Pop Sequentialism

I had a similar experience with a well-known art rep brokering a commission for a foreign, Eisner-winning artist in his stable. The piece was gorgeous. The artist really knocked it out of the park. After I received it the rep asked if I wanted the penciler's regular inker to ink it, but I was unhappy with the quoted price so I let him know that I wasn't interested. This was within minutes of being asked. It was then that he confessed that he had scanned my commission (which was a tribute piece that I had heavily art directed) and then sent a blue line of that file to the inker "as a practice piece," and the inker had already completed it. I was aggrieved, to say the least. At that point we'd had many long telephone conversations and I had even offered to help rehab the penciler's reputation after he got into a bit of hot water. I couldn't believe that the rep would have made a copy of my art-directed, commissioned piece without permission, let alone having sent it to a professional, working inker unsolicited under the disingenuous premise that it was for practice. Especially since my first choice for a commission, which was a tribute to another iconic artwork, had already been selected by another patron (though it had not yet been completed), and I was told that he wouldn't accept a second commission for a similar piece. That sounded like integrity when I heard it. How wrong I was. Since the inked blue-line was already completed, he offered it to me at a lower (but by no means cheap) price, so I bought it just to keep it off the market —lest another buyer think he had an inked original. It really soured me on the piece which I had absolutely loved from the moment I first saw the artist's interpretation of my mash-up tribute piece. And to be fair, the inked page is really nice, too. In fact most people would probably prefer it to the pencils. But I hate that they are two separate pieces. And they are slightly different sizes, too, if I'm going to nit-pick. If I'd had the option of sending the original pencils to the inker and having him work directly on those, I would have happily agreed at the price I paid (though not the originally quoted price). As beautiful as they each are, I am considering selling them both because it feels like I was extorted into an additional, unwanted putchase. I am only hesitant because there is no guarantee that whoever buys them from me wouldn't separate them causing all kinds of potential confusion in the marketplace. And there's a kicker, too. I paid for and recieved my commission in early 2020, and the inked blueline arrived only two weeks later; but a few months ago I saw that the rep had accepted a second commission for ostensibly the same piece. Rather than a tribute to the classic cover, this subsequent piece is a tribute to the title page of the same issue and the pose of the primary figure is identical. It's far less detailed, but still iconic. After all that prior talk about him not accepting "similar" commissions, and after dozens of hours-long phone calls that really felt like genuine friendship? It carries the sting of betrayal. I won't say who or what here, but if you check my CAF gallery it'll be easy to figure out the artist and therefore the rep.

I just listed a bunch of Original Comic Art on the Gallery 30 South site: https://gallery30south.com/figurative-2024/ Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Eddie Campbell, Chris Bachalo, Frank Quitely, Sean Gordon Murphy, J.H. Williams III, Ken Kelley, and many, many more! Mention the CGC boards or CAF for free shipping.