My wife and I were out carousing this afternoon, having left the children home we decided to go to a favorite family restaurant. I have found the wife to be a much different individual when The Coven is broken. When all three females convene she is someone else, no better or worse but different. But I use the word carousing very specifically, because there is a great degree more fun in her demeanor and a higher bounce in her step when she can be a participant and not the High Priestess.
At one point she asked me to give a good example of a perfect record. (Record she said. We are indeed old fogeys.) I immediately said "The Royal Scam". But then I told her that perfect albums, one with all great songs, were common and that the true measure of a band was to have three such albums in a row. Now that is sustained excellence in music making. Here are some I would venture qualify, and I will start with The Dan since I mentioned Royal Scam. (NOTE: The Beatles don't count because you can go for more than three albums easily.)
Steely Dan
The Royal Scam (1976)
Aja (1977)
Gaucho (1980)
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin (1969)
Led Zeppelin II (1969)
Led Zeppelin III (1970)
Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
Rush (that's my band from back in the day, I could have started with A Farewell To Kings)
Hemispheres (1978)
Permanent Waves (1980)
Moving Pictures (1981)
The Grateful Dead (look I could go a few ways, but some songs on each album keep me from the Wake..Mars Hotel...Blues for Allah...Terrapin..Shakedown streak, which was amazing. So I go with)
Aoxomoxoa (1969)
Workingman's Dead (1970)
American Beauty (1970)
Yes (I would maybe even start with Time and a Word, a great and overlooked album)
The Yes Album (1971)
Fragile (1971)
Close To The Egde (1972)
Neil Young
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
After the Gold Rush (1970)
Harvest (1972)
Billy Joel has two with The Stranger and 52nd street, but he didn't quite keep it going with Glass Houses and Turnstiles was very good but not yet great. Any thoughts on who else has three great albums. Do you think any of my choices are wrong? Do I have the right band but the wrong albums? I would love to hear from you, just leave a comment and let's see what everyone thinks!
PS WOW! I just realized that Ilike that period from 1969-1972 or so, huh?
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Listening to Jerry and thinking about art
Sitting here listening to Dead Set and thinking about a new art acquisition.
I had not heard Dead Set in many moons. I remember once in the 1980s listening to Dead Set at dinner and my Dad came home a bit sauced.he explained that he had had his best day ever on the links and celebrated a bit. During dinner the record (yes, it was an lp record played on my father's Marantz stereo) eventually proceeded to Drums and Space. During Space my fairly lubricated Father proclaimed "I like this...what is it?" During Space.
I became a Deadhead (Dadhead?) around that time and eventually relegated Dead Set to the bottom of the pile, certainly below For The Faithful/Reckoning - which was the acoustic sets from the same shows the eelctric set Dead Det was culled from. (Listening to Friend of the Devil now and this slow version has a lot going for it.It was the way they did the song when I became a fan and tour follower in the 80s and 90s. shuffled to Little Red Rooster now. Bobby at some of his best.) But not too long ago I had the electric version of Brokedown Palace in my head and wanted to hear it again. So I hopped on Itunes and have been listening to Dead Set every few days for a good month now. It is a nice snapshot of the band at the time and I enjoy the work they do on the album.
The new art acquisition is an Al Capp daily from 1940s. I was looking over the Sunday Heritage auction last week; among their offerings lately have been a steady stream of Capp dailies. I wouldn't mind a Frazetta era strip and would certainly love a sweet daily with Abner and Daisy Mae but those weren't my main criteria. I read an Al Capp biography not too long ago by Michael Schumacher and Dennis Kitchen and that has increased my respect for Capp as an artist. From all accounts Frank Frazetta was very impressed with Al Capp's artistic abilities and that is enough of an endorsement for me. Capp employed assistants from the earliest days of the strip and by the end wasn't doing much at all. He apparently ALWAYS did the hands and faces in the strip. I have some reservations about how true that is for the later strips but don't know why I believe that.
So Heritage has been auctioning 3-5 Abner strips or specialty pieces each auction, Sunday auctions and bigger ones as well. Other auction houses as well I guess but I have noticed Heritage with more I think. But there are no shortage of pieces available. I look them over and try to focus on how much I think Capp drew. the earliest pieces maybe have more Capp, but really who knows. Strips with more hands and faces have more Capp. Strips with L'il Abner or Daisy Mae almost certainly have more Capp. (Garcia playing beautifully on Candyman now.)
