"Punisher War Journal: Brother #1 Cover"

Martin Simmonds
"Punisher War Journal: Brother #1"
2022
11"x 17"
Mixed Media on Paper

I'm trying to be more positive about the world, but the saga that this piece kind of/sort of resolved is literally what has taken a huge chunk of the joy out of collecting for me.

When I started collecting art again during the pandemic Martin Simmonds was one of three artists I made a point of trying to get art from. I had just picked up some Sam Wolfe Connelly art, I was digging what Tyler Crook was doing and picking up pages of his, and I had just started reading Department of Truth and was desperately hitting Martin up on Twitter to try and land a cover. When I saw that Cadence Comic Art was adding Sam and Martin to their roster around the same time I was ecstatic. I hadn't any luck getting anything directly from either man, but I had just started buying Tyler's work from Cadence. Serendipity! Nothing ever worked out that smoothly.

I quickly picked up some of Sam and Martin's stuff from Cadence. I hadn't managed to land a cover from Martin though, and had no luck in getting a commission from either guy. The team at Cadence was always great to me, so when they got word that Martin was going to do commissions from them, they let me know right away. It would be by far the most I had ever spent on a commission, but I would figure it out. I didn't make that first small list they did, I'm just not that baller, but I was top of the second list they opened. I actually sold a double-page spread from Martin to be able to afford the commission, but I gladly plopped my money down and waited patiently.

I waited, and waited, and waited. Martin left Cadence. I continued to wait. I got a small commission from Martin through his new dealer. It took a little over two weeks. I was going on two years waiting for Cadence. I knew I was in trouble when Corey and Andrew told me I would have to talk to Paolo directly. As polite as Paolo was, it was all downhill from there. Cadence melted down (no matter what happened there, I hope all of those guys are ok) and I started to deal with Martin directly. It was only then that I found out he had never been paid. I had paid ten seconds after I arranged the commission and years later I found out the hard way that money had never made it to its destination.

Martin was extremely patient in trying to resolve things. I won't go into the details, but it did end up costing me a ton of money (that I didn't have) again. The plus side is that instead of just ending up with my commission (posted separately) I also ended up with a Simmonds cover!

It's the curse of the art addict that when faced with either having spent a lot of money I couldn't afford on one piece of Martin's art or even more money I didn't have to get TWO piece of Martin's art, of course I chose the latter.

I love this piece. I love collecting art. I love being a small part of this community. I've been around long enough to know that sometimes you get beat, but as long as getting beat doesn't crush all your joy, you're still winning. I don't ever look at this piece and think of the ordeal that led me to it. I have my Simmonds commission hanging over my chair so I can look at it every single day. I still think I'm winning.