I've just learned that Belgium artist William Vance has died on May 14, 2018, suffering from Parkinson's disease. He was 82. Vance was known for co-creating XIII (13), a sort of French/Belgium version of the Bourne Identity, in 1984. The XIII follows the story of an amnesiac protagonist who is trying to learn his true identity.

XIII was adapted to a first-person shooter by Ubi Soft Paris in 2003, and also adapted for television in 2008, and followed by two series... with each series having, what else?, 13 episodes.

Rest in peace, William Vance.

February (1)

• [12 Feb 2018] Jack Cummins (American former President of  Boom! Studios), 51, flu

January (2)

• [27 Jan 2018] Mort Walker (American comics artist for Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois), 94, pneumonia
• [24 Jan 2018] Jan Steeman (Dutch comics artist for Roel Dijkstra, Noortje), 74

PHOENIX COMICON 2007 (26-28 Jan 2007)
Phoenix, Arizona

George Perez was the MC at the 1st Annual art auction for Phoenix Comicon 2007. The whole time I was bidding I was asking him to come over and show me pages of art and I was way 2 eager back then.

I didn't realize it was George Perez so when I went to pay for the art and sign off with the guy I had clearly been annoying the hell out of.

He said well you must be a big fan of comic book art I said yes and then I like to draw and he started talking to me about design and layout. And I say ( these words will haunt me for the rest of my life).. oh have you done any work doing comic illustrating? George smiled and said "I've been fortunate enough to be trusted with the care of some of our National Treasures." He smiled. George was giving me a pass.

I remember thinking dang another letterer with an over-inflated ego. I remember smug feeling almost coming over me as I said interesting anything I might have read.. All I got out of his mouth was that he was the illustrator on crisis of infinite Earths and..... at this point my ears started ringing and I realized who he was I couldn't swallow and I begin sweating I was seeing spots for real. I cleared my eyes and realized it was George's shirt. He was super polite and accepted my groveling as true royalty of the convention circuit does.. I walked away humiliated I just needed to go and reevaluate my life.

I'm about 20 feet away from the door ...George calls out... wait wanted to ask you do you always get teary when you win auctions then leave all your art behind?... my walk back to George was physically painful... he simply padded me the art and said if you went through all that just to simply walk away it would have been a shame. I know he was referring to the stuff I bought.

But still I learned something important about humility that day. And I've kind of kept what he said as a mantra for life.
When I want to quit or someone I know just wants to give up. i think.

We went through all this wouldn't it be a shame to just walk away.

George would not approve.

GREEN ARROW (Aug 2017)
art by George Perez
from <> Shemp

We will be taking HEAD SHOT ONLY advance orders before show appearances. These will be the same types of drawings he has been doing at shows for years on 9" x 12" board head shots only. Although we have not set it in stone, most likely the price will be $50. To protect George, we will require prepayment. You will just need to bring a receipt to the show to pick up your piece. Although there is no guarantee, most likely they will be more detailed than in the past as if he is doing them at home where he won't be trying to do them as fast as he can to get to the next fan, hence there will be the per show limit.

Of course, he is still doing the full body pencil, Copic marker ink.and pencil tone commissions for the $700 and $1,100 levels as well. These a full figure, fully detailed pieces that are single figures only. No more than one figure per piece ... all subject to approval.

Exact show commission details will be announced towards the end of 2018 as we prepare for the 2019 convention circuit.

In the meantime, if you wish to order the full body pieces, please get in touch with me at SpencerBck@aol.com to place an order, for samples or any questions related to the full body commissions. I am sorry, NO head shot commissions until 2019. No exceptions, I am sorry.

NOTE: George will draw these commissions on 9x12 boards prior to the convention appearance for pickup, so he cannot draw on your personal sketch book or requested surfaces. Also, there will be a limit to how many George can draw per convention appearance.

MARVEL COMICS DIGEST #7 (20 Jun 2018)
Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics Digest #7 will reprint AVENGERS #195 (May 1980) and AVENGERS #196 (Jun 1980), among other comics, thanks to the Ant-Man & Wasp theme for the upcoming film.

If you have trouble ordering this at your comic store, you can find these at Barnes & Noble with the Archie Comics Digest.

