Thursday, November 5, 2009

i am LOST



My obsession with LOST has been in overdrive the last few months.  Those sneaky showrunners slipped me (and 6000 other people) the first clue of their fan appreciation project at this year's San Diego Comic-Con when a guy walked up to the mic and started spouting the name of his website he'd dedicated to fine fan inspired LOST art. He presented to them a velvet painting of Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear. I was there- and thought nothing of it.  Just another crazy, insane fan, giving them a crappy velvet painting.  Fast forward a few weeks- and a friend of mine at work sends out a link to a video of the "crazy fan".  He's gotten onto the ABC lot and is running around and dumpster diving. He was able to retrieve some shredded LOST script pages.  When I saw this (obviously staged) video, this was my first clue that this was something more than just another crazy fan site.  This was something "REAL". (The crazy fan, by the way, is comedian Paul Scheer.)



I decided to check on this website (DamonCarltonAndAPolarBear.com) a few times a week to see if anything else happened.  And boy did things start happening.  Unfortunately, I missed out on the first event they had.  The event was at a club in Los Angeles with DJ AM and that is where they revealed the first website for the LOST Underground Fan Art Project.  The first LOST print was revealed on actuallyitsketchup.com. A Hurley-centric print entitled, "The Numbers" by artist Tim Doyle.  It was intriguing- with glow in the dark ink- but not something I wanted to drop $50 on.  A few days later a new clue appeared on DCaaPB.com. Immediately I started googling the words- trying to decipher their cryptic meaning...  Each day a new clue would reveal more information until finally a location, date and time was spelled out for the next LOST print website reveal.  Somewhere along the way- I stumbled upon a blog called LostARGS.com.  A place where others (not The Others) like me, were following this white rabbit down the twisty, turny road of fun and discovery.


The second reveal was at a bakery in Boston where limited edition LOST skate decks were handed out to the first 8 people there.  The second print was entitled "Locke's Secret" by artist Olly Moss.  I saw it- and I have to say- I wasn't going to buy it at first- but the more I looked at it- the cooler it got.  And I just had to have it.  Okay, $50 for a limited edition piece of art about my favorite character from my favorite TV show- totally worth it. That was on August 26th, 2009.  It is now November 5th, and I am still neck-deep in this crazy, mad, wonderful adventure.  Every week- a new print has become available- and every week it gets harder and harder to keep up with the momentum that this Fan Appreciation project has built up.  The second print I bought was "The Crash" by artist Eric Tan.  At the time (September 9th) it was the fastest sell-out of all the prints.  Selling out in under an hour, I believe.  I was one of the last people to snag one.


I was able to attend the 7th reveal at Rusty's Discount Pet Center in Studio City, CA.  It was great to meet some fellow LOST fans there and we all got an yellow "I <3 Shih Tzus" t-shirt like the one Hurley wore on the TV show.  I am still kicking myself for not purchasing the print that was revealed there.  At the time I was thinking that the print wouldn't really go with the rest of the prints that I had bought- but after seeing people's close-up shots of the amazing detail of the work, I am sad that I do not own "The Smoke Monster" by artist Ken Taylor.  Maybe one day down the road I will be able to buy one for a reasonable price.


And speaking of reasonable prices- this is where I get into the ugliness of people buying these prints just to turn around and resell them for a profit on eBay.  As this promotion has chugged along, print fanatics who are not even LOST fans are buying these prints.  I guess I can understand if they are a fan of a certain artist and want to buy their work- but the the people who have no love of LOST or of beautifully rendered print art and are blatantly horning in on this promotion make me sad.  Sad for the "real" fans.  Prints have been selling on eBay for up to $500 or more for some.  The latest prints have sold out in under 2 minutes.  Long gone are the days of taking a moment to think about your purchase.  Now it's either buy now or forever hold your peace- and pay up the wazoo on eBay.


This print "flipping" phenomenon seemed to happen right around when the 7th and 8th prints became available.  I was actually standing in line at the DMV when the 8th print entitled, "The Hatch" by Kevin Tong was revealed. Needless to say, I panicked, jumped out of line and drove like a maniac back to work and got there in enough time to buy it. (And for my girlfriend who may be reading this- even if I had stayed in line, I would have had to go back to work before my number was called. I swear!!!)


So there you have it.  I'm obsessed with LOST.  If you read my last post, you probably got that already. But just in case you were wondering... :)  And since the last post, I have finished framing my prints and have even finished cutting a special mat for my white LOST poster that was signed by Damon Lindelof. And yes, I did etch The Numbers on the frame myself. (nerd alert!) Oh, and I had a birthday- and my wonderful girlfriend got me a special Dharma ice cream cake.  (Yeah, my girlfriend totally rules!!! )  Hope you enjoy the pics and my words. Toodles.  Time to get ready for the next print reveal...

3 comments:

  1. You did a fantastic job on the autographed poster frame and mat. It is spectacular and I am green with envy! Your prints look great too.

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  2. nice to see you're still blogging. Awesome birthday cake btw.

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  3. Comixguru, my dear! I just had to find you...thank you so much for your part in the terrific gift I received today...you are truly awesome!
    Ellen (from LostARGs and Crazy Georgia LOST Fan !)
    xxoo

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