Cover Reproduction artwork

[jick]

Just my two cents. I think cover recreations are fun and worthwhile if the original art is gone forever, does not exist, or has never been publicly displayed. Another would be cover re-imaginations by the original artist or any artist connected to the original piece. Let me share some of mine. (These are all clickable links by the way)

 

1. Flash 254 Cover Recreation by Joe Rubinstein

I have had Joe Rubinstein do a cover recreation of a Flash. He was the original inker, and since the original penciler passed away long ago, I had him do the recreation. He was more than willing since this was the only page he ever inked Dillin. It also had my birth month and year and was the primary reason I had him do it.

 

2. Justice League 147 Re-Imagination by Frank McLaughlin

Another from my birth month and year. This time, I felt the cover was not nice enough and made a layout/reimagination of an interior page which McLaughlin originally inked to convert it into a cover. I liked the result. Again, original artist was Dillin.

 

 

Now is where it gets interesting. Here are "line-for-line" cover recreations done by myself. In another forum, someone offered me to make for them but I respectfully declined.

 

Why do I make these? I just want to know how it feels to be in the artist's shoes and the intricacies of the styles and lines he or she chooses. I also want to get a feel for what the original art would look like in my hands. So I did this myself, without any intentions to sell. I even printed a board to give it a more legitimate feel.

 

I do try to choose art that is not available or whose whereabouts are sort of unknown.

 

 

3. Superman Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow

The main reason I recreated this was because I know this art does not physically exist since the original artist Brian Bolland has been working digitally the past decade. This was just for fun.

 

 

4. The Dark Knight Falls, page 39

I was inspired by that splash that sold for $400k. So I asked myself what my favorite DKR page was, and came up with this. So I though about recreating this page - and just for reference I used the same board and tried the same style of notes and accents as the original board in that $400k art.

 

5. The Killing Joke Cover

Again, I was inspired by the final page that sold for a really high amount. So I wondered to myself: Where could the original cover be? And how would it have looked? And I would fantasize how much it would cost. So I drew this.

 

6. Pilipino Komiks 78 Darna First Appearance Recreation

Being a proud Filipino, I wanted to draw the first-ever Filipino super-heroine who has spawned numerous movies and TV shows. This is the cover from her first appearance. I found nothing better than a low resolution scan of the cover, so I had to add my own linework and details to the art and sort of make it my own. So this was not really a line-by-line reproductions and a lot of details I just filled and invented myself.

 

 

I think recreations are nice if you have the right reasons for it. I don't think they are good if you plan to make a living out of it. I do mine purely for fun and not for selling.

 

I have also found all of this to be very time-consuming so I am going to invest on a lightbox. It is still in transit but I am excited to use it as I have plans with it.

 

I do know there are some early Neal Adams Batman covers who whereabouts are not known. I also know some of the X-Mean art inked by Terry Austin and not many have come out in the wild for public viewing. Those are my next recreation projects. And I will try to recreate also the retro feel by making paste-up stats like was done in the past. This should be interested. Those will be my first projects when I finally get a lightbox.

 

At the end of the day, I do the recreations for my pure indulgence and following the lines and compositions of the artists will hopefully someday make me a better amateur recreational artist too.

 

 

[Sarfa]

@jink Thank you for sharing those. They're GREAT!the Tiger> I REALLY like your Killing Joke cover. It's one of the covers on my list to do eventually.

 

My reasons for doing these recreations is mostly practice and appreciation. Incredible Hulk 340 has been a favorite cover of mine since I was in high school. I have a bunch of bristol boards, thanks to a LCS clearancing them out at $5 a pack. I was actually inspired to draw it because another member on this forum has a ton of blank covers done in the theme of this cover. Plus my best friend also loves this cover, so he is the recipient of this piece.

 

I use to do this as a kid in school, but drew them on plain notebook paper in school. I actually am working on a comic book with my 6 year old daughter and figured I needed to practice some drawing since I haven't drawn anything in 10 years, to get refreshed and brush up on some techniques. So I decided to recreate a couple dozen of my favorite covers.

