Got an e-mail from talented artist Arne Starr, who is planning a move to LA. Consequently, he's having a major Ebay blowout of stuff he wouldn't ordinarily sell in order to raise some traveling money. He said, in part:
"Amongst all the Trek models and figures and other oddball items, I put up about 20 comic pages, of which you wrote over half of (Star Trek #8, STVI Adapt, Sachs & Violens 3-4 (which I got you to sign ages ago in Chicago of all places)). Any help would be appreciated. To find the stuff on Ebay one just has to do a search by Seller and type in “arnestarr” to see 5-7 pages of “stuff”.
So I would really appreciate it on behalf of Arne (who has had, frankly, more lousy breaks in recent years than anyone should have, and is trying to start over) if you folks would check out his auction and, furthermore, spread word about it as far as you can. If any reps from news sites take note of it, that'd be great, too.
PAD
Note: You can go to the auctions by clicking here. And Arne's such a good friend, I'm not even going to give him a hard time for not listing his items on Lot Auctions. --GH
Posted by Peter David at May 27, 2004 10:28 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingheres a link - http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&include=0&userid=arnestarr&sort=3&rows=25&since=-1&rd=1
Good luck to Arne. I remember meeting him at a MD convention years ago, and he was a very nice, approachable guy.
And on a purely fan basis, I enjoyed his run on Legion years ago.
Rob
Good luck, Arne! Mike and I wish you the best of luck and think of you often.
This will probably sound like sour grapes, but I wish I had the "bad breaks" Arne Starr has had! He's close enough to people in the studios to talk knowledgably about movies, and they even provide him clips to show at cons. He's acted in radio theatre with Nimoy and DeLancie (and even appeared on TV during one performance), and he's actually been published - and paid for it.
Everyone gets visits from the Messenger of Misery, as Les Brown once described it, but it helps if the visited one has the security of talent - and talent verified by a paycheck stub.
This will probably sound like sour grapes, but I wish I had the "bad breaks" Arne Starr has had!
That strikes me as an unfair thing to say without knowing the full facts of Mr. Starr's personal life or his bad breaks, which I presume we don't—nor do we have to.
I do highly recommend checking out the auctions—some great comics pages, some of which haven't been bid on or reached their reserve price, and a very wide selection of Trek toys, models and action figures. There's some stuff I've put some preliminary bids in on and hope to be able to still competively bid as the auctions go onwards, but in the best of all worlds bidding will escalate and Arne will make lots of money. Even if you don't particularly empahsize with the cause, check out the auctions for your own collection's sake!
An addendum: PAD or Glen, if you have contact to Arne Starr, you might want to notify him that he appears to have posted the same image for the two different auctions of original art pages from STAR TREK VI pages 3 and 44. That may be what's hurting the bidding prices on those pages.
Can't believe the art isn't going for higher prices -- at this rate, it looks like he's not going to meet reserves on a lot of it. If only I had more money to spend; there'd be about a half-dozen pages I'd snap up, but seeing as we're closing on our house next week...
The main thing thats keeping me from bidding is my own personal financial situation.
Would love to have one of those Curt Swan pages, but such is life.
I do wish Mr. Starr the best of luck in his endeavor and whatever comes next in life.
Let me clarify, Mr. DiBello...I don't know the difficulties either, aside from someone who said "Arne does wonderful things, but then things go drastically wrong for him."
All I know about him is that he has done good things at conventions (I saw him this weekend, briefly, at OASIS 17 in Orlando, doing his film trailer thing) and he has been generous to fans with his time and the bennies he's received. He's also done things on far larger stages. Those who know him say he is a good guy.
While he may need to sell this stuff to make some ready cash, I think the posts about him have made him too much an object of pity. He's talented. He's a good person. He has lots of friends. He will rebound. But he certainly didn't act like a sad sack when I saw him, and I don't think he should be talked about like one.
Thanks for the support folks, its greatly appreciated. I've had a few personal tough breaks that Peter is aware of, but the more recent ones are strictly financial. Living in Florida the right to work state, which I call the right to starve state, has basically destroyed me financially. Its a place where everyone is working according to Gov Bush, but translation is that everyone is working 2-3 jobs at minimum wage, and for couples, thats both people in the house, just to make ends meet. Housing is NOT cheaper here, you just might have a little more size to a room, but you're still putting out the same money for what you need. And I came down for Hollywood SE which basically went south as I got here (technically it went north to Canada).
