Q&A with Dr. Balls

Which piece in your gallery is your favorite and why?

The Gonzalo Mayo 'Red Sonja' painting is my favorite - not just for compositional reasons, but for personal ones as well. Back in 2014, I sold off my entire collection of comic books and comic art to fund our restaurant. I regretted selling this piece, but it had to go as every dollar counted. After a year, we were on sound footing at the restaurant, so I approached the new owners (through an intermediary) about making an offer to buy it back - which he wasn't ready to part with it. Once a year for six years, I offered to buy it back, increasing the price a little each time. Last year (2022) was the year he decided to sell - and I couldn't have been happier. The one piece I wanted to have back on my wall, was again in my hands. It's truly a grail piece - I spent years trying to get it back, and it will be on my wall the day after I'm in the ground. There are no other grails for me, and I am fortunate to be able to use the term as it should be applied!

Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a former professional graphic artist and illustrator - I worked in the industry for nearly 20 years before my wife and I opened our restaurant. I owned a comic shop in the mid-90s, which was pretty awesome. Before the comic crash and in the infancy of the internet (where you had to buy and sell back issues on bulletin boards). I collect that era of original art as it's nostalgic to me.

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

I collected original art for a few years in the mid 2010s, and sold it all to finance our restaurant. I got back into the hobby in 2022 - totally surprised at the explosion in value. The Ms Marvel bronze age pages and John Buscema Thor stuff that I used to have were priced into the stratosphere in the 7 years I was on haitus. I had to find a different focus that was more in my budget - so I settled on 90's Bad Girl art with a few side pieces here and there.

How do you display/store your collection at home?

I have a rule that I try to stick to: every piece is a "wall piece". All my artwork is framed, and if I run out of wall space, I have to sell a piece to make room for another. For me, I don't believe art should be hidden away in portfolios. It's meant to be showcased - and I can adhere to that philosophy with my small collection.

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

I'd love to pick up a 90's Jim Lee bad girl pin-up of any character. I was fortunate enough to land a J Scott Campbell piece from early in his career, I'm hoping someday to leverage that into a Gen 13 piece. As for the other three "most wanted" that probably changes from time-to-time. I am priced out of many historic 90's pages, but there's still a lot of great indy stuff out there that pops up from time to time.