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At a geek culture show like AwesomeCon, attendees are mostly interested in existing properties and derivatives thereof. It’s no wonder that people want to buy prints targeted at their fandoms. These artists are catering to audience demand.

Rip off artists are reprehensible, but the ones who create their own works? If they can tap into the commercial market I say more power to ’em. Some are just really dedicated fan artists and would make the work even if they didn’t have a market beyond Tumblr.

Also, a local IP lawyer in the DC area just wrote up an article about this exact topic. http://www.sethpolanskylaw.com/2016/06/10/intellectual-property-the-wrath-of-cons/

To me, its like being in a cover band. You can dress like the popular band, put on a good show and have fun with it. I get it. You’re a fan too and you want to share that love with like minded people. But I think I prefer to write my own music that would barely sell because I am a no-name. To me, that is a more fulfilling life. I’ve made something. I’ve put it out into the world. I contributed to the big book of humanity. Its that journey in art that gets me off. Whatever this is, the wall of print people… not me.

I don’t begrudge anyone who is coming to it HONESTLY and doing it. I have friends that do it. But majority of them also sell their own comics with it. It supplements the income and pays the bills so they can do their real art. They’ve found a loophole in the system. And good on them for reading the customer base and being smart about it. Cause I think they’d rather be just self publishing. We ALL would, I think! But until the mentality of the consumer changes, we’re stuck with what is. So we can either play the game or get out. Or be a self publisher and use things like Kickstarter like I did and PAVE YOUR OWN AWAY!

Its much more rewarding.

This was very insightful and somewhat vindicating. I am a graphic novelist who publishes with an independent publisher (not a vanity or print-on-demand, but also not an IMAGE or Marvel). My books are entirely of my own creation and I try my very hardest to promote and sell them at cons. I recently just got back into the con circuit and watch now, more then ever, as people would breeze by my booth not recognizing anything and suddenly freak out and crowd around the ones on either side of me with towering displays of Pokemon, Doctor Who and Spider-man fan prints. I’m not complaining, I get that they’re satisfying a market of familiar material, and I am proud of surviving in a sea of fan art with my creator-own material. The funny thing is, I was considering doing the fan art myself to draw in more crowds, but after reading this…I question whether or not I’d just be watering down an already over saturated market. The real problem is, the conventions are just getting WAY too expensive for artists who are trying to bring originality to the field. I don’t know what side I’m on yet, but this has definitely opened my eyes more.

The ones who are blatantly ripping off images created by other artists, as in, pretty much photocopying and passing it off as their own, should be held accountable. It shouldn’t be difficult to do once these Artists Alleys are set up. I quick look up and down should do it. As for height displays, I’d say that’s a separate issue entirely and should be dealt with just like any other vendor taking up more than their fair share of space. I wouldn’t necessarily jump down the throats of consumers. They pay to get in there (usually) and don’t know any better. If it’s for sale, then it’s for sale. It’s up to the convention’s organisers to deal with unscrupulous vendors. The ignorance on the part of people purchasing these ripoffs is somewhat understandable.

I don’t agree about the tchotchkes. Why can’t they be set up alongside others? It’s still artistry. Seems a bit silly to demand they be somewhere else. Just my take on this based on my own experiences.

So how do they rectify commissioned sketches by artists that are not necessarily owners of the property or owners of a license? This would effectively end any commissioned sketches at conventions as well wouldn’t it? The people selling prints of other peoples artwork and passing it off as their own are the real problem, I have total agreement in that. But for the comics industry to “crack down” on anyone drawing a picture of a character is fucking ridiculous. If you put the time in drawing inking sketching creating an original piece of artwork, you should be able to sell it without the fear of getting your ass sued off by some ginormous company. That’s my opinion and its certainly not the law, but seriously Marvel/DC whats next, you gonna put out lawyers in high schools to sue kids drawing pictures of their favorite characters for their friends? Its big versus small, and the big guys have the most money to blow on such nonsense, so ultimately the little will lose out. And in doing so the fans will as well.

