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Dan Green and the Last Micronauts Story
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33 posts in this topic

That title?  A little ‘Indiana Jones’ overdramatic, but it’s my story.  I like it!

Posting this story goes against my usual instincts.  As a Minnesotan, my default reaction to conflict is doing whatever it takes to make it end as soon as possible.  As a collector of art, I’m reluctant to ‘name names’ when it comes to a negative experience with a commissioned artist; even though there are multiple threads in this forum which ultimately urge me to do just that.

The result detailed below was sufficiently ‘beyond the pale’ to motivate me to actually put pen to paper.  I teased on another thread that I had a story to tell, here it is.  

Ultimately, I hope that, despite the provocation I faced, my story is truly fair and balanced.  I hope you all agree that it was worthwhile to inform you all of how my project ended.  And lastly, in these difficult times, I hope this story entertains.  

Begins below...

Edited by thethedew
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The Lost Micronauts Project

It was the suggestion of an old friend that I should take the opportunity to complete the project. At the time, I dismissed the idea as being overly complex and expensive; now, since his recent passing, I reconsidered.

Obviously, with the introduction of Photoshop into the process of creating Comic Book Art, the unfinished pages could be completed to a professional standard, while still preserving the ‘interrupted’ version in its unique unfinished state.  All it would require would be blueline-printed versions of the unfinished pages to be inked, a process widely used now.  

I scanned all the unfinished pages in hi-resolution and cleaned them up in Photoshop, making a few minor editorial changes along the way.

In 2015, I approached Dan Green (the inker originally assigned to the project in 1998) to see if he was interested in finishing what he started so many years ago. He readily agreed, quoting his Page Rate of $200/page. It seemed best for his schedule for him to tackle (and me to pay for) pages in groups of 3.  I noted at the time that he never cashed a check of mine until he had finished the assigned pages of a given lot.  I found this a professional, satisfactory practice.

He had finished issue two, and got about halfway through issue three (and doing very-good-to-great work) when his wife suddenly passed away.  In addition to this tragedy, Dan needed to move house; always a supreme disruption for an artist. This was now in 2016.

The following year, after a couple of gently-worded contacts, it seemed evident Dan wasn't likely to be able to bring himself to finish anytime soon; so I quietly passed the rest of the project off to an inker local to me, Tom Nguyen.  (You can see my process of selecting Tom HERE.)  He had 19 pages to finish, and he warned me upfront that he was going to take his time.

Fast-forward to Spring 2019: I was surprised to have Dan Green contact me again, indicating that he was available to continue the project.  I pondered what the best course of action might be; eventually deciding I didn't have the heart to tell Dan that I'd gone in a different direction. Presumably, retaining him would merely be a harmless (if a little expensive) amusement; resulting in multiple versions of a few pages, all while supporting a famous, down-on-his-luck artist. I told him to go ahead (not telling him I had another inker working on the same pages.  It seemed better to let Dan work in a vacuum).

At that point, the work he produced was noticeably looser, often to the point of being disappointing.  His blacks were wildly inconsistent, and his ability to hold a line appeared to be compromised.  Small portions of some pages were uninked, either skipped or forgotten.  After more consideration, I resolved to just grit my teeth, keep my mouth shut, and let Dan finish, as I knew Tom was working on his version.

In the Fall of 2019, Dan was down to 11 pages to complete, but needed some spending money for NYCC.  I forwarded him two separate checks for $600 each, even sending one FedEx overnight.  After the show, Dan barreled through 10 of the last 11 pages, at which point he surprised me by disagreeing over the amount of the final payment due to him; he expected a $400 difference.  I'd kept close track of what I'd paid versus what he'd delivered (spreadsheet FTW!), and gently corrected his math.

He responded with a single word: “Okay.”

Perhaps I should have read that as a Warning Sign, but his communications had always been brief.  I was merely gratified I’d (apparently) successfully navigated through a tricky situation with an artist.  I’ve always prided myself on my communication skills; and I thought I’d avoided a confrontation, always a priority to a native Minnesotan.

He then requested I send my final payment via FedEx overnight again, while at the same time sending me the 10 pages he'd completed.  (This was shortly before Thanksgiving, and I included an extra $50 bill with the package, as a holiday well-wishing / project-nearly-done gesture.) The pages arrived on a Monday, and, after a brief flip-through, I took them with me to a local bar where, every week, I watched Monday Night Football with an old college buddy.

My pal was thumbing through the pages, and suddenly blurted: "Hey, excellent scr0tum on Bug!"

I tore my eyes away from the football game.

“Uh… wh…whaaat?”

- continues below -

Edited by thethedew
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The Micronauts Fiasco

“What, didn’t you notice, Mister Comic Art Expert?

