Signature/remarque you're unhappy with? (Bendis/Bagley signing) 1 1

[samkirkland]

I was so excited to submit my Ultimate Spider-Man #1 for the Bendis/Bagley signing... even though I knew it wasn't super high grade or valuable, it's a prized book from my childhood. I even requested they personalize it since I want this to be a personal display book for life, and Mark did personalize it!

But I'm a little disappointed that the sketch wasn't done where I indicated in my custom window bag, it's pretty clear it was taken out of the bag for the sketch in fact. Bendis even posted to Instagram the book I submitted, and the placement of it and ink used was a disappointment (see attached).

Very happy with turnaround time and I hate to complain, but wish this were a better keepsake book for me now. Anyone else have similar troubles before, or advice on how to be more specific in future?

[JBK]

I definitely understand your issue, but they do warn you it's all at the artist's discretion. 

In this case i wonder if he was only using a black pen and he felt this placement would show up better.

[somewhereintexas]

Also, based on the picture above, the "window" did not have a clear outline, and perhaps Bagley did not feel comfortable doing a sig, remarque and "To Sam" when he needed to pay such close attention to the border.

Masking/painters tape is a must when you make your own window bag.  Never use a marker, as it can rub off onto the comic (as I learned the hard way).

Edited April 23, 2022 by somewhereintexas

[Ron C.]

Signatures and remarques are always a crapshoot.  Here is one that I am not unhappy with, but I wish were done a little differently. Jim Starlin signed this book at Niagara Falls CC in 2019. In the process of signing, he made an ink/marker smudge with his hand. He was nice enough to add a small Dreadstar remarque, but the little sketch didn't quite cover up the smudge.... just a few more marker strokes would have made all of the difference.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

Unfortunately as others have mentioned the creator/artist has the ultimate placement decision.  I had this one that went to Jock. Really wish I had just sent it in for universal instead of paying him to deface the book. 

I should have known as almost all of these are signed in the same place.  IMO this is almost the worst possible place to scribble his mark. 

My original window bag.

The more I looked at it the more it just got under my skin , so I ended up selling it off. 

I definitely will not be paying for Jock to deface any more books. 

On a positive note , most of the other signature/ remark / sketch books I have sent to the signings were done well. Most honored my requests for placement, color, etc. 

[atrocitus]

I feel your pain. I can barely see my remark. Not sure why you would use silver in a white area 

[s-man]

This is why for me personally I would rather buy an already done SS book then to submit one to a signature carp shoot.  I've seen to many books that have terrible placement which I'd be very disappointed in receiving back if I submitted it.

[DougC]

Gather around my children and let me take you back to a more simple time of 2014! Comic blanks were hitting shelves in full force and the Grimm Fairy Tales (Zenescope) cheese cake art was at its peak. Over the course of a couple conventions with the help of CGC I put together an artist, inker, and colorist for what was supposed to be an awesome jam book of the zenescope version of Robyn Hood. Most of the prep work was completed before sending my book off (including payments to all three) everyone had already received my layout rough and description, they had all worked together prior and seemed pretty enthusiastic. It could not have gone worse....

Ideally the artist would complete the pencils hand the book off to CGC at convention X, the inker would pick the book up and complete the inks then return the book to CGC at convention Y, the colorist would pick the book up and complete the project. I would then pick the book up in St. Louis with a witness (among other books) and send it for grading. obviously he artist immediately flaked out for a couple months and it took the inker to get things moving along as they were at the same convention. When I picked the book up in StL the colorist apologized profusely and took a good ten minutes for actually handing over the book...

 

I paid for a 3/4 character with background and from examples and expectations provided I was expecting this:

Spoiler

The complete monstrosity of garbage that I received was this:

Spoiler

 

When I asked WTF happened, the colorist explained there wasn't much he could do with it and offered to refund his portion of the project (I instead had him color another piece) both the penciler (who is at tons of conventions) and inker ghosted me and would not return any messages. I did eventually "try" and speak to the penciler who claimed to have no memory of who I was, the project, or anything really and threatened to call security if I didn't leave his booth. Obviously I never commissioned him or participated in any sketch ops again, due to this.

It was really kind of the wild west of sketch art back then and there were some other far more notable events (many done on the forums) that had longer reaching consequences; some lasting years. I still have this book and one day i'll set it on fire, but not today.

[CKinTO]

On 4/23/2022 at 2:42 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Unfortunately as others have mentioned the creator/artist has the ultimate placement decision.  I had this one that went to Jock. Really wish I had just sent it in for universal instead of paying him to deface the book. 

I should have known as almost all of these are signed in the same place.  IMO this is almost the worst possible place to scribble his mark. 

My original window bag.

The more I looked at it the more it just got under my skin , so I ended up selling it off. 

I definitely will not be paying for Jock to deface any more books. 