Several thoughts on this article.
1) it’s funny that the pros who do this very same thing don’t get targeted. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen Greg Horn take up 3-4 tables in artist alley with his “team” selling his artwork…. no greg in site.

2) Most of the print vendors in artist alley are not ripping off someone else’s artwork. There are some like those splatter guys and some of the folks just tracing movie images but most are artists who are drawing the characters they love for fans who are looking for just that.

3) It’s funny that the pro’s are the ones who complain about these things but they themselves do not offer an alternative for the customer. If the customer doesn’t care that an artist who worked for spider-man is signing books and that artist isn’t selling a variety of prints with the characters fans want….then that’s that creators own fault. The popular creators make buckets of money (ask J.Scott Campbell) and there are plenty of people shelling out money for original sketches from guys who work for marvel/dc. That has nothing to do with print walls.

4) I do agree that artist alley should be for artists selling their product (prints or originals…whatever) but for those representing other artists (print vendors) there isn’t a better alternative. Take Wizard World for example, $300 for an artist table a table that is roughly 2 feet wider with the same print wall set up would cost over $1000 in the vendor area. There are definitely print vendors making more than that at shows but not that much more…. and if that person really is a print vendor representing an artist then there is probably a profit split in the works.

In short, if pros want a pros section at cons… they should demand one. if pros don’t want an artist alley section then it’s simply because they want more money. they aren’t protecting the fans because the fans are getting what they want. if shows want to eliminate print vendors from artist alley then they should provide an alternative.

*pros don’t want artists selling prints of characters in artist alley ^

@Adam Talley – not all these guys are like cover bands unless you know of bands who charge people to watch them mime to the songs of the original artists!

Calling 3D Artists ‘tchotchke’ sellers is highly offensive and dismissive to the artists. They take just as much time and talent as a print artist, if not more time due to inability to mass produce large numbers of prints repeatedly. As someone who solely sells original 3D works in the artists alley (as well as some original prints), you had me agreeing with you up until that point. Why even put that in this context? Are you trying to lump us with ripoff artists? That is dismissive, uninformed and elitist.

Okay, so where’s the controversy?

See Eric Simon’s comment.

The rookie hazing is one of my favorite parts of the season. I especially loved the Mets bride and bridesmaids last year. As I recall, Zach Wheeler was the bride. Baseball is the one sport where I really feel I get to know the players, and the rookies seem to enjoy it. Curtis Granderson, who is the leader of the hazing for the Mets these days, said he had to be Pocahontas way back when he was a rookie and that he had fond memories of it, or words to that effect. I can’t recall his actual words. And I give these guys a lot of credit for walking to their hotel dressed like that and owning it.

Eric Simon is obviously neither a baseball fan nor a comic book fan. Besides all of the rookies involved seemed to be having fun with it!
Homoeroticism is somewhat in the eye of the beholder. That and the “emasculation” speaks to me more of Eric Simon’s thoughts than how the rest of the world sees threes events.

Although I have misgivings about the conceptual mash-up of homoeroticism and emasculation and humiliation, and I regard hazing rituals as a throwback to pre-enlightened societies, anything that involves professional athletes walking around in briefs is generally OK with me. :)

Okay… anyone gonna do an all-star rookie baseball card set of hazing photos?
Or at least a website?

Technically, it’s not illegal in New York STATE.

In regards to her street performance career, her TED presentation is a good recap.
http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking?language=en

why cant a hot chick get naked instead of a fat preggo cow who is wearing underwear anyway

Looks hella cool!

Every so often, someone does the obvious and makes you feel stupid for not seeing it. Giving Aquaman a Pacific Islander look ethnically not only completely divorces him from “blond guy who talks to fish” but it makes total sense.

Mike

pass, thats not aquaman

I’m actually interested now. The whole sea pirate/bad ass/mutant look is great.

Not the look one would normally associate with the king of the seas and ruler of Atlantis, but to turn such a look into a “superhero” working along side the likes of Man of Steel, Batman and Wonder Woman….works for me.

