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DC being cheap and wanting art scan for free?
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58 posts in this topic

I contributed a page to the Jim Lee Artist Edition book that is coming up and Scott Dunbier offered me to be acknowledged in the credits and a free comp copy of the book. Very nice gesture and looking forward to receiving the book!

If you ever think about selling the piece @ESeffinga has a point. I'd give it a thought.

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10 hours ago, vodou said:

lol

Sorry, but I could see that coming from a mile away. People suck.

You're probably a nice guy. I'm not. If that was me, I'd never put another penny into any DC product ever again. And I'd send an e-mail every week identifying exactly what items I passed on and how much they added up to because, I mean...how else would they know? ;) 

If it were me, I would have offered to enter into it like a business arrangement. Whip up a quick contract outlining my terms, send it to them, have them e-sign it sending my copy back with payment if that's what was agreed upon or a book either free or discounted in the future. Not signed by some petty functionary. If they refused, well then have a good day. Thanks for the inquiry. Let me know if you change your mind.

These are the same people who basically stole the idea of Wolverine from a kid. These are the same people who had to be dragged to court kicking and screaming to give credit and due diligence for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Why are they going to treat us any differently? It's simple: They want something that we have for their use, benefit and ultimately profit. Giving a fan at least a small byline at the bottom of a lousy picture isn't going to kill them. I must have missed that time any of the publishers gave anything away for free.

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Most of the bashing here has been on DC. I have had the opposite experience. I have provided scans of art and golden age comics to Marvel over the years. Never received a complimentary copy. I did buy some of the books and my contribution was acknowledged in them. I provided scans of golden age comics to DC and not only received comp copies of the books but also got paid for them. Unfortunately the DC editor I dealt with no longer works for them.

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3 hours ago, timguerrero said:

I contributed a page to the Jim Lee Artist Edition book that is coming up and Scott Dunbier offered me to be acknowledged in the credits and a free comp copy of the book. Very nice gesture and looking forward to receiving the book!

If you ever think about selling the piece @ESeffinga has a point. I'd give it a thought.

I was approached for the same book, but the message I got really rubbed me the wrong way so I decided not to participate. Hope it works out for you though and you get your copy/credit

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On 2/19/2021 at 4:37 AM, ESeffinga said:

As has been stated, the comp USED to be common practice, but as DC is in the toilet these days, and printing and shipping costs continue to rise, especially for short run publications like artist editions... it is totally unsurprising.

So why send them a scan at all?

IF you are of the sort that believes having the art you own in print, gets more eyes on it, and more exposure = more buyers down the road...  It seems to me you are just stoking the potential list of would-be buyers down the road. Another print location for your art’s resume if you will. So your time could be an investment in a future sale.

If you think people seeing your art devalues it in the marketplace later, I guess you should bury it in the backyard until you are ready to sell. 
 

Seems to me that if DC can’t afford to send comps out for every page of a book they get a scan for, people stop sending them scans. Without the scans, they don’t publish these books.

People that like artist edition books lose both ways.

Chicken/egg.

 

The artist editions aren't published by DC, so it's easier to get listed in the "Thank You" credits and much easier to get a comp copy for the work and expense. DC now has a policy that they don't credit anyone who supplies art scans, so I guess they are just depending on the goodwill of collectors.

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Marvel credited me in the Miracleman Book 3: Olympus hardcover reprint when I supplied art for the extras section.

However, a few years ago, Steranko drew an amazing Captain America commission for me and when it came time for Cap's 75th anniversary, I reached out to Tom Brevoort and asked him if Marvel would be interested in using my Steranko commission as a variant cover. Tom said they would, but Steranko would have to give approval and he and Marvel weren't speaking at the time, but if I could get him to agree, they would publish it as a variant cover. I asked Jim and he was gracious and agreed to talk with Marvel. It almost didn't happen, but everyone kept working toward a compromise that would rebuild the bridge between Marvel and Jim and would allow Marvel to use the commission - and 11 others that Jim would supply - for the 75th anniversary. After the deal nearly fell through a couple times and the impasse got worse for awhile, Marvel and Steranko reached a deal and my commission and nine other pieces he'd drawn were used (I don't think they ever used the full 12 commissions). I didn't received a single  comp copy, nor did I get a mention in the comic on which my cover appeared -- Black Panther #5. I ended up having to buy my own copy of the comic.

Now, I loved seeing my commission on the cover of a comic and it didn't hurt that the value went up considerably now that it was a published Steranko cover.

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11 hours ago, Michael Browning said:

The artist editions aren't published by DC, so it's easier to get listed in the "Thank You" credits and much easier to get a comp copy for the work and expense. DC now has a policy that they don't credit anyone who supplies art scans, so I guess they are just depending on the goodwill of collectors.

DC has been publisheing their own version of AE books for a while now, called Gallery Editions. 
 

I do confess, I often use the term Artist Editions, the way a lot of people will say they want a Coke, rather than the general term soda. 
 

A bunch of companies make similar type books, or have in recent years. Jumping on the coattails of the AE, which in and of itself always seemed to me to have stemmed from the way Ashley Wood was producing HIS art books at IDW before the AE editions ever came along. Which is to say, showing all the artwork (whiteout, corrections and all), as close to the actual original as possible.  The AE’s published by IDW just seemed like a fantastic progression of what Ash had bees doing for a few years.  Wonderful development for the hobby. 
 

I’m not aware of anyone in comics that was shooting and printing books of their work that way prior to Ash doing it at the beginning of the 2000s. 

