McFarlane/Larsen Authorship on Spawn #258-266, Satan Saga, etc. 2 2

[justadude]

Hey there,

Recently saw an OA piece on Comic Art Live from this Spawn run sold as a McFarlane and Larsen piece. Only Larsen has a signature on it, and in my markedly inexperienced opinion, it looks pretty Larsen-y. Does anyone have the final word on this? Both artists were credited for pencils and inks, but I'm wondering if McFarlane worked on the scans and not the actual page?

Would love to hear the experts chime in.

jz

[John E.]

On 6/29/2022 at 11:14 PM, jazawlacki said:

Hey there,

Recently saw an OA piece on Comic Art Live from this Spawn run sold as a McFarlane and Larsen piece. Only Larsen has a signature on it, and in my markedly inexperienced opinion, it looks pretty Larsen-y. Does anyone have the final word on this? Both artists were credited for pencils and inks, but I'm wondering if McFarlane worked on the scans and not the actual page?

Would love to hear the experts chime in.

jz

Albert Moy reps Erik Larsen and he sells a bunch of Spawn 258 pages and credits only Erik Larsen. From what I know about Todd and how he works, Todd may have done the layouts, and even then, he could have done the layouts on a separate sheet of paper; or Todd received Erik’s final pages and Todd may have added embellishments to it, like darkening some inks or thinking a line. However, if I were buying a page I’d just assume it’s 100% (or 99.99%) Larsen. Larsen is such a pro that he’s the kind of guy who just sits at Artist Alley and draws out Savage Dragon pages at his table, practically eschewing pencils and just going straight from ink to paper. I hardly doubt that Erik needed help drawing this thing. And I think Todd would add embellishments on Greg Capullo’s art back then. I’m just putting one-and-one together here so I may be so wrong. Erik is on Twitter and he’s pretty responsive to questions from fans, unless Erik has left Twitter. I haven’t logged in a while. 

Edited June 30, 2022 by John E.
Wrote wrong issue #

[justadude]

Having looked through Albert's website, that's what I was figuring too. If I had Twitter, I'd ask him myself, but I don't. It is curious though why they'd be billed together as "Art" if it was so heavily in one direction. I'll just have to ask him when I get the chance.

[lurker]

From memory McFarlane added details and extra inks DIGITALLY after receiving scans of Larsen's. That's as far the collaboration went for the art. Perfectly legit to credit both in the COMIC but to advertise an original page as a Larsen/McFarlane would border on fraudulent IMO. 99,999% sure McFarlane never touched these. He's been digital only for 20+ years with only two known exceptions: a handful of Image United pages and Spawn 300 where he physically inked several guest artists ( Capullo, Opena, Campbell ).

[John E.]

On 6/30/2022 at 2:17 AM, jazawlacki said:

 It is curious though why they'd be billed together as "Art" if it was so heavily in one direction.

Just offering opinion here, no hard evidence. Spawn is Todd’s baby thus he has to have some creative control on the artistic side. Plus having an “art by Todd McFarlane” credit probably sells more books. 

[timguerrero]

which show did they have it for sale? who was selling it? Anthony or Mike? weird that they'd do false advertisement. 

[John E.]

On 6/30/2022 at 2:47 AM, lurker said:

Perfectly legit to credit both in the COMIC but to advertise an original page as a Larsen/McFarlane would border on fraudulent IMO.

Sure, but if Todd is credited in the book the seller has plausible deniability. It’s like when some books credit three inkers but don’t tell us who inked what pages. I can’t accuse the seller for fraud if he’s saying it’s an Al Milgrom inked page which could be true though it’s reality it’s Scott Koblish. What annoys me the most is when sellers don’t do their homework when there’s doubt. Not everyone can be an expert in inking styles but they can ask around. 

[John E.]

On 6/30/2022 at 7:49 AM, timguerrero said:

which show did they have it for sale? who was selling it? Anthony or Mike? weird that they'd do false advertisement. 

The OP says it was on sale during Comic Art Live but doesn’t mention a seller. I still say there’s plausible deniability but seller gets an F on their homework. 

[Guest Race]

Mike sold it for 4250

[Twanj]

Queued up at 1:06:15 "pencilled and inked by McFarlane and Larsen"

Edited June 30, 2022 by Twanj

[lurker]

To clarify I don't believe Mike ( if it is him who sold it ) intentionally mislead the buyer but he sure didn't do his 101 homework. 