Inspired casting. Adds a whole new sensibility without eradicating the old. Love that what was once a scaly windbreaker thing is now Maori-esque tattoos…

so hes interesting because hes hot?? isnt that sexist you dumb cunt

The seventh Leaguer won’t be Martian Manhunter, but Cyborg.

It’s interesting because Jason is an out of the box choice for Aquaman. Troll.

poopa says:
“so hes interesting because hes hot?? isnt that sexist you dumb cunt”

Why don’t these trolls get banned. Free speech is one thing, but if you can’t express yourself without being vulgar and personally attacking that person shouldn’t be tolerated.

Poopa has been dealt with. Sorry for the inconvenience.

sometimes you just cant reach the strap.

[…] Tweet […]

So sad. Wrestlemania weekend was the first time most of us saw him as a real person. Not as some larger than life character or the butt of jokes. He was a man who loved his family and the business that was (let’s face it) unfair to him when he left. I feel awful for his family. RIP Warrior.

That promo he cut at RAW is one heck of a way to clock out of this world… And like a true-life superhero he really seemed to show his “real self” when he put on the mask.

“No (WWE talent) becomes a legend on their own. Every mans heart one day beats its final beat, his lungs breath their final breath, and if what that man did with his life makes the blood pulse into the body of others and makes them believe deeper, in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit will be immortalized by the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever!”

It’s that promo that has a lot of people wondering if maybe he knew something ahead of time. It’s very “goodbye”ish.

Even though this happened yesterday, I didn’t know about it till I logged on an hour ago. I”m in absolute shock.

Good lord! Let’s hope Bendis doesn’t get any ideas.

Nothing beats Steranko in chains, though. Good lord that man was beautiful (and is currently in better shape than most 30+ year olds I know)

There’s a topless man in the photo?

Here’s Steranko:

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.12.02/steranko-0250.html

And Sean Connery:

http://cdn103.iofferphoto.com/img3/item/170/733/261/sean-connery-from-007-to-hollywood-icon-andrew-yule-pb-7ce7e.jpg

And Harlan Ellison and Poul Anderson
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3583/3826109405_24125058d9_m.jpg

I’m sure there’s one of Jimmy Palmiotti, but I figure he’ll want to post it on his blog!

What’s next? Steve Ditko’s butt?

And what does it say about The Beat that you’re running this stuff and Bleeding Cool has not? (at least, not yet…)

Yum!

Make Marvel Mine! :)

@Torsten, I’d swear there was an actual Jimmy Palmiotti pinup photo pull out poster in one of the old Ash comics.

So when is the Beat going to show a female creator with her top off and drawing?

Tiki…

By a weird twist of fate, Read Comics In Public Day, set for Jack Kirby’s birthday on August 28th, is also two days after Go Topless Day, when women are encouraged to go topless (and men to wear Bikini tops) to fight for equal rights.

(In New York State, it’s legal. Has been since 1992.

THE PEOPLE &C., RESPONDENT, v. RAMONA SANTORELLI AND MARY LOU SCHLOSS, APPELLANTS, ET AL., DEFENDANTS.
80 N.Y.2d 875, 600 N.E.2d 232, 587 N.Y.S.2d 601 (1992).
July 7, 1992)

It doesn’t count if you don’t show nipples. Stan the Man did!

I want the next nudie comics guy to be Marv Wolfman, just so I can say “Wolfman’s got nards!”

Reminds me of the August I was commissioned to draw Christmas illustrations, showing Santa in front of the fire. Drew them in my shorts, sweat running down my arms onto the drawing table.

It was probably like that scene in Pulp Fiction, where Bruce Willis was looking around the pawn shop for something to kill them with.

Baseball bat, nah. Chainsaw? No. He we go, Wolverine claws!!!

Cosplayers are sick people that should have their head examined.

Surely in a world where household knives are readily available, nobody is going to decide that this is such an elevated weapon that it needs to be controlled.

