Episode 1160: A Conversation with Scott Kress (Catskill Comics)

0:00This is Kama Shenanigans Episode 1160, a conversation with Scott Cress. Welcome to the Kama Shenanigans podcast. I'm your host Adam Chapman. This is episode 1160. This is an exciting one. As I finally have Scott Cress on the show. Scott Cress is a very well-known art dealer. He's been running Ketsacle Comics for over... well actually it's been exactly 25 years now. He launched September 1st, 2001. So it's been 25 years and it's exciting to finally have him on the show. It's probably the proper name of the website is

1:03Kat Skill Comics, original and commissioned art. You can go to KatSkillComics.com. He reps a lot of really great artists including excellent friend of the show, Ron Friends as well as Pat Olive, Tom Defalco, Brett Breeding. He also does Mike Grel, Bob Hall, Chris Nye. So he has a number of people who is represented in the past and currently has artwork for. So I really, if you're looking for a piece of work, either a commission or originals, you can find some really good options up on the Ketsacle Comics. So this is a lot of fun to be able to talk with Scott about his business and what it's like working with these different artists and repping. It's a part of the business that I know much less about than other aspects of the business obviously. I think the only other in this case former art dealer I've ever had on the show was Scott Dunbeer or Dunbeer who used to be an original art dealer and then eventually moved into other things and obviously created a lot of artist editions and has his own company right now where they're developing

2:04those. But this is someone still in the biz and it's been doing it for 15 years and has a good stable of people and it's interesting kind of hearing how we got into it and how the business kind of works. So I thought this was really great. I really enjoyed this conversation with Scott. I hope you do too. You can always email me at comicchneticonsatgmail.com right at the show on Apple Podcasts, listen to us and Apple Podcasts and also listen to us on Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and let's jump right into the conversation with Scott Cress. Enjoy. Scott, welcome to the comicchneticons podcast. How are you tonight? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. This has been a long time coming. I'm glad we were able to make it happen. You are the proprietor of CatSkill Comics. We're going to get into that in a second. But I guess what is your kind of relationship with comic books before you end up becoming an art dealer? What was your relationship with comics with a big factor when you were growing up?

3:05If comic books per se were actually not a big factor in my childhood. I didn't have very much exposure to comic books. I lived on a farm in the Midwest and in a very, very, very small town. I did have some comic books but they weren't superhero related for the most part. They were the RG comics, the little Richie Rich that bugs money and that kind of thing. I did have some other comic books. I think that I had gotten from my uncle, Conan and other comic books of that nature. Most of my things that were comic books related,

4:05I guess you would say, would be super friends on cartoons and things of that nature. Gotcha. It's interesting. At what point, looking at your future job and what you would do is obviously very entrenched in comic book art, etc. and kind of wrapping artists. So when new comics become more of a thing or because again a lot of the people you've wrapped also obviously have careers in superhero comics. So there's a beginning to become more of a cross section. I would say it was really kind of an accident, a happy accident, I guess you could say. I mean, I was well aware of, I mean, I could, you know, wave before this happened. I remember when the death of Superman came out and carrying it on the news and things like that. And probably late 1990s, eBay started and I was just going to yard sales and picking up stuff to flip

5:12and make some extra buddy on the side and I ended up buying a bunch of comic books super cheap and selling them and and making quite a bit of money to the point where I was like, okay, well, I need to get bags of boards and things of that nature called a comic book shop and for supplies and they were going out of business and I ended up buying the business. Oh wow, the inventory, the inventory. And then the following year after that I ended up buying another store that was going out of business and and that's where it all kind of started. And this is going to roll into how this all got started. Well, can I go back for a second? So before this kind of foray, I can curious like what what job or what career were you kind of in where you were at least were financially at the spot where you could start doing this kind of flipping and then leading into

6:12purchasing these stores and their inventories. I was I was working I was working the factory job here locally. I mean, I've had many different types of jobs over the years but when I originally was you know, from the Midwest, I moved to Texas and I moved here to the Hudson Valley region and I got a factory job. So basically what I was doing was I was working my full-time job and then doing the eBay thing on the side my regular paycheck. I'm just giving to my wife for the pay the bills and stuff like that and then everything else I was making I was using towards you know, buying, selling, using that money to buy more and it just kind of kept you know once I got into the comic book part it just kept going and going. When you do do that and again that's kind of expanding like so I would imagine your knowledge of what you're selling gets better and better as well obviously like you start to have what you've got and now you're becoming more of a kind of an

