Michael Crist | Owner - Collector

My interests in collecting started at a young age with comic books, Topps non-sports stickers and football cards. This interest grew into collecting the original artwork used to create these nostalgic pieces which was trigger in the late 1980's with the release of the Norm Saunders Wacky Packages artwork in the 1989 Topps Guernsey Auction. The process to create the stickers images involved Jay Lynch drawing a rough spoof of a commonly known product which would be painted by Norm. For example, "Cap'n Crunch" cereal would become "Capt'n Crud". A photograph of the finished artwork instead of the artwork would be used in producing the final product. This resulted in much of the detail in the artwork being lost. When I purchased my first Wacky Packages artwork piece, I could not believe how eye-popping the image appeared and its size was much larger than the sticker at 5" x 7". The art collector's seed was now planted. The increased visual appeal of the artwork was also the case for the other published artworks I have acquired.

My interest grew into the "Space Opera" genre with the Perry Rhodan series which includes approximatly 100 pieces all painted by the late Gray Morrow who was friends with fantasy painter Frank Frazetta. They apparently collaborated on a few works for Creepy and Eerie magazines. My collecting crossed into Science Fiction art primary painted by Ed Emshwiller. My focus has now balloon into various Pulp, Illustration, Mad Magazine Fold-In, Comic Book - Marvel & Harvey's Richie Rich, Playboy Cartoon and general Humor related artwork like Bazooka Joe. I've also discovered that there is a growing interest by others collectors who share the same memories and passion for nostalgia artwork. This interest has driven the artwork prices to unimaginable levels. My hope is that one day there will be a museum dedicated to housing the nostalgia art from the pre-digital age.