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.

More Thoughts on The Fifty

If I have not been clear, The Fifty is my attempt to focus my collection into something it is not. At least not now.

It is something like the discussion about what is meant by MVP in baseball or football. Is it the best player in the league or is it the most valuable player, thereby essentially eliminating players on teams that do not win?

The Fifty will consist of the favorite pieces of art that I was able to acquire in the past and hopefully in the future as well. To honor the spirit, and because you have to start somewhere, I have tried to designate pieces in my collection as part of The Fifty. But when I went to look at the best of my best, some pieces were artistically better or perhaps from more renowned and even more talented artists than some of those I chose for The Fifty. That is because The Fifty will be about the art I love.

I intend to live with my art. I now have 9 pieces of framed art. Two really do not count, as I framed them myself. My two Cerebus pages. Two others were purchased framed. They are up on the walls but will likely end up switched out of the frames for better pieces. That leaves five pieces I have taken to the framers (Michaels!) myself. Only one of these, the Barry Windsor-Smith Storyteller splash page, has been revealed as part of The Fifty but the other four are in as well.

Here is that Storyteller splash again, just for kicks

framed BWS Storyteller splash page Young Gods pg 4

As you can see, it is now framed and on the wall. It is next to some more framed BWS art. I have refrained from showing multiple pieces from the same artist for The Fifty so far, but you know it is going to happen. And certainly BWS will have at least two pieces in there. I can tell you Tony Harris, JHW3, and BWS all have more than one piece in The Fifty as it now stands.

I don't know if I have said anything new about The Fifty here. But the fact that I intend to have all of The Fifty framed and on my walls is definitely the intention. If not for all the moisture I might even consider placing the Merli in the bathroom with all the salmon and pinks we have in one of them! But Clea will be framed, last perhaps because the size makes it more expensive per square inch, but she will be framed for sure. Or bounced from the Fifty by then, but I cannot see that happening.

You see, The Fifty as a concept comes from the fact that I am aging and getting closer to death every day. that certainly hasn't changed but it has become more pronounced as of late. So I acknowledge that I will eventually die. And I do not want to leave my heirs and loved ones my art, because they could not care less. It would be a problem more than an inheritance. So I will sell it off eventually.

And I have over 600 items now.

Maybe even 700.

And I still buy stuff like crazy. So I figured if I sold 50 more items every year than I bought, I would lose 500 items in the next ten years. That would leave me with 150-200 pieces, plus the 10 or so I buy every year now anyway. That is another 100 pieces over those 10 years, making it more like 250-300. In ten years. After selling off 500 items. I am 46 now, so I would be 56 with the distilled essence of my current collection plus some goodies to yet be acquired.

Yeah, I could deal with that. In fact, I am making it happen as we speak. You may recall from a previous post that I consigned 31 items to Comic Link. Five have sold and 31 more to go -most in October and maybe some later even this year. Taxes won't be so bad since I lost money big time so far on these! But the money will be liquid soon and not art, so that counts for something I guess.

So between having too much art to live with, and more importantly too much to die with, and having bills to pay and college coming up and all that...well, The Fifty was born.

I will be getting four or five more pieces framed when the first check from Comic Link comes through and it will be a blast to throw some more art up on the walls. I am getting the original art from a concert poster - New Year's Eve of The Millenium for Ratdog, Planet Drum, and Hot Tuna - framed for the living room wall. Tim Truman painted this and it is fantastic!

That won't be in The Fifty as I do not think it qualifies, but I may change my opinion on that in the future.

Okay, too much blathering!

Take care and be well everyone!

CGS Supershow...it was a quick one

I knew I did not want to spend all day at the Comic Geek Speak 2013 Supershow, but this is getting ridiculous. Almost 2 hours each way and I only stayed 2 hours total. I bought 5 tpbs - Alan moore Swamp Thing 1 and 2, Fables 16 and 18, and The Shade. I needed the Shade because my slack buying habits meant I missed out on the last two or three issues. Since I own the painted covers for issue 11 and 12 I should read it, dontchathink? Besides I really enjoyed most of the previous issues and wanted to see how James Robinson ended it all. I already had Fables 17 but not 16 somehow, and got 18 as well so now I can catch up on those. And I have many of the Alan Moore Swamp Thing issues, but to read them all (including the first one - issue 20 - that has not previously been collected) is too much to pass up. I can get the next volumes later on, as apparently there are 6. That satisfied one goal, cheap trades, even if the latest LoEG escaped me once again. Next week at the next show perhaps.

