INTERVIEW: MIKE BURKEY--ROMITAMAN!

If you're a seasoned comic art collector, or even new to the hobby, you've probably heard the name Mike Burkey.  Known as ROMITAMAN due to his passion for collecting Spider-Man originals drawn by the legendary John Romita Sr, Mike is one of the largest art dealers in the OA game.  I personally would not have the collection I have today without the purchases and trades I've been able to do with Mike over the years.  Mike is someone you absolutely must know in the hobby.

 

BRUNSWICK:  At one point you were simply a collector that bought and sold art. Is there a moment in time, or a specific deal, that made you think it was time to turn into a comic art dealer?

 

BURKEY:  Early on in collecting, I realized this hobby was too expensive and I couldn't afford to collect comic art unless I could subsidize my spider-man collecting by buying and reselling OTHER art I didn't collect to help pay for the art I do collect!

That's how it all started..... I always tell people...my philosophy was..."I'LL BUY A ROCK ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD IF I CAN SELL IT TO MAKE A PROFIT"

So I kept buying and trading for art I DIDN'T collect, so I could use that art for trading... Many collectors back in the day never wanted to sell...but they would TRADE their art for other art they collected....so that's what I did!

My inventory just kept growing and growing and I kept doing so many private deals over the phone and at comic shows before the Internet came about.... And when "the Internet" started up, my tax accountant told me I should make this a business .... so I did!

I always remember...... BEFORE the Internet...... I ALWAYS had 300-500 dollar a month phone bills as that was how you connected with other art collectors to get art deals done....MY HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED! LOL

 

 

BRUNSWICK: What's your take on the recent prices of OA? Does it seem to you that the high end pieces are accelerating faster than they were in the past? What about the lower end?
 

BURKEY:  Absolutely....Just an example pertaining to what I collect.....

My first 5 years in the hobby I told myself that if the Romita Amazing Spiderman art I was collecting and enjoying would ever be worth 1000 per page In the future, that my retirement would be set....

(But remember.....I was paying between 40-125 dollars for small AND LARGE SIZE ASM pages in 1989-1992.... and no one really liked Romita ASM art back then.....I constantly got laughed at (in fun) by art collector friends and dealers for collecting Romita ASM art when I came into this hobby.... as DITKO and KIRBY were KING and Steve Ditko was the ONLY "REAL" Spider-Man artist people would tell me all the time. :O)

In 1993 I remember paying 2000 dollars total for 4 great historic pages to ASM 50..and an art friend of mine told me I was nuts to pay that high and I'd never get my money back out of them.... 1996 was the first time I ever paid 1000 dollars for a large art ASM page. Again my friends told me I was nuts..... I always tried to stay 1 step ahead of other people collecting ASM art in the 1990's.. It certainly helped a lot that I got a good job working in a major hospital after I got out of the Army in 1989, and finished medical schooling in 1991, so I finally had disposable income.....

However...... I did make a decision and traded/sold away all of my Romita Amazing Spiderman covers in 1997-98 to buy and trade for Romita ASM interior art when covers hit 5000 dollars!

I felt that collectors would be able to afford buying small art ASM Romita art at 1000 a page 1 day when I would ever decide to sell...., but NO WAY would a collector be able to pay over 5000 for a Romita ASM cover... LOL....

Needless to say..... I was very wrong there! It's easy to see NOW that my estimations have been exceeded by over 10-fold on covers...... and pages!

 

BRUNSWICK: What do collectors need to know about using trade with you? Are there certain types of pieces that get your attention more than others?
 

BURKEY:  I'll trade for ANYTHING if I can use it!

Usually the older the art..so long as its Marvel, DC or EC art being offered to me, I'll trade for it as that's the art I like looking at the most.

I don't like having art sitting on my website for a year or 2 like many other dealers do...I believe that if I keep putting new art on my website I will attract more customers to keep coming back and this to me is a good thing. So I try to move inventory as fast as possible to keep things fresh for people coming to my website!

BRUNSWICK: What do you personally collect these days?
 

