Q&A with Brian Coppola

Which piece in your gallery is your favorite and why?

It is a tough call, but the Ditko page from the original 6-issue run of the Hulk, featuring ol' Greenskin griping along with the full array of supporting characters, and a missile, is tough to argue with. My page from FF Annual 2 ping-pongs with this page as my favorite.

Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. I enjoy drawing and cartooning and have little time to pursue it, so I collect a variety of different art forms and enjoy, in particular, supporting young artists.

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

I am a child of the 1960s heyday of the Marvel Super-Heroes, and while never giving that up, I enjoyed the indy explosion of the 1980s. i decided I wanted to collect the mementos of my youth some time before I had the money to do it, but the moment I started earning a paycheck for real in 1982, I started buying art.

How do you display/store your collection at home?

A few select pages framed and on the wall, the rest in the acid-free sleeves of zippered art portfolios, all tucked away in a secure location. The CAF site is my access.

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

Realistically or in a fantasy? So much that I would like (more Kirby FF, more Byrne X-Men, what else?) is impossibly unaffordable. So let's be real. (1) the Matt Wagner pages from "Interlude" that I do not yet have (2) one of the few Cerebus pages that I lost out on, and one I really wanted (Cerebus 59 p 10 "sproing") (3) the other Cerebus page I lost out on (Cerebus 91 p 6) (4) pages from Exit by Nabiel Kanan (5) I have a great commission idea for a Paolo Rivera / Gerhard team-up, but PR was too booked up to consider it