So... would you be bothered by this?

[Weird Paper]

I bought this terrific piece from Tom Grindberg last month on ebay.

 

 

Currently, he is running an auction on ebay for a "redux."

 

Current Ebay auction http://cgi.ebay.com/AIRBOY-REDUX-COVER-ART-BY-TOM-GRINDBERG-SUPER-HOT_W0QQitemZ230400684278QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a4f370f6#ht_500wt_1182

 

Is this weird? It's not my place to suggest to him what he can or can't do. My art is apparently the actual cover -- it matches the cover on Moonstone's website. I know artists sometimes do recreations of their work, but has anyone ever seen such a recent piece recreated like this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[comicartcom]

yes I would be.. he could at least make it different, but he is really devaluing your piece in some way, and he devalues his ability in the future to get better prices as well

[mister_not_so_nice]

Absolutely.

 

You're right, you can't tell him what he can and cannot draw, but it sure does suck when you think you have a nice "1 of a kind" to see something very similar pop up on eBay or CAF

[Dumur]

You outbid me on that. I liked that piece...but yeah, it sucks. I don't know if I would be "mad" but I would certainly be disappointed... especially with a recreation of something that is not a "classic" cover. It's a weird move for sure...

[The Troll King]

Roger,

 

Contact the artist and ask him, "what gives?"

[Monsterhoodoo]

I would be bothered by it. Once I picked up something from him off eBay. He was selling a savage sword red sonja pinup, or at least that was the auction title description, and the image was the black and white inked art. I bid, and won it rather cheap. I reread the listing carefully and found buried in the description that what I was getting was a xerox of the piece full size, and a small 4 x 5 pencil thumbnail. I read the auction wrong, like a dummy, but still paid for it because I figured fair was fair. As I said, it was rather cheap. I think it was misleading from the start in the auction header, so it left me feeling somewhat spotty about him. Oh well, live and learn. Guys gotta make a buck I suppose.

[Weird Paper]

Thanks for the feedback. I sent him a very courteous email with my concerns. I'm curious to see if and how he responds.

[Mighty Hal]

I'd be bothered by this; absolutely. When Mario Gully did a similar thing with Ant #1, I even posted a topic about it.

 

Hugo Brache, the artguy, had a similar situation. As I remember, he bought the OA to Powerpuff Girls #1 (for a good chunk of change) and the inker listed an eBay "redux" shortly thereafter. Hugo contacted the inker, was assured that this was the only redux that would be offered, so he bought it.

 

Go to his eBay store and you can buy the copy. The original piece is always the one that will hold value.

 

 

[Weird Paper]

I appreciate the suggestion, but I really don't see myself doing that–buying the copy to ensure he value of the original. I bought the original because I really like it. I don't see having a second copy of it. And, if I did do that, what would prevent him from doing more "redux?"

[Pirate]

I think it's dirty.

[bryan91]

Yeah I would be upset. Why can't he just draw something else original and sell it instead?

Cool piece though.

[Child,pleeze-migration]

I think the artist has the right to do "recreations" of their own work, but I never understood why they would choose to do almost exact duplicates. This only causes confusion down the line when the "recreation" is sold as the actual cover. If I was the artist, I would have changed some aspects of the art to make it more distinctive or an improvement over the original. At least write somewhere that it's not the original cover art.

 

[AvengersFan]

Can you post me a link to Hugo's ebay store? I may be slow but I could not find it and my daughter worships the PPG's. Thanks!

Jay

[Mighty Hal]

Jay, I've found it in the past by going to artguy(dot)net -- which linked me to his eBay store. I've just tried it and eBay comes up with "Sorry, this store does not exist".

 

Bummer. Hugo treated me kindly and I hope all is well.

[Mighty Hal]

I see that somebody dropped $350 for the "redux" version. Weird paper, did TG ever reply to your e-mail?

[Weird Paper]

He did. He saw it differently than I did, so I decided to let it drop. Again, I never meant to tell him what he could or couldn't draw, sell, etc. I just felt it was uncool to do a near-identical recreation of a new cover.

I broached the subject on Comicart-L, and their take was more accepting of his actions than I saw here. I still contend that it would negatively affect the price of a recent original if it were known that there would be copies drawn.

But hey, we move on. I still like the piece. I didn't buy it as an investment, I bought it because I like the Frazetta-like style he used and I like the characters. That hasn't changed.

[Artemaria]

Wow, this is a thorny issue. On the one hand, I agree with most people that you can't tell the artist what to draw. On the other hand, you would like to do something to protect the extra value attributed to your piece (whatever that might be) by virtue of the fact that it is the published cover.

 

Since most modern covers don't have a stamp on the back or something like that, you could always ask him to put the word "Redux" or something else on the other cover (perhaps in the box where he signs his name) to distinguish it from the original and that's how people will know if it ever becomes an issue. It is a very common practice to specifically and explicitly denote recreations and indeed most artists who recreate somewhat more known works (even when it is their own), do this to avoid confusion.

 

Hopefully he will be receptive to this idea since it is something of a standard practice in the industry.

 

Best of luck. Please do let us know how it turns out.

 

- A

[Real Elijah Snow]

I would not be happy at all.