This last week's strips were fairly typical of those auctioned lately. A bunch of early ones from 1940 and then some from 1974 or so, near the end (which was 1977 I think.). I immediately dismiss any of the ones from the 60s or 70s. The 50s may have Frazetta, almost certainly are Frazetta from the middle of that decade's dailies, and are therefore more expensive than the others. But is it possible that Al Capp was a better cartoonist than Frank Frazetta? Frazetta was certainly the better artist and among the most versatile artists of the last century. Look, I am not going to get out my Glamourpuss for reference to get the correct term, but Capp is somewhere between Milton Caniff and Hal Foster and Walt Kelly. So until Alex Raymond, with Stan Drake and Al Williamson among others, come along these are the guys slinging the ink like no ones business. And with every week having strips by Capp (and Foster as well, but at multiples of the price for Capp pieces) I knew my time would come. Then on the third or fourth strip this last week I saw one and exclaimed out loud "I love it!". That startled me, but I recognized that I should go with that feeling and throw in a modest bid. Low three figures I figured would do it. Then I forgot about it, honestly.
Well, I woke up Monday morning and was actually confused when I saw the email with my invoice. But this will have to be the end for now, as my eldest was promised the computer and the youngest was promised my presence for some Olympic viewing. But I will get back to you tomorrow or this weekend at the latest and show off the piece. I should probably pay for it now too.
I had not heard Dead Set in many moons. I remember once in the 1980s listening to Dead Set at dinner and my Dad came home a bit sauced.he explained that he had had his best day ever on the links and celebrated a bit. During dinner the record (yes, it was an lp record played on my father's Marantz stereo) eventually proceeded to Drums and Space. During Space my fairly lubricated Father proclaimed "I like this...what is it?" During Space.
I became a Deadhead (Dadhead?) around that time and eventually relegated Dead Set to the bottom of the pile, certainly below For The Faithful/Reckoning - which was the acoustic sets from the same shows the eelctric set Dead Det was culled from. (Listening to Friend of the Devil now and this slow version has a lot going for it.It was the way they did the song when I became a fan and tour follower in the 80s and 90s. shuffled to Little Red Rooster now. Bobby at some of his best.) But not too long ago I had the electric version of Brokedown Palace in my head and wanted to hear it again. So I hopped on Itunes and have been listening to Dead Set every few days for a good month now. It is a nice snapshot of the band at the time and I enjoy the work they do on the album.
The new art acquisition is an Al Capp daily from 1940s. I was looking over the Sunday Heritage auction last week; among their offerings lately have been a steady stream of Capp dailies. I wouldn't mind a Frazetta era strip and would certainly love a sweet daily with Abner and Daisy Mae but those weren't my main criteria. I read an Al Capp biography not too long ago by Michael Schumacher and Dennis Kitchen and that has increased my respect for Capp as an artist. From all accounts Frank Frazetta was very impressed with Al Capp's artistic abilities and that is enough of an endorsement for me. Capp employed assistants from the earliest days of the strip and by the end wasn't doing much at all. He apparently ALWAYS did the hands and faces in the strip. I have some reservations about how true that is for the later strips but don't know why I believe that.
So Heritage has been auctioning 3-5 Abner strips or specialty pieces each auction, Sunday auctions and bigger ones as well. Other auction houses as well I guess but I have noticed Heritage with more I think. But there are no shortage of pieces available. I look them over and try to focus on how much I think Capp drew. the earliest pieces maybe have more Capp, but really who knows. Strips with more hands and faces have more Capp. Strips with L'il Abner or Daisy Mae almost certainly have more Capp. (Garcia playing beautifully on Candyman now.)
This last week's strips were fairly typical of those auctioned lately. A bunch of early ones from 1940 and then some from 1974 or so, near the end (which was 1977 I think.). I immediately dismiss any of the ones from the 60s or 70s. The 50s may have Frazetta, almost certainly are Frazetta from the middle of that decade's dailies, and are therefore more expensive than the others. But is it possible that Al Capp was a better cartoonist than Frank Frazetta? Frazetta was certainly the better artist and among the most versatile artists of the last century. Look, I am not going to get out my Glamourpuss for reference to get the correct term, but Capp is somewhere between Milton Caniff and Hal Foster and Walt Kelly. So until Alex Raymond, with Stan Drake and Al Williamson among others, come along these are the guys slinging the ink like no ones business. And with every week having strips by Capp (and Foster as well, but at multiples of the price for Capp pieces) I knew my time would come. Then on the third or fourth strip this last week I saw one and exclaimed out loud "I love it!". That startled me, but I recognized that I should go with that feeling and throw in a modest bid. Low three figures I figured would do it. Then I forgot about it, honestly.