On a positive note , most of the other signature/ remark / sketch books I have sent to the signings were done well. Most honored my requests for placement, color, etc. 

Nice book (especially since it's newsstand!) For what it's worth, I do think your original window was a bit too small, even for Jock's signature which is fairly compact. I find you need to give quite a bit of a "wiggle room" in the taped window, as creators are worried when signing quickly that they'll get certain pen strokes on the tape and miss the comic. Even if you have a specific spot you want, I think it's better to make the window bigger, but then write on the tape (like you did) where you want it. Eg. "Pls sign in the white space to the right of his chin please!"

So I could see Jock taking the book out of the bag because of this. Then once out of the bag, it's a bit more uncertain he'll sign where you wanted it. 

I feel you that it can be disappointing when you go to the trouble to try and be prescriptive on sig placement and it doesn't come back that way, so just offering up thoughts on how to "maximize potential" for it to be signed the way you ask!

[CKinTO]

On 4/22/2022 at 1:40 PM, samkirkland said:

I was so excited to submit my Ultimate Spider-Man #1 for the Bendis/Bagley signing... even though I knew it wasn't super high grade or valuable, it's a prized book from my childhood. I even requested they personalize it since I want this to be a personal display book for life, and Mark did personalize it!

But I'm a little disappointed that the sketch wasn't done where I indicated in my custom window bag, it's pretty clear it was taken out of the bag for the sketch in fact. Bendis even posted to Instagram the book I submitted, and the placement of it and ink used was a disappointment (see attached).

Very happy with turnaround time and I hate to complain, but wish this were a better keepsake book for me now. Anyone else have similar troubles before, or advice on how to be more specific in future?

What did your original window bag look like? Like I mentioned above, a big part of trying to maximize the chances of getting it done as requested in your window bag (and not taken out of the bag) is to make sure the window is more than big enough with lots of "wiggle room" for the creator to do their thing. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 4/27/2022 at 1:15 PM, CKinTO said:

Nice book (especially since it's newsstand!) For what it's worth, I do think your original window was a bit too small, even for Jock's signature which is fairly compact. I find you need to give quite a bit of a "wiggle room" in the taped window, as creators are worried when signing quickly that they'll get certain pen strokes on the tape and miss the comic. Even if you have a specific spot you want, I think it's better to make the window bigger, but then write on the tape (like you did) where you want it. Eg. "Pls sign in the white space to the right of his chin please!"

So I could see Jock taking the book out of the bag because of this. Then once out of the bag, it's a bit more uncertain he'll sign where you wanted it. 

I feel you that it can be disappointing when you go to the trouble to try and be prescriptive on sig placement and it doesn't come back that way, so just offering up thoughts on how to "maximize potential" for it to be signed the way you ask!

I completely understand.  I originally had it in a different window bag , but I already knew from looking at other examples where his preferred location of signature is on this book.

I know I made it a little on the small side and figured that was a risk, bit was really aiming to keep his signature off of the face and not covering the art. Unfortunately that did not work out on this one and he did what he has with so many of these 880's 

It is definitely harder to find some of the later newsstand issues which is what already made me a little apprehensive to send this one. Oh well. All rear view now. The new owner was very happy with it and I made decent return on it. 

Eventually I will add another 880 newsstand back into the collection.  

On many of my other books requests were done very well and overall have been please with the signings.

[ExNihilo]

On 4/27/2022 at 2:29 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

I completely understand.  I originally had it in a different window bag , but I already knew from looking at other examples where his preferred location of signature is on this book.

I know I made it a little on the small side and figured that was a risk, bit was really aiming to keep his signature off of the face and not covering the art. Unfortunately that did not work out on this one and he did what he has with so many of these 880's 

It is definitely harder to find some of the later newsstand issues which is what already made me a little apprehensive to send this one. Oh well. All rear view now. The new owner was very happy with it and I made decent return on it. 

Eventually I will add another 880 newsstand back into the collection.  

On many of my other books requests were done very well and overall have been please with the signings.

When I send books for sigs, I place a backboard on the front of the book - a frontboard as it were.  The frontboard is windowed along with the bag and blue painters tape borders the desired area.  The creator has no idea what book they're signing unless they remove the book and/or recognize the book based on the window I've provided.  It's very clear where the signature should go.  I even go so far as to request a color that is easy to see.  So black backgrounds I might request a silver sharpie.  White backgrounds I just let them sign with whatever color they want.  If I'm getting multiple signatures, I prefer all signatures to be the same color.  I even go so far as to tell the facilitator I'm willing to pay an extra $X0.00 amount to them if they ensure my book comes back with the correct color.  And yeah, you definitely need to consider how much space the creator usually takes up for their given signature.  I'll say, there was definitely a bit of a learning curve as some of the early books I had sent off didn't come back with the best color, size, or placement.

