The Bluewater Fiasco, part 39

For those of you still following the story, Amber has published another article in which Jerome Maida has his say about Bluewater's take on the whole affair.

I really can't express how frustrating it is that Bluewater's various representatives have listed reasons for why they pulled my cover off the book at the last minute- Totally glossing over the fact that they did not remove my cover from the book.

Instead they paid someone else to trace over my illustration so that they could continue to use my image without crediting me. That is beyond spiteful. And to claim that the two covers are as different as “night and day” is insulting and obviously untrue.

Amber's article also appeared on Bleeding Cool today, which is wonderful news. The more people hear about this fiasco the better.

The silver lining to this whole mess has been the outpouring of support I've received from friends and family. The comic book store I work at (Stormwatch Comics in Berlin) will no longer be purchasing any of Bluewater's titles, unless a customer specifically requests it. People I don't even know have offered their condolences and disgust over the whole situation, and I have been informed that Bluewater has received several unhappy letters on my behalf.

I'm sure I don't need to explain that, for someone who is just starting out as a freelance artist, to run into a company like Bluewater and suffer such a dramatic disillusionment right out of the gate is devastating. When I first cut ties with Bluewater back in January, it really took the wind out of my sails and it was quite a while before I was able to find my direction again.

I can't take it back, but if I can prevent another fledgling artist from entering into an agreement with this company as blindly as I did, then this whole mess will not have been in vain.

The Bluewater Fiasco, part 21

The lovely wonderful Amber Love has been using her blogger gravitas to help me get the word out about how Bluewater screwed me over. If you haven't already seen it, stop by and read the article she wrote about me.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I really can’t do anything legally. They own the image and technically can do whatever they like with it. I will never see a cent of the royalties, because the number of books that would have to sell before I could collect on it 10,000- A number that the most popular titles barely reach.

The best I can do is make sure that I tell as many people as possible about what happened to me so that they can avoid a similar fate.

Also, it is worth mentioning that I did get paid for this job.

This isn’t about money.

It's about ethics.

Even though they hired someone to trace over my “unprintable” cover, I should have been given credit for designing it. Everything from the composition to the color choices is the same as mine, so to say the difference is like “night and day” is a falsehood that anyone with eyes in their head can detect.

The Art of Rough Sketch

I'll soon be posting an extensive blog entry about all the things I've been up to in the last three weeks, but since it's taking an awfully long time to finish, here's a look at my most recent colored pencil piece while you wait!

To give you a little bit of background info, I interned with Rough Sketch Studios back in 2009 and very quickly became fast friends with the guys who run it. Steve Sistilli and Dexter Weeks are two of my closest compadres. Meeting them was one of the best things to ever happen to me. So, of course, I jumped at the chance to contribute to their new anthology book, The Art of Rough Sketch! It should be coming out just in time for Wizard World Philadelphia.

Here's the finished image, along with all the juicy extras you've come to expect.

The image is a reference to Daddy's Little Girl, a fun horror comic that Rough Sketch puts out. Imagine a story set in an alternate version of Atlantic City that is secretly overrun by monsters, starring a Paris-Hiltonesque sort of character, and you'll come close to what Daddy's Little Girl is all about.

A special thanks to my models: Brielle Wilson, Amber Love, and Robert Hoskins!

Pittsburgh Comic Con - 2011

I just got back from the Pittsburgh Comic-Con and I am exhausted.

I made a few new friends, as well as a number of potential business contacts!

Instead of purchasing a table in Artist's Alley to sell prints and whatnot, I focused on showing my portfolio to publishing houses in hopes of drumming up some real business. I plan on doing the same at a bunch of east coast conventions: Wizard World Philly, Baltimore Comic-Con, Wizard World Chicago, and Wizard World Boston. Pittsburgh doesn't draw any of the major labels, so I had considered it more of a trial run than anything else, but it was far more fruitful than I had expected!

I got to talk to representatives from Moonstone and Big Dog Ink, both of which were exceptionally friendly and helpful. I also got to show my portfolio to several small press labels like Post Mortem Press, Diamondgoat Media, Fortress Publishing, and Boomtown Press.

And (because no convention is complete without a bit of cosplay) after I'd shown my portfolio to everyone, I was able to switch from professional mode to Stormwatch Comics booth babe. I'd been working on a Black Widow costume just for the occasion, and I must say, I am extremely pleased with how it turned out!

I spent some time walking the floor with the wonderful Amber Love.

(shown below, hugging comic art veteran George Pérez)

photo by Scott Allen Stafford

Amber is a comic book goddess with quite a sizable... following.

She's a journalist, an avid blogger, a model, a cosplay diva, and soon to be a published comic book author! She's a busy girl, that's for sure, so it's unsurprising that making the rounds with her takes quite a while. We ended up stopping at almost every single booth, since she knows everybody there. In all seriousness, she was on a first name basis with 50% of the people in that building, which is extra astonishing to me on a personal level, because I am so terrible at remembering people's names.

Through Amber I was able to meet Paul D. Storrie, a prolific comic book author who is just as much fun to talk to in person as he is to read. He was delightfully witty, which is something I don't often come across in real life. Clever yes, sarcastic sure, but witty requires a balance between a quick mind, sharp tongue, and dark sense of humor that is only pulled off by characters in scripted TV shows. Hanging out with him and Sean McKeever (another writer) was definitely one of the high points of the show.

I also met Lauren, an absolute darling of a girl, who was working one of the other booths. We became friends almost instantly and spent most of the show hanging out with each other. The great thing about conventions is that it brings together people who would never meet otherwise, but the tragedy of it is that I end up making friends with wonderful people (like Lauren) who live incredibly far away from me.

Thank god for the internet.

As always, Ken Haeser of Living Corspe was set up in Artist's Alley, drawing his heart out. I got to share a meal with him, his wonderful wife Tabi, and the rest of the Stormwatch crew several times throughout the weekend. The Haesers are some of my favorite people, so it was wonderful to get to spend time with them.

I got to see some really spectacular costumes, including an extremely elaborate Robo-Cop suit that the person had made themselves (complete with a lady scientist who guided him around since it was obvious that he could barely see through that visor). There was also a really impressive Jareth the goblin king from Labyrinth walking around and a guy (Alexander Rae, according to the internet) who pulled off the best Superman/Clark Kent look I've EVER seen!

I entered my first costume contest ever on Sunday. I was harboring no delusions about winning, since there are people who show up at conventions for no other reason than to exhibit the costumes they've been working on all year. The winner of the children's category was a 2 or 3 year old girl dressed as Ms. Marvel who was too cute for words. When she won, the trophy they gave her was almost as big as she was. Robocop won for the Adult TV/Movie category, a team of steampunks won Group and the adult winner overall was a 10-foot Chewbacca costume that was movie set quality and 100% handmade.

At the end of the contest, Little Miss Marvel ran up to Chewbacca, threw her arms around the fuzzy tree trunk he was calling a leg and cried out "I won 'Bacca! I won!" So, yeah, if you heard a weird cracking sound on Sunday, that was probably my just heart breaking into a million pieces from the unbearable adorableness of it all.

Now that I'm back home, I've got my work cut out for me. I have a HUGE show coming up on May 5th and there's a million things to do to prepare for it! I'll post more info on that later on this week.