As for the other goals, I was able to get my pictures of Tim Truman and my Ratdog/Planet Drum/Hot Tuna poster painting right away. That was cool, and I also talked commission with Tim and he agreed to do a Grateful Dead inspired piece and I am really excited about getting that. It may be one in a series if I can get what I want with the first one. I can see them lining my hallway upstairs if it all works out well. Now I can get that painting framed and on the wall.

As far as talking commissions, I was able to do so with two other artists as well. Rudy Nebres was there with his lovely and demure wife, as well as one of his sons. He lives 5 miles from here in NJ but we all traveled 100 miles to talk in Pennsylvania. I was pleased to be able to wear my tee shirt with his commission on it and they seemed really happy to see it as well. I talked another commission with Rudy and he was all for it. I told him I know he will do it immediately and that I wouldn't order it until I had my money in hand. So that is on the horizon, and I really need to solidify my choice for the content. As I told Mr. and Mrs. Nebres, after I got my Dr. Strange/Dracula/Scarlet Witch commission what do I really need after that? Rudy mentioned a few times during the 5-10 minutes I was with them how he saw the commission online (he doesn't get online much but I assume a son showed him) and how a lot of people had mentioned the piece to him or ordered their own based on seeing it. That made me happy, as he really deserves it.

The other artist I talked commissions with was also the only guy I commissioned to draw for me at the show and handed money to - Tom Raney. I have had a few single figure commissions through Tom and his deviant art site but talked with him about something more. It may indeed work out but  again I have to really think out my content as this will be the seminal Tom Raney piece for me I think. The Defenders are an easy choice but beyond that I am having some trouble. Hmmm, I just had an idea. As for what Tom drew for me today, you can't see it. I got restless and left before he finished it. It started out great, as did a Red Sonja he was doing for someone else. He will mail it out to me soon with my Jack Knight commission that I ordered his last time round. Groovy, 2 pieces of freakin' dynamite art coming my way. I am scaling down the convention pieces, but Tom Raney's work really blows me away. Wait until we all see the large and in charge KANG coming my way, guns blazing!

I was supposed to pick up a JK Woodward Michael Golden portfolio plate homage but he didn't get it done. So I got him to do a Batman head sketch on my big blue board instead. That is the fourth head sketch on this jam, adding to those done by Chandra Free, Robin Riggs (in pencil and so hard to see in the scan), and Jonathan Case. Here is a look at that piece - it is too large for my scanner bed so you get two pieces. I hope to add one or two next week as well.

These people are drawing fairly large heads on this thing. The board itself measures 20x16. I may start another one, brown with Wolverine, next week instead of adding to this one. We'll see I guess.

I said I only paid one person to draw for me, and that was technically true but perhaps misleading. I also had Katie Cook paint Hagrid, but it was for my daughter. Katie was sweet and kind enough to add Hagrid to a 17x5 piece she started in 2010. Now Harry, Hermione & Ron have company and the thing is done and ready for framing. Rather than pay for the painting, which would be weird as Katie always does it for free for my girl, I bought $30 worth of Gronk. Gronk rules Fridays.

So 3 at home commission arranged and pretty much accepted, but only one head sketch on a jam and one Kang in the mail to show for half a day. That is a far cry from 15 sketches per convention, but it really reflects my priorities now in the hobby. Those 3 home commission will cost quite a bit, easily as much as 15 convention sketches, but it will be worth it. And my girl got her Hagrid! Thanks Katie!!!

Upcoming conventions I am excited about, part one Comic Geek Speak Supershow in Reading PA 4/6

I am planning on hitting a few conventions soon. And by soon, I mean two in the next two weeks. I originally was going to the Asbury Park NJ convention last weekend, just to say hello to Al Jaffee with my daughter. She absolutely loves MAD TV and I thought it fitting she should meet such an integral part of the MAD look. But when we were getting ready to go that morning she asked me how long we were going to be there. An hour each way and maybe an hour or so at the convention I said. Two or three sentences later she expressed a desire not to invest the time. That was fine by me. We do enough together and will hit some big shows together this summer. It would have been nice to meet Ulises Farinas, who has done two spectacular commissions for me, but perhaps another time.

But this weekend it will be 90-120 minutes each way to rural Pennsylvania for the Comic Geek Speak Supershow. I have been to 3 or so of these, and they are a nice quiet break from the big show madness. I have never heard a podcast, much less the comic geek speak podcast, but I enjoy the convention. (Ooh, not true technically I guess. I have listened to a few Marc Maron podcasts after they loaded onto my ipod when synching from my wife's playlist.) Even though I am really moving away from convention sketches and staying with published pieces and bigger/fewer commissions there are a few reasons to go to this show. One I already mentioned, the low down locale. The 30 miles in and out of Reading PA is quiet and mellow and always a nice ride. You end up past the coastal regions of the northeast US and into true heartland of America stuff. Not like Indiana or Nebraska yet, but fundamentally different than Jersey cornfields. I like that. It wouldn't bring me to reading PA all by itself, but it is a nice touch. Kinda like the small town appeal of the Hawthorne NJ high school art class convention, it sets a sweet and mellow tone.