Just another reason why all sharp objects should be banned. WHEN WILL WE LEARN??? (Just kidding, sort of. Obviously the Batman-shooter should not have been able to attain an arsenal so rapidly or easily.)

Also, Marvel should push all of their Wolverine comics that have claws in them back a month. Or maybe just pushback the ones who have diva creators working on them and are thus falling behind schedule after issue #3 anyway.

“Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the victim was dating Huff’s mother…”

yes. perhaps.

Roommate your age dating your mother > being attacked w/Wolverine claws

You had something to do with this? Really? Not a fan:
Exhibit 1: http://bit.ly/OFM7Q3
Exhibit 2: http://bit.ly/MJ9O9H
Exhibit 3: http://bit.ly/OZ5qrg

Does this mean we’re going to be getting reprints of the classic Ham Fisher material from IDW’s LOAC division as well?

Lance Roger Axt
The AudioComics Company

I am currently marketing my revamp of Bazooka Joe, where he’s a competitive eater, with a tie-in to Nathan’s and Major League Eating

Hey, it’s just as reasonable as this.

The IDW press-release and the palooka.com site hyping this claim that this series is the first MMA comic book produced in the United States, yet SULK #2, by Jeffrey Brown and published by Top Shelf Comics, dramatizing a fictional MMA match in 80 pages, was published in October, 2008.

I enjoy Michael Kupperman’s work, but to be fair, I beat him to the publishing punch by two years (see page 15): http://www.overflowmagazine.com/fall09.htm

Unsurprisingly, Time Bum gets around.

…this was an article.

yes! finally!!!

The comics industry is saved!

Now that the solicits are out, will Wizard free the creative team’s loved ones?

Paul Jenkins has Fallen very, very far.

You’re welcome, America!!

Greg Horn cover? Why am I not surprised?

“Why not expose his 1 million Twitter followers to comics?” Macaluso told us.

. . .unbeknownst to the nerd-unfriendly world of the Jersey Shore . . .

That’s a rhetorical question, right?

I’ll give this to Macaluso for free: polybagged variant edition that smells like stale beer and Axe body spray.

Ten bucks says Jenkins was given an editorial mandate to not exceed 140 characters per caption or dialogue balloon. Don’t want to take any of those 1.3 million too far out of their element.

What did Greg Horn do to hooker number 1’s neck? The blonde one Christ something is very wrong there……

Does the Situation get super powers from a magic tanning bed? Because that is the only origin story that makes that cover make any sense.

Next they’ll do a Pauly D, Snookie, Ronnie etc. solo comics. THEN they’ll have them all meet in an eventual Jersey Shore ‘team comic’!

No one’s seen that before…

I will never be able to read another Paul Jenkins comic again with any amount of respect. Hopefully he phoned this one in and just took the paycheck, otherwise, wow.

Paul D, maybe Jenkins is just down w/the GTL?

(Gym, Tanning, Laundry – the only thing the guys on the show do, day after day. Besides getting drunk, squabbling amongst themselves, hooking up and getting into fights @clubs)

When can we expect the “16 & Pregnant” comic book?!?

I thought about maki9ng a comment about boycotting the other works of these creators ala Before Watchmen.

I also thought about cracking a joke about The Situation #254, where John Byrne’s grandson returns as writer/artist.

Instead, I think it’s safe to say that the comic book industry has had a good enough run. Time to shut out the lights and lock up the doors, boys.

I wonder how some of these artists might feel if I took their head and replaced their eyes and put big plastic lips on their head.

Believe me, I love expression but I also think you need to show some respect. I know you would be unhappy if they did this with fido or fluffy and that should tell you something about this “art”.

easy shock-value, hipster “art”. yawn.

I do not like this.

Some people here(see above) are clearly too close-minded/uptight to enjoy rogue taxidermy. anyways, at one point in HS i wanted to be a taxidermist, i still want to learn the art eventually.

If you go to the above link there is actually a list of ethical regulations that all members of the MINNESOTA ASSOCIATION OF ROGUE TAXIDERMISTS have implicitly pledged to abide by.

