Thursday 31 January 2013

Comic Arts Patrons #15-20

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DAVE SIM:
This really came about because of discussions between Lon Allen at Heritage Auctions -- an early signatory of the petition -- and myself on ways we might acknowledge the valuable contribution that comic art patrons -- make that Comic Art Patrons -- make to the economic well-being of the comics field.  I asked how much of a 'firewall' there was between Heritage and their buyers. Could I, as an example, do a drawing of Cerebus for their top fifty or top 100 buyers and have it forwarded to them? Could I get just their first names to personalize it to them? It had never come up before so there were discussions at the executive level. They decided that No, even giving out the first name would be a bad idea since it might lead the buyer to wonder what other information they had given out. Good point. But they did agree that they would forward the drawings. Lon and I discussed how many drawings I should do and he suggested probably not more than twenty. So that became the number. Which moved it, in my own mind, from a head sketch to a more finished piece. I basically took some of the illustration board scrap that I get with the pages I get cut (it's $15 a sheet so that should probably be 'scrap' in quotation marks) and I did 'No.20'. I was smart enough to know to work backwards, lest I go 'No.10 -- that's enough for me.'

No.20 was done in May 2012 and then Kickstarter took off which devoured the next four months of my life. In the interim I had decided to do the pieces in tiers. No.15 to No.20 at one size and No. 10 to No.14 at a slightly larger size, No.6 to No.9 at a slightly larger size, Nos. 2 to 5 at a slightly larger size and then No.1 significantly larger.

It was one of those projects that just telescopes on me. It seems like I'm never going to get done. Then I had to get 'montage' prints of all 20 so each recipient could see what all the others looked like. I was very glad when they were all finally 'out the door' on November 9th.

I was afraid that the 2011 date was in danger of being two years past by the time they got them!

I also decided to try selling a few pages of HIGH SOCIETY through Heritage as THE HIGH SOCIETY COLLECTION in their February auction catalogue. Hopefully one or two of the twenty will be interested in putting in a bid on one of the pages -- including the splashes for No.44, No.36, page 20 of issue 35 (with Cerebus changing into his candidate suit for the first time) and the 'Cerebus takes a thoughtful sip from his fingerbowl" page from No.26. Lon said he's sure all 20 would have heard of me and CEREBUS. We'll see.

Own a piece of Cerebus! Dave Sim is auctioning 10 pages of High Society original art at Heritage Auctions. Internet bids can be placed until 21 February, or you can bid in person at the live auction held in the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, 2 East 79th Street, New York on 22 February.  The pages being auctioned are:
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