In order to travel that 200 miles or so round trip I need some true talent to be present. And since I am moving away from spending so much cash at conventions, and since I do not have it as my budget is going to the last few time payments on a painted cover, it better be something special to me. Oddly enough, this little show in the middle of nowhere does that in spades. Katie Cook goes here, so I go here as well. I found her art around 2008 and she was at an early Supershow so I went. At some point, 2010 or so, my elder daughter won a "Draw Gronk" contest online given by someone other that Katie. But the guy running it never followed through on the prize drawing from Katie so she was kind enough to do a nice little painting on a 17X5 piece of Bristol. She did Harry Potter and took up about 25% of the board. Hermione was added in 2010 at NYCC and Ron came last year. Now I hope to finish the piece with Dumbledore, Voldemort, or Hagrid and surprise my daughter with the finished piece.

My personal art goal is a nice finished pen piece by Tom Raney. Tom is one of the few artists who stay on my list no matter the frequency of our meetings. Some artists see me at their table at every opportunity - Tom Raney, Sean Chen, Andy MacDonald. Right now that may be about it. Then I get some big guns when I can, guys like Cheung. But those other guys bring it at a live event at a level I really appreciate. Tom and Sean will work in fine pointed pens or markers and I love the result. At this show I may have Tom add some background to a Fastball Special he did for me a few years ago. Or I may get a special request involving KANG. But if that proves difficult, it may be that background detail. Either way I am going to try and talk Tom into something much larger and involved than the single figure commissions he has been taking over at deviant art. Talking commission will be my main goal with Tom, and with Rudy Nebres as well. I have a few ideas for Rudy and will see which one he digs most. Then I will generate some reference and mail it over to his home. Then he will make magic with ink and talent and hard work.

The best part of the show won't involve me getting any art at all. Well, I may get something from his portfolio, but the goal of seeing Tim Truman in person at this show is to get a few pictures of him with this piece of art . It is the original painting for the poster advertising a Ratdog/Hot Tuna/Planet Drum concert on New Year's Eve 1999. If Tim has any Dead related or Dead themed art in his portfolio I may get it as well. I got this piece that way a year or two ago. 

I even bought Tim's last copy of the Ratdog poster at that show, and I now own the painting itself. Yes I love this hobby.

My goal is to walk out with 4-6 free/cheap head sketches as well. I have a Batman jam started and may start one or two others at this show and the next. So watch out Joe Staton, Tom, Lee Weeks, Rudy, and James!

I will let you know how it went next week, as well as tell you about the show I will hit the following weekend in NYC! HINT HINT Sean Chen, again and again!

Surprise acquisition - Tim Truman concert poster art

In the original comic art hobby there are a few seasonal sales you can come to count on. With most dealers it is a kind of waiting game, a gamble with the risk - reward being that the art could be purchased at any time at full price but if it gets to the seasonal sale it will be reduced to a very attractive price and you will get it then. Or you could be like dealer Roger Clark. Roger is always a little different, you see, because I find he always has fair prices. That is just odd, innit? And his year end sale is different as well. He took last year off for some reason but for the five or so years before that I had come to count on Roger Clark's New year's Eve sale. With Roger's sale the art did not sit in his for sale stock all year and then get discounted but rather contained NEW art, mostly form Roger's collection apparently and other stuff acquired over the year for the sale. I got a Tony Harris Flight of Bones page every year for three or four years there by staying home New Year's Eve and waiting for the art and prices to be posted. Roger cannot unearth those any more, but this year he had a Starman cover painting he knew I would be interested in. But this post is not about that cover, perhaps we will discuss that in the future.

This post is about this piece.

Tim Truman Ratdog/Hot Tuna/Planet Drum poster art

Although it will not be paid off for some time, this piece will be in my hands eventually. It is the poster art for a Planet Drum / Hot Tuna / Ratdog concert held on New Year's Eve 1999, the Millennium's Eve! How cool is that? I met Tim Truman twice in the last few years and actually bought this poster from him because it was so cool . And now I own the original. Thanks to Roger for working with me on this. If you ever come over my house expect to see this one on the wall.

What did I tell you? I would have to be Blessed to have 2013 be half the year that 2012 was? Well, consider me blessed. And thank you to Bonnie for tolerating this. I be Blessed indeed!