7:16expert because you have to because this is this other avenue of income that you've kind of stumbled on to. Right right right and but you know I've I've always been interested you know growing up I was always interested in artwork you know and and I you know I was very well aware of who Frank Fritzette was and stuff I was I wear people like Ron friends and you know well you know when I was a kid Ron was in the industry yet but you know as far as the older artists Jack Kirby and stuff like that I really didn't have too much knowledge of those people at all and but I always had interested artwork and you know there's a correlation with between comics and art and things of that nature and so when at once I started buying the comic books I started becoming more interested and then I when I was selling these comic books on eBay stuff I ended up with a bunch of you

8:19know comics that weren't very valuable so my wife was having a yard cell for her local girls girls boys girls something like that and I gave her a bunch and a local comic book artist came to buy some and him and I became friends his name was Charles Perne and he was friends with Joe Senate who was local here and he pretty much asked me what I was because I was in the process of making a website to sell the comic books and then he asked me how would feel about selling comic artwork instead of the comic books and so he introduced me to Ron friends and Mike Grille and another artist and he just started going that way so what's it like when you start collaborating and meeting these gentlemen and start like how quickly were you becoming like the rep for that like

9:21you like I'm just I'm curious how this kind of snowballed and became this like much bigger business here able to kind of operate how can you repeat that again well like how quickly did it all all those pieces and it seems like it's happening relatively quickly you have the introduction it happened it happened very quickly it happened really quickly I mean you know when I met Charles I would say it was a few months you know and him and I had become friends and we were talking the phone and I was telling her about you know because you know he wanted to he wanted to buy more comics from me and stuff and I'm like well you know I'm creating this website catskill comics to sell the comic books and then he said well you know when it's out artwork for me and I'll introduce you to some other guys and it was it was relatively quick at the time I started

10:22repping Ron he actually had another rep and so it was kind of quasi happening with Ron but then things really fell apart with that with that representative very quick and and then I ended up taking over in that you know for commissions and something hard work and stuff like that but it happened pretty it happened pretty quick what would you say was like the learning the learning curve there because you're used to kind of selling comics and now comic art is a different avenue and obviously it's evolved so much over the last 25 years but I mean now you're representing these guys what was the learning curve for you like as you started developing it was a it was a big learning curve from what I understood and from talking to some other people in the industry that I was pretty much the you know there's always been comic art dealers but there was really not

11:31any comic artists represented you know representatives so I was so instead of buying artwork to to resell I you know was representing these artists and then if they had original art then I would sell the original art on the commission and and take the commission and take commissions on them you know for them and yes there was there was a lot to learn and it was always morphing I know the the one big thing about what I didn't want was I had read a lot of you know I was on a lot of forums for comic art and comic books and things like that and a lot of the reoccurring themes that I kept seeing was people complaining about artists taking so long and I think all artists because you know a couple bad apples I guess you can say that were taking money and taking

12:34an extremely long time to get the commission or not even getting to the commission at all and just taking the money and and and running and you know back then you know how were things done it was mostly like checks money orders of course mail you know there was a paypal or anything like that and so I was like okay well I have to figure out a way that not to have that happen and by having that was basically setting like a deadline the the artist that I would represent would agree to so if I said what is it is it within reason the thing that you can get a commission done within the two to three month time period and most of them said yes and it just kind of stay that way of of course every once in a while something happens you know death in the family something gets really sick you know things get hung up but for the both art debts that was the biggest you know hurdles to make sure that I wanted to make sure that when we accepted this on behalf of the artists that you know

13:41there wasn't going to be problems. I'm curious like you so you're establishing this you know in 2001 and at the same time like not only are you kind of learning this new avenue of business but you're also having to kind of put everything digital as you say kind of figuring out a website and it was a lot harder to do that back then you don't have these days there's so many websites that make it easy and it's there's so many payment tools and options but at the time that didn't really exist so you're also learning a whole now you know digital frontier in terms of building a business so what was that like at the time and because I would imagine you know if someone wanted to do this now it'd be really easy to set up a website versus what you would have had to do about 25 years ago. Yeah I mean when I first started the website I was basically teaching myself HTML code to create the website and then I finally found and I'm like okay this is just crazy and then I finally found a program called front page that made it a lot easier to do creative