He seems very conflicted regarding Mark Millar.

Pfft. “Morrison vs. Ware”? Different Comics weight Classes, different Comics Federation organisations, different Comics fighting strenghts and limitations.

I’m more interested in the matchup of “Morrison vs. Millar”, myself. Now there’s a Comics fight I’d like to see… discussed.

(With the ‘winner’ going on to face Warren Ellis.)

I seem to remember a big chunk of The Invisibles being about shaking off false dichotomies, so it’s disappointing to see Morrison engage in one here. However, I wouldn’t go after his statement by bringing up Ware’s work or pre-comics employment history specifically. “Chris Ware” seems to be a stand-in for an entire school of comics–a sweeping generalization about the entire category of middle-aged-white-American art comics as imagined by Morrison that is mostly wrong…but carries a grain of truth. There are occasionally navel-gazing, indulgently nihilistic, first-world-problems (or perhaps most unforgivably, anti-superhero wonder) elements in some of those comics, just as there is formal genius, human understanding and thematic complexity that Morrison seemingly dismisses. But an interview like that is an invitation to be glib, and that just how the quote reads. It says more about Morrison than Clowes, Ware, et al. He almost seems to acknowledge that by referencing the “Scottish working class” chip on his shoulder. The TCJ college smartasses aren’t the ones being defensive here.

I’m with Matthew, though. I’m glad the comics landscape is varied enough for both Ware and Morrison to be so successful at what they do, and that I get to read them both.

I knew that quote sounded familiar. He’s used it before.

“I really like Chris Ware formally, he’s formally brilliant. The black humour is at a pitch where I can enjoy it just for the sheer nastiness of it, the black depth of it. But what worries me is that there’s so many of those American guys – and I have this problem with the Fantagraphics books, not all of them, but most of them – is that there’s a lot of really bad ones, I think.
They live in the most privileged, the most wonderful country in the world, and they keep writing about how shitty their lives are, and I’m sorry, I come from Scotland, I come from a place where no one’s got work, no one’s got money, and I’m reading these Americans in California telling me that life is shit, and it’s like, Get Therapy, y’know, I don’t want to read your comics, ‘cos you’re boring bastards. And there’s nothing fun, there’s nothing empowering or useful in that. You know, I love Dan Clowes’ stuff, when he was doing Velvet Glove, and Ghost World, but when he writes that stuff, this is who I hate, because Dan Clowes walks in and says “I hate that kid over there because she’s got a big arse, and I hate that one… it’s like, shut up, shut the fuck up, keep it to yourself, that means nothing to me, it’s just attacking humanity for no good reason, do something. And the good thing about him is, he does, but a lot of these Fantagraphics guys do nothing but “I hate this!”, nihilistic, pointless… But like I say, these guys are living in California…”

http://notesfromthejunkyard.blogspot.com/2007/02/interview-with-grant-morrison.html

“I always thought that I had a real Scottish working class thing…”

I can’t speak for the Scots, the working class where I come from all share the Ware-ish view that life is futile. Of course that’s coupled with “So yah might as well get drunk and fuck as much as you can!” so maybe Morrison forgot the first part.

One can take the quote as Grant stating that he doesn’t really care for what, or better yet who, Wares’ work speaks for.

It sounds like Grants’ take on a lot of 90’s grunge music, which to a certain extent, has similar sensibilities to Ware and Co.’s work. Atleast Grants’ generalization of them.

Even if Ware doesn’t fit that profile of life sucks alt-comics artists, they’re are plenty out there.

Many of whom are WAY more dismissive of superhero comics than Grant comes off as being of their work.

Hell yeah!
Indie comics stink! Not because they have poor craft but because they have a horrible world view and are made by snotty privileged white people who hate themselves, but hate everyone else more.

