Q&A with Bill Cox

Which piece in your gallery is your favorite and why?

The Amazing Heroes Elementals cover by Bill Willingham is my favorite. I love the fact that it is half pencils and half painted. With the pencils I get the classic Willingham feel, and with painted I get as close as I'll ever be a something painted by him for TSR, which is to say NEVER.

Please tell us a little about yourself.

Got my BFA in sculpting and painting from Montserrat College of Art. Always wanted to be an illustrator but ended up looking for real work after college. Gravitated to web design thanks to my wife Maureen's influence to get a desk job around 1998. Launched CAF in 2003 as a means to get to know other art collectors since the hobby was not as accessible back then, and the rest is history...

How long have you been collecting comic art and what prompted you to start?

I finished a couple comic book runs in my collection (Uncanny X-Men and THOR) and discovered art at the same convention and just went crazy from there. Made a lot of early mistakes like most new collectors (paid too much, got burned on a commission from an artist I admired) but I love being able to run CAF and be involved with the arts in this way given my desire to always be an illustrator myself.

How do you display/store your collection at home?

I have a few pieces framed but most of my art is in Itoya binders.

What are your top five most wanted original pages or commissions?

Anything by Willingham from his TSR days. Early Byrne X-Men. Early Cockrum X-Men. Frank Miller Daredevil. Although I probably couldn't afford any of them right now!