How to Get Started Collecting Comic and Pop Culture Art

July 21, 2016 in ART COLLECTING, VIDEOS

ART COLLECTING – How to Get Started Collecting Comic and Pop Culture Art

How to Get Started Collecting Comic and Pop Culture ArtYou’ve decided you want to start collecting art but you’re not sure where to begin.  However, you don’t want to simply collect any art,  you want to collect nerdy art, geeky art.

Art with your favorite superheroes, time traveling doctors, star trekking crew, lightsaber wielding Jedi, face hugging Aliens, ring bearing Hobbits, glasses wearing wizard boy or many other things you’re a fan of. Well to start, you can first read the following article from the Invaluable website giving you advice on starting a fine art collection:

How to Start a Fine Art Collection

There’s plenty in the article that will help you to collect comic and pop culture art too. However, collecting the nerdy art is also a bit different and this article is about getting started collecting this less traditional kind of art.

Below you’ll find out, what this type of art collecting is, what you can collect and places where you can find the art.

So lets get to it…

What is Comic and Pop Culture Art Collecting?

Collecting comic art is simply collecting art related to your favorite comic books or Manga.

Collecting pop culture art is simply collecting art related to your favorite Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Superhero movies, TV shows or books.

The reason I’ve included them both together, is because this art is more often than not, found together.

What Types of Art Can I Collect?

There’s a broad range of collectible art types within comics and pop culture.

If  you’re not sure where to start, let’s take a look at some of these types.  This is not, by any means an exhaustive list.  It’s meant to give you an idea of the possible types of art you can collect in this art field:

Sculptures or Maquettes –  Now a days it’s possible to find some bust or full on maquettes involving your favorite characters or scenes from comics, movies or TV shows.

Make sure you have plenty of room, this one takes up more than just wall space. However, these collections can be very fun to display.

Original Comic Book Pages – If you have a favorite comic of all time or favorite comic artist of all time, you may be able to own the original pages from said artist, comic or Manga

Original Art – If you’re into a specific comic, movie, TV show, book character, artist or artists, it’s possible to collect hand drawn art of that character or from that artist or artists.

Sketch Covers – This is an offshoot of the Original Art collecting. This is unique in that you’re actually collecting published comics, but unlike most comics, the covers on these comics are blank and are made of art paper.

The idea being that you either give it to an artist to draw a unique original drawing on the cover, or an artist sells you one he’s already drawn a unique drawing on.  In other words, you’re collecting one-of-a-kind comics. Which are the rarest comics of all.

Sketch Cards – Similar to the sketch cover idea, this concerns collectible trading cards.  What you’re collecting here, are what used to be blank cards that have an original hand drawn drawing of your favorite characters or drawn by your favorite artist.  They can be collected directly from the artist, can be found in special trading card packs, or can be found sold in various websites.

Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards – These two are a bit more rare but they’re out there.  An artist get’s blank post cards or blank sticker paper and draws on them, giving you one-of-a-kind stickers or post cards.

Original Art In A Themed Sketchbook – This is a more evolved version of an autograph book.  The collector buys a blank sketchbook and take it around to artists so they can draw something on a page. Depending on the artists and how long the artists are allowed to keep the book, these type of books can have some amazing art in them.

Sometimes the collector has a specific theme or topic they want the art in the book to be about. When it’s all said and done, you end up with a very unique book.

Limited Edition Prints – Simply a print with a limited print run, usually signed by the artist.

Prints or posters – The most common of all the art types and the least expensive. An artist draws something and makes prints or posters of the work, which they continues to sell, as long as there’s interest in it. These prints are often signed and may even have an original sketch on them.

This may be the best starting off points if you’re looking to display your art collection in your home.  It’s also a very good way to support the artist.

Where Can I Find This Art?

Alright, once you’ve decided what kind of art you want to collect, it’s time to help you find places to get it.

This is a tricky subject only because even though there’s often a lot of crossover among these art types, you can’t always find all of these art type together in every recommended place I’ll point out.  What I’ll do is write in parentheses the type of art you can find in each place.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list.  There are many, other places I simply may not know about that didn’t make it on this list:

Comic and Pop Culture Conventions – (Sculptures or Maquettes, Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards, Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards , Original Art In A Themed Sketchbook, Limited Edition Prints, Prints or posters) 

Probably the best place to find every collectible form of art I put on the list above is a Comic convention or Pop Culture show. Examples of these conventions are:

There are far too many shows to name and new ones are popping up every year. See what you can find that’s going on in your area.

Collector Sites  – (Sculptures or Maquettes, Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards)

These type of website specialize in selling original art of some type to collectors, like the collectibles section on Invaluable. Sometimes the artists themselves sell them in the site.

Below is a list of great sites for original comic book art and pages  (I got this list a long time ago from a specific site and I wish I could credit it, but I didn’t write it down and now I don’t remember it):

And this is list of a Sketch Card Collector websites

Here’s a link to a great site for collectible sculptures and maquettes:

Ebay – (Sculptures or Maquettes, Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards, Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards, Limited Edition Prints, Prints or posters)

Similar to the a convention, you can find pretty much everything here. Lots of artists and art shops sell art on Ebay.  You can find a lot of good deals here.

I sometimes sell my art on Ebay. You can check up on what I’m selling by clicking the link below:

Social Media – (Sculptures or Maquettes, Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards, Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards, Original Art In A Themed Sketchbook, Limited Edition Prints, Prints or posters)

Although this is not a direct way to buy art, this is great way to follow artists who will often link to where you can buy their art.  You can also contact them via social media if you want to commission them:

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Collector Facebook Groups are also a great resource. Especially if the group allows artists to post work for sale.  Here’s a link to some groups:

Deviant Art – (Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards, Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards, Limited Edition Prints, Prints or posters)

Deviant Art is a website for artists to put up and show off their work. Lot’s of comic artists show their art there.  Like with social media, you can contact artists for commissions.  But you can also buy prints of their work directly from Deviant Art.

In case you’re interested, the link to my Deviant art page is below:

Personal Websites – (Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards, Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards, Limited Edition Prints, Prints or posters)

Of course, many artists sell their work on their website or have shops linked to their website. I do!

This is probably the best way to get work commissioned or to simply buy what the artist is selling.  Here’s a list of a few of my favorite artists who sell their work via their website.  And yes, I’m totally gonna include a link to my shop too:

Patreon – (Original Comic Book Pages, Original Art, Sketch Cards, Hand Drawn Stickers or Post Cards, Limited Edition Prints, Prints or posters)

Patreon is a site where you basically become a patron of the arts.  You sign up and financially help your favorite artist create the art you want them to create like the patrons of old.

In return the artist gives you, some sort of direct value in return. This can be videos of the making of the art, art tutorials, private chats, or different kinds of downloadable content.

For the most part, they give you access to high end digital files of some artwork. This can then be printed out by you to make canvas prints or posters.  Or you can use it as desktop wallpaper.

However, depending on the artist and the tier of the rewards, you can also get original art sent to you by the artist.  This is the case for my patrons on Patreon.  Every month I pick a name at random of one of my patrons and send them an original art postcard via mail.

Check the social media or website of artists you like and see if they have a Patreon account you can join to support them.  In case you’re interested, my Patreon link is below:

What To Do Now

Alright, now you have enough information to get started. The best thing for you to do now is to hone in on what you really want out of your art collection.

What do  you want to collect?  What will be the thing that gives you the most satisfaction?

Once you’ve got an idea, try going to some conventions or give some of these links a try.  See how it goes.  Have fun.

I hope this has been helpful to you.  If you’ve read this and you think I’ve missed something or you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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