BURKEY:  ASM interior art from #39-297, any ASM strip art from 1977-1980, and Incredible Hulk covers from 102-231 (The Herb Trimpe era mostly)

 

BRUNSWICK:  I've noticed that you've been selling a number of Romita Sr. Amazing Spider-Man pages--pieces that were once exclusively collection pieces. Why have you decided to sell collection pieces now? Are there still things in your collection that you consider untouchable?
 

BURKEY:  Nothing is untouchable if the price is right.  I've sold certain pages because I've gotten a price that I never dreamed I'd get for them when I first started collecting. but they are market value now..... I grew up with nothing...I never even saw a 100 dollar bill until I joined the army when I was 20 years old....as my parents couldn't afford to send me to college.

So NOW.....when someone offers me good cash or good trade for a small art ASM interior art page I paid 100-200 bucks for in the early 90's..i'm definitely going to consider it.

I have a lot of ASM art and I don't think I want it all going to go to my grave with me when i'm hopefully very old..LOL

I have my favorite pages from certain issues I will keep til i'm an old man I hope.

 

BRUNSWICK:  Will you be releasing other collection pieces to market soon?
 

BURKEY:  I really wont actively release any collection art to the public.... .that's what my website is for.... If someone wants to contact me and make me a fair offer for pages I will at the very least discuss it with them. Most people refuse to even entertain offers for collection pieces...I at least will chat with people and see if there interest is high enough for us to do a deal.

I've probably sold and traded about 20 pages from my collection over the past 3 years so being reasonable if 2 people can agree to a deal like that.

 

BRUNSWICK: What do make of the recent Kirby controversy? The thought being that Kirby had help pencilling some of the commissions he did later in his career. Do you think this will hurt the sales and legitimacy of later Kirby work?

BURKEY:  Well that dropped a major bomb on the Kirby collecting part of our hobby. and i've had my share of being dogged by people thinking I'm selling fake Kirby drawings which is quite unsettling...but you gotta make it right if you feel someone bought something that was not as advertised.

This doesn't affect the PUBLISHED Kirby art in our great hobby in any way shape or form...But it does change the entire dynamic for Kirby commission and sketch drawings by Jack now, as there will ALWAYS be suspicions about what Jack really drew on each piece that's not published.

BRUNSWICK:  I've heard you say that this is the greatest hobby ever. Can you elaborate on that?

BURKEY:  I was lucky enough that I got into this hobby when it was easy to buy art at cheap prices..... but I didn't have a lot of money really to spend on it so it was all relative....like any hobby..its all about TIMING!

I had no idea what comic art was when I was curious and decided to buy my VERY first piece of comic art out of the comics buyers guide in October of 1989 for 100 bucks (a GREAT battle page from ASM 46 with Spiderman battling the shocker) when I got it in..my jaw dropped...... I knew this was HISTORY I was holding in my very hands....... I'm holding this actual one of kind piece of art that john Romita slaved over for MANY HOURS drawing in 1966, and Stan Lee's writing of the story was partially written in the side columns...... I loved it so much I called the dealer (Scott Dunbier) and I asked him if he still had the other 2 pages he had 110 each on..and he said he still had them...so I bought them also. I'm proud to say that 20 years later I had amassed 19 pages to that issue..... and I only needed the splash...... and In the fall of 2010 I bought the splash to ASM 46 from a long ago marvel staffer, and I completed the book...now THAT'S what makes this hobby AWESOME! :O)

 

BRUNSWICK:  Moving forward, from a strictly investment perspective, where do you think people should park their money?

BURKEY:  Honestly..if you can afford it...ANYTHING from the 1960's era of MARVEL with major super hero titles (particularly LARGE ART covers splashes and pages) I feel will be GOLD in the future, as this was when Marvel was in its infancy and just starting out.

obviously COVERS and SPLASH pages from any era for the most part will always be very sought after also

BRUNSWICK: When do you think a single piece of American comic art will break the million dollar threshold? What do you think it will be?
 