And yes, I do hobnob with the actors, I was even trained as one by Marc Lenard who actually invited me into his class. But that and a buck will get you on the subway (actually how much is a subway nowadays, haven't been on one in at least a dozen years or so). And the cons I do, guess what, I do them for free. I get no fee, I make no money on giving away "freebies". I may get a hotel room paid and transportation, and sometimes even food, but most long distane cons are becoming a thing of the past. Comic Cons we all usually cover ourselves with no help. Only money I make at Trek/media cons is the illustrations I do of the guests, but now that guests bring thier own photos, I do not make much more then a phone bill or two if I'm lucky. Now mind you I'm not looking for a pity party here, just a little clarification. I go to the cons for fun and for the fans. I like showing the trailers and telling the latest movie gossip. I've been asked to come to LA for years now, but this year, my son graduates HS, and much to my chagrin (due of the times, I'm still proud of him regardless), has joined the Marines, but in any case, I'm free to move on, and get on with getting back to what I do, and be an artist. Time to start over, and just glad a can get a little help from the fans community and my pro friends to help kick my rearend on its way..:)
Arne
My blind eye missed the notice about the lotauctions.com, If I'd known, but there is still the future to do that. Had no idea about it or that it was Glenn behind it as well and certainly wouldn't ignore it..:)Once I'm settled on the other end, or maybe we can setup a thing or two before I leave and it could take place while I'm on the road. :) Just have to make sure I have access to it in the event my stuff ends up in storage rather then an apartment (which is obviously not set at this time). I got the details on the place from here though, becasue thelink...deadends...Site seems to be either overwhelmed or down at the moment. Ah well...
We took Lot Auctions down for maintenance over the long holiday weekend. We'll get you set up soon enough.
Mr. Starr: Glad to hear YOU talking about your situation, instead of other idiots (including me) making assumptions.
One question: was that Marc Lenard you spoke of, or the improv actor from Disney, Mark Lanier? (The latter was given a rather rude dismissal from Disney - essentially security guys frog-marched him off property when he was let go - but he's back with them, at least part time.)
That was Mark Lenard, aka Spock's father Sarek. He kind of coerced me into his class. I did a cruise with him and some of his students were onboard, and they also saw me performing Peter's Rebel Without A Q with Bill Campbell and John deLancie. And they were also privy to the final nights radio play with many of the guest actors that we were rehearsing beforehand. Basically, they bugged me why didn't I do Mark's class in Manhattan. My main excuse aside from it being a Master's Acting Class and I had no formal training, was that I was halfway across Connecticut and it was quite a distance (in reality about a 2.5 hour drive to downtown Manhattan. Well one student was from Andover, and another in West Hartford right near me, so that excuse went out the window. And then they talked to Mark. Mark came up to me saying he didn't know I hhad it in me. I let him know I simply never had an outlet, no theatre in Newtown HS in NY and Pratt-Phoenix, the art school certainly had none. So he invited me in. I asked how could I be part of a MASTER's class. He said don't worry, we just call it that. He must have done good as I auditioned after a couple of years of classes,and in that first year I did about 6 plays. Lead player in the Sunshine Boys (Matthau role), a prominent secondary character in another (the singing Bellhop In Lend Me A Tenor), Understudy for the lead in the Musical Chess (Anatoly), ended up played multiple roles in that one, the sandbag missed. Also multiple roles in Singing In The Rain, and a cop in Arsenic and Old Lace where I also did Jonathan's makeup each day.
I'm pretty sure there was another I'm not thinking of at the moment.
I miss Mark, he was a very nice person.
I have the Lp album Leonard Nimoy presents Mr. Spock's music from outer space for the past 35+ years since I was approx. eight years old(presentely 47) and had it autographed by many of the star trek crew including Mr. Marc Lenard on the sea trek cruise in Miami,Fl.back around 1990. Mr. Lenard and his wife were very interested in it in which they asked me repeatedly what I was going to do with it, I replied that I was going to pass it on to my kids which in turn they were not interested.
I do believe that the Lenards wanted it.
What is it worth? I am considering selling it to help pay down some bills. Can you please let me know and whom I can contact. Thank You.
Best bet might be to do a search on Ebay in the event its up there from someone. The obvious answer is of course " as much as you can get for it."
That must have been the '89 cruise, as I was on the '91 (which Peter was supposed to be on but some guy with two first names sabotaged that), the '93 which Marc was there but with his daughters, not his wife.(That was the cruise I got invited to his class on), and also the '95 and '97 cruises. I did do art for the '99 one but didn't go on the cruise itself.
As someone who has been on panel with Arne at a con (United Fan Con East), I have to say that he is a great guy, as well as a fantastic artist. He was responsible for the con's programme cover, which got great compliments form the guests. So I encourage everyone to help Arne the best that they can!
I thought I had already put a thankyou here for Peter and all who bid on stuff I had on Ebay, but I guess not so...Thank You One and All and especially Peter for helping getting the word out. At this moment I am sitting in a mountain of boxes in my new ( actually old and small) apartment in Beautiful Downtown Burbank. No idea where its all going to go. Naturally of the items left behind, shelves were the primary item, and of course during the move, what got broken, the 2 out of 3 units I DID bring...But, aside from some other "movers" glitches, I'm here, mostly intact, and ready to start again in a new location, well maybe next week anyway...
Arne