Bent Corner

A friend of mine emailed me this scan.  It’s of a piece of art he won during the charity auction at the 2008 Pittsburgh Comicon. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The artist is Josh Medors.  It’s based on Incredible Hulk #340 drawn by Todd McFarlane.  Wolverine is a zombie.  I’m not sure if the Hulk is a zombie too.  All I know is that it looks superb.

In fact, it’s making me rethink my stance on buying original comic book art.

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.