[wardevil0]

On 4/27/2022 at 12:55 PM, DougC said:

Gather around my children and let me take you back to a more simple time of 2014! Comic blanks were hitting shelves in full force and the Grimm Fairy Tales (Zenescope) cheese cake art was at its peak. Over the course of a couple conventions with the help of CGC I put together an artist, inker, and colorist for what was supposed to be an awesome jam book of the zenescope version of Robyn Hood. Most of the prep work was completed before sending my book off (including payments to all three) everyone had already received my layout rough and description, they had all worked together prior and seemed pretty enthusiastic. It could not have gone worse....

Ideally the artist would complete the pencils hand the book off to CGC at convention X, the inker would pick the book up and complete the inks then return the book to CGC at convention Y, the colorist would pick the book up and complete the project. I would then pick the book up in St. Louis with a witness (among other books) and send it for grading. obviously he artist immediately flaked out for a couple months and it took the inker to get things moving along as they were at the same convention. When I picked the book up in StL the colorist apologized profusely and took a good ten minutes for actually handing over the book...

 

I paid for a 3/4 character with background and from examples and expectations provided I was expecting this:

  Reveal hidden contents

The complete monstrosity of garbage that I received was this:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

When I asked WTF happened, the colorist explained there wasn't much he could do with it and offered to refund his portion of the project (I instead had him color another piece) both the penciler (who is at tons of conventions) and inker ghosted me and would not return any messages. I did eventually "try" and speak to the penciler who claimed to have no memory of who I was, the project, or anything really and threatened to call security if I didn't leave his booth. Obviously I never commissioned him or participated in any sketch ops again, due to this.

It was really kind of the wild west of sketch art back then and there were some other far more notable events (many done on the forums) that had longer reaching consequences; some lasting years. I still have this book and one day i'll set it on fire, but not today.

I know it's a drastic departure from what you expected and what you paid for, and I have no idea why the colorist didn't think he could color the bow, the skintones, or the rest of the costume, but divorced from the backstory you've got a book that I think is gorgeous.  It does look like a quickie convention sketch, which is definitely not what you described arranging, and I completely understand how the disparity between what you wanted and what you got affects your view.  Other than the bad experience, I love it.

 

EDIT: After decoding the hidden serial number and checking the artists, I would definitely be surprised by these results.  I would consider this very atypical compared to other sketches by this penciler.  That being said, it's still in an art style I like, and reminds me a lot of work by Richard Moore (Boneyard, Far West). 

Edited April 28, 2022 by wardevil0
updated

[seanfingh]

On 4/28/2022 at 8:35 AM, wardevil0 said:

I know it's a drastic departure from what you expected and what you paid for, and I have no idea why the colorist didn't think he could color the bow, the skintones, or the rest of the costume, but divorced from the backstory you've got a book that I think is gorgeous.  It does look like a quickie convention sketch, which is definitely not what you described arranging, and I completely understand how the disparity between what you wanted and what you got affects your view.  Other than the bad experience, I love it.

 

EDIT: After decoding the hidden serial number and checking the artists, I would definitely be surprised by these results.  I would consider this very atypical compared to other sketches by this penciler.  That being said, it's still in an art style I like, and reminds me a lot of work by Richard Moore (Boneyard, Far West). 

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but that sketch is garbage. It looks like a 9th grade art contest 3rd prize winner. It is on par with "quickie" sketches that run $50-75 at conventions. This poor guy paid THREE separate people for that rag. 

[D2]

On 4/23/2022 at 5:42 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Unfortunately as others have mentioned the creator/artist has the ultimate placement decision.  I had this one that went to Jock. Really wish I had just sent it in for universal instead of paying him to deface the book. 

I should have known as almost all of these are signed in the same place.  IMO this is almost the worst possible place to scribble his mark. 

My original window bag.

The more I looked at it the more it just got under my skin , so I ended up selling it off. 

I definitely will not be paying for Jock to deface any more books. 

On a positive note , most of the other signature/ remark / sketch books I have sent to the signings were done well. Most honored my requests for placement, color, etc. 

I actually quite like your placement and color choice there   like, a lot in fact. 

[Ron C.]

On 4/23/2022 at 5:42 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Unfortunately as others have mentioned the creator/artist has the ultimate placement decision.  I had this one that went to Jock. Really wish I had just sent it in for universal instead of paying him to deface the book. 

I should have known as almost all of these are signed in the same place.  IMO this is almost the worst possible place to scribble his mark. 

My original window bag.

The more I looked at it the more it just got under my skin , so I ended up selling it off. 

I definitely will not be paying for Jock to deface any more books. 

On a positive note , most of the other signature/ remark / sketch books I have sent to the signings were done well. Most honored my requests for placement, color, etc. 