The page in question was the concluding ‘splash’ page of the storyline, and the final page of the project.  It depicted the nearly-naked Micronauts emerging triumphantly from the crashed ship of their most recent adversary.  As might be expected from a concluding page, the team is striking the proper heroic pose; legs akimbo, shoulders thrown back, with eyes cast skyward and hair blowing dramatically in the post-battle breeze.

What had drawn my friend’s attention was what (at first glance) looked like a very unfortunately-positioned ink spill, right between Bug’s widespread legs.  Dan had reported that he had been forced to re-do at least one page due to studio accidents, and I initially assumed this was a similar mishap.  I leaned in to take a closer look, the better to see how much of the art might be obscured by the splash, and whether or not it could be corrected with the deft use of some white ink.

That’s when I noticed... the hair.

There could now be no assumption of an innocent, uncorrected spill.  Dan had taken the time to draw pubic hair on his little ‘mistake.’   Now alerted to his intent, my roving eye began to spot spicy details that had eluded my first cursory glance.

In addition to what can only be called a 70’s porno mustache, Dan had equipped Bug with an apparent pair of male members, one of which was being tightly gripped by Commander Rann, who was standing at his side.  Ah, teamwork!

The Commander’s form was greatly shadowed in the crotch area, but the shape of the shadow was unmistakable.  (I think this was one alteration that Dan probably thought was too obvious, and inked it over entirely.  But he left the contours intact.)

Thankfully, aside from a few tears in her outfit, Marionette’s physique was, for the most part, untouched.  But her usual longsword had been replaced with an impressive blade of a more fleshy variety.   …and, wait!  Was that… spittle on her lips?  No, as it turned out, it wasn’t… spittle.

Shadowed alterations to Huntaar made it unclear if he was to be regarded as a male anymore.  I suppose it was the strategically-placed dripping which confused the issue.

Acroyear was the least-changed of the lot, as it turned out; but even he had a little something special splashed on his face.

Even background elements had not been spared.  The smokestacks of two ruined factories had been altered in a decidedly masculine fashion, and it wasn’t smoke that they were belching into the air.  N1pples had been added to nearly all the figures, a detail not called for in Cary’s pencils.  Rounding out the composition were literal splashes of precious bodily fluids here and there.

Since I had thought to bring the original pages along with me, it was a simple matter to compare Cary’s pencils to Dan’s inks right there in the bar.  To my practiced eye, it was obvious that these were last-minute alterations to otherwise nearly-finished inks.  This was tantamount to defacing the art, and was unmistakably meant as a personal rebuke to me.

It was eventually determined that, in total, three of the ten pages had been altered in similar ways.  Some were fairly obvious, but others were subtle and difficult to spot unless you were looking for them.  All sorts of unwelcome discoveries awaited: aliens pleasuring themselves, suspicious organs lying in puddles, newly-added phallic characters, and even a light source turned into a posterior crack.

Since the discovery had occurred at a bar, there was little chance of keeping it quiet.  My fellow patrons had a good laugh at my expense, but the bartender took the time to check if I was good to drive as I was leaving.  He must have really seen something different in my demeanor, as I hadn't been drinking that night 

I was seething.

- continues below -

Edited by thethedew
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The (Admittedly) Tepid Response

I had paid good money for these NSFW pages, and I knew I had only a day or two to decide what (if anything) to do about it.  I had legal advice from some corners to immediately -stop pay- on the check I'd sent him, alleging breach of contract.  I also had more compassionate, real-world advice... to just let it be.  I knew I had another artist working on the same pages, and it's not like Dan had spoiled the original penciled pages.  These were blueline prints.  The project was not ruined; it would still be finished to a professional degree.  I suppose it is likely that Dan realized he wasn’t doing damage to anything other than my expectations.

I decided to forbear any immediate punitive response.  I wasn't put on this Earth to withhold money from artists.  (To his credit, Dan swiftly delivered the final outstanding page with no alterations and little comment.  Perhaps that holiday $50 bill made him hold off.)

In what I can only describe as a fit of pique, I decided to ink my own version of one of Dan’s more egregiously loose efforts, a double-page spread.  It almost felt like my own personal rebuke, an indignant protest over what I had been forced to accept from Dan.  I knew I could do better than his last efforts.  I took my time, taking the better part of a month to worry my way through.  It turned out pretty well.

A few weeks into the New Year, Tom Nguyen communicated to me that he was nearly finished with his pages.  I decided to ink nine more pages in advance of his impending delivery, finishing them to a nearly-professional deadline.  It was very illuminating to compare Tom’s pages to mine; getting a good sense of my own inking strengths and shortcomings.

Dan never acknowledged altering the artwork.  In a show of (probably unwise) good faith, I offered him the opportunity to re-do one of the pages to professional (i.e. non-anatomical) standard.  He agreed, accepted a check for $300, and for several months ignored all my attempts to contact him through email or Facebook.  This was, of course, in stark contrast to his previous communication pattern.  I was unhappy with the silence.

