Bent Corner

From this week’s Internet comic book gossip column Rich Johnson’s Lying in the Gutters:

I’m getting more reports of people who’ve commissioned pieces from Michael Golden complaining about the length of time the pieces take, the lack of communication, and the practice of taking on more commissions when there are years worth uncompleted.I don’t think anyone commissioning such a piece right now can be under any illusion of the amount of time Mike takes.

While most creators take less time to fulfil a commission, some take more - Brian Bolland and Simon Bisley are two examples.

As for communication, there’s very little more to say than, “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.”

I blogged last year about someone paying Michael Golden for a commissioned piece of artwork, only to get the runaround for months and months from both Michael Golden and his art agent, Renee Witterstaetter. When the fan finally got his artwork, it contained an insult from Golden. He included the phrase “Patience is a viru [sic]” in the piece.

Both classy and professional.

I understand some artists take longer to do their artwork. What I don’t understand is how someone can take someone’s money for a commissioned piece of art and then not get around to doing it. What’s even worse is when they take time to then attend comic book conventions where they take on even more commissions for artwork. I think that if you already have a backlog of commissions, you shouldn’t be going out and taking more commissions. You should concentrate on fulfilling the commissions you already have.

Personally, I would never pay a comic book artist for commissioned artwork. If I had $500 to blow on something comic book related, I would buy comic books. I’d pick up some more D.C. Comics Absolute Editions or maybe more Marvel Omnibus Editions or Marvel Masterworks.

If I wanted artwork that was comic book related, I would buy something licensed and authorized.

I wouldn’t buy a sketch. Ever. Not only are they usually way overpriced, technically they aren’t even legal. Unless the artist in question owns the rights to the character being sketched, they are unauthorized to use the characters for commercial gain. Just because comic book publishers choose to turn a blind eye to the practice of artists charging fans hundreds of dollars to create art depicting their intellectual property doesn’t mean they always will. Eventually publishers will realize that when a fan pays hundreds of bucks for a sketch of Wolverine smoking a cigar, that fan could be spending that money on licensed merchandise.

There is an update to a story I blogged about the other day concerning the Doctor Strange fan that commissioned Michael Golden to do a Doctor Strange sketch. Michael Golden responded to criticism he has been receiving in a fairly snarky fashion over at The Comics Journal forum.

My favorite part is where he admits to forging his art agent’s signature on the United States Postal Customs form. My second favorite part is where he says that Doctor Strange is not blowing Gerry Turnbull a raspberry.

In my opinion, Golden is only making a bad thing worse. He screwed up. He accepted $500 in payment for a commissioned piece of artwork and then took ten months to actually do the artwork.

Doctor Strange fan Gerry Turnbull commissions comic book artist Michael Golden through his art agent Renee Witterstaetter to do a Doctor Strange piece. Instead of the month and a half that was originally promised, it took nine months and Golden even misspelled “virtue”.

Click the image to see a larger version.

I’m assuming that the reference to “Patience is a viru” is referring to the fact that it took nine months for Turnbull to get his artwork. Patience may very well be a virtue, but professionalism is too.

Turnbull contacted Witterstaetter to complain and the art agent claimed she hadn’t seen the artwork even though her signature is on the customs form.

The story has a happy ending. When legendary comic book artist John Byrne learned of this, he instructed Turnbull to email him his mailing address and Byrne would send him something truly worth $500. Kudos to John Byrne.

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