<<I was originally posting this in the 2015 Art Resolutions thread, but I figured it was growing way too large, and figured a new topic would be better...lol.>>
Here we go, a final retrospective of the year. I started off the year at a pretty torrid pace, as far as my usual purchasing goes. Cooled off after the Calgary Expo at the end of April. Got off to a quick start, with my 2015 Resolutions, as well, setting up my first one days into the year, and receiving it by mid January. Still one of my favourite pickups for the year:
Valkyrie and the Lady Liberators by Allan Goldman, featuring Valkyrie, Gamora, Squirrel Girl, Medusa, and Water Snake. The 2nd piece in what I am trying to make a series of commissions.
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1194636
I followed that up with my first art trade. I'm a big Paul Pelletier fan, and I was able to do a trade with Anthony Snyder that included a nice little Medusa page, from the excellent War of Kings series:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1203026
Next up, I found this piece on Heritage Auctions, and the artist was not listed. After doing a bit of research, I figured out the artist was Leonard Kirk and jumped on it. "Bring On The New Bad Guys", a DPS from Wizard #192 featuring Gamora, Sin, Gambit, The Hood, a Skrull, and more:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1206794
I usually pick up at least a couple of pages from Spencer's annual sale, and last year, I was able to pick up a nice little Sean Chen Gamora page with some assassin action going on:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1208349
I have been a big Tony Daniel fan since back in his X-Force and AoA Gambit & The X-Ternals days. I set up a deal for 6 pages from his Deathstroke series. Big Ravager and Harley Quinn fan, and was able to pick up a few pieces with each. Unfortunately, only a couple of months later, I realized I needed to pare down my character collecting focus and Ravager was one I cut. I have parted with a couple of the Ravager pages, but the 2 Harley pages I picked up are a couple of my favourites in my collection, not just the year. An awesome page that I refer to as "The Scooter Page" and another one with a fantastic image of Harley on a train.
You can't beat Deathstroke riding ----- on the back of Harley's scooter!
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1210197
Or maybe you can?
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1226172
It always pays to have friends living in and attending Cons in cities other than your own. This year, I was able to add a fantastic Gamora piece by Adi Granov with the help of a friend who attended Emerald City Comic Con. My third Granov (along with Valkyrie and Hela), and I want at least 2 more (Medusa and Squirrel Girl)!
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1214961
At the end of April, I attended the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo once again. The 2015 edition was pretty light on artists, but I was able to knock a couple of wants off my list. Picked up a fantastic Gamora from Jae Lee, Valkyrie by Franchesco, and Squirrel Girl from Chad Hardin.
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1223925
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1223334
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1223066
It would be 4 months before I picked up another piece, and then I got 4 Valkyries in a row. Wonder of wonders, a commission 10 years in the making finally arrived at my door. Luckily, the subject of the commission changed over the years, as my collecting focus changed, so its still a piece I'm happy to have in my collection:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1248768
This was followed quickly by another Valkyrie and friends piece, Valkyrie and Squirrel Girl by Mike Perkins:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1248890
Mike took a bit longer than he had planned, and he was awesome enough to thrown in this fantastic Valkyrie bust piece in with my commission. Absolutely love it:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1253088
I am still in the process of knocking off one of my Art Resolutions for 2015. I set up a Valkyrie commission with Eddy Barrows, that arrived at about the same time as the Perkins and Sharpe piece. Unfortunately, FedEx didn't treat it well and it was damaged. Eddy and his rep at Chiaroscuro Studios were nice enough to offer to redo the piece. Will update that when the time comes.
Next up, I attended 2 Conventions on back to back weekends at the end of September. The SaskExpo and Edmonton Expo (run by the same people as the Calgary Expo). The SaskExpo con is a much smaller con than the Edmonton one, but I actually picked up more art there than what I did at the Edmonton show (and actually, the only art I picked up at Edmonton, I picked up from an artist I also saw at SaskExpo).
I'm a big Grummett fan, and this year at the SaskExpo, I got him to do a Squirrel Girl piece (to go with my Val and Gamora pieces). He based her look on a fantastic cover that Art Adams did for her solo series.
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1261029
At last year's Sask Expo, I passed on a page from Marcus To in favor of a different one, and have regretted it ever since. I was able to rectify that at this year's show, when I was delighted to find he still had the page. Water Snake's first appearance in New Warriors:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1261763
I wasn't buying anything at the Edmonton Expo the following weekend, so I picked up 2 more Water Snake pages from him as well:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1264471
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1264555
The above pieces aren't everything that I picked up throughout the year, but a good representation of what my year was about. And to cap the year off, in mid-December, I was able to set up a deal for a fantastic Gamora/Drax page from the Annihilation storyline that led to the formation of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy, by one of my favourite artists, Paul Pelletier:
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1278772
For those of you who have actually made it to the end of this lengthy post, thanks for bearing with me, and I hope we all have luck with our 2016 resolutions!
