A double circle page from issue 3? Forgetaboutit!

Feed The Fifty progress update

89 pieces.

And counting.

That's right. I have 89 pieces loaded and am writing the descriptions now. I should have between 100 and 125 pieces listed in my First Annual Feed The Fifty 11/29 Birthday Sale!!!

The wife made the website and I have everything ready to go. Here is what it says on the site...

The specifics this year are as follows: The site will be live on Thursday, November 28th for preview. No prices will be listed. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the preview will go until I get home from work Friday November 29th around 6 pm. I will accept offers in the meantime, so feel free to email an early offer if you want to be sure to get a piece. Around Friday 6 pm EST I will remove any sold pieces, add prices and clarify questions, and then place the items live for sale. There will be no discounts, promotions, or price changes of any kind before sale close 6 PM EST Sunday. I am not pricing based on what I paid, with a handful of exceptions, but am generally pricing to sell. $100 convention sketches will be less than $100 in most cases. The unsold items will not be consigned to any auction houses or offered for sale again other than possible inclusion in future birthday sales. I may leave a few of the smaller unsold things up for sale here, I do not know. I did not like seeing a few items go for under $25 on Comiclink and that won’t happen again. I may consign other items, but I sell them or they sell them;  I won’t be selling the same items in different venues. If you want to make an offer on these or any items in my collection I welcome the opportunity to talk turkey with you.

I will truly feel blessed if I am able to sell one piece. This is the first year and the first time I am doing this. I joined twitter for it...doctorstarman...and believe you me that is a big deal. I joined google+ as well. All to promote this sale and begin a social media presence. I feel like Ron Swanson on this one. This guy.

Not the Ron Swanson I went to high school with. I'm sorry. Not the Ron Swanson with whom I went to (Catholic) school. I went to school with the most generic named mutherfuckers you could imagine. I have an Irish Polish name, one of a kind on this planet perhaps. Among my bestest buddies in high school were Ron
Swanson, Mark Weber, Maureen Ryan, Kevin Potter. So even in this age of social media I cannot find these common named mutherfuckers. I know where Maureen is and have passed along hello. And the one person not on that list from high school cannot be contacted. Ron Swanson would understand.

Not the Ron Swanson from high school. This guy.

Anyway.

I am going to trumpet the horn, the social media internet horn that is, and see if I can drum up some business. I think that it is a sound plan. Get it, a sound plan? Trumpet...drum...sound plan. Y'all about as sharp as a bowling ball...a bowling ball I say. Anyway,I am going to go to the usual websites, leave a few posts and messages and see if i can promote it the best I can. I already have been using #FeedTheFifty and you can see some images of things I am having in Feed The Fifty. I plan on doing a few a week, or as many as I can remember to do, and use the artists name in there as well. I am learning there too, to which "not that Katie Cook" can attest.

I hope to annoy more non-artists with my sales pitches. Not that Jae Lee almost got one today as well, but that was FOR The Fifty,not Feed The Fifty. No Jae Lee coming in Feed The Fifty.

Amanda Conner though.

Stuart Immomen though.

Mike Mayhew though.

JH Williams 3rd though.

Gene Colan inked by Tom Palmer. Or by Walt Simonson. Tony Harris. and so many more.

That's the Feed The Fifty art sale, 11/29/13. It's going to surprise you.

Starman vs The Fifty...Just to be Clear

I have had quite a few questions about what I will do with my Starman pages due to my desire to attain The Fifty. Quite simply, I try not to think about it.

Let me make this as crystal clear as is possible. If The Fifty were to consist of 50 painted Starman covers I would be ecstatic. It would be the achievement of a lifetime as far as I am concerned. I have the painted covers to issues 3, 28, 35, and 53 at this point. I also have the pen and ink (Tony was not painting at this point but began again soon after) cover to issue 81 which came out many years after the series ended as part of some Zombie bandwagon 5th week thing DC did. And an unpublished (i.e. rejected) painted cover for the first miniseries featuring The Shade. Well, I guess I also have the cover to issue 11 of the most recent The Shade miniseries as well. Those last two could soon see the last train out of town if anyone is interested. Just saying. (Besides, at this very moment I also own the cover to issue 10 of that one as well, but Comiclink is selling it for me along with some other things.)

