Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
07-06-13, 10:59 PM
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Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-23203033
So this guy accidentally uses and ruins a real Avengers #1 from 1963 and a few other unnamed rare comics that are worth a combined $20,000 to make his paper mache sculpture. He just laughs at the mistake. If I just lost $20,000 I wouldn't be laughing.
@ the comment about Italian marble being cheaper raw materials.
An artist who made a papier-mache sculpture from comics he found in a skip has found they could have been sold for about £20,000.
Comic fan Steve Eyre told artist Andrew Vickers the pages pasted to a leg were from a first edition of The Avengers.
Mr Eyre said the 1963 release, along with other rare comics used to create the artwork were worth thousands.
The sculpture, called Paperboy, was created for an exhibition at Sheffield gallery the S1 Artspace.
'Marble cheaper'
Mr Eyre owns the World Of Superheroes shop in Sheffield.
On discovering the valuable comics glued to the chicken wire frame, he said: "First of all I thought 'Fantastic' as, visually, it is a beautiful thing, but then as I walked round it, certainly on the inside right leg, there was a cover of Avengers number one.
"I've got a copy of that, which was published in 1963, that is worth well over £10,000.
"Then I started looking and there are six comics on this that together would be worth, even in the condition you can see, £20,000.
"It would have been cheaper for Andrew to make this out of Italian marble because the raw materials that have gone in to it I could have sold for a lot more than he is going to sell this statue for."
Laughing off the revelation, Mr Vickers said: "If somebody chucks things out in the skip they don't generally throw things out that are worth anything.
"To be honest I'm shocked but money has not got such a value to me. I think it is funny.
"I really love the idea of me creating something out of such expensive things that's worth less. I think it's brilliant."
The S1 Artspace show entitled Heroes organised by World Of Superheroes is running from 6 to 11 July.
Comic fan Steve Eyre told artist Andrew Vickers the pages pasted to a leg were from a first edition of The Avengers.
Mr Eyre said the 1963 release, along with other rare comics used to create the artwork were worth thousands.
The sculpture, called Paperboy, was created for an exhibition at Sheffield gallery the S1 Artspace.
'Marble cheaper'
Mr Eyre owns the World Of Superheroes shop in Sheffield.
On discovering the valuable comics glued to the chicken wire frame, he said: "First of all I thought 'Fantastic' as, visually, it is a beautiful thing, but then as I walked round it, certainly on the inside right leg, there was a cover of Avengers number one.
"I've got a copy of that, which was published in 1963, that is worth well over £10,000.
"Then I started looking and there are six comics on this that together would be worth, even in the condition you can see, £20,000.
"It would have been cheaper for Andrew to make this out of Italian marble because the raw materials that have gone in to it I could have sold for a lot more than he is going to sell this statue for."
Laughing off the revelation, Mr Vickers said: "If somebody chucks things out in the skip they don't generally throw things out that are worth anything.
"To be honest I'm shocked but money has not got such a value to me. I think it is funny.
"I really love the idea of me creating something out of such expensive things that's worth less. I think it's brilliant."
The S1 Artspace show entitled Heroes organised by World Of Superheroes is running from 6 to 11 July.
@ the comment about Italian marble being cheaper raw materials.
07-06-13, 11:22 PM
#3
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07-07-13, 05:23 AM
#4
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
...and it's a fucking hideous sculpture, too.
07-07-13, 01:53 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Him good Bizarro. Him use valuable comics to make great ugly sculpture. Him use money from sculpture to buy real worthless comic, beat up, torn, coverless Millie The Model.
07-07-13, 02:43 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Stupid jerk could have made his sculpture out of reprints if he was going for a certain color tone.
07-07-13, 05:20 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
1) the "narrative" this story creates for this piece makes it worth much more than the sculpture would have had without it. All newly created modern art is given cache and perceived value by the bullshit narrative the artist/agent supplies with it. The better he is at bullshitting (which is helped by the more art education he has), the more people will interpret value in it. Tangential to that is when circumstances are exploitable- as is the case here.
I don't know if he's created $20,000 worth of value with the press, but the story has certainly added to the pieces potential value quite a bit.
2) owners of the original books should be happy there are one copy less of each in circulation now- which increases the value of their copies.
This isn't 40 years ago- these particular books (the ones he's assigning the greatest value to) have all been reprinted innumerable times. Anyone wanting to read this material for enjoyment still has ample opportunity to do so.
