Artist Tells Marvel VP Not to Bother Him after He Shows Interest in His art

[SquareChaos]

When I saw the original post header I thought the artist knew exactly who he was - that's why he told him to take a hike - he doesn't want to work for Marvel...

 

What makes you think that? I'm not a current Marvel fan, but I can't help but think I'd have to be shortsighted to refuse to work there if I was trying to break in as an artist.

[Moondog]

When I saw the original post header I thought the artist knew exactly who he was - that's why he told him to take a hike - he doesn't want to work for Marvel...

 

What makes you think that? I'm not a current Marvel fan, but I can't help but think I'd have to be shortsighted to refuse to work there if I was trying to break in as an artist.

 

Not everyone wants to work for Marvel and DC. They may have their own self-publishing aspirations.

[Broke as a Joke]

Surprised the artist of mention hasn't taken advantage of this free publicity and commented on this Marvel guys tweet. He did say he liked his art afterall...

[CAHokie]

He may have no idea there is even a story about it. He loses an opportunity twice!

[dupont2005]

If you're able to do 2 pages a day, you're making $4,000 a month

On a 1099 if I'm not mistaken. Higher tax rate, no benefits, no paid time off, no retirement. 15% right off the top for Social Security. No ownership of any characters you might create during your tenure as a staff artist. I work 1099 but for far more than $200 a day, and I don't work long days.

 

And that's IF they can handle two pages a day. I'm guessing many can't. Those that do are still beholden to the whims of the editor. I've read that when the editor demands last minute changes (which happens often) the artist has to re draw the page, for free, and if the page is late of course the creative team is blamed by the rabid fanbase and not the editor. How many hours do we assume a two page a day artist works? 10, 15?

 

Also, all the time spent traveling and promoting the comic is going to cut into work time.

 

48 grand a year isn't a whole lot for an artist whose talent is considered good enough to handle some of the most valuable intellectual property in the world. Digital graphic designers earn the same on average. There are computer drafters making more than that. If we assume a two page a day artist works only 12 hour days we're looking at about $15 an hour.

[dupont2005]

This reminded me of this:

 

Back in 2002 I worked at NikeTown. The store was completely dead one day, so a group of us were discussing Jordan sneakers; which Jordan's were our favorite, which ones we didn't like, which ones weren't comfortable, etc. I was pretty knowledgeable about Jordan sneakers back then, but a couple of my coworkers were HUGE sneaker heads and passionate Jordan sneakers collectors... to the point that they were a arrogant about it.

 

The conversation eventually broke up, but the two sneaker heads continued it. A bit later I noticed a guy approached them and shortly walk away from them looking perplexed. The guy walked to my area, so I asked if he needed help with anything and he said "no thanks, I'm just looking." He saw I was wearing Jordan's and struck up conversation about them. Soon enough a couple other coworkers joined in and we had a really excited conversation about Jordan sneakers. At one point the guy thanked us for being so passionate about Jordan product, for all the great feedback and for being cool people. He pointed at the two sneaker heads, said he'd tried to strike a conversation with them and they'd been dismissive and arrogant.

 

He then took out his wallet and gave my two coworkers and me his business card. We saw they were from Jordan Brand and when we flipped them, we realized we were talking to Larry Miller, the president of Jordan Brand! He took our names, gave us the name of his secretary and asked us to call on Monday. When I called on Monday, the secretary said she was expecting my call and asked me for my sneaker size and mailing address. I gave her my info and a few days later I received a pair of exclusive Jordan sneakers that were never sold in stores. My co-workers both received sneakers too!

 

As for the two sneaker heads, all they got was ENVIOUS of our sneakers! Had they not been rude, it probably would have been them getting free exclusive kickz!

 

The moral of the story is that you shouldn't be a "Richard" with people for no reason.

My cousin got his current job in a similar fashion. He sold doors and windows at the hardware store, impressed a door and window distribution manager one day on the job and got offered a job at his company. Now he makes like 75k a year selling doors and windows for this company. Got his wife (who also worked at the hardware store) a job doing the same thing, so they pull together a nice income now.

[dupont2005]

 

My first impression is someone has a big ego. Is everyone supposed to know that guy from Marvel and who he is? I don't know him and never heard of him. There are two sides to every story so I probably shouldn't have jumped to that assumption but the way the tweet was written makes it seem like everyone should know this guy and how "powerful" he is to an artist's career.

 

When the marvel guy asked to see the portfolio were they all talking? did he interrupt? did he introduce himself? were the people genuinely helping each other out and they thought that he was just some random guy to look at the cool drawings?

 

I feel like we are missing something

 

If you are looking for a job, the time or place should not matter. It is all how you handle yourself outside of a conventional interview. If you are swapping portfolio for work or feedback and a stranger approaches you, there are so many other ways of finding out who that person is without being rude. So many job connections are made outside of the office. I see missed opportunity. It is easier to be nice than not.

Lets not forget that Cebulski's job is to bring new talent to his company. He saw talent and failed to reel it in. Now if the guy becomes the next Jeff Smith he'll be kicking himself.

[dupont2005]

When I saw the original post header I thought the artist knew exactly who he was - that's why he told him to take a hike - he doesn't want to work for Marvel...

 

What makes you think that? I'm not a current Marvel fan, but I can't help but think I'd have to be shortsighted to refuse to work there if I was trying to break in as an artist.

If the guy is dead set on having a certain project published, you know Marvel isn't going to do it. Maybe he doesn't want to draw Namor or whatever C list title isn't selling that great right now for $100/page. Maybe he already earns a living as a graphic designer working a steady 9-5, allows himself a couple hours a day to work on his pet project graphic novel, and is simply interested in getting that thing published. Maybe he's planning on self publishing it or funding it through Kickstarter and is asking other artists what they think of his roughs and preliminaries. Maybe he doesn't care what someone whose tastes skew toward the "Marvel House Style" thinks of his work if nobody is musclebound and in spandex.

 

But odds are he didn't know who the dude is. I'm also thinking odds are he's not too upset about not getting a massive runaround from a Marvel suit as well though.

[andresjsalazar]

It's hard to say much about this tweet. I mean I've met and interacted with CB a couple of times and he was cool to me, but you never know what the situation is.

 

 

[jcjames]

 

 

Need a little more context but, have you ever come across an artist who DOESN'T want to show people their work???

 

 

 

[Artboy99]

 

 

 

Need a little more context but, have you ever come across an artist who DOESN'T want to show people their work???

 

 

 

 

I am sure there is more to this story and we are only hearing one side of it. I am willing to bet the artists were having a discussion and then "some guy" started looking at the portfolios and probably didn't ask if he could and was then told to "leave them alone."

 

This makes sense.

 

What I think happened:

He didn't introduce himself, he probably wasn't polite and as he interrupted a conversation he probably didn't say "excuse me, sorry to interrupt you, but I noticed your art portfolio here. I am a creative Director with Marvel Comics ( hand the artist a card that identifies who he is ), would you mind if I looked?"

If he did that, the response would be different wouldn't it?