14:42website and I used that for a very long time before I went to Bill Cox to make me a new website but yeah that was a challenge in itself creating the website and then I had to learn you know they don't want you to get it done then you got to figure out all right how do you let everybody know that you're even there you know and that was going to a bunch of forums and letting people you know make it announcements and people you're rubbing and things like that I think the main I think the main website at that time I was using I have the CTC forum oh I don't even know maybe now I can have been now it had been something else it was maybe with like a yard maybe it was a yard who chat room type thing it's what I'm thinking because I don't think CTC wasn't around then no you're probably right it's interesting guy like so much of what we take for granted I just

15:45didn't exist yet as an infrastructure like were you I guess I would imagine at the time were cons pretty important in order to kind of get yourself out there because as you said like it's kind of hard for people to maybe know that the website even exists yeah at first I didn't really do I mean it was like I was working with Ron friends for I want to say at least two years before I said okay he's he's gonna be at the Pittsburgh Comic Con and I decided to you know go there so I took me to him had you not met him yet what's that had you not met him after two years I had not met him at that point just over over the phone and the thing with my ground you know I hadn't because Mike was out in Seattle and I was here on the east coast and and so I ended up going to the Pittsburgh Comic Con to meet my or Ron for the first time and then I ended up meet Pat all of there as well and and picked him up but once I say probably around 2004 2004 2005 Ron and I

17:00started doing a lot of shows together we did you know go to know by and was that motor city con yeah to show to shows we we did Baltimore I think maybe I know the very first show we did with the with the Wizard World Philly was the very first show yeah I believe that we we did together and that was a bad weekend for Ron because he had a little accident in the hotel and then is that kind of injuring itself a little bit but he pulled through but anyway yeah so we did we did quite if we would do quite a few shows together we did that for quite a while and then and yes I was using that to to market

18:04Pat's Guild Comics and again still at that time there wasn't there really wasn't a lot of people that were were representing artists I think the other the only other person I could recall at that time that might have started doing it around the same time as I did or shortly after was Comic Art House or something of that nature I think he was out of he was here on the East Coast as well but so yeah that's where that's like that's I use those shows to promote Cats Guild quite a bit at what point do you stop working at the factory oh I stopped working at the factory if it well well before Cats Guild Comics even started okay um they were going to be doing layoffs anyway and I was doing pretty good with the whole eBay thing and I told my wife I said you know I'm doing really good with this maybe by me leaving you know because they're doing layoffs maybe

19:07I could save somebody save somebody to keep their job that probably need to really need to have the job so unfortunately that wasn't the case they let everybody go oh wow but yeah but yeah so I was fortunate that those things happened the way they happened because one way or another was going to be out of the job so was that pretty nerve-wracking because you're doing something that you kind of fell into your flipping stuff and it's doing really well as you said it's kind of exceeding your expectations and then you know things are happening on the kind of the day job front and then that isn't there anymore was that nerve-wracking at the time where you're pretty comfortable with the fact that like this this new avenue of income was going to continue oh I was very comfortable with it I was very confident that it was going to be okay you know and and just you know meeting Charles Bennett and Burnett and going a different route was unexpected and you know a blessing in a way

20:11you know I mean I've been able to work with some great artists over the years and still do so question about that so as you're kind of expanding kind of the the client base in terms of artists because obviously artists talked to each other they know each other at cons and stuff so there is this kind of network that exists how what was it like for you to kind of as you ramp up to have more and more people connected and be some more of their work and again bringing commissions for them etc. did it feel like you're reaching a like a critical mass on like a will this is a comfortable level of people to wrap or did it feel like the sky is the limit in terms of how many people you could wrap it once well yeah it was I got to you know I got to a point where I felt that I was at a comfortable spot I actually had another I had a friend who was looking to get into doing what I did and he started he started or repping as well and I actually had

21:17gotten an email from a fella down in Brazil wanting to know if I wanted to sell their artwork or comic art and on eBay or through the website and things like that yeah and it was it was it was a studio basically and I didn't recognize the guy's name and so I I said I'm sick of myself I said to you so I don't know I this is a lot more a lot more people I don't know if I can keep up with everything and so I called my friend I said hey you know I got this this group of fellas that want to you know looking for representation to sell some of their artwork and stuff when I did not know at the time when I basically handed this over to him was it was the Adventist studio oh wow yeah because Adventist was not mentioned whatsoever and was not mentioned at all in the emails