Even though it has only been a few months since that final payment (a blink of an eye for some artists, as far as waiting on commissions goes), I felt the anatomical fiasco detailed above warranted a much shorter leash than usual. I have teetered right on the razor’s edge of considering some real punitive action, including responses that could not be reversed, socially and legally speaking.  

But, ultimately, I would still have to live with myself for my own actions, and have decided to write off that final payment.  So, it seems Dan got most of his $400 difference out of me in the end, huh?  More fool me, I suppose; but my conscience is clear.  I have concluded that I have absolutely no faith that Dan has the inclination, and more crucially, the wherewithal to actually complete that last task.  I believe Dan is in too dark a place to do the work. Though it stings to get nothing for my good-faith payment, I am not going to kick a man when he’s down.

With that said, I still have the right and responsibility to report my experience to the hobby.  I wish I could say otherwise, but I cannot in good conscience recommend using Dan as an artist.  I would imagine that's understandable.

Even now, a few months later, I'm dumbfounded that he would have acted in such a completely unprofessional and destructive way.  If he'd responded to my financial correction with anything remotely relatable, such as - "Hey, I'm an artist, not an accountant!  Even if my numbers are wrong, I was still counting on the difference!  Can we meet halfway or something?" - I certainly would have entertained that discussion.  But, NO.  With barely a word, he went straight to the art with a vengeful brush, presumably intending to frustrate four years of work, right as it was supposed to be wrapping up.

If you, dear reader, still feel any inclination to try to support Dan, an artist in the midst of hard times, I would suggest you contact Spencer Beck, who currently holds the vast majority of Dan’s old pages that are still available for sale.  But I think Dan’s days as a publishable artist are done.

- concludes below -

Edited by thethedew
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You have my utmost sympathy. Dan must have blown a gasket. If he had pulled this at Marvel they would have punched his card. His choice of anatomical warfare is obscene and unprofessional. You are a good soul to endure this. I won't make excuses for Dan but it's possible the loss of his wife has left him with a short fuse. He may be taking his pain out on you. Forgive him if you can. The hit to his reputation is fair. There's no way in hell he could argue "artistic license" with a straight face.

I'm really sorry man.

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I traveled up to  NY State for a signing maybe a decade ago...Dan Green, the Simonson's, Mathew Dow Smith. I talked at length with Dan and he was nice and personable and we talked about Doctor Strange Into Shamballa, which I owned two pages from. It is a real shame to hear your story, he was an excellent artist and inker.  

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2 hours ago, Unstoppablejayd said:

That is pretty crazy... but I can tell you I saw and bought from Dan personally at NYCC last year and he was not, how can i put this nicely, in a good place/state of mind. Awesome story and ultimately you have a story of your favored characters no one else does and a alternate ending ! lol 

Gotta agree. Bought a few pages from Dan at NYCC last year as well, and it was painfully obvious he was not 100%. Totally understand why this bugged you, but I find it mildly hysterical and would be happy to have those in the collection along with the more accurate versions. 

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Such a sad story.  Even sadder considering the strong work Dan has been putting in throughout the years.  You say you were not satisfied with his initial work anyway, but I thought it looks pretty good!  You have some very good looking pages in there Still, definitely a horrible story.

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Ok - 3 points

1) Dan Green seems utterly classless.  I will never commission him.  I have seen the actual page and I think Dan is someone who people should AVOID at all costs.

2) The only relation between Dan and Golden's absurd "Patience is a Virue" is that in both cases the folks who did the commissions were blameless and were victims.  

3) Restating point #1 - avoid Dan Green unless you want your art defaced -- terrible behavior.  Immature, bush-league and profoundly sad.

 

Edited by Michael (OML)1
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12 hours ago, thethedew said:

One of my favorite old Art History lessons was from a series of infamous portraits delivered by overqualified masters to wealthy yet artless patrons.  A hint of buck-teeth here, a slight cross-eye there, perhaps a wig just a bit off-center or a beauty mark just a touch too large – all presented to clients who were too clueless to recognize that they were being savagely mocked for posterity.  Perhaps one can draw a line from those old traditions, through Michael Golden’s infamous ‘Patience Is a Virue’ debacle, all the way to my little project?  I’ll let others decide that one.

I was reminded of this comment while perusing the current ComicLink auction, which among other things features one of the three consecutive BLANK PAGES published in John Byrne's Sensational She-Hulk #37. So far this blank Bristol board has attracted 17 bids.

Is there a good online resource with examples of the "infamous portraits" you mention? I know Goya was infamous for this.

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3 hours ago, Carlo M said:

You say you were not satisfied with his initial work anyway, but I thought it looks pretty good!  You have some very good looking pages in there Still, definitely a horrible story.

I state above that Dan did very-good-to-great work right up until his wife passed.

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