Personally I would be more offended if he had not used the books in creation of this piece and instead shipped them off to CGA to get entombed in a plastic slab where they would likely never get re-opend for fear of losing value. I understand the value of the service for both buyers and sellers, but at the same time it creates this psychological restriction to access of the book that renders it more valuable and yet valueless at the same time.
You could print out nice high res scans of high grade covers on your printer at home, slap them in a bag and board, and hang them on the wall and you would essentially be able to cull the same aesthetic appreciation from those while avoiding 99% of the expense.
I don't know if he's created $20,000 worth of value with the press, but the story has certainly added to the pieces potential value quite a bit.
2) owners of the original books should be happy there are one copy less of each in circulation now- which increases the value of their copies.
This isn't 40 years ago- these particular books (the ones he's assigning the greatest value to) have all been reprinted innumerable times. Anyone wanting to read this material for enjoyment still has ample opportunity to do so.
Personally I would be more offended if he had not used the books in creation of this piece and instead shipped them off to CGA to get entombed in a plastic slab where they would likely never get re-opend for fear of losing value. I understand the value of the service for both buyers and sellers, but at the same time it creates this psychological restriction to access of the book that renders it more valuable and yet valueless at the same time.
You could print out nice high res scans of high grade covers on your printer at home, slap them in a bag and board, and hang them on the wall and you would essentially be able to cull the same aesthetic appreciation from those while avoiding 99% of the expense.
07-08-13, 10:04 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Of course there are tons of reprints. That isn't the point. The point is he destroyed an original Avengers #1. Any collector should be offended by that. Collecting old rare comics isn't the same thing as collecting reprints to read. What this guy did was basically the same as if he had taken a permanent marker and drawn a beard on the original Mona Lisa. Originals like that are not replaceable, even by reprints, from a pure collector's standpoint.
07-08-13, 10:13 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
This is of course assuming comics that were thrown out were in mint condition, which if you're throwing stuff out, they probably weren't.
Personally, I'm fine with what he did. It just makes all the other existing ones, that much more valuable.
Personally, I'm fine with what he did. It just makes all the other existing ones, that much more valuable.
07-08-13, 10:27 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
It doesn't have to be in mint condition to be valuable. Its just more valuable in mint condition, but even a poor condition copy has decent value.
The article mentions an actual comic book collector who owns his own comic book shop appraised the value of the comic. So it can't be completely worthless.
People throw away old comics all the time while being ignorant of how much they are actually worth. There have been several stories of people finding old rare comics that have been locked away in musty old basements for decades, even Action Comics #1 from 1938 has turned up in such stories.
Even though its true that as the supply dwindles when copies like this are destroyed it increases the value of the remaining supply, its still sad when a piece of history like this is destroyed.
07-08-13, 10:34 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
People are pissed at this dude and yet love the shit out of Death Proof, in which actual 1970's muscle cars were purchased and then destroyed. 
07-08-13, 10:39 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
07-09-13, 03:12 AM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
While I realize peoples hearts are in the right place- at the same time they have to realize these aren't Golden Age books we are talking about. The number of these in circulation today wasn't drastically impacted by war era paper drives. For the vast majority of their existence, they've been seen as collectibles with some degree of value. There are many thousands of copies in existence- though the higher the grade you go, the more shallow the pool.
But as a cultural artifact- I can (and do) own the GIT DVD-roms and read all these books cover to cover. Compared to having the original sitting there in a CGA slab, I would actually get more of the intrinsic value of the material from the DVD rom.
yes, the slabs can be opened- but I'm willing to bet that 90+% never will be. Probably higher than that. What would be the purpose of handling a high grade copy and potentially negatively impacting it's condition and value? The people gravitating towards slabbed books are buying them with an eye towards investment, not reading enjoyment. If the purpose is to have a book to be able to read, a much lower grade reading copy, reprint, or digital copy (if available) would suffice at a much lower cost. And those exist in the thousands for the kinds of titles we are talking about here.
I might be more inclined to get angry if the article talked about the artist using other genres of books- romance and funny animal and non superhero type stuff- as that stuff is actually much rarer than the prestige titles the article focuses on.
I know it's extremely difficult to find even 70's era Archies in high grades- whereas the Marvel and DC stuff is common as dirt in comparison.