Well, I woke up Monday morning and was actually confused when I saw the email with my invoice. But this will have to be the end for now, as my eldest was promised the computer and the youngest was promised my presence for some Olympic viewing. But I will get back to you tomorrow or this weekend at the latest and show off the piece. I should probably pay for it now too.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Andy MacDonald
I am a huge fan of artist Andy MacDonald. Anyone who knows me knows that right now I am selling art in my Feed the Fifty sale which goes off tomorrow. I hope it goes off at least, but I have sold enough in the presale for it to be a success already.
But in thinking about the sale I have been thinking about my Starman pages, as noted in the last post I made. now as I was setting up this year's sale I was aware that I had to have some stuff to sell next year as well. I couldn't just bust out the unsold stuff from this year and hope people have come around in their thinking on how wonderful that missed art was; I need some new stuff. So that has been in the back of my mind lately.
Then this morning I read a forum post online about buying art from lesser known artists. Who knows, maybe it will even appreciate in value. And that got me thinking about Andy MacDonald.
I first became aware of Andy at the old church conventions in NYC that turned into the Penn Plaza Pavilion shows. Somewhere along the way there I became aware of someone else prowling the aisles at these shows, artist and geekboypress founder Louie LaPalombara. He was carrying an X-Men piece that he was having some guy I never heard of (guess who?) draw one character at a time. The characters looked great to me, recognizeable but utterly unique and distinctive, each one different and wonderful.
Searching on line revealed this piece, which may be it.
I loved this piece. It looks like 2006 was the year I got my first sketches from Andy MacDonald and it is no surprise that Starman and Dr. Strange were both added to my CAF in early April 2006. here is the Straman (Doc is tiny for some reason and I have to rescan it sometime in the future).
I now have about 45 pieces by Andy. Here are a few of my favorites from my CAF gallery.
Andy does Batman particularly well. Here are some nice examples.
He enjoys drawing Predator too, I think you can tell.
So at some point I had to get some commissions. I started innocently enough with the Inhumans, but soon lost control.
I knew i had to get some Starman commissions too. So I conceived of a series of commissions that would eventually have Andy draw the entirety of the Starman universe. I have had three done so far.
First was all the Starmen. Jack plus seven other characters became the template.
Since the supporting cast of Starman was so rich, I decided to get jack and his heroic friends next.
Now of course I needed the villains. Andy put everything I asked for into it and I love it as much as anything else he has done for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be scanned at the moment and time is tight. HA!
I don't know what will happen with Andy MacDonald's art career. I missed him at this year's NYCC, I hope he returns to the area soon and starts drawing for me again. But those art selfish thoughts; more importantly I hope wherever he is that he is drawing all day long with a giant smile on his face.
But in thinking about the sale I have been thinking about my Starman pages, as noted in the last post I made. now as I was setting up this year's sale I was aware that I had to have some stuff to sell next year as well. I couldn't just bust out the unsold stuff from this year and hope people have come around in their thinking on how wonderful that missed art was; I need some new stuff. So that has been in the back of my mind lately.
Then this morning I read a forum post online about buying art from lesser known artists. Who knows, maybe it will even appreciate in value. And that got me thinking about Andy MacDonald.
I first became aware of Andy at the old church conventions in NYC that turned into the Penn Plaza Pavilion shows. Somewhere along the way there I became aware of someone else prowling the aisles at these shows, artist and geekboypress founder Louie LaPalombara. He was carrying an X-Men piece that he was having some guy I never heard of (guess who?) draw one character at a time. The characters looked great to me, recognizeable but utterly unique and distinctive, each one different and wonderful.
Searching on line revealed this piece, which may be it.
 |
| Lifted from CAF gallery of Louie LaPalombara III |
I now have about 45 pieces by Andy. Here are a few of my favorites from my CAF gallery.