So again, I will continue to try to acquire painted covers from Starman. At least two of the ones I have now are heading to The Fifty, and if the other two don't make the final cut it will be a few years before that decision is made. I love the paintings for issue 3 and issue 53. The vibrant colors are astounding. The more subdued palettes on the others will likely grow on me over time. I already love 28 for the story it tells of Mikaal Tomas and 35 is new to me this year. So 46 more covers would rock my world.

I will likewise continue to try and buy every Starman page drawn by Tony Harris in existence. Only a family financial emergency would cause me to sell these pages. When I first got in the game, I did the math on what it would cost to buy every Starman page from the 80 issues. That was 20 years ago and I was serious at the time, figuring the pages were $40-$200ish and that would never change. After 5-10 years I knew that was foolhardy (but not these other plans, they be rock solid!) and focused on Tony. Although I did try to buy out Albert Moy of every Snejbjerg page he had, and Peter was game as well! But darn that Albert Moy for squashing the deal and seeing to it that the artist he represents gets top dollar for his work. Albert was so non-chalant about the whole thing when I mentioned it to him and I like to think I surprised him by actually getting in touch with Peter Snejbjerg across the world in Denmark and making the early part of a deal workable between Peter and I. It was like 50-100 pages. When push came to shove and dollar numbers were tossed around Albert told me quite plainly that he told Peter he was selling the pages slowly but surely at probably double the price I would be getting bulk. Peter wisely listened to the man he works with on a professional basis to handle those things. And I had seen them leaving one or two every 6 months and when I couldn't get them all, I stopped trying to get every one.

I don't know if any Starman pages will be in The Fifty. I mean, I have page 1 from issue 0, the first Starman page ever. It is a shot of Opal City, not too spectacular. But how could I keep that from my permanent collection? I have a three page sequence I bought from Ray Snyder that is quite simply the best sequence with The Shade in the first 50 issues. Those three pages stay together as far as I am concerned, is that 1 or 3 entries into the Fifty. Same question awaits me with regards to my 8 page standalone story of Ted Knight as Starman.

See, as I said in the beginning...it is best not to think of these things.

But for right now, The Fifty and Starman fit quite nicely together in my collecting goals. When the day comes to put those goals against each other, my collection should be staggering and that will be a fine day indeed.

Starman 3 painted cover by Tony Harris - Significant Starman art day part 2

'NUFF SAID

OH YEAH! Significant Starman art acquisition! Hoo-Ah! part one - Starman 0 page 1 !!!

I was just saying the other day how much I love Starman, the comic series written by James Robinson in the mid 1990s. Today I was lucky enough to get my hands on 2 important pieces. I will show off the second soon enough, but first I want to honor something special, something that should not be overlooked. The first is, appropriately, the first. The first Starman page, that is. In the late 1980s/early 1990s Starman was a fairly nondescript character created by Roger Stern and Tom Lyle. He died heroically, sacrificing himself in battle with Eclipso in the 1992 Eclipso: The Darkness Within DC comics crossover. He died, and the Starman comic died with him.

Two years later in 1994 DC reconfigured their comic line again with ZERO HOUR and one of the new titles to come out of this event was a new Starman. James Robinson and Tony Harris were at the helm of this Starman series, one featuring Jack Knight, the son of the Golden Age Starman - Ted Knight. I bought Starman 0 in late 1994 or early 1995 in Muncie Indiana. 25 cents in a bin under the table, an orange sticker stuck to the cover announcing the price. This is the page that I saw when I opened that magic book, back in my newlywed apartment in Muncie Indiana.

Tony Harris pencils and Wade von Grawbadger inks history: Starman 0 page 1

As someone who has quite a few pages from this series I am honored to have the first page from this issue. Thanks Elizabeth! In fact, this makes 3 pages from issue 0 now in my collection. Hmmm. I wonder if I can get all 22 pages from this issue? 

The Shade 4 by Michael Zulli - a.k.a. the elusive, demented, delusional, and ultimately tragic quest by one collector, once naive and eternally optimistic but now dejected and cynical to the core, to own all the pages from an issue of a comic book

I love me some Starman, the James Robinson-penned comic book with main art duties by Tony Harris / Wade von Grawbadger and then later Peter Snejbjerg. I collect comic art and Starman is a major focus of that collecting obsession. Now for those not intimate in the ways of this particular obsession, it manifests in many different ways. Some people get only convention sketches, some get only published pieces, and most get a fair mix of both if they stay in the hobby long enough. And there are also commissions taken by artists and drawn at home, many of which are found in my collection and may be some of the best pieces I own even if they generally perform poorly on resale (after all, if you want to buy art drawn by artist X you will probably prefer a published piece or a direct commission drawn by X for you instead of buying someone else's commission, and therefore their idea).