But to be fair neither did I since I have not actually seen the page that sold on the show and only commented based on the general description made on the boards. Anyone can post a pic??

$4250 seems bonkers if it is Larsen only since Albert sells most of these for an average of $400 ( granted 2K for the more detailed action double splash) 

[Twanj]

On 6/30/2022 at 9:24 AM, lurker said:

To clarify I don't believe Mike ( if it is him who sold it ) intentionally mislead the buyer but he sure didn't do his 101 homework. 

But to be fair neither did I since I have not actually seen the page that sold on the show and only commented based on the general description made on the boards. Anyone can post a pic??

$4250 seems bonkers if it is Larsen only since Albert sells most of these for an average of $400 ( granted 2K for the more detailed action double splash) 

[lurker]

Thanks for posting the video link twanj!

Now that i have seen it I stand by my previous comments: I am 99,99% convinced there is no Todd on that page. It's one of the more detailed Larsens but I don't see any ink lines that resembles Todd's ( and again their process on that book was digital adds-on by Todd over Larsen's scans ). Always better to confirm with Larsen himself for obvious reasons though ( not sure he is on twitter anymore, had the impression he deleted his account after Musk bought the place ).

 

[Twanj]

On 6/30/2022 at 9:39 AM, lurker said:

Thanks for posting the video link twanj!

Now that i have seen it I stand by my previous comments: I am 99,99% convinced there is no Todd on that page. It's one of the more detailed Larsens but I don't see any ink lines that resembles Todd's ( and again their process on that book was digital adds-on by Todd over Larsen's scans ). Always better to confirm with Larsen himself for obvious reasons though ( not sure he is on twitter anymore, had the impression he deleted his account after Musk bought the place ).

 

This page does look better than the $400 ones still available from Moy, but not much.

I agree that Moy would list McFarlane when he was selling them if he had worked on the page. Better to ask and remove all doubt as mentioned.

https://twitter.com/erikjlarsen?lang=en

 

Looks like Larsen is active within the last few days.

[lurker]

On 6/30/2022 at 3:52 PM, Twanj said:

https://twitter.com/erikjlarsen?lang=en

 

Looks like Larsen is active within the last few days.

Oh, Larsen is back! Best news of the day ( I had stopped checking after his account looked deleted for several days in a row when Musk bought Twitter ). Thanks!!

I am not on Twitter ( only read posts ) but I hope someone forwards him the page for clarification.

[kbmcvay]

On 6/30/2022 at 9:24 AM, lurker said:

To clarify I don't believe Mike ( if it is him who sold it ) intentionally mislead the buyer. 

Why don't you believe he would do this intentionally given his actions in the past (Shillgate, etc.)?

[lurker]

On 6/30/2022 at 4:03 PM, kbmcvay said:

Why don't you believe he would do this intentionally given his actions in the past (Shillgate, etc.)?

Mostly giving him the benefit of the doubt. And I often get the impression that Mike is less invested/has less zealous knowledge about most pieces published after 1990. Don't get me wrong, he knows his ABC but we all have our cut off point ( aka when the new comics being published stopped being magic ) and for him I feel that it's around the time the pre-Image boys took over Marvel. I have seen him list modern ( last 30 years ) art at very odd prices ( sometimes to his disadvantage ). Long story short I just don't see Mike as a 2012 Spawn fanatic, that's all ( not that he shouldn't research it more given his line of work ). Just my 2 cents and assuming a lot of things.  

[vodou]

In my experience Mike will take the word of whoever he gets something from as to credits, etc unless something glaringly sticks out as incorrect. That's what we can all probably agree is a professional blind spot but not particularly disingenuous. Just sloppy/lazy and caveat emptor applies too for the potential buyers. Likewise, order cancels/returns in such cases shouldn't be blocked or penalized either.

[Twanj]

On 6/30/2022 at 11:22 AM, vodou said:

In my experience Mike will take the word of whoever he gets something from as to credits, etc unless something glaringly sticks out as incorrect. That's what we can all probably agree is a professional blind spot but not particularly disingenuous. Just sloppy/lazy and caveat emptor applies too for the potential buyers. Likewise, order cancels/returns in such cases shouldn't be blocked or penalized either.

In the video, he says the credits are according to comics.org 

https://www.comics.org/issue/1529791/

-script

Todd McFarlane; Erik Larsen

Pencils

Todd McFarlane; Erik Larsen

Inks

Todd McFarlane; Erik Larsen

[SMP]

The published page of the book has more inking on it, which implies McFarlane inked it digitally.