BURLEY:  I feel that the first million dollar comic art piece will be a will be a very key early Ditko Amazing Spiderman cover or a key early Jack Kirby cover from the Fantastic Four.

 

BRUNSWICK: From a collector POV, is there one piece of artwork you would like to see in your lifetime? What would it be?

BURKEY:  Ok I'll be daring...THE COVER TO AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 or AMAZING FANTASY #15! LOL

 

But realistically..... i've always loved the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #50 as my favorite cover!

 

A close friend owns it but he doesn't want to sell it...but when it comes to one of a kind collectibles which is the essence of our great hobby....that's how it goes...... and that's why this hobby is so fun.....because EVERYTHING is 1 of a kind, and owning a key 1 of a kind piece of art has an even greater attachment when YOU own it! :O)
 

Many thanks to Mike for the interview and the wonderful scans he provided from his collection!  To see more of Mike's collection or simply browse his website for the thousands of awesome originals he has for sale go to www.romitaman.com

 

ART HIGHLIGHT: THE MISSING HERO FOR HIRE!

'SWEET CHRISTMAS!", I love me some Luke Cage books from the 70's.  Billy Graham did all the pencils and inks on all the early covers numbered 3-16 and he did a masterful job.  Why he wasn't selected as the penciller on the interiors over George Tuska I find hard to understand.  I hope it was simply a deadline issue because the cover work is leaps and bounds better than the interiors IMHO.  None of these covers, however, has found their way to the marketplace--and I've looked for many years.  The only exception is the 15 cover (below) which is just about twice up.  It popped up on ebay a number of years ago and I bought it from the collector who won it.  I traded it recently--which makes me all the more hungry to find one of the others.  Has anyone seen even one of them?  I have posted them here for your appreciation...

OPINION: IS IT FEAR OR ART THAT SELLS?

What is the mechanism that makes you pull the trigger before you buy a piece of art?  Sometimes you find that perfect piece within your budget and that makes the decision easy.  But I'll bet that more often than not these days your art purchases are made out of fear--fear that you won't find the thing you're looking for at this price level again.  Here are a couple of examples of what I consider to be recent fear based purchases...          

The first begins as a reaction to the sale of the ASM 6 page 12 (above) by Steve Ditko which sold in ComicLink's May auction for a record price of  $64,000, and the ASM 30 page 16 (below) by Ditko that sold in the same auction for a healthy price of $36,000.

Shortly after these two pages sold, another page from ASM 30 p 2 (below) sold off of Nostalgic Investments website for $32,000.  This is my subjective opinion at work here--but this is a page that should have sold for much less.  There is no great shot of Spider-man which I believe is essential for a page that crosses the 30k barrier.  This is a page that sold out of the FEAR that they were about to be priced out of the ASM Ditko market.

My second example of a fear based sale begins with the sale of the ASM 106 cover by Romita Sr.(below)at the ComicConnect auction last week for the very healthy price of $38,500.

A day or two after the 106 cover auction closed, this cover (below), the ASM 118 cover, also by Romita, sold for the full price of 30k off the Romitaman website.  This cover had been on Burkey's site for well over a year at this price with no takers.  Even though I think that the 118 is a nice cover, and in the interest of full disclosure I used to own it, I feel it's safe to say that FEAR of being priced out of the ASM Romita cover market was IMO the reason behind this quick purchase.

Whatever your reasons for buying art may be--my advice is to at least love the art a little bit before you let the FEAR of being priced out take over.  Or at least make sure you know the reason why you're pulling the trigger.

TRADER TRENCHES: Do I get a do-over?