Andy does Batman particularly well. Here are some nice examples.
He enjoys drawing Predator too, I think you can tell.
So at some point I had to get some commissions. I started innocently enough with the Inhumans, but soon lost control.
I knew i had to get some Starman commissions too. So I conceived of a series of commissions that would eventually have Andy draw the entirety of the Starman universe. I have had three done so far.
First was all the Starmen. Jack plus seven other characters became the template.
Since the supporting cast of Starman was so rich, I decided to get jack and his heroic friends next.
Now of course I needed the villains. Andy put everything I asked for into it and I love it as much as anything else he has done for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be scanned at the moment and time is tight. HA!
I don't know what will happen with Andy MacDonald's art career. I missed him at this year's NYCC, I hope he returns to the area soon and starts drawing for me again. But those art selfish thoughts; more importantly I hope wherever he is that he is drawing all day long with a giant smile on his face.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Feed The Fifty sale days away! I'm getting nervous!
Okay, let's get this out of the way immediately...
http://www.bgwdesigns.com/doctorstarman/
That is the link to the Feed The Fifty First Annual 11/29 Birthday sale that commences Friday, 11/29. Hence that part of the title. The 11/29 part, there is no Friday part. Obviously the 11/29 part.
It is just a few days until I go live and pricing has been on my mind. It couldn't help to mention that the Starman pages will be priced slightly above market value on the ones that may have comps that have sold for less than $100. The Byrd pieces come to mind. They won't be priced highly, but I am not selling my collection here. At least where the Starman pages and covers are concerned. I am not pricing them high, but am not having a fire sale. There is no reason for me to sell pages from the main title for under $100. Under $200? Yes, I will sell many pages for under $200 and most for under $300 - like the Heath page from Starman 74 I sold. Most under $300, but not all (Buckingham? Conner? C'MON!) If you are a collector who has tried to buy Starman pages you probably know that I have been buying them for a long long time. So when I put these up for sale here, it is to offer you a chance at some long lost gems.
The same with the covers.I will die a happy man on 11/29/2066 if The Fifty consists of 50 painted Tony Harris Starman covers! So when I offer these for sale, know that it is just this weekend and only now and for these prices. Not high, nothing like the $5500 I saw on one dealer's site. but they have to be over $2000, at least these two, and one of them I consider a significantly better cover than the Robinson that sold on ebay recently for almost $3k. So make of that what you will.
As for the other items for sale, well...yes, I am selling off much of my collection. But I do not expect it all to sell, even if much of it will be priced under $100. But do not confuse my selling for a diminished desire to collect or accumulate art. I got the email today that I have been anticipating since I first looked at Mitch's NYCC booth...my piece was shipped and is due for delivery tomorrow! I do not expect to be available to sign for it until Friday believe it or not, although perhaps I will drive 35 minutes each way tomorrow night.
I expect to open it Friday on my birthday either way. You know what? I will be driving carefully until then!
http://www.bgwdesigns.com/doctorstarman/
That is the link to the Feed The Fifty First Annual 11/29 Birthday sale that commences Friday, 11/29. Hence that part of the title. The 11/29 part, there is no Friday part. Obviously the 11/29 part.
It is just a few days until I go live and pricing has been on my mind. It couldn't help to mention that the Starman pages will be priced slightly above market value on the ones that may have comps that have sold for less than $100. The Byrd pieces come to mind. They won't be priced highly, but I am not selling my collection here. At least where the Starman pages and covers are concerned. I am not pricing them high, but am not having a fire sale. There is no reason for me to sell pages from the main title for under $100. Under $200? Yes, I will sell many pages for under $200 and most for under $300 - like the Heath page from Starman 74 I sold. Most under $300, but not all (Buckingham? Conner? C'MON!) If you are a collector who has tried to buy Starman pages you probably know that I have been buying them for a long long time. So when I put these up for sale here, it is to offer you a chance at some long lost gems.
The same with the covers.I will die a happy man on 11/29/2066 if The Fifty consists of 50 painted Tony Harris Starman covers! So when I offer these for sale, know that it is just this weekend and only now and for these prices. Not high, nothing like the $5500 I saw on one dealer's site. but they have to be over $2000, at least these two, and one of them I consider a significantly better cover than the Robinson that sold on ebay recently for almost $3k. So make of that what you will.