Granted, DC also try’s to get scans for other types of books as well. They had me send them a scan of a Jill Thompson t-shirt piece for one of the Absolute Sandman editions. They later tried to get me to scan my comic pages for an AE (or knockoff volume) that was to come, but I forgot about it and missed their file deadline. 

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Are you selling the book for profit? I want acknowledgment in the book by name and a comp copy. You giving it away or for charity? Ill send the scans free to you if its not framed already. The company owes me nothing, I owe them nothing. Friends are different but tendril of a multi-million/billion dollar company doesn't get the pass automatically.

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This is a $100 hardcover or something? I guess they're not doing a TPB version anytime soon?

Any idea how many they anticipate printing? If they're only printing 500 or 1000 I can see the issue here as if they have to give away 50 copies to get images. Shipping costs shouldn't be an issue, it costs $4 to ship a book, but if they're spending $25 a book to print them...

 

 

Edited by the blob
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16 hours ago, Michael Browning said:

Marvel credited me in the Miracleman Book 3: Olympus hardcover reprint when I supplied art for the extras section.

However, a few years ago, Steranko drew an amazing Captain America commission for me and when it came time for Cap's 75th anniversary, I reached out to Tom Brevoort and asked him if Marvel would be interested in using my Steranko commission as a variant cover. Tom said they would, but Steranko would have to give approval and he and Marvel weren't speaking at the time, but if I could get him to agree, they would publish it as a variant cover. I asked Jim and he was gracious and agreed to talk with Marvel. It almost didn't happen, but everyone kept working toward a compromise that would rebuild the bridge between Marvel and Jim and would allow Marvel to use the commission - and 11 others that Jim would supply - for the 75th anniversary. After the deal nearly fell through a couple times and the impasse got worse for awhile, Marvel and Steranko reached a deal and my commission and nine other pieces he'd drawn were used (I don't think they ever used the full 12 commissions). I didn't received a single  comp copy, nor did I get a mention in the comic on which my cover appeared -- Black Panther #5. I ended up having to buy my own copy of the comic.

Now, I loved seeing my commission on the cover of a comic and it didn't hurt that the value went up considerably now that it was a published Steranko cover.

With that said, your OA is now worth significantly more as it is not just a commission, but the art for the cover of the comic. seriously, they should have given you a copy of the book though.

At the end of the day, Steranko still owns all the publishing/recreation rights to the image he did as a commission unless there is an agreement otherwise and no way Steranko would agree otherwise. he knows the business.

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On 2/19/2021 at 4:37 AM, ESeffinga said:

As has been stated, the comp USED to be common practice, but as DC is in the toilet these days, and printing and shipping costs continue to rise, especially for short run publications like artist editions... it is totally unsurprising.

So why send them a scan at all?

IF you are of the sort that believes having the art you own in print, gets more eyes on it, and more exposure = more buyers down the road...  It seems to me you are just stoking the potential list of would-be buyers down the road. Another print location for your art’s resume if you will. So your time could be an investment in a future sale.

If you think people seeing your art devalues it in the marketplace later, I guess you should bury it in the backyard until you are ready to sell. 
 

Seems to me that if DC can’t afford to send comps out for every page of a book they get a scan for, people stop sending them scans. Without the scans, they don’t publish these books.

People that like artist edition books lose both ways.

Chicken/egg.

 

If this WW #4 page was bought from Heritage or some other seller they may still have a scan and it is their's to do with as they please in terms of anything with DC (they can't publish it themselves..maybe Perez as well...it all depends on their agreement). I am guessing their scans are not high quality enough to publish and it really needs to be re-done?

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Myself, I would ignore the email.  They want you (whoever it is) to give them something for basically nothing so they can profit off it.

It is the same with Amazon trying to get people to leave reviews and answer questions for free.  People tend to do it because they want to be helpful but ultimately you are an unpaid employee of Amazon.

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17 minutes ago, vodou said:

tenor.gif?itemid=17878635

Exactly.  And people that think they are helping a small business are deluding themselves.

Amazon uses small business that sell on their site as market research.  A small business that sells lots of something will quickly find Amazon offering the same item at a lower price effectively killing the small business.  Been doing it for year.

Edited by batman_fan
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11 hours ago, the blob said:

This is a $100 hardcover or something? I guess they're not doing a TPB version anytime soon?

Any idea how many they anticipate printing? If they're only printing 500 or 1000 I can see the issue here as if they have to give away 50 copies to get images. Shipping costs shouldn't be an issue, it costs $4 to ship a book, but if they're spending $25 a book to print them...

 

 

Without "my" art there would be no book. Payment + a comp copy.

I work as a photographer and it pains me to see someone giving away their work for free, to anyone that's going to make money from it.

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Someone contact me on CAF
because he was writing a book about Irv Novick
ask for a Hight resolution scan of the piece (Which I provide)
offer to send me a copy of the book when it was published.

After I send the scan
I never hear from him again.

I try to contact him twice.
no answer, total silence.

:whatev:

  

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8 hours ago, Lorne.T said:

Without "my" art there would be no book. Payment + a comp copy.

I work as a photographer and it pains me to see someone giving away their work for free, to anyone that's going to make money from it.

huh? Isn't it just one of many potential images they'd like to use or do they want to put every perez cover in?

it is george perez's IP though. which i assume DC owns (I don't know what their arrangement is). it is not the OPs work. it is actually a violation of copyright law for you to take a photograph of the perez page and sell the image without perez or DC's permission. you have a derivative right to control the image that you generated, but you don't own the image per se and have absolutely no right to license it without the underlying owner's permission. honestly, the only reason you can display the image on CAF is that there is a general fair use exception in copyright law that usually allows you to display the image of a physical object you own even if you don't own the underlying IP

 

Edited by the blob
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