Marvelmania - Toys for Tots poster art by Jack Kirby

San Diego '97 - I'm cruising the dealer floor, a much easier feat in those days, the art dealers were all on one side of the room and you could walk around easily--even on Sunday.  I see this huge Kirby poster piece at Anthony's table. It was bigger than a DPS, 17x22.  I asked Anthony how much he wanted for it.  He tells me that he thinks it's going to be 8k, but he's not sure 'cause he co-owns it and needs to check.  I tell him if it's 8k I want to buy it, NOW!  It's awesome!  The other owner was Mike Carbonaro.  At roughly the same time, good guy collector, Vince Oliva, was at Mike's table trying to buy the same piece.  Anthony tells me that's he's got to go over to Mike to find out what Mike wants to do with my 8k offer.  A few minutes later, Anthony returns and tells me that there is another interested party but he's pretty sure I can have the piece at 9k.  I agree to the 9k and whip out my check book.  Not so fast, Anthony needs to go make sure with Mike before I can take the Kirby home.  When Anthony returns the price is 10k.  This goes on for a bit.  I'm getting kind of upset because the price is getting higher every few minutes.  Finally, Anthony tells me if I'm willing to do 12.5k that I can have the piece for certain.  I agree, but it's more than I want to spend.  However, once I have the piece in my hands, the price shlacking I just took begins to fade away.  It's a beautiful thing with something quite rare--it's one of the few pieces that Jack Kirby inked himself.

A number of years later, I decide it's time to part with the piece.  Prices had been increasing on art.  I now had two kids and there were expenses I needed to attend to. When you have a piece unique like this it's sometimes difficult to figure out how to price it in the current market.  They are no real comp sales to compare it to.  I finally decided, a guess, that it should be about the same price as a Kirby twice-up cover--it was much bigger and inked by Kirby, so I figured it should rate about the same as a published cover.  Well, I put it out there at 30k, the then going rate for Kirby 2X covers, and had no takers.  Everyone felt I had WAY overpriced it.  I finally traded it to So Cal collector, Tony Fornaro, for a ASM 23 page by Ditko, a fight page with Spidey battling thugs in every panel, that was thought to be worth 22k.  It wasn't a keeper page for me and a few months later I managed to move the Ditko for about 25k in trade.  Sometimes if you can't quite get your price on a piece it makes sense to trade for an item that the market deems more desirable. 

The thing is, a year or two later my finances improved and I kept thinking about that piece.  I really wanted it back!  I've never seen it posted anywhere since then.  After Tony, it went to some unknown collector and vanished into thin air.  Quality pieces can disappear like that.  If you're out there somewhere, Mr. Toys for Tots poster, you can always come home.  Don't be afraid, I'll take you back!

INTERVIEW: MIKE ALLRED!

JERSEY GODS COVERS 1,4,6,7,8,9,10,and 12

One of the perks of being a comic book writer and an art collector is sometimes you get to combine your passions.  I was thrilled to have one of my very favorite artists, Mike Allred, doing covers on my Image series JERSEY GODS which ran for 12 issues during 2009-2010. If you missed out on all the hoopla and are now kicking yourself after checking out Allred's fancy window dressing, you can get your digital copy...http://tinyurl.com/cg3nte8 

Or your hard copy...http://tinyurl.com/chguetj

Mike was able to capture that classic 60's Kirby feel and at the same time give it a contemporary look of today--no easy feat!  Mike was kind enough to let me have the covers he did, for my personal collection, after they were published.  I present them here along with a short interview I did with Mike the other day...

BRUNSWICK: One of the things I love about your work is your ability to channel a classic 60's look while at the same time never sacrificing the vibrancy that makes your art look contemporary. How do you strike that balance between the two? How heavily do you research the 60's designs when you begin on a new title with 60's origins?

ALLRED: Not at all.  Sincerly, I try really really hard to make my stuff contemporary.  And no matter how hard I try, it's still called "retro" and "pop art".  I can only guess that, because the 60's stuff surrounded me in stacks from the day I was born, it's in my blood.  And my biggest contemporary influences going into my career, like the Hernandez Brothers, Charles Burns and Dan Clowes, share similar influences.  It's doubled up on me.

BRUNSWICK: We had a lot of fun riffing on classic covers while doing the JERSEY GODS series that clearly derives a great deal of inspiration from Jack Kirby's work.  What is it about Kirby's stuff, do you think, that still has resonance today?