Now when a collector such as myself finds himself owning more than one page from an particular comic book an odd phenomenon may manifest. If said collector acquires 4 or 5 pages from an issue, the phenomenon is practically guaranteed. The collector becomes possessed, consumed by one persistant and fixed delusional thought, the thought that they might somehow acquire all the pages from that issue. Now many - myself included - have complete smaller stories and console themselves with the thought that this is an accomplishment of some note, even if it may only be the result of the artist knowing you pour out cash for their works so they offer you an 8 page story. For example.

This is not to be confused with those that own whole stories, often 8 pages in length, from the Golden and Silver ages of comics. EC stories are whole and complete in their 8 page glory, and owning a page is a treasure. Owning a whole story is entering rarefied air. Same for DC backups from the early, and even not so early, days. There are many such examples. And there are modern examples such as Dark Horse Presents or Batman: Black and White where chapters would be structured for 8 pages. But in terms of comic art from the last 35 years, owning a complete story generally means owning 22 pages.

So when I found myself with 4 or 5 pages, I obviously became deranged. Mad. under the delusion that since the art has been sold by the artist to others that it will eventually find its way to you. Because you want it more than they do.

Except you don't. Trust me, you don't.

At this point what you want is to have it all. And I have a little Veruca Salt in me as much as the next person. I want it now, and I want it all. But trust me, they want it too. And THEY actually own it. Not you. Not me. THEM. And you know how THEY are. But somehow, someway, boydon'tchaknowit I done got myself 16 pages from issue 4 of The Shade. Wait, where is it? It was here somewhere just a minute ago. Oh, wait...

If you don't know Starman I can't do that now. Suffice it to say that The Shade is a Golden Age villain who was reinvented in the modern Starman comic as a villain with charm who possesses a fierce loyalty and sense of concern for his chosen city, Jack Knight (Starman)'s home of Opal City. Eventually he would even be revealed as less a villain than he originally seemed but at the time of this story writer James Robinson was flsehing out the character's backstory in a 4 issue miniseries. And one of the central elements of the character of The Shade since Robinson wrote the book was his centuries old feud with the Ludlow family. This issue, the last of the 4 issue miniseries, focused on The Shade's last confrontation with a Ludlow and the end of the feud which began on the night Richard (Dickie) Swift died and The Shade was born immortal.

You see, somehow I found myself buying page after page from ebay back in the day. Most, but not all, of them were coming from art dealer Scott Eder, a man I knew well. Hi Scott. Scott's a straight shooter and we talked turkey until we eventually traded my money for the rest of the art he had from the issue. Over the years I have bought those I could when they appeared. (I have even located  a few colors guides which I now own.) I have also located 4 others that I have missed or were outfoxed on. I remember distinctly that on one I fell asleep and subsequently woke up quite pissed. $56. FRIGGIN' A! See, I am pissed again. But he got it fair and square (different time zone bastard). Just kiddin'!

So the current situation finds me with 16 of the 22 pages. I need six more for mission accomplished - four of these six are known to me and the two others remain hidden. Of the four known to me two are potentially eventually acquirable (just not now) and the guys who own the other two don't respond to emails. But I know who they are. YES I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Sorry about that.

So if you own one of these pages take $ from me for it! Trade for some of my art! For instance you could get a better Gene HA! page than you have Zulli, trust me on that. I need these pages. And more importantly, I need to know that I am not crazy, that my goal is not a delusion and that it is obtainable, that I can acquire them all, I need them all, I need them all, I need them all, I need them all, I need them all, I need them all, I need them all

In with the new continues...Starman has arrived

This is the piece I was talking about earlier this month. It has arrived, so I feel safe in showing it off. One of the first pieces, and maybe the only piece, that I have bought from someone asking "make an offer". I believe this was drawn, along with a Shade piece owned (for now!) by Mike White, for use as a trading card that was never made. Whatever the reason for its' creation, I am very happy to now own it!