 

I have had one person offer to buy one of the covers, and personally, I'm not one to turn away money for work. And if anything thinks this isn't work, hasn't spent the time to do this. On the piece I posted here in this thread, I probably have a combined 30+ hours in it. Am I trying to make a living on these, no. But if someone likes them well enough and I'm happy enough with the end results, I don't see why I shouldn't sell them. They will never look exactly like the original, and that is on purpose. I'm not trying to counterfeit any artwork here.

[adamstrange]

Recreating your own work means you aren't moving forward. You aren't using your imagination. You have nothing better to do in exchange for the money

It depends. Sometimes the re-visit is a chance to fix the things that you know were wrong or later saw were wrong.

 

The more you know about history art, the more you learn how little is actually "new" vs. how much is rearranging what's been done before.

[alxjhnsn]

Recreating your own work means you aren't moving forward. You aren't using your imagination. You have nothing better to do in exchange for the money

It depends. Sometimes the re-visit is a chance to fix the things that you know were wrong or later saw were wrong.

 

The more you know about history art, the more you learn how little is actually "new" vs. how much is rearranging what's been done before.

 

Consider "The Scream." There are four versions/recreations. Was Munch wrong to explore it? Do we know he wasn't commissioned to create versions - some of which are quite similar?

 

Read a Wall Street Journal article on the reproductions here.

 

[jbcomicbox]

I suppose it is depends what you are discussing as "re-creations". I had tracked down over the years some GA artists who were willing to "re-create". (A core of artists that are no more) The ones I have I have either commissioned or bought on the secondary market. Some were done as homages......Murphy Anderson's recreations of some Lou Fine covers truly are masterpieces to Fine.....

 

Additionally, the garish colors of the GA also make these items just great to me..... a real hoot!

 

When Fuitani did the Pep cover he asked me if he could "improve" upon it since he had learned a thing or two since then.......

 

or

 

as Lilly Renee said to me when I asked her to do a recreation:

"Why on earth would you want that!"

 

Different strokes for different strokes. Diversity is the strength of this hobby....Whatever floats your boat.....Here are a couple that form a portion of my recreation collection....jb

[alxjhnsn]

I love those.

 

I asked Al Plastino to recreate the original splash to Adv 247, the first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He called me up and asked if he could improve it for the same reason. He said that page had always bothered him - among other things, it had too many words.

 

I was thrilled with what he did for me. Click on the image to see the original.

 

[alxjhnsn]

I hadn't thought of this, but I had Thom Zahler recreate the cover of LnC #11. Why recreate it? Because it never existed.He did pieces by hand and digitally created the published image. That's another reason for a recreation (or maybe its a creation?)

 

BTW, I love this image. Super-hero finds his fiancee (Abby) with his ex (Amazonia). I love his expression. Makes me smile. Really good book. You can read it on-line or on paper.

 

Click the image to see the original.

 

[Sarfa]

I had at one time approached Tim Vigil about a possible redo or reimagined version of Faust #1. He liked the idea of having the artwork more uniformed though out the series but ultimately after a good hours worth of whiskey and discussion we both agreed that it would be better to leave the internal artwork as it is but possibly redo all the covers. This would give the covers uniformity but show the evolution of his artwork internally. Of course this may never actually happen because of time and cost. But with him releasing Faust 14 and 15 in the next couple of months, who knows what is possible.

[bane]

What is the legality of someone, say the OP recreating a cover and selling it?

 

What are the copyright issues?

 

I'm no comic artist but I've been doing recreations for people, often taking 8 - 10 hours at a time and giving them away for free.

[Sarfa]

I don't see a copyright issue here. It's not an exact duplicate, it's not being passed off as the original, it's not mass produced. If there were copyright issues with something like this, then it would stand to reason that it would be illegal for artist to sell commissions and sketches at conventions, would it not?

 

Plus the original artist is credited on the artwork itself.