I am quite sure that your window box never got to Jock. It was removed from the bag and put in line for signature by your facilitator. That is actually Jock's go to place for signature (with Scott Snyder often on the other side of the chin). Actually, I don't dislike that placement. Jock often goes above and beyond what you ask.... he didn't get the message this time.

[D2]

On 4/27/2022 at 12:55 PM, DougC said:

Gather around my children and let me take you back to a more simple time of 2014! Comic blanks were hitting shelves in full force and the Grimm Fairy Tales (Zenescope) cheese cake art was at its peak. Over the course of a couple conventions with the help of CGC I put together an artist, inker, and colorist for what was supposed to be an awesome jam book of the zenescope version of Robyn Hood. Most of the prep work was completed before sending my book off (including payments to all three) everyone had already received my layout rough and description, they had all worked together prior and seemed pretty enthusiastic. It could not have gone worse....

Ideally the artist would complete the pencils hand the book off to CGC at convention X, the inker would pick the book up and complete the inks then return the book to CGC at convention Y, the colorist would pick the book up and complete the project. I would then pick the book up in St. Louis with a witness (among other books) and send it for grading. obviously he artist immediately flaked out for a couple months and it took the inker to get things moving along as they were at the same convention. When I picked the book up in StL the colorist apologized profusely and took a good ten minutes for actually handing over the book...

 

I paid for a 3/4 character with background and from examples and expectations provided I was expecting this:

  Hide contents

The complete monstrosity of garbage that I received was this:

  Hide contents

 

When I asked WTF happened, the colorist explained there wasn't much he could do with it and offered to refund his portion of the project (I instead had him color another piece) both the penciler (who is at tons of conventions) and inker ghosted me and would not return any messages. I did eventually "try" and speak to the penciler who claimed to have no memory of who I was, the project, or anything really and threatened to call security if I didn't leave his booth. Obviously I never commissioned him or participated in any sketch ops again, due to this.

It was really kind of the wild west of sketch art back then and there were some other far more notable events (many done on the forums) that had longer reaching consequences; some lasting years. I still have this book and one day i'll set it on fire, but not today.

Oh my god. I am sorry. I would have been totally pissed with this. It looks like a child drew it, inked it, and coloured it. 
 

I have found almost all sketch covers to be a waste of money, but yours definitely made sure of that. 
 

You should create a gofundme to have people throw you 2 bucks, 5 bucks, or whatever to all tally up and compensate you for this. 

[DougC]

On 5/2/2022 at 5:04 PM, D2 said:

Oh my god. I am sorry. I would have been totally pissed with this. It looks like a child drew it, inked it, and coloured it. 
 

I have found almost all sketch covers to be a waste of money, but yours definitely made sure of that. 
 

You should create a gofundme to have people throw you 2 bucks, 5 bucks, or whatever to all tally up and compensate you for this. 

 

This was almost a decade ago now, so it isn't such a huge loss anymore and luckily commission prices were a lot more reasonable back then. I was very angry given the cost but the colorist did go out of his way to try and make things right, he is a real champ and I have commissioned him many times and would recommend him today.

All in all this was just a flakey artist that took a commission and had didn't value the transaction, keep in mind blank covers were still relatively new. A lot of artists got away with what they couldn't today. I have a large number of sketch of covers and am happy with 90% of them, every artist has an off day, starts drawing before they are warmed up, or just doesn't have "it" that day. The good ones will take the extra time to get things right and the bad ones just dump what they have at the foot of the customer if its passable. Obviously most of the bad ones either change or slowly start to loose business when enough word gets out (social media really put a stop to a lot of this).

 

 

[juniorMC]

I don't understand why they can't just sign wherever the customer wants them to.  It's not a big ask.  They're gettin paid good money.  If there was a window bag, i would sign wherever they want.  I'm gettin paid, why not? And have a 20 different colors for people who want a specific color.  Keep extra golds and silvers.  I really don't see the issue.  How much extra time does it take to pick out the gold pen.  Or draw inside a window.  Less thinking.  No trying to figure out the best spot to sign, there's the spot right there.  What's the big deal?

[Ryan.]

On 5/6/2022 at 8:01 PM, juniorMC said:

I don't understand why they can't just sign wherever the customer wants them to.  It's not a big ask.  They're gettin paid good money.  If there was a window bag, i would sign wherever they want.  I'm gettin paid, why not? And have a 20 different colors for people who want a specific color.  Keep extra golds and silvers.  I really don't see the issue.  How much extra time does it take to pick out the gold pen.  Or draw inside a window.  Less thinking.  No trying to figure out the best spot to sign, there's the spot right there.  What's the big deal?

As Neal Adams once explained to me, when he disagreed with where I window bagged a Detective 411 for him to sign at a convention, it's his signature being displayed and represented so he would prefer that the placement be where his artistic sensibilities directed, and not up to a plebe like me.