ALLRED: Power is power.  No other artist exudes power like Kirby's work.  Some come close, like Moebius, for instance.  Moebius could be elegant and powerful at the same time.  Some artists have energy leaping off the page.  Kirby's energy just blows everything else away before or since.

BRUNSWICK: Why are collectors paying such ungodly sums for Kirby's originals?

ALLRED: Because it's all so "godly".

BRUNSWICK: Do you own or collect any original art other then your own work?

ALLRED: Absolutely.  And for the record, I don't collect my own work (nudge nudge wink wink).  I've been keeping the entire first issues of most of my series for posterity.  But I have at least one piece of most of my favorites.  And I'm especially thrilled with all the greats that have done Madman pieces for me.  Most of which can be seen in the gigantic "Madman Monster" hard cover.

BRUNSWICK: If in 20 years one of your Madman covers fetches 100k at auction would you be flattered by the amount or disappointed that the windfall might be going to a collector instead of lining your well deserving pockets?

ALLRED: I would be flattered.  Right now my newest Marvel originals are getting more demand than anything I've ever done.  If I'm progressing, I don't feel I would ever be disappointed to see anything of mine reach that kind of demand and appreciation.

BRUNSWICK: If you could write and draw any Marvel character, who would you pick?  What unusual thing would you like to do with him/her?

ALLRED: I'm doing it right now!  Just pick up Daredevil 17, Wolverine & the X-Men 17, my Ant-Man story in Point One, and FF no. 1 to see!  Having the time of my life!

Thanks big time for contributing to my blog, Mike!  Below is the original cover art to Mike's new FF series written by Matt Fraction.  Can't wait to pick up my copy.  This one really looks like it's gonna rock!

More Allred news and awesome art can be found at http://www.aaapop.com/

ART HIGHLIGHT: JOHN ROMITA SR. TWICE UP ASM COVERS!

TWICE UP ASM covers by JOHN ROMITA SR. numbers 42, 45 and 47

I first got these scans around 2004.  At the time these covers could be had for somewhere in the range of 30-50K.  Well, it's eight years later and the ASM 328 cover, a small size cover, just sold for 657k and change.  In the interest of stirring the pot, what-o-what are these covers worth now???  Is someone really going to tell me that all three of these covers combined is equal to the current value of the ASM 328.  Make Mine McFarlane!!!

CALLING ALL COLLECTORS: Help Justin find the cover to his Mom's book!

Cover art by Michael Golden

The other day I received this note from Justin who is seaching for this cover art (above) to his Mother's book that was published in the 80's.  I hadn't really intended to do this kind of thing here, but his story touched me.  I'll let him take it away in his letter:

Hi Glen -

I'm enjoying the new blog - great stuff!

I figured I'd write to you about a piece of art I've been looking for for many years. This is not art work from a comic book, but the cover art to a book my mom wrote on collecting comic books, titled, appropriately enough, 'Collecting Comic Books.'

 

Back in the early 80's (probably 1981-82), when Little Brown and Co. was getting ready to publish the book (it was published in 1983) they asked my mom who they should get to do the cover art. She in turn asked me and the first response I had was Michael Golden. (probably closer to 'MICHAEL GOLDEN!!!').

They went ahead and did in fact get him to do the cover art. I can't recall for sure, but I believe at one point in time my mom asked the publisher if they still had the art, which I'm figuring came to naught.

In 2006, when Golden went back onto the comic convention circuit, I presented him a copy of the book (he didn't have one in his archives) and asked if he still had the art. Sadly, he didn't and didn't know where it had gone to. I believe he said he was given an acetate sheet with the lettering by Little Brown, to which he added the heads and figures at the bottom on another page.

So, with your offer of artwork location, I thought you might be able to find out some more information about it's location.

I understand this is a bit out of the realm of regular published comic work, so it's current whereabouts might be pretty hard to discern.

If you think you might be able to track it down - great! If not, I understand. At any rate, thanks for reading this far! Here's a copy of the cover art.

Yours -

Justin Leiter

jleiter1@verizon.ne

TRADER TRENCHES: The Neal Adams grail that never was!