Details and previews at 13thdimension.com

INFINITE CRISIS UNWRAPPED HC (Cancelled) (22 Aug 2018)
DC Comics

Remember that Infinite Crisis Unwrapped Hardcover that DC Comics listed a few weeks ago?  It's been cancelled; no reasons why. More details at newsarama.com, thanks to Ilke for letting us know.

>>>
DC Comics has cancelled the planned Infinite Crisis Unwrapped hardcover edition of Geoff Johns' 2005-2006 DC event. The publisher did not disclose the reason for the cancellation, but noted that the project "will not be resolicited."

BEN CAPOZZI'S BOOK CHIMERA POSTER (1997)
Dreamsmith Studios

1997 Ben Capozzi's BOOK Promo Poster - George Perez Art

Size: 19" x 25"

Unless otherwise noted - All posters are folded as they came originally and will be mailed flat.
All of the Comic Book Promo Posters I have up and will be listing come from my own collection, gathered over the years.  Unless otherwise noted, the poster has not been displayed and has basically sat folded, piled into a box for 20-30 years.  As such, there are some slight wrinkle on some but they are all in nice condition.

VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED #6 (Jun 1984)
Pacific Comics

Vanguard Illustrated #6 Publishers File Comic Copy at ebay.com user collect_now

AVENGERS MASTERWORKS #18 (Digital) (11 Apr 2018)
Marvel Comics

About a month ago (March 14, 2018), Comixology and Marvel, started their 99 cents deals on their recent collections. Physical comics retailing $19.99 were sold at $0.99, it was an unbelievable deal. However, to me, the digital pricing sounds about right to me. I have long argued that since there are no printing, paper, or shelf space costs, it should be sold at cost or nearly nothing.

So every week I bought a lot of Marvel's 99 cents books, including artists I didn't care for or followed. I have so many books, realistically, I probably won't be reading some of them.

Unfortunately, this week (April 11, 2018), Comixology ended their 99 cents sale (even though they still have the banner up from this screen print). The two Avengers digital books were priced at $16.99 and $19.99 (they cost exactly the same as the physical books)... an overblown price for digital goods, in my opinion.

Bleeding Cool wrote comic book retailers at the Diamond Retailer Summit in Chicago complained to Marvel Comics EIC C.B. Cebulki and pressured them to stop the sale. In light of the summit, I learned that Marvel Comics weren't losing money on the sale at all - that in fact, Amazon paid the wholesale price to Marvel, it was Amazon losing money on this sale. But, I didn't believe that Marvel Comics knew nothing about the promotion. If Amazon was strictly responsible for this, why didn't they do the same sale for their DC or Image books? It doesn't make sense... Marvel had to know or approved of these sales.

Fortunately, Amazon still hadn't taken down their 99 cents promotional pricing. I rushed over there and grabbed 14 books. My complaint is that I don't think you can turn off "1-Click" purchasing, and you have to own a Kindle (or download their Kindle app on iOS or Android). Once you link your Amazon and Comixology, your Kindle purchases should automatically show up on your Comixology app. It's a little inconvenient, and annoying, but I can attest that it works. Once Amazon completely kill off the 99 cents bargains - which I believe will be next week - I will happily delete my Kindle app (which will disable accidental purchases with those dreaded "1-Click" button).

To summarize, I have spent more money in a month than I have ever spent in my entirety of buying digital comics. If the trend continued, I would have spent more money in two months than a year of Marvel Unlimited. In fact, if the sale goes on for a year, it's possible I would spend about $900 (based on my spending habit of $75 a month), much, much more money than any Marvel or Comixology Unlimited subscription. Perhaps I'm just one person when it comes to these 99 cents books, but I would like to think there are others out there like me.

You can argue that these deep discounts aren't good for retailers - but I'm telling you, from my perspective, I was never going to buying the physical Marvel books anyway.  The retailers aren't losing money (at least from me), since I wasn't going to buy them in the first place. At least with the sale, I will drop $14 this week to buy most of their books (even if I'm not going to have time to read them).  The fans who want the physical books, will still buy the physical books.

If you take away the sale, I would go back to spending $0 on digital books. That's fine, I guess I'm saving money in the long run. I still buy physical books, but, believe me, it's not in the hundreds of dollars, and it's not necessary going to be Marvel Comics. When it comes down to it, all the money I'm not spending on Comixology/Marvel Comics, it's not good for the industry, since I will just pour my money into something else (video games, toys, or movies).