22:25so if I if I would have known that it would probably have been different but you know it is what it is so yeah and I was I was happy with the artists that I had and and and still to this day the you know Ron has been with me for well for the beginning for the most part and and same with Mike Grille and and you know the and it would pat all up with us it feels like a small little family you know we've known each other for so long and and you know I'm very happy I mean I'm not saying I'm not looking for other artists represent because I am I'm always looking it's just you know trying to find somebody that that I guess that's you know the you know because I'm so used to dealing with the the season veterans you know like people like Ron and Mike Grille and and stuff like that so yeah I'm always looking I mean I rubbed quite a few different artists you know

23:27decayers and you know Roboto Frieden and and this tremendously yeah I'm curious about the evolution because obviously a lot of the younger artists especially have started moving forward to digital and that's not just the younger artists I mean yes I know Pat you know for example has started doing more pencils and so sometimes with the artwork that you're selling it might be on you know a digital blue line but then the ink's are actually on the page like what is that evolution been like for you and then finding the market because the way in which they are in fact the art that you're selling is a little bit different than it used to be are you are you talking about digital art or are you just talking about blue lines I think I'm more talking blue lines at the moment I'll get back to digital okay yeah I mean I think most I well you know everybody's they're on everybody has their own opinions about you know blue I mean I understand it you know this is all about this is all a process it's it's you know this artwork was never really was

24:30intended to be like a market you know from the get go it's a it's a it's a process to create the artwork within a certain amount of time so so it makes deadline so and you know it's hard to ship pencils to maybe like an artist in Asia or Brazil or or something like that so things have to be done digitally which you know but I you know there's some people that don't mind having things ink on blue lines and then there's other that like the old school tradition where they they feel that they have both artists the pencil or in the ink are on there but I mean I don't I don't see any big difference in this far is selling maybe sometimes depending on what the with the with the with the art is you know especially like covers I would say yeah like I'm not sure how I feel about it myself to be honest like I've never really coordinated on I think it's interesting

25:34because I think like I've recently got a page I think it's Tom Riley's work on the most recent G.I. Joe series and it was a blue line but then it was the inks and I'm like you know what but like maybe it's not the original pencils quote unquote it doesn't have like the you know the the graphite or whatever but the inks are still on the page and that's still valuable and that's a little cool thing to see because we can see the decisions that have been made in the ink and how they do it so I think it kind of depends and I think to your point like it it doesn't help anyone to say oh it's because it's digital it's not the same it's still pretty cool and it's still cool to see and have I do that I understand more when they talk about you know fully digital art and then someone might be selling like basically like a one-time print of it I understand people who are more concerned about that as opposed to you know an inks on a blue line this is still this is still a real thing right yeah yeah most definitely and again you know and then there's the other you know you have the other people are going well you're getting you know if you like sometimes with Ron and Brett breeding you know Brett will work on blue line so we'll have

26:40Ron's pencils and Brett's inks now you know I'm just using Ron as an example just because I think his pencils are beautiful so to be able to own the pencils and see the detail in the pencils and things like that also is a factor you know it all depends on who's collecting and stuff like that I mean if there was something that Ron had done that you know Brett or another anchor heading over blue line and I had an opportunity to buy both that it was something I really wanted I probably be happy with it because I would be able to see the details in the pencils as well as having the inks you know it's you know they're different you know they're the same but they're different I guess you could say now I know from a I guess a marketing standpoint I know that some of like to use Ron as the example so some of the recent projects he's worked on where you've

27:40had both where you've had the blue line and then you also have sorry you have his original pencils and then you have the inks on the blue line and then you sell them together is that did you find that an impediment in any way to to get them into people's hands because they fell that they had to pay more but they also are getting two separate pieces that are part of the same process like I found it really cool to have because you can see that process work you can see the decisions that were made because usually when you just had the inks on the pencils you couldn't quite see the story between the two artists right like what weren't wrong wanted and then the decisions that the artist made on the inks you didn't really see that because some of those things obviously been covered with ink like I I have a page of fantastic forefanfare story that Ron did and he was telling me about all you know Brett changed something on this thing you you wouldn't know because you can't see it on the on the core pencils because it was inked on the board but as if you were been one of these other projects you would have seen it so it is interesting to see how that works right right yeah yeah the decision making yeah so yeah and as far as you know selling I you

