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

3 hours ago, thethedew said:

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

The defaced pages are horrid.  Possibly the work of someone who had a mental breakdown.  If you want sex organs and other horrors then commission him.  Really juvenile.  Feel terrible for you Andrew.  

Edited by Michael (OML)1
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On 4/8/2020 at 2:44 PM, RBerman said:

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

The lesson was a slideshow lecture 30 years ago, so my recollection of specifics is dim.  A quick Google glance doesn't help much.  I'll have to keep my eyes open.

Edited by thethedew
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I wanna see em in full. It was a dong move on his part, (so much pun) but for an outsider it does make for an entertaining tale.

I had so many artists burn me over the years on commissions, but it was back when they were still quite cheap. So I count myself lucky it was never to this degree.

I can say that when it was still quite “new” I was seething about those commissions. But over time I’ve come to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

Hopefully some day you will look at them without the shame or irritation, and they’ll be something to just chuckle over.

Edited by ESeffinga
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I also had a very bad experience with him at NYCC last year as well. He's someone whose work I loved as a kid and had never had the chance to meet him before so I was excited to get a bunch of books signed and maybe buy some art. As others mentioned there was clearly some issues going on that wouldn't be kind to speculate about.

The first day I saw him he mentioned how he had difficulties getting in on time from some sort of train delay and then his airbnb had cancelled on him without telling him so he had to scramble for a room the night before so I chalked up the subpar experience meeting him to him having a very long prior night and a bad day, happens to us all. 

On day two he had a ton of art pages all labeled with prices on the top corner but Spencer's people said they weren't collecting the money, only Dan was, and he kept going missing so I waited over an hour for him to come back. Most of the pages were way above what I wanted to pay or characters I don't care about but he did have one old X-Men page he inked for $275, not expensive by any means but I try and stay under $300 so it was already at my ceiling that I feel comfortable spending on a page. He then told me it was $1,000 and I obviously balked. He then said $700 and I said no, I can't do more than $300. He then tried haggling at $100 to $50 increments until he came down to $300. As a sales guy I don't mind negotiating but the whole experience left me grossed out. If you have prices marked on everything you should be honoring them, unless it's some crazy and obvious mix up. 

I watched Dan do this to a whole bunch of other collectors as well who just paid whatever price he wanted which seemed crazy to me.

To top it off I'm a big signed book guy but only try and do a five or so at a time. He was my last stop before leaving the con after seeing him several other times over multiple days. I had already given him a ton of money for signatures, ($5 each). So I had two books left and he signed them, I only had $20s left and he said he didn't have change so I said to him, go enjoy a beer on me and keep the other $10. He thanked me and put the money into his super full wallet with a ton of $5 and $10 bills. Obviously he knew how much money he had and I left annoyed thinking I guess you need that $10 more than me. 

Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way and on the rare occasion these things happen, I always hold out hope it's just someone going through something or they're having a bad day. He only got me for $10 so I can't even imagine how pissed you are.

 

 

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On 4/12/2020 at 6:34 PM, Hockeyflow33 said:

I also had a very bad experience with him at NYCC last year as well. He's someone whose work I loved as a kid and had never had the chance to meet him before so I was excited to get a bunch of books signed and maybe buy some art. As others mentioned there was clearly some issues going on that wouldn't be kind to speculate about.

The first day I saw him he mentioned how he had difficulties getting in on time from some sort of train delay and then his airbnb had cancelled on him without telling him so he had to scramble for a room the night before so I chalked up the subpar experience meeting him to him having a very long prior night and a bad day, happens to us all. 

On day two he had a ton of art pages all labeled with prices on the top corner but Spencer's people said they weren't collecting the money, only Dan was, and he kept going missing so I waited over an hour for him to come back. Most of the pages were way above what I wanted to pay or characters I don't care about but he did have one old X-Men page he inked for $275, not expensive by any means but I try and stay under $300 so it was already at my ceiling that I feel comfortable spending on a page. He then told me it was $1,000 and I obviously balked. He then said $700 and I said no, I can't do more than $300. He then tried haggling at $100 to $50 increments until he came down to $300. As a sales guy I don't mind negotiating but the whole experience left me grossed out. If you have prices marked on everything you should be honoring them, unless it's some crazy and obvious mix up. 

