I Finally Got one of my Holy Grails!

[Lone Ranger]

As many of you know, I'm absolutely nutty for infinity covers. I'm not sure why, but it all goes back to a certain Don Newton drawn Overstreet cover. I've been trying to track down every infinity cover ever published, and I've got 50+ of them. I love them so much that I actually wrote an article on them and submitted it to Comic Book Marketplace that never got published because of its untimely demise.

Well, I've never seen any original art from an infinity cover, so when I saw the cover to Ghosts #100 up for auction, I just had to have it. I was also worried that I'd never see one again.

It cost me an arm and a leg (actually - I funding the purchase with some art sales on eBay) but it was actually very inexpensive for a cover.

It's being framed right now, and I couldn't be happier. I've got 4 nails on particular wall waiting for 4 pieces of art I've got a the frame shop right now. I decided to sell the bulk of my art collection to focus on stuff I see as 'frameworthy', so I'll have a fraction of the quantity but I'll be able to look at it every day.

[Beta Ray Bill]

Frakin' nice. Wow, seriously, that's a nice score... Happy for you.

[MDG]

How often are you buying original art these days, LR? I was buying a lot from around '87 to 2000, when I could still get interesting stuff I liked for less than $100, but feel that prices were getting well above the enjoyment I got from collecting.

I think this summer I'll finally get around to my goal of trimming my collection to 50 or so pieces, so keep your eye on eBay.

[Lone Ranger]

I bought a ton when eBay first got rolling 1999-2001, and eventually filled up a couple of portfolio books. Like you, I was getting everything under $100, and most for under $50. I'd also but multi-page lots from Heritage Auctions and those worked out to be pretty good deals.

In the past 2 years, I've only bought this and a couple of other things. I think I've beat my addiction.

When I got my first piece of artwork framed, I realized that I wanted as much as possible up on the walls (and as much as I'd be allowed). We bought a new house last year and it needed work (will for the next 10 years), so I decided to start selling off the artwork I could live without and hold onto what I deemed to be frameworthy. Just having them in the portfolio books was no longer good enough for me, and money was needed.

I've done quite well on Ebay - most stuff sold for much more than I paid for it. Larry Lieber Rawhide Kid pages I bought for $20 a page in 2004 were going in the $80-$200 range,Ernie Chan Batman pages $150+, a 5 page Al Hartley western story I bought for $50 in 2003 sold for $250. I've got a Dick Dillin JLA page and a 5 page Bob Powell romance story up right now, but that may be about it for my art sales. Some of you may remember a thread I started on a Fox Pre-Code horror story I bought a while back. It was $350 and I sold it 3 months later for $500. A few things haven't sold all that well - I was surprised by how little I got for some Gray Morrow stuff as well as a 80s John Buscema FF page.

I'm probably down to 20-25 pieces now (from 60+), but think I've held onto the good stuff. The 4 items I'll have on the wall I mentioned above are the infinity cover, a Gil Kane cover to Outlaw Kid #10, the Joe Staton Blackhawk page I posted a while back in the 'Purchased' thread and a Don Newton Batman page.

My framed cover to Rawhide Kid #90 went 'missing' during our renovations. It was in a closet with all of our paintings. I can't say who did it because we've had so many people through our house, but I've informed local shops to keep an eye out for it.

What I've got left to eventually frame are:

• Two Ramona Fradon sketches
• Toth page from Marvel western back-up story
• Sal Buscema/P Craig Russell double page spread from a Marvel Tarzan
• Various Dick Dillin JLA and World's Finest pages
• Doug Wildey Harvey horror page
• Gray Morrow Vigilante page - I've got 6, might sell some.
• HarveyEisenberg Yogi Bear back cover from March of Comics

[Kan-Man]

Nice going, Scott.

I'm curious, when you do get around to displaying everything will they be grouped together or scattered around the house? I've got a ton of stuff waiting to be framed but I've found the cost of framing so prohibitive that it's all just sitting and waiting.

What issue did the Don Newton page come from?

[Lone Ranger]

I'm curious, when you do get around to displaying everything will they be grouped together or scattered around the house?

One word: Basement

I've got a ton of stuff waiting to be framed but I've found the cost of framing so prohibitive that it's all just sitting and waiting.

I agree - I've always balked at spending 3 times on the frame than the artwork, but I've found a local place with decent pricing and they have 30% off sales every few months.

What issue did the Don Newton page come from?

It's from Detective #483 - here's a slightly cropped shot of it.

[Slam_Bradley]

It's from Detective #483 - here's a slightly cropped shot of it.