28:45know selling them like that I guess it all it really depends on the um the characters the story and things of that nature um I I don't like the venom two two pages did really well despite being on separate boards I think this is our own separate boards they were yeah but you got to have that was yeah cooler honestly like it was he's like a Christmas present to myself this year like I bought it for myself because it was so it's so cool um and again there's something very special about having both especially with Ron because he's you know he'll he's sketching on the other side of the page as well and then he's using the light box so you're kind of getting like process work you get into pencils and then you're also getting a page of x which is a really cool package and I you know and the the reason Ron draws on the back of my remember correctly and Mr. Fred's a good lesson thing I'm sorry if I get this wrong but I think um the reason you see like a partial drawing on the back it's easier for him to draw a figure in a certain way

29:50and then he can just flip it over and then he can trace that um figure the way he would intended it to be does that make any sense it does well he said part of it was to keep it centered because he's a lefty yes which I thought was interesting because I had never really thought about it and then thinking about I'm like okay that makes more sense why he was trying to kind of get it accurate and so that when it was time to get on the real board he was ready to go so it was really fascinating right yeah I everything that Ron does is fascinating I'm sorry I love it's a viral too I think he's he's um yeah I think he's an amazing artist you know um yeah because he thinks the thing I you know when people send me commissions I have something going on in my head and then he he does what's going on his head and I go I didn't even think about that you know like the joke that I have with Ron is that I really want to get a commission like I have

30:5110 10 original pages of his I would really like a commission at some point I'm paralyzed within decision in terms of what to get him to draw because I wanted to be something that he would really like to enjoy to draw and also something that would maybe channel some of my favorite characters of his and so all this stuff is in my head and he makes fun of me and says you know Adam I'm just a guy and I'm just gonna draw it's gonna be fine I'm like yeah but I really can't decide and then he tells me you know what I never got Salva Semana draw something for me I get it he's like what do you what do you ask Salva Semana to draw for you he's like I understand I'm like okay that's how I feel he's like but I'm no Salva Semana I'm like well you're Ron friends so like you're still big deal yeah exactly and I don't know I I something I run it as I feel that Ron has contributed a lot to this industry and and and and the way he is he's the way he can just draw so many different styles you know that he could draw a Jack Kirby he could draw a Dicco

31:54a Ramita a John do some Salva some you know and and on and on and on and of course he could himself too you know it's just he's just so versatile it's just amazing when in terms of your your stable of artists I mean so obviously a big commissions are a big part and then you also have the original art that they're producing as well um what I mean how is that how is the commission market kind of maybe matured over time as it kind of grown more have you seen and I guess part of that question is also it seemed like the original market and commission picked up after covid because a lot of people like had more money for collectibles and that kind of stuff so did you kind of did you notice that that shift after 2000 uh 2020 I should say do you mean during covid you mean yeah yeah I mean yeah I mean well there were no shows you know that's true so how do how do people get what they want as far as artwork you know they have to rely on the websites

32:59just like anybody was using amazon or whatever to you know buy things instead of going to the store but yeah I mean Ron Ron always had you know for instance like Ron always had a steady stream of commissions coming in but when covid hit oh oh my gosh it just blew up it blew up to the point that you know we had a three to four year wait a wait list just to get your name to the top to get a commission and and I still get people asking me well why is it so long and I have to explain because we're still we're still working on you know as we're going through the people from the covid years people are still asking to be put on the list so the list number ends um uh and it wasn't just you know and of course that happened with Sal de Sema and with uh Ramona Freighton and for the majority of

34:02the artists I represent it I think I think Sal and Ron's were probably the most lengthy let lists and um but uh yeah I mean we're like with Ron's lets we're currently working in 2024 you know so we're still two two years out um what one of the things that we've noticed or I've noticed recently in the last year is a lot of the people that were put on the list back in 2021 uh you know they're dropping off because you know life happens and people change jobs people get married people have kids people renovate their homes and they you know or just stop collecting all together and uh so you know we've been finding a lot of people dropping off and saying I can't do it right now either just or not interested right now or adding you know one to be added back to the

