Richard Powers Art on EBay
Jane Frank, our resident expert on all things art fantastic, will be attending and displaying at this year’s Worldcon – LoneStarCon 3 – in San Antonio. Jane usually displays art by the iconic Richard Powers […]
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The Artful Collector: Another Question from my Archives: Will They Still Love “it” When I’m 64?
A collector asked me last year: Watching Heritage and other auctions for the past couple of years, it seems that the artwork and books that are selling best and at the highest prices are those […]
Review: Nine Horrors and a Dream by Joseph Payne Brennan
Nine Horrors and a Dream By Joseph Payne Brennan Ballantine Books. 1962. $0.35 Contents: 1 • Slime • (1953) • novelette by Joseph Payne Brennan 33 • Levitation • (1958) • short story by Joseph […]
The Artful Collector: REAL Questions and Answers from a Dealer’s Archive – Just One Example
Customer’s query [verbatim question and answer, by email 2008]: Do you feel the piece that I just purchased was well worth the price? I am asking because I am getting this for a gift […]
The Artful Collector: Handling Difficult People Part 3 – What makes Artists and Collectors Fun to Deal With?
In the past two posts I’ve written about collectors and artists “From Hell” – the ways they can be high maintenance people . . . to the point where I lose patience and don’t want […]
What Gets Preserved?
The library of Alexandria was the largest and most comprehensive repository of knowledge in the ancient world. In 46 AD (according to some sources) it burned. Countless scrolls went up in flames, in some cases […]
The Artful Collector: Handling Difficult People Part 2: The Collector (or) Why I Can’t Sell Art to You
Do you think artists have a monopoly on “crazy”? Heh. You ain’t seen nothin, till you’ve had to handle the people who buy SF/F art. Not for nothin’ do corporations send employees for special training […]
AFTER THE CON: Derby City Comic Con 2013 Report
Louisville, Kentucky has grown by leaps and bounds when it comes to conventions. Just a few years ago, the only Con I was aware of in the area was Wonderfest– a great model-making convention/flea market […]
Evolution of an Otaku: Conflict of Identity
If you had asked me at the age of fourteen if I considered myself an otaku, I would have raised one snarky eyebrow at you and said, “Obviously.” And it was pretty obvious, too, what […]
The Artful Collector: Handling Difficult People Part 1: The Artist (or) Why I Couldn’t Be Your Agent
Let’s say, for the sake of this posting, that our corner of the collecting world consists of two groups: The Creators and The Collectors. Which group, do you think, has the monopoly on “crazy”? I’ll […]
The Artful Collector: Vulgaris Triumphus? on Judging (SFWA) Magazines by Their Cover
Judge books by their cover? Everyone does it. That’s why – and despite the mis-marketing, agenting “horror stories” (both artist and author) and egregious lack of talent (cover-wise) – books and yes, magazines, still get […]
The Artful Collector: Collecting Ahead of the Curve
When we started framing F/SF calendar pages to hang on our walls in the 1960s (the days before commercial prints or posters were available) original Victorian “fairy paintings” by the likes of Fitzgerald, Cruikshank, Doyle […]
Have Literary Luddites Taken Over SFF Fandom?!
For the past year, I’ve been doing the indie thing- writing and self-publishing my own novels on Amazon, B&N, etc. During that time I’ve learned quite a lot and have come to the conclusion that […]
The Artful Collector: Should You Worry About Forgery in SF Art?
How important is Fraud in the SF/F art market? I could write lengthy blogs on how forgers break down and then reconstitute the same clay to fashion Mid- and South American artifacts, using original (thousand-year-old) […]
Kids & Cons
With summer upon us, it’s convention time here in my neck of the woods. And while I’m not that big of a fan of cons, I do try and treat my little nerdlings to one […]
The Artful Collector: Is it All in the Image?
At the heart of this debate is a real difference between how some creators of commercial art (i.e, art produced for the purpose of persuasion/marketing) view the kind of art they are commissioned to create, […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions Good Places to Find Art? (Part 3)
Throughout the 1990s, while weekend antiques and craft fairs, and even Ren Faires, were drawing tens of thousands of attendees each weekend, SF cons were still deliberating the good of “one day memberships” and advertising […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions Good Places to Find Art? (Part 2)
Once upon a time, science fiction and fantasy conventions were great places to find, and buy, original art – and, in time – reproductions of art created by the best professional illustrators in the field […]
Sequential Wednesdays #12 – Of Panels & Piracy
If it hasn’t been made immensely clear: I adore comics. As an artistic expression, a narrative medium, and physical object I can hold in my hands – shifting and sliding the all-too thin pages […]
The Artful Collector: Are Conventions a Good Place to Buy Art? (Part 1)
Well . . . .Once upon a time, and by that, I mean Art Collecting BDE (before the digital era) local, regional and “world” SF/F conventions were not just good places to find great SF/F […]
The Artful Collector: Why isn’t There a More Active Market in What I Collect?
A common thread of discussion for collectors who buy art from me, and which runs through many sites dealing with collectibles, concerns the factors that make certain types of “X” (coins, stamps, comics, art, etc) […]
The Artful Collector: In Praise of Tangibility
First, and let’s get this out of the way right at the start: I would never say that digital art isn’t Art. I have never claimed that digital artists aren’t “real artists” – as some […]
The Artful Collector: Why Collecting Art is Such a Hard Job
Someone in a chat room I used to contribute to, once made an unforgettable statement: “it’s easy to collect art if you have money!” Hah! How I wish money were the answer! And that a […]
The Artful Collector: Price vs. Value
It’s an innocent question: What’s it worth? And I always answer: That depends on whether you’re buying or selling. An object’s “worth” can relate to price, or it can relate to value. These words are […]
The Artful Collector: “Excuses, Excuses”
And when we can’t have what we want….despite our best efforts to strategize for maximum gain? Then What? Oh, do we have excuses. Pick one: 1. End up the underbidder? “It was too expensive for […]
Who’s the Boss When It Comes to British Stamps
While we still don’t know who will grace the U.S. postage stamps saluting science fiction authors this year, we do know Who — The Doctor, that is — will appear on a set of British […]
The Artful Collector: Collecting Strategies Part 5 “Living Dangerously”
There is one strategy for collecting that I haven’t yet mentioned. It is not only potentially the most expensive, it is also the most dangerous. Buy What Everyone Else is Buying Pick any one of […]
The Good and Bad Sides of Digital Minimalism
I strive to be a minimalist, that is, someone who has few physical possessions. For a geek and an Aspie with OCE, this scenario is fraught with problems. For example it’s taken me a good […]
The Artful Collector: Collecting Strategies Part 4 “The Anarchist”
I’ve talked about buying the expensive way (completists, and those who must have what they want), and the easy way (just collect what you love). But there’s also a way to collect the CHEAPEST way….and […]
The Clubhouse: Save your stuff!
I had hoped to bring you a little photo journal of some of the fans I knew in Detroit and Ann Arbor in the ’70s and ’80s, but alas, such limited pictures as I had […]
About Author
Before launching her career as an award-winning journalist, Leah A. Zeldes first learned the craft of writing in the pages of twiltone fanzines. Today a freelance writer and professional blogger, she is for hire for writing and editing projects of all types.
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