This week’s edition of Rich Johnson’s Lying in the Gutters includes a piece about Warner Bros getting eBay to remove a Batman sketch from auction. Rich brings up some interesting points, especially in light of the recent actions by Marvel and DC Comics against comic book BitTorrent groups.

From Rich Johnson’s column:

Craig Hoffman, Director of Warner Bros Entertainment’s Worldwide Anti-Piracy Corporate Communications told Christian “no one is authorized to manufacture, reproduce, copy, sell and/or offer for sale any products/services which utilize the Batman Property without the express written permission of Warner Bros. The drawing which you have offered for sale has not been authorized by Warner Bros., therefore we suspended your auction. I apologize for the inconvenience of your suspended auction; however, I hope that you understand our position. Further, please be assured that we never attempt to single-out any one, or group of, sellers. In that regard, please feel free to forward any other questionable auctions to our attention and we will be sure to investigate and take appropriate action.”

Every comic book convention I have ever attended has had a plethora of comic book artists doing sketches of comic book characters for money. Some artists charge hundreds of dollars for an inked sketch of a comic book character. I can’t even begin to guess how much revenue comic book artists are able to earn doing sketches at conventions. If the official position of Warner Bros is that no one is authorized to reproduce and offer for sale any product which utilizes a DC Comics intellectual property, I have to believe this will have a monumental impact to the whole comic book convention sketch business.

What would happen if comic book artists couldn’t do commissions at conventions?

Fans would certainly have more money to spend at the convention on comics and other licensed material. It’s hard to spend a lot of money in the dealer room on comics and other licensed material when you are paying an artist in Artist’s Alley $500 for a sketch of Wolverine fighting Wonder Woman.