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Introduction: You’re about to read the first guest post on ComicArt.Tips, written by the collector known in the hobby as “Rabid Ferret”. Here he explains his favorite tip for new original comic art collectors, a worthwhile research technique you can apply to your favorite artists to help know when it’s time to bid strongly on a piece you don’t want to lose. In this example he walks through Jim Lee’s Uncanny X-Men run and helps you realize that having big pockets is probably not enough…
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Researching an Artist’s Run
When Francesco asked me if I had any interest in writing an article one topic jumped immediately to mind; the tip I give to every new collector entering the hobby that I always feel is overlooked.
Research. More specifically, sitting down with an artist’s run and doing the legwork to know what pages exist.
One of the most common problems in this hobby, especially for new collectors, is that they assume a lot based on memory. “I loved McFarlane’s Amazing Spidey run! I know it by heart!” But do you really? How many issues did he work on? How many pages did he draw? Of those pages, how many were any good? How many had Spidey? How many were all Aunt May? How many did Todd ink himself? How many splashes did he do? How many DPSs?
Chances are, you probably don’t know these answers and are relying on memory to fill in the gaps. And when you get into the weeds of reality, you start to get surprised.
(altro…)