December 30, 2011 Market Report 2011

It's that time of year again. Here's the scoop. I have been tracking mainly the eBay sales since 2006. In that time, I have recorded 239 sales that I deemed as normal, that is, not counting double pages (4 of these), obvious grail pages (21), and not pre-Bay (31).

In 2011, there were 14 auction sales and all were counted.

DVS only (5) @ $787 (no change from 2010, $782)
+Ger thru 100 (1) @ $760 (about the historical average)
+Ger (101-200) (8) @ $800 (up from 2010, $710)

The prices on Cerebus original art have definitely crept up over the years. The first number is the average price during that year, while the parenthetical price gives the older price in 2011 dollars... it's time to start accounting for inflation.

2006 (48 p) $596 ($723)
2007 (11 p) $659 ($762)
2008 (41 p) $574 ($636)
2009 (12 p) $670 ($716)
2010 (11 p) $735
2011 (14 p) $793

Using the weighted average of the inflation adjusted prices, you get $700 (+/- $170) as the historical price for these pages.

So if you take one standard deviation rule, then a mediocre page ends up in the $530 range, while a snazzy page ends up in the $870 range.

What can I expect for a normal Cerebus page?

About $700, I'd say.

December 22, 2011 Solstice Solace

As some know, I have been living and working in Beijing for the last 11 months while on a sabbatical from my home institution. What a great time.

No Cerebus art purchases for me in a while... nor much for anyone else, for that matter.

I have picked up a few things I liked in the last couple of months.

I've never actually read "Mouse Guard" and yet I find this artist's work to be exceptional, so I wanted a nice sample. And I thought this was nice.



I've mentioned the young oil painter Abbey Ryan before. This is an 8x10 piece she did that I just added to my collection of her work.



And I really (really) liked this depiction of the FF that Paolo Rivera did this year. So classic and fitting for this group.

December 9, 2011 Draft colour...

Computerized draft:


And, in related historical background news:

In 1996, the Detroit Institute of Arts held this exhibition:
"Woven Splendor: Five Centuries of European Tapestry in the Detroit Institute of Arts," at which this tapestry was on display:



"Millefleurs Tapestry with the Arms of the Brachet and other Families of Orleans, Blois, and Anjou," probably designed in France and woven in the southern Netherlands, ca. 1500-20, wool & silk, 9'6" x 10'1", Founders Society Purchase, General Membership Fund, DIA no. 56.190.

And, in unrelated but highly relevant news, these two pages did not sell for $700 each, so they're up again at $600 on eBay.

December 5, 2011 Spectacular!

OK. I think this piece is just spectacular.

Although nominally an entry in the WWC series, it stands alone as a rather interesting juxtaposition of a purely secular idea cast into a typically non-secular genre (okay, see, it's the antipode to the last part of the "Cerebus" series, where idiosyncratic non-secular views are cast into a typically secular genre... but I meta-textually digress).

Now.

Let's imagine someone was willing to subsidize the cost of making some nice quality b/w prints on nice paper in order for Gerhard to offer hand-colored editions where 100% of that charge stayed with artist? No b/w copies to be made available, just Ger's colored versions.

Let's see hands up and conversation on that? Write to me privately if you don't want to leave it in the comments.

December 3, 2011 Gerhard Update

You might recall, back in October, the complicated idea I had for a combination of "World Without Cerebus" with my own long-time sig file quote, inspired by a kickstarter project being done by someone else altogether.

Heh - you got all that? Good.

The kickstarter project was a person who was pushing on the illuminated manuscript art form, mainly, as it turns out, using ornate and gilded letters to decorate poetry or other sorts of sayings.

(P.S., did you know that kickstarter.com is currently only open to artists with US bank accounts?)

The WWC idea was to conflate the ideas of using an illustrated manuscript page, a decided non-secular art form, to convey a strong secular allegory about science and knowledge. Given the nature of this transformation during the run of the Cerebus series, it draws a little less on the usual WWC events and more on a concept. Picking a remarkable breakpoint, I decided to title this entry as Page 185, coming just before "186" (an issue with strong meaning in the series).

And the subject matter centers on the 14th C Old French quote that has sat on the bottom of my email messages for decades:

"Vaille Que Vaille Lors se Verras"
One goes as one goes, then one shall see

And to include, as the universal power from the big sword-wielder in the sky:

"Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est"
And thus knowledge itself is power (Sir Francis Bacon).

And to wrap science, emerging from the tree of knowledge, in the most basic operational philosophy of science, namely, Occam's Razor:

"Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate"
one should not multiply entities beyond necessity
(William of Occam)

While the symbolic enemies of science do their best to attack it, and while - all the while - the sheep look on.

Hey, I didn't say it was going to be easy.

But, when Gerhard is on the job, you know it is going to be beautiful.

December 1, 2011 圣诞快乐

I was in Indonesia over Thanksgiving and did not even notice what day it was until my email traffic dropped for a while. What a nerd.

No sale on this one:

Cerebus 22 p 12
Ebay 120817553553
Seller: wmprod1959
Price: $460 (reserve not met)



I'm back in Beijing again and the stores are, well... it's a little freaky, actually.



圣诞快乐 (Merry Christmas)