35:05list or or for another time because they have too many financial things going on right now um um but yeah during during the COVID years it was you know not only just commissions but artwork and in general selling was just it was it was crazy it was crazy busy yeah and it was good yeah I would imagine yeah as the dealer representing these guys I would imagine it was a very good time yeah yeah it was really good and I was you know I was joking with my wife I said she's you know I could really go for a really good pandemic right now oh man the sale is a little bit yeah right oh my god that's funny uh I mean I never want to go through that again but um yeah things were really good and and uh but yeah and so commissions are thriving very well that's good I

36:11it's funny with Ron I mean he's so public about his good commissions because obviously he's got it you know very robust Facebook page and following so as always kind of posting you know the different commissions he's worked on which is really interesting and I'll be honest and I've told him this that's which made me more more intimidated by getting him to draw something because I see so many great options and I'm like oh my god how do you even decide um but what I'm also hearing from you is that I should get on the list now and think about what I want to do him draw later is that correct yeah I mean you can come in yeah you can you should get on the list you don't have to make a decision at this at this very moment okay um well put me on the list then I'm officially saying I would love to be on the list in two years when it's time I'm ready okay all right we'll we'll do that so as soon as we get done with the interview I'll go in and I'll grab an email and put you on the wait list but you know and the one thing and I'm sure you already know this is the one thing I I you know we get some people that that request a commission from a Ron and not just from Ron but

37:19sometimes with other artists you know sometimes they get like I've seen in their head and they're very meticulous about what it is they want and and stuff like that but I especially with Ron I have found that if you have a general idea instead of being over the top with details as far as what each individual character is doing and their positioning and all that other stuff if you just give Ron a general idea of what you're looking for whatever he comes up with I guarantee you will be much better than whatever you as you had in your head and and I've had and I've told people that and and when they got their commission they were just blown away so I a little note to you if you have an idea of what you want as far as character characters you know for sure Ron uses imagination he has a hell of an imagination well exactly I could say telling a you know it's that going to someone saying well this is the way I want this movie to look no I want you to make

38:24it movie look the way you think it's gonna look like I'm not an expert you are right right right right that's what you know the you see these guys in action and their books and their storytelling and stuff like that why would you want to why would you want to direct them you know let them use their imagination to do their thing because that's what they do mm-hmm so actually that's a question I have so over the years as you know people getting commissions has been more normalized and so a lot of people do it and there's a lot of artists out there who do it and you know it's a lot more out there have you found this that there's more of a sophistication on what people are requesting from the commissions whether it be for Ron or Pat or the other artist the rep you can repeat that again just like and when people request commissions from these artists have you've noticed that like the description or the the requirements of the things that people want to see have become more specific and detailed as opposed to nothing that was in our

39:25particular about no no no no not really I mean you ever you always get one or here and there and you know it seems like it comes in spurts where you might get a couple like I had I had you know actually like three and it was just really odd because most people go this is what I want let Ron do or whoever do their thing you know but lately I've had like something happened with my grail with somebody with very particulars I guess and and Pat and with something with Pat and and Pat all of that is and something with Ron a couple commissions all like within a week and I come to learn that you know when they when they have something in their head and we normally don't do like layouts or anything for approval we say but we did because we just didn't want to have

40:26um we didn't want to have any trouble that that makes any sense we just wanted them to say hey this is what this is what we have is this kind of like what you're looking for and and and yes you know and and everything that's fine but uh no I don't we don't get that too often most people are just like I just I give Ron or whoever the full control do whatever this is just kind of what I'm looking for and and and most of the time well a lot of the time they're very happy I very rarely have anybody that's unhappy with the commission I didn't ask but what uh what was the genesis behind the name cascal comics well the cascal comics because originally I was going to sell comic books the website and I already had the domain name and I live cascal I live near the cascal mountains here and the Hudson Valley and cascal comics just kind of rolled off your tongue really nice

41:30and um so I already had the domain name um and started working on this you know website sell or sell comic books and then when I met Charles it just became a different creature really bad and I just like a lot you know because the domain names and stuff weren't out all that cheap back then so I would just like I'll just keep it and all this under the logo it'll say you know original and commission art and instead of changing the uh the website name or the business name like that that's pretty cool it's one actually I have a question it's interesting it's just trying to save money that's all well it's interesting too because like when you started you probably didn't know that this would run like 25 years either right like it's interesting when it like too much lesser degree like when I named my podcast I didn't realize I'd be doing it for like 14 years and uh you know after wow saying shenanigans a lot is not the easiest word um and maybe