You're just doing this to taunt me.

[Lone Ranger]

You're just doing this to taunt me.

You know you're in my will.

[MWGallaher]

I've gotta ask: How many pasted-on stats are there on the GHOSTS #100 cover?

[MDG]

You know you're in my will.

That's not a joke--I have three friends with sizeable comic and art collections, and we've all discussed that when one of us takes the dirt nap, the others will help the survivors sell off the collections to get maximum value.

[Lone Ranger]

I've gotta ask: How many pasted-on stats are there on the GHOSTS #100 cover?

It's funny you should ask.

Ever since I became obsessed with Infinity Covers, I've really wanted to see how it was done. As I became older and wiser, I realized it was done with stats - except for hand drawn Golden Age examples that usually only recreate the image once.

There are 4 levels of photostats, so with the original drawing it shows 5 degrees of infinity in total. That's about as many as I've ever seen I think. It's great to be able to touch and feel the process (that being said, it's being 'slabbed' right as we speak).

[Red Oak Kid]

Infinity, sminity.

Dude, you've got a signed RICH BUCKLER cover!!!!!!!!

[InfoBroker]

That's not a joke--I have three friends with sizeable comic and art collections, and we've all discussed that when one of us takes the dirt nap, the others will help the survivors sell off the collections to get maximum value.

What a nifty idea and nice for the survivors.

*frowns*

I'm kinda blessed though. My two sons were brainwashed into comical book pursuits at a very tender ages (4 years and 6 years), so to avoid a squabble over who gets what, I have a very strange proviso in my will. Justin being the elder gets to go first and he can pick any single comical book he wants. (Bet he makes a beeline for Spider-man #1) Seth then gets to pick two (If it were me I'd nail the first issue of X-men and then grab the very beat up copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 - its worn with tons of reading history). After that they each takes turns, one comical book at a time, until they reach the stragglers, which will probably be comical books they already acquired from dear old dad, and/or those Atlas/Seaboard comics that they still wonder why I am hanging onto. They can stop at any agreed mutual moment and sell or donate whatever remains.

some decorator tips for kimosabe:

I was watching one of those home-remake/de-clutter shows on BBC America a few weeks or so ago, and there was a Kiss-fanatic who had posters, action figures, dolls, albums, and tons of other Kiss related stuff. So much it cluttered two rooms and wasn't very showy. The design team thinned some of it (about a third - so for most casual viewers it was still a clutter), but the clever thing they did was build a Kiss closet, with the really cool stuff on display, and when the doors open, it would play a Kiss song at random, and blare rotating lights and other stuff in a pretty good mock impression of being at a loud rock concert.

They took all the posters, and instead of spreading them all over the place, they grouped them together in a tight design in a corner near and around the magic closet. They only put on display about 6 or 8, but the frames were designed to hold multiple posters (separated by acid free, archival safe rice papers), and he could interchange them at anytime. Sort of a Japanese less-is-more design attitude.

The rest of the room was turned into a quiet (well except when the closet doors opened) well organized reading nook for his wife. The contrasts work excellently and the couple could still hang out in the same room together. Nice design all the way round.

The half dozen or so original comical book art pieces that I have, are more about the mechanics of comic production (some have tissue overlays for color dropouts or drop-ins), or they deal with panel-to-panel sequence rather than poster pose-like pages. Kinda busy for wall display. The only one framed and mounted on the wall that I own is a two page spread from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics that works wonderfully on the wall. Not only is it a great design, and nifty composition, the content of the message is very thought-provoking and draws positive comments from all who see it. Even my Aunt Jean who says she doesn't like comics at all (or so she thinks) finds it intriguing.

I should also mention that I did a large (about 6' x 9') blowup, using acrylic and masonite, of the page in Mister Miracle #9 where Himon and Metron meet and discuss Scott Free's future time on Apokolips. I did it way back in the early 90s but to display it, required mounting the four panel in a row, rather than structured to the 2x2 grid of the page layout. Finally, in this home I moved into last year, I have a wall large enough to display it "full-page" and do justice to the epic poetry that it conveys. I just need to find time to get it mounted.

-jb the "it's on my massively large to-do list." ib -

[MichikoS]

LR,

An infinity of congratulations on the GHOSTS cover. Some "infinity" covers, as you imply in one of your posts, are 2x or 3x at most...a 5x is truly unusual.

When does a replicated cover image count as an infinity cover? 2x? Or must the image have more than two additional discernable replications in order to qualify?

Michi

[The Shadow]

That's a beautiful piece!

Thanks for sharing it and the awesome Newton Batman!!!