Art – An Echo That's Reversing

Genova – il primo mese

Updated 24 Oct 2025

Of all the difficulties, the one that surprised me was an inability to understand the amount the cashier says when checking out at a store, restaurant, etc. Numbers are second nature to me when reading or speaking but, as with all of my listening skills, my comprehension is lacking. Hearing “dicianovequarantacinque” isn’t the same as reading €19,45 and intuitively speaking that glob of words in your head. It’s not that much a necessary skill: when was the last time someone mis-charged you at checkout? And at every place except at a caffè I use a credit card where: the cashier says something, I hover my card over the ))) little radar symbol, and finally they shove a long piece of paper at me. Voila, my four bottles of wine are on their way home (I am of course kidding, I don’t have to pay that much for four bottles of wine).

Well it may have taken me a month to get here but I can finally understand. (Me: “I can COUNT!”. Everyone, patting me on the head: “…”).

Sitting in on an auction

[ed.: This was back in Oct, just now cleaning up and posting even though I never really finished my thoughts.]

A month or so back I found a painting of Barbarella that Jean-Claude Forest created at Cinecittà Studios during filming of the Jane Fonda movie. It is one of only two that he painted there and one of them was up for auction at Heritage Auctions. According to the site, the painting/s were missing for almost 60 years. I could only imagine what it will sell for. Well, I guess I don’t have to imagine because I’m sitting in on the auction right now (12 Oct) just to find out (and because art auctions are kinda fun). Let’s go…

2024 October 12 – 13 International Comic Art Signature® Auction #7381

Jean-Claude Forest Barbarella Painting Original Art (Cinecittà Studios, 1967) at Heritage Auctions

Atlanta art scene

Last week I got an email from an artist I’d purchased work from a couple of years back. She’d remembered I lived in Atlanta and her gallery was going to have a booth at the first annual Atlanta Art Fair this weekend at Pullman Yards. We’ll ignore the fact that a huge art event was happening in my relative hood and it took someone from LA to inform me. Thursday night was opening night so a perfect end of the week let’s go see some art and maybe purchase something! (Spoiler: None was purchased but bookmarks were place for some works at a future date.)

The Ballad of Barbarella the Smuggler

While hunting for different editions of the Barbarella comic, I came across a rarity from Virgin Record Stores in the UK from 1981. Around that time, the second collection of Barbarella comics, Le Coleres du Manges-Minutes, was released in various editions internationally and Virgin Records printed a four-issue series in English under the title The New Adventures of Barbarella (this title was also used in the German Heyne editions a decade earlier with Die Neuen Abenteuer der Barbarella). Those Virgin Records publications had become my white whale in both their rarity and cost. Rarity being the biggest barrier because for a while I could only find visual records of their existence and none for sale. Eventually, I pieced together numbers 2, 3, and 4 for a decent and not embarrassing price. The cost of my collection as a whole is embarrassing, but only for a few editions am I actually uncomfortable confessing how much I paid.

But still the Virgin Records issue number 1 was elusive.

J-C Forest “Barbarella”, Editions Kesselring

April 2020 I participated in my first online auction. The item I was after (and won!) was the original art used on the cover of Asimov’s Lucky Starr paperbacks from the late 70s. Today, I’m in the middle of another auction, this time for a beautiful portfolio of Barbarella prints signed by Jean-Claude Forest. No. 543 of 777 produced. It’s listed at €60 – €80, but based on how the first 70-or-so lots have gone so far (2 hours in) it will be much more than that. Auction started at 8 AM and at this rate my lot won’t come up until later this afternoon. I’ve set hourly alarms to remind me to check the progress.