[bane]

I don't see a copyright issue here. It's not an exact duplicate, it's not being passed off as the original, it's not mass produced. If there were copyright issues with something like this, then it would stand to reason that it would be illegal for artist to sell commissions and sketches at conventions, would it not?

 

Plus the original artist is credited on the artwork itself.

 

I have no idea mate. Thats why I'm asking.

 

I do these recreations all the time and people are always trying to give me money but I refuse because I'm recreating someones work.

 

Just trying to find out how all this works.

[pinupcartoonguy]

Technically, a line for line copy would be both a copyright and trademark violation. A "reimagining," that uses a publishers characters would just be a trademark violation. Whether the publishers chooses to enforce those rights depends on the the individual publisher.

[Sarfa]

I spoke with a lawyer today, who just so happens to be fairly well versed in copyright law, with exception to any changes to the law that have been made since 2006, and who happens to be the son of the owner of the company I work for (a nice fringe benefit). He said that yes, "technically" you are in copyright violation. However there are some points to consider here.

 

A) you are not publicly advertising the sale of such items on a frequent basis to which you make your primary income from.

 

B) you are not claiming the creative licencing as you own, nor the intellectual property as your own creation. This would constitute fraud and would set yourself up for more litigation than a simple copyright infringement.

 

C) you are not mass producing these items for public consumption

 

D) crediting the original artists and copyright holder is always going to go in your favor, however it is also an acknowledgement by you that you are not the rightful owner of the original creation or property.

 

And finally he added that more than likely the money you receive from the sale of such items will be less than the cost of the initial consultation of the lawyers chosen by the copyright holders, that they would not see the benefit to starting any action towards you other than possibly sending you a C&D letter. And even that part is doubtful because in the end, what you are essentially doing is free advertisement for the copyright holders in the first place. While you are not licensed and therefore not legally able to profit from the sale of such items, the benefit of the possibility of future sales of their IP is greater than the chances of said sales, absent your work.

 

Also taking this stance, is the reason why artists are able to do commissions and sketches of characters they do not own the rights to without reprisal at comic conventions as well as private sales.

[bane]

Its always been on my mind, doing recreations of others work. Its why I never ask for any money from them.

 

I enjoy drawing. I have the ability to copy quite well free hand but not to be able to produce my own, even though I have the imagination to!

 

I do recreations for practice and the best practice is to ask others what they want, takes you out of your comfort zone then.

 

Interesting reading Sarfa, thanks for finding that out and posting (thumbs u

 

[Imodium]

I'm starting to collect OA and this recreation business honestly has me a little interested. I would only ask the artist to add his or her own spin the the recreation....maybe keeping the idea basically the same but adding in their own spice , now thats something I would collect. I could careless if its a name artist or a local one, If the effort is their and by looking at your work and the entire process it is (IMO)

 

 

I want to add I cant draw and am trying to learn...so any kinda of art I love it!!

 

Keep it up....and if your taking commissions..

[alxjhnsn]

I can draw! Mostly erroneous conclusions, but, heck, that's something!

[jick]

I am a lawyer in my country, and yes there may be trademark and copyright violations.

 

But you have to look at the practicality side.

 

Is it worth enforcing those rights over something that will sell for something that will be much less than what the lawyer's fees will be for?

 

Maybe if someone really makes it a business, makes so much profit out of it, and makes it worth the big company's time to go after that person - then maybe it would be worth their time.

 

Copyright violations happen all the time but it is really a matter of whether or not it will be worth someone else's time to go after you.

 

 

 

[jick]

I thought I'd try my hand at something that approximates a line-by-line recreation of Neal Adams. I consider it my way of studying his style. I also decided to print grid-lines in the board and paste up stats to give this a truly vintage/retro feel to it.

 

Clicking on the Thumbnail goes straight to the CAF page.

 

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=939003&GSub=114039

[bane]

Your stuff is really good!

[jick]

Thank you for the kind words.

 

Here is the latest one I just finished.

 

This one took the whole she-bang: brushes, pens, pencils, and even the logos were done by hand!

 

Batman 232 Recreation

 

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=945960&GSub=114039