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Collecting Comic Art ..... Part Three |
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A frequent question I hear from people is "where do I find original comic art?". In my life as a collector and dealer I have dealt with people from all walks of life in pursuit of art. Sometimes I find an old storage bin, or an antique store that has a piece. I have bought art from the artists or a fan who got a piece from the artist. The usual way however is to locate a dealer or a collector like myself, who sells art to most likely support his own voracious appetite to add to his collection those items that interest him, or her.
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Unfortunately, large quantities of art were destroyed routinely by the syndicates & comic publishing houses. Even the artists themselves would destroy their art. In the cases of the publishers, they generally had no use for the art after it was published. They could easily reprint from a proof copy of the art that would be kept in the files for that purpose. The result was either the return of the works to the artist, gifts to people who ask for them or storage & then outright trashing once the storage areas were full. "Horror" stories are of Frank King, creator of Gasoline Alley, who burned thousands of originals in his backyard when he needed to empty out his barn; and Dick Calkins, artist on Buck Rogers from 1929-1939, who built a bonfire in his yard after a contract dispute with the owners of the strip. As a result there are only a few examples of genuine Calkins work on Buck Rogers known to exist & only a slightly larger quantity of Frank King originals known. Many of the Frank King examples are Sunday pages that were hand-colored by King for an exhibit in the forties. Likely, had they not been separated from the rest of the originals for this purpose. They would also have been destroyed. |
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Something that every collector can remember is that a good piece of art does not have to be valuable to be good art. Only the less educated equate value to quality & though there is a direct correlation when it comes to the top artists, there are so many artists that there is only one cardinal rule when you collect. Follow your taste. If you like what you buy, you will always be happy. |
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A Pictorial History of Sequential Art from Cave painting to Spider-Man The History of Comic Art A Chronological History of Comic Art in America This site created & maintained by Graffix Multimedia ©1992-2006 |