At some point I decided I had to own a Neal Adams cover.  I'm a picky guy so it needed to be a great one--the Adams I would keep and not be tempted to sell.  The Brave and the Bold 86 cover (above) would have been perfect.  It has all I could want in an NA cover and its inked by Adams as well--a plus for those that love Adams.  Unfortunately I was offered this cover, many years ago, for the sum of 17k.  At the same time I was offered the JLA 91 cover (below) for 11K.

 I couldn't afford to buy both so I opted for the JLA 91--it was cheaper and it had all those other additional heroes on it.  What could be better?  I kept the scan of the B&B 86 cover and kept comparing the two--a mistake--once you make a decision between two covers delete the other scan.  Don't let it continue to haunt you!  I finally decided that I didn't like the inks on the JLA and sold it for about 15k.  My plan was to get the other cover even if I had to add in additional cash.  But it was too late, the collector that had the B&B 86 had sold it to a dealer.  Now the price was way higher than I wanted to pay.  The cover finally went to a seasoned Adams collector who has made it a permanent fixture in his collection.

Not one to give up the Adams hunt, I found this beauty, Brave and Bold 88 cover (above) at All Star Auctions table an San Diego--also many years ago.  I tried to work a deal but at the time this was a trade only piece for them.  The only trade they wanted from me was one of my Romita Spider-Man covers.  Well, that wasnt going to work--I had to wait for my next Adams opportunity...

BATMAN 224--I really thought this was going to be a keeper for me.  This was a tough cover to get.  I found a collector at Wondercon that was willing to move this cover to me.  The only problem was he wanted a Cardy Action cover in return that was owned by Steve Donnelly.  Uh-oh, I had never been able to do a deal with him.  We'd talked about deals for many hours, but we never got close enough to actually get one done.  The Cardy cover was worth about 5k.  I offered Steve 7500 and he turned me down.  The Cardy was a trade only.  I finally offered my MR. MIRACLE 18 cover, a cover worth 10k, by Jack Kirby (below) straight up for the Cardy. I expected Steve to jump at this deal--it was clearly in his favor.  Steve appeared tempted, but he wanted to know what the catch was.  He wanted to know what kind of trade, with someone else, I had in mind for his Cardy.  I asked him why it mattered when this trade was so clearly in his favor.  Steve hemmed and hawed, but finally agreed to the trade.  I took the Cardy to the collector with the Batman 224, and after adding in an additional 5k on my part we had a deal!  I finally had my ADAMS!!!

After owning the cover for a bit, some of the ink lines started to bug me.  I still had that stinking scan of the B&B 86 to compare ink lines.  The 224 was not inked by Adams and did not feel as slick.  Remember what I said about deleting scans?  Soon after that I decided that the 224 was not the perfect Adams cover for me after all.  I sold it for about 22k.

This would have been a fantastic cover to own, Batman 255 cover, pencilled and inked by Adams (above)--it sold many years back for 55k when these covers were thought to be worth 15k.  Never had a chance at this one--just showing off the scan!

 My next shot at the Adams grail was this very nice World's Finest 175 cover (above).  This had an added nostalgia factor for me.  I grew up in New York when Palisades Amusement Park would put adds in the back of comics.  They used this image at one point and it stuck in my brain--maybe this would be the keeper cover.  I managed to get this one in a trade with Bechara for about 15k.  But a few months later, Steve Fishler offered me 18k for it and I folded.  It's a beautiful cover with inks by Adams--but the Superman and Batman statue figures felt too small for me for it to be a keeper--I told you, I'm one picky fella.

Now this $%&# Cover would be a keeper.  World's Finest 208 (above)--I know where it is, and I'm sure it's going to stay there, forever!

Which brings me to JLA 86--I LOVE THIS COVER!  If any one knows where it is, you know where to find me.  I'm a picky buyer that's just looking for his Neal Adams grail.  Help a brother out.  Finder's fee happily paid!  Even if you can't help, you got to agreee that's a friggin' nice cover!