42:35that maybe I should have come up with an easier word you know 14 years ago when my wife named the podcast but like it is funny how that works and then once once you get too deep into it and you're like well you're basically starting over if you change the name you know and and then it's like then it gets confusing and like like right now I'm having issues with my email with spectrum and they're and I like talk it to them and they're like well you know technically you know if you signed up today it's a new customer you wouldn't even have an email address with us and I said oh so you're just trying to fade this out so this whole idea of maybe going to Google a Gmail or something it's really trying to be crazy because I've used the same email for the lab 25 years yeah and and it just feels weird having to start over and you know with a new email address and all that I'm actually the same spot I've been with the same email provider or sorry it's the

43:39internet provider for 24 years originally they had email addresses now they don't give them anymore and I'm like well I don't want to lose first of all all my emails from last 24 year or whatever years that I still have and that's just where everyone responds to me that's where you know I have all these things set up with my kids and whatever and it's always that email and if I changed it I wouldn't even know where to start to get you know change to the new address and it just yeah it would be a nightmare so I'm kind of like I guess I'm your customer forever and I can't really leave because I want my email right exactly exactly it's kind of a smart business plan in some ways like I'm just kind of stuck yes yes exactly I mean I'm going to try to I mean because everything I do my banking everything is attached to that email so I have to like I will have to probably try to slowly convert to the Gmail and look at you know and I know my luck once I finally do that email go hey we're not doing Gmail anymore we're just we're just gonna be a searching

44:43right form that's it so with this year being like that's you know 25 years in operation did you do anything special for yourself to kind of celebrate such a big milestone no yeah I mean well first of all you know the first of September will be the 20th but now I I what would I do what would I do for you know celebrating that I've been working for 25 years I don't know but it is an achievement like you've been you made this business work and you know and you know it's your livelihood and and you like doing it and you have this create you know great relationships that you've made as a part of it like it's a pretty tremendous thing I don't know what you would do to select celebrate it I guess but it is quite an achievement so congratulations on 25 years well my art is live closer to me I would say hey let's all go out to dinner it's celebrate but that's not the case you know no it looks a far away so we will have to try to do something at a convention or something like that the next time but I might be having a sale

45:44towards the end of September to celebrate as far as business goes but nothing personally I mean it's 25 years you know yeah why celebrate being old well it's a way of you know at least you know instead of having to say hey I'm getting old it's hey I've done this amazing thing and it's been you know I just it is an amazing thing and it was you know it's and I am very blessed because it was a very happy accident and you know when they say that if you do something you love you never work a day in your life that is absolutely positively true I mean have I had problems or headaches or worries from time to time yes but for the most part it's it's been great excellent before I let you go any kind of closing thoughts or things you'd like to say or things that didn't get a chance to ask you that you would love to tell me I can't think of anything up the top of my head

46:48oh I have a question I guess you know so you repel these amazing artists how much original art do you own personally that you would not sell that you would keep oh well I have I have some original art see that's that's one of the thing I mean yeah I have some original art that's the one thing I as much as I love original art you know when I see things come in I really had to sometimes like say no you can't do that because it's kind of like a drug dealer buying their own stock because I've had some pieces come in go oh my gosh I really would love this and I go no no you know it seems a little unfair to get first dibs on some things but no I have I have some artwork that mean a lot to me that you know Ron and Brett have both worked on Ramona Freighton you know mostly people that I work with I you know Joe Senate some pieces from Joe yeah I

47:58mean I and yeah I don't have too much I probably have about 20 pieces I would say that they're near and dear and I did have a few others and I had a kind of like a panic attack something happened and I was like oh my gosh I got a you know liquidy some of this artwork to get some money real quick and and stuff and I and and then I did it and I regretted it because then what happened was everything was okay and I didn't really need to sell it and my wife was like you do know we have like a line of credit with the bank that we could just borrow the money instead you just do a nap and I was like oh I forgot all about that you know and I'm one of them was from Ron friends that was I really really liked and it was and you've probably seen it just recently posted by Ron um it was um well Ron Tiles said he's he's a friend I work with and it's Thor and and and the Hulk

