Cards on the table, this was easily my most transactional commission experience, and contributed to my decline in posting such material across my blogs. I'd started commissioning jams of Martian Manhunter-related characters in 2014, not realizing how many years and dollars would be sucked up by those various pieces. But from the beginning, I made a point of saving back the "Magnificent Seven" Justice League of America characters for one big piece all their own. It took four years for me to finally get that one started, and the "DC Trinity" would all be done at the same show.
Wonder Woman was the last of the three, and I always loved Paul Pope's cool indie style, so I really wanted to have the Amazing Amazon done by him. But again, there were two other people who had to finish their parts first, and I never actually saw Pope at his table. He was part of a square of tables for a set of artists all working under a manager handling the actual business. I worked with several artists in this stable, and usually hammered out the art details with them, and the money details with the manager. There was a noticeable mark-up as a result, but I was aware that artists had been undervaluing their work for years, and needed the help on the money side of things. I honestly don't mind most of the time, because I want to get my pieces at the show, and managers have helped a lot in making sure that happens.
In this case though, the quote was pretty steep for just sketching in a portion of a jam, I want to say $300-350, but I couldn't find my records seven years after the fact. Today, for an artist of Pope's caliber, that would be about right, but not in the 2018 market. Anyway, I gave the manager the notes and reference for what I wanted, and he took it back to Pope's hotel room as part of his overnight work. I think I got it back on Sunday, and if you told me Pope had farmed it out to another artist, I'd believe it. I can barely see any of vibe in the piece, and it looks like it was drawn with the ink wedge from inside the Sharpie rather than the actual marker. This was one of my most expensive commissions at the time (not hardly anymore, but
at the time,) and I frankly could have just drawn a better "Paul Pope style" Wonder Woman myself.
I usually don't get into sour grapes on art commissions, but the audacity to charge so much for something of such low quality put me off Pope ever since. He got all the money he'll ever get out of me, and I'm just thankful that later efforts salvaged the piece. That, and I'm glad I didn't have to look at this thing in his presence, and probably fake some sort of satisfaction. I probably wouldn't have felt free to savage it now if I'd been a coward then, but it's easy when I might as well have gotten this out of a vending machine. I just put money in and got this back, no social interaction required, or social contract enforced. I figure if I'm still mad about it after all this time, I've earned the anger I'm expressing.
By the way, if you're wondering why I don't get more Wonder Woman commissions, it's because something like this has happened every time. Don't get me started on the never-finished Silver Swan one that put me off ever dealing with another artist...
2018 Houston Comicpalooza JLA JAM Segments
