I'm currently in my third decade of commissioning comic art. During this time, I've dozens of artists, and I'm happy to say that the vast majority of them have been honest and pleasant to deal with. But there are a handful who have proven to be, well, not so honest. This is the story of one of those latter artist.
I commissioned this particular artist after seeing his artwork in an issue of All-Star Squadron that he penciled during a brief stint on the title. I wanted to have a page from The Invaders reimagined and redrawn, so I thought he'd be a good choice. I wasn't able to find anyone who'd commissioned him before to get feedback on what it might be like to deal with him. Anyway, I reached out to him and inquired about pricing. We struck a deal and I sent him payment in full up front as we agreed. Not too long after, he delivered a scan of the page you see here.
I was so happy with the work he delivered that I asked him to do a second page and he agreed.
Again, I sent him full payment up front. Only this time, unlike my first dealings with him, things took a bad turn. Shortly after the second payment was sent, the artist went radio silent. Repeated emails went unresponded to. Even after calling him out on his Facebook page, he never replied back to me.
While I did receive a scan of the first page he did for me -- that's what you're seeing here -- I never received the actual physical artwork. And regarding the second page, I never saw a scan or the artwork. So that's two pages of artwork paid for but never received. This all happened in 2015.
This is all to say be very careful when with artists. Try to use those that are reputable with a proven track record. When possible, try to confirm with others who have dealt with the artist to see what their experiences were like. Just like with any profession, there are honest brokers and dishonest ones. Try to patronize the honest ones and avoid the dishonest ones at all costs -- like this one.