48:59fighting in the in the Coliseum oh yeah and it was all pencils 11 by 17 that I used to own that and that was the one that I commissioned Ron to do for myself and that was one of the pieces I regretfully let go and and then I had a beautiful piece for Ramona aqua man that I let go and then parent bought it oh really yeah yeah because he's a big remote in front and so I know he'll never let it go but if he ever did I hope he would come back to me and ask if I wanted it is is at times the original art market can it be kind of incestuous like that but like people just kind of buying each other stuff yeah yes yes yes and especially if it's something you really enjoy and and I and I do I do have one statement before we leave um just a thought about how I feel about comic book art or any art in general you know I've

50:06always felt that if you look at a piece of artwork and it makes you smile and makes you happy um despite of who it is that did it um meaning um maybe not a very well-known comic book artist or an artist at all um not known well in the industry you should really buy it if it makes you happy um I sometimes feel that this industry uh the collecting industry they're they're collecting names now I understand some people collect let's say we'll use run friends again they might collect run friends art because they grew up reading runs or you know stories and stuff and and and things like that but at the same time if if you were browsing around and you see a no name you know somebody maybe just starting out in the industry or something like that but if you liked their artwork why wouldn't you buy it if it made you go wow that's really nice I wouldn't mind

51:08hanging that on my wall despite if it made may or may not make me money in the future um you know I don't know if everybody thinks that way as far as you know potential value in the future but um I just think if you know if you're going to be an art collector you should just buy you buy what makes you happy yeah I very much agree with that sentiment it's funny I've never thought about flipping any page I have I just loved having the pages that I have and like the first few pages that I ever bought were runs and they were from his Anext Run in the 90s that was a book that I loved when I was like 13 14 years old and like when I got to talk with Ron about I think we spent like four hours about this book that no one's really read um but because it meant something to me and so having a bunch of pages from that original book meant the world to me and like I don't care about selling those because they're just they made something to me and I was able I've been able to pick up a few pages where you know I remember the experience of reading that book or even with

52:09some of the more recent stuff with Ron like you know I I have that kind of streak right now the last few Marvel stories he's done I have the last page of each one and I really like I love what he does with the last page might sound silly but like he has so much pay those that he can add into the kind of denouement of a of a 10 page story that I just loved it and so it's kind of been this thing now that when he does a Marvel story I'm hitting you up for the last page because I just love having them and they're gorgeous yeah yeah yeah you've bought at least four I could think of off the top of my head I think that's right yeah I think that's four directly for you I think there's been a few I've picked up kind of unheritage and stuff because those were that kind of the older and these books but yeah no I think I have about 10 pages from Ron now and I anticipated growing so you know I'm a huge fan and I love having his work and dissecting it with him and like I don't think I truly realized or appreciated until I actually held the first original page that I had from him in my hands

53:10it was like there's so much of a story on the page here they can see so much in the pencils and what's going on and even what's happening with the anxin it was just it was an incredibly eye-opening experience because I thought I understood comic book art because I've been reading comics forever and it wasn't until actually holding an original page I'm like I knew nothing like I there's just so much in there and it also made me realize how much color really masks both good and bad at times oh yeah yeah because Ron especially like the detail he puts in his pencils that unfortunately once it gets into the color stage a lot of it can sometimes be lost but when you're looking at that pencil stroke oh my god it's all on the page this is incredible yeah yeah coloring especially if it's really dark coloring it can it can mask a lot of things but yeah there's the having an original art is just amazing and you're right you can learn a lot by I mean even with the older art you know you you see like stats over something over a panel and then you could

54:13sometimes they're loose and you can peel and you can actually see what the original hand drawn underneath oh yeah yeah it's just yeah it's and you think about well what was the process the thinking process of why they did that's why they changed something especially if it's just so not dramatic changes either so I actually have two pieces from Joe's Senate it's the exact same page from the exact same book and one's the all's that one's original but the changes are so my new you're just like what why did they even do this you know and it just it just blows your mind of why why whoever decided they need to change those things they did but yeah it makes it very interesting absolutely well again Scott thank you so much for taking the time this has been really interesting to learn more about Catskill comics you know kind of the genesis of the

55:14of the site and of your business and have it continues and people should check it out Catskill comics.com they should you know buy some original art and maybe there's a sale coming into them in September who knows but you know people should pick it up because it's really good prices and some amazing pieces well thank you for having me Adam thank you so much all right I'll talk to you later