I watched Dan do this to a whole bunch of other collectors as well who just paid whatever price he wanted which seemed crazy to me.

To top it off I'm a big signed book guy but only try and do a five or so at a time. He was my last stop before leaving the con after seeing him several other times over multiple days. I had already given him a ton of money for signatures, ($5 each). So I had two books left and he signed them, I only had $20s left and he said he didn't have change so I said to him, go enjoy a beer on me and keep the other $10. He thanked me and put the money into his super full wallet with a ton of $5 and $10 bills. Obviously he knew how much money he had and I left annoyed thinking I guess you need that $10 more than me. 

Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way and on the rare occasion these things happen, I always hold out hope it's just someone going through something or they're having a bad day. He only got me for $10 so I can't even imagine how pissed you are.

 

 

Yikes.   What a tool.   The last part especially about the wallet stuffed full of obvious change.    Donkey move.

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On 4/8/2020 at 3:15 AM, thethedew said:

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 -

classless

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I know this thread is a little old, but you mentioned it in a thread I made so I followed your link and read your story, and looked at the art. Honestly, as terrible as that experience was, I think, in the end, you have an AWESOME story and great collector's set of original artwork. Seriously, this entire thing was an adventure, and even though the Dan Green part was bad, the entirety of said adventure resulted in an epic story to share, alongside the unfinished story you purchased. Will you ever make your money back in full if you sell off your 3 Micronauts issues? Maybe not, but your adventure is honestly priceless. Great memories, and great pieces to have in a collection. Congratulations.

 

P.S. Thank you for taking the literal high road and forgiving Mr. Green. Losing his wife had to be a terrible ordeal. You gave him money, faith, and forgiveness. Money comes and goes. Those are things are as priceless if not moreso (can you be more priceless than priceless???) than even your adventure. Good job.

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10 hours ago, BuraddoRun said:

Honestly,

 

10 hours ago, BuraddoRun said:

Seriously,

 

10 hours ago, BuraddoRun said:

honestly

We like you 'new guy'. We do. Now let's spice things up and see a trivially dishonest post ;)

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On 4/12/2020 at 3:34 PM, Hockeyflow33 said:

I also had a very bad experience with him at NYCC last year as well. He's someone whose work I loved as a kid and had never had the chance to meet him before so I was excited to get a bunch of books signed and maybe buy some art. As others mentioned there was clearly some issues going on that wouldn't be kind to speculate about.

The first day I saw him he mentioned how he had difficulties getting in on time from some sort of train delay and then his airbnb had cancelled on him without telling him so he had to scramble for a room the night before so I chalked up the subpar experience meeting him to him having a very long prior night and a bad day, happens to us all. 

On day two he had a ton of art pages all labeled with prices on the top corner but Spencer's people said they weren't collecting the money, only Dan was, and he kept going missing so I waited over an hour for him to come back. Most of the pages were way above what I wanted to pay or characters I don't care about but he did have one old X-Men page he inked for $275, not expensive by any means but I try and stay under $300 so it was already at my ceiling that I feel comfortable spending on a page. He then told me it was $1,000 and I obviously balked. He then said $700 and I said no, I can't do more than $300. He then tried haggling at $100 to $50 increments until he came down to $300. As a sales guy I don't mind negotiating but the whole experience left me grossed out. If you have prices marked on everything you should be honoring them, unless it's some crazy and obvious mix up. 

I watched Dan do this to a whole bunch of other collectors as well who just paid whatever price he wanted which seemed crazy to me.

To top it off I'm a big signed book guy but only try and do a five or so at a time. He was my last stop before leaving the con after seeing him several other times over multiple days. I had already given him a ton of money for signatures, ($5 each). So I had two books left and he signed them, I only had $20s left and he said he didn't have change so I said to him, go enjoy a beer on me and keep the other $10. He thanked me and put the money into his super full wallet with a ton of $5 and $10 bills. Obviously he knew how much money he had and I left annoyed thinking I guess you need that $10 more than me. 

Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way and on the rare occasion these things happen, I always hold out hope it's just someone going through something or they're having a bad day. He only got me for $10 so I can't even imagine how pissed you are.

 

 

What a 🌭 head.

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