As for the other items for sale, well...yes, I am selling off much of my collection. But I do not expect it all to sell, even if much of it will be priced under $100. But do not confuse my selling for a diminished desire to collect or accumulate art. I got the email today that I have been anticipating since I first looked at Mitch's NYCC booth...my piece was shipped and is due for delivery tomorrow! I do not expect to be available to sign for it until Friday believe it or not, although perhaps I will drive 35 minutes each way tomorrow night.
I expect to open it Friday on my birthday either way. You know what? I will be driving carefully until then!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
New pieces in Feed The Fifty
http://www.bgwdesigns.com/doctorstarman/
There it is again. The place to find the Feed The Fifty sale. Tonight I added art by Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Samnee, Bryan Talbot, Marc Hempel, Eric Canete,Jonathan Case,and more.
Two different Fastball Specials!
One of the above artists doing the Silver Surfer 4 cover!
Six Spider-Man strips with Dr. Strange in each one created by the bother team of Stan Lee and Larry Lieber!!!
http://www.bgwdesigns.com/doctorstarman/
That's the ticket! Seriously, selling 50 pieces might change my life in ways we both can;t imagine.
Remember: Money Good. Comics Good. Now let's be good together!
There it is again. The place to find the Feed The Fifty sale. Tonight I added art by Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Samnee, Bryan Talbot, Marc Hempel, Eric Canete,Jonathan Case,and more.
Two different Fastball Specials!
One of the above artists doing the Silver Surfer 4 cover!
Six Spider-Man strips with Dr. Strange in each one created by the bother team of Stan Lee and Larry Lieber!!!
http://www.bgwdesigns.com/doctorstarman/
That's the ticket! Seriously, selling 50 pieces might change my life in ways we both can;t imagine.
Remember: Money Good. Comics Good. Now let's be good together!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Ted McKeever and The Fifty
With all this talk about the need to Feed The Fifty, I figured another member should stand revealed.
 |
| Ted McKeever commission - Dr. Doom vs Dr. Strange in Hell |
My comic book habit has always been a relatively solitary pursuit. I read comics in high school (that one year working at 7-11 was helpful, read the whole Marvel and DC lines then) but stopped around the time I quit Sev. But freshman year at college I became friends with some older guys and a big part of their routine was comics. We would go on Thursday evenings to the mall and hassle the toy store owner to open his box. That was back when new comic book day was a Friday. Woodbridge Mall in Edison, twenty minutes from Rutgers but these guys had scoped it out and found the place to go. They also got comics from a guy in his dorm room who had a Heroes account. Those were different times. The dorm guy would spread all the new comics out on the floor and we would choose what we wanted. No Previews. CBG was around but haphazard.
So when I graduated but kept reading comics I tended to go my own way. I used to wonder why I was never an appreciated customer despite spending twenty bucks every week and it was because I read stuff no one else liked, stuff with low discounts because even 5 copies might not sell in the store. Cerebus. Mister X. Black Kiss. Later on it would be Scene of the Crime. Coventry. Cerebus.
And Superman's Metropolis and Batman : Nosferatu by Ted McKeever and JM and Randy Lofficier. I loved the beautiful art of guys like Moebius the most, but I also developed tastes for guys like Ted McKeever. It is amazing how certain artists imbue india ink with personality and characteristics unlike that created by any other person. Ted McKeever does this. Ted McKeever's art cannot be drawn by someone else. You look at it and it has an energy all its' own. It cannot have been made by someone else. Great inkers have this quality; they are great draftsman, creators of not only content but form and execution. The art produced by Ted McKeever is fecund and infected. The ink retains its' physical characteristics but it has been changed, tainted and fouled by the wielder in his search for something more, something other. And the above work is proof that sometimes he finds it.
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
5 Ted McKeever Dr. Strange vs Dr.Doom in Hell
6 Dan Green Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa splash
7 Bill Sienkiewicz Superman 400 pinup recreation
9 Darwyn Cooke Wonder Woman
10 Dan Adkins Dr Strange 170 page 1113 Anna Merli Clea
14 Mitchell Bretweiser
15 Jae Lee Dr. Strange
on re-reading this it is rushed and really tries to do two things quickly and therefore does both poorly. But I am hungry so I am letting it fly
Monday, November 18, 2013
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