But as a cultural artifact- I can (and do) own the GIT DVD-roms and read all these books cover to cover. Compared to having the original sitting there in a CGA slab, I would actually get more of the intrinsic value of the material from the DVD rom.
Any graded books can always be opened. This cannot be undone.
I might be more inclined to get angry if the article talked about the artist using other genres of books- romance and funny animal and non superhero type stuff- as that stuff is actually much rarer than the prestige titles the article focuses on.
I know it's extremely difficult to find even 70's era Archies in high grades- whereas the Marvel and DC stuff is common as dirt in comparison.
07-09-13, 04:12 AM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Actually, I'm a bit skeptical about this whole thing.
The artist claims that he found these comics in a "skip bin." So this guy just happens to find a copy of Avengers #1 in someone's trash. In England, no less. The chances of that are like winning the fucking lottery.
I've also seen some pictures of the sculpture that show an issue of Sleepwalker and a couple of newer X-Men books. These are quarter bin material.
I wonder if this artist didn't somehow acquire a few low-grade copies of Silver Age books -- loose covers, missing pages, etc -- and make the sculpture out of those, and then came up with this story to get his name in the headlines. All of the media attention this has been getting is going to increase Paperboy's value and get the artist's name out there.
The artist claims that he found these comics in a "skip bin." So this guy just happens to find a copy of Avengers #1 in someone's trash. In England, no less. The chances of that are like winning the fucking lottery.
I've also seen some pictures of the sculpture that show an issue of Sleepwalker and a couple of newer X-Men books. These are quarter bin material.
I wonder if this artist didn't somehow acquire a few low-grade copies of Silver Age books -- loose covers, missing pages, etc -- and make the sculpture out of those, and then came up with this story to get his name in the headlines. All of the media attention this has been getting is going to increase Paperboy's value and get the artist's name out there.
07-09-13, 08:10 AM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Laughing off the revelation, Mr Vickers said: "If somebody chucks things out in the skip they don't generally throw things out that are worth anything.
"To be honest I'm shocked but money has not got such a value to me. I think it is funny.
"I really love the idea of me creating something out of such expensive things that's worth less. I think it's brilliant."
^ You have to be fucking stupid to believe that comment. I'd be pissed if I found out I fucked up and used something of value to create art; no matter what it is. Besides, he could of used that money to further his art. He's a lying asshole.
"To be honest I'm shocked but money has not got such a value to me. I think it is funny.
"I really love the idea of me creating something out of such expensive things that's worth less. I think it's brilliant."
^ You have to be fucking stupid to believe that comment. I'd be pissed if I found out I fucked up and used something of value to create art; no matter what it is. Besides, he could of used that money to further his art. He's a lying asshole.
07-09-13, 02:37 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3324544.html
There have been many other stories of people finding rare comics in seemingly impossible situations.
07-11-13, 05:15 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Actually, I'm a bit skeptical about this whole thing.
The artist claims that he found these comics in a "skip bin." So this guy just happens to find a copy of Avengers #1 in someone's trash. In England, no less. The chances of that are like winning the fucking lottery.
I've also seen some pictures of the sculpture that show an issue of Sleepwalker and a couple of newer X-Men books. These are quarter bin material.
I wonder if this artist didn't somehow acquire a few low-grade copies of Silver Age books -- loose covers, missing pages, etc -- and make the sculpture out of those, and then came up with this story to get his name in the headlines. All of the media attention this has been getting is going to increase Paperboy's value and get the artist's name out there.
The artist claims that he found these comics in a "skip bin." So this guy just happens to find a copy of Avengers #1 in someone's trash. In England, no less. The chances of that are like winning the fucking lottery.
I've also seen some pictures of the sculpture that show an issue of Sleepwalker and a couple of newer X-Men books. These are quarter bin material.
I wonder if this artist didn't somehow acquire a few low-grade copies of Silver Age books -- loose covers, missing pages, etc -- and make the sculpture out of those, and then came up with this story to get his name in the headlines. All of the media attention this has been getting is going to increase Paperboy's value and get the artist's name out there.
08-19-13, 07:13 PM
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Re: Moron accidentally uses valuable comic books to make a paper mache scultpure
Wow, this guy should be kicking himself. The statue looks like garbage anyway so why waste the comics to make something that should be in the bin anyway. I think comic book lovers around the world hurt over this. I do, however, sort of agree with the fact that the guy might be embellishing the story to get his name out there more...