“In a world, I’m reliably told, that’s going to the dogs, the real mischief, the real punk rock rebellion, is a snarling, ‘fuck you’ positivity and optimism. Violent optimism in the face of all evidence to the contrary is the Alpha form of outrage these days. It really freaks people out.” – Grant Morrison

Hell yeah! Go Grant Morrison!

“Or decide that Morrison is a knob and deny themselves his comics.”

Yep. That would be me.

I love, too, how California is some stand in for an earthly paradise! And isn’t Ware from Chicago?

Chris Ware was born in the one true heaven on earth: Omaha, Nebraska.

One aspect of this is that both grunge and the caricature of alt comics to which Morrison is reacting are the antithesis of his world view as expressed in his sense of fashion. His question seems to be: When it is possible to use the imagination to make up stories about anything, why would someone make up stories about people failing in bad clothes? Losing, failing to communicate, wasting potential, being average, getting old, wearing sweatshirts and facial hair–these are all deeply unfashionable. I may be reading into his comments, but he seems to be saying that by going Raymond Carver instead of Jack Kirby, all the unnamed lit comics people wrapped up his invented California Chris Ware are somehow betraying their imaginations.

From his quotes and the book, I think Morrison’s working class origins are just that, his Smallville, an authentically grounded past from which evolves the contemporary comics writing global superhero in a Donna Karan costume. In his world, you move away from Smallville to Metropolis and start being fabulous. He doesn’t seem inclined to engage with art about people who aren’t able to leave Smallville and reinvent themselves, or don’t even recognize it as an option. And to extend the analogy, class seems to be his Kryptonite, as expressed by his conjuring of fat and happy Golden State American altcomix whiners and college boy critics as the Enemy. (All this said, the guy is my favorite superhero comics writer; any issue of anything he writes is the first thing I read, and am most likely to reread, any given week. Actually, I’m glad he’s got actual opinions whether I agree or not. almost everyone else at his level in corporate comics seems to have had that capacity surgically removed.)

Cole Moore Odell is my new favorite guy. Actual reasoned critical thinking! I didn’t know we were still allowed to do that in a comments section!

Those are really good points, Cole.

Also, to criticize the Chris Wares of the world for focusing on pessimism to the exclusion of other ways of looking at the world is a bit like condemning ZZ Top for failing to release a hip hop album. There are lots of bands out there. No one has to be solely responsible for representing the totality of human experience, and there’s no shame in doing what you’re good at.

And I’d again like to point out that Chris Ware’s work is not pessimistic, at least not to me. It’s brutal and harsh, but my reaction to these characters being represented so fully and baldly is to love them more, to feel more exposed myself, and to realize I need to be more permissive of and understanding of my own faults and others’.

The effect on me is always one of positivity; and I have to say, it’s pretty rare that I read superhero comics that fill me with positivity. More often I feel ripped off or lied to. That’s not to say that Grant Morrison’s work makes me feel that way but to point out that tights and capes are not inherently more positive than record stores and trucker caps.

I guess it’s a Hollywood thing; he who maketh the loudest noise writeth the mosteth screenplaytheth, or something.

At any rate, I’m sure Grant Morrison is smart enough to realize that even his superhero comics have yet to evolve beyond the part where the guy that does the best job of hitting the other guy is the good guy and wins — the Charles Atlas model for making the world a better place.

I dunno. Seems like he was agitated to begin with. Something doesn’t add up.

to be fair he thought it was George Lucas.

Would’ve been way more entertaining if Papa Smurf ripped the head off of Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford is almost ALWAYS agitated in interviews and on talk shows. While he’ll play along, he’s admitted many times that he just does these things because it’s a job. It seems like it’s getting harder and harder for him to hide that he’d rather be somewhere else.

Cowboys & Aliens is worth seeing alone for his performance — a really great character that he does a lot with.

YIKES. Just… YIKES. How do you say ‘Leeroy Jenkins’ in Chinese?

A friend of mine had a job doing nothing but banning goldsellers from a game called “runes of magic”, and he told me that “farming” is kind of out nowadays.. instead, they are hacking users accounts on an industrial scale.