Author: Glenn Hauman

Image by Supercon Conventions via Flickr

Last week, an email was sent around to various comic news sites saying that we could interview Rob Granito, the self-styled “bad boy of comics” for the princely sum of $250/hour so that we could get his side of the story. Rob, as you’ve probably heard by now, was going around to various conventions and selling artwork that he plagiarized from everybody from Andy Kubert to Bill Watterson, and claimed working with numerous people in the industry, many of whom are deceased, including the recently departed Dwayne McDuffie.

Now normally, someone who’s been accused of plagiarism and theft would be happy to talk to news outlets for free in the hopes of getting his side of the story out there so that he would stop being reviled and might actually get back into a comic convention or two, but not Mr. Granito.

But if that’s the way he wants it, fine. $250 it is.

Here are our terms, Rob:

We will pay your $250/hour rate for a video interview on Skype. At the beginning of that hour, we will provide you with the name of a comic character and a celebrity, and we will ask you to draw the character with that person’s head performing a simple action on camera. It could be Superman with Barack Obama’s head throwing a ball, or Wonder Woman with Jane Lynch’s head skipping rope, or Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Strange.

Any professional comic artist can create a sketch like this in a half hour, but we’ll give you the full hour. Of course, you can take longer than an hour, though we will only pay you for the first hour and we will ask you to keep the camera rolling, as we will be placing the video online so anyone can see your artistic process. We’ll also ask for a picture of the final art if your webcam resolution isn’t good enough to show the quality of your work.

And obviously, if we find evidence that you swiped the work, you won’t see a dime.

As to the rest of the comics community, we’d like to ask you to contribute to the fund to show your support. All funds raised above and beyond the cost of the “interview” (or all of it should Rob decline our offer) will be donated to the Hero Initiative, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book veterans by providing a financial safety net for comic creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. We’ll include your name as contributors to the fund both here on ComicMix and at the end of the video. While waiting for Kickstarter to kick in, here’s the PayPal donation button:

We’ll be updating contributions from time to time. We hope that you’ll contribute. Heck, we also hope that Rob contributes his fee and his drawing to Hero Initiative, though we aren’t expecting him to do so.

So, Rob, the ball’s in your court. Feel free to reply in comments.

Related articles

• Rob Granito launches pay-for-chat plan; plan fails (comicsbeat.com)
• Rob Granito: the man who got drummed out of comics (comicsbeat.com)
• Rob Granito coming to New York Comic Con? (comicmix.com)

The 2011 Eisner Award nominations have just been announced.

Heading the 2011 nominees with five nominations is Return of the Dapper Men, a fantasy hardcover by writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee and published by Archaia, with nominations for Best Publication for Teens, Best Graphic Album–New, Best Writer, Best Artist, and Best Publication Design. Two comics series have four nominations: Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma (published by Shadowline/Image) and Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (published by IDW). A variety of titles have received three nominations, including the manga Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (VIZ Media), John Layman and Rob Guillory’s series Chew (Image), Daniel Clowes’s graphic novel Wilson (Drawn & Quarterly), and Mike Mignola’s Hellboy titles (Dark Horse).

The creator with the most nominations is Mignola with five (including cover artist), followed by Spencer and Hill, each with four. Several creators received three nominations: McCann & Lee, Rodriquez, Urasawa, and Clowes, plus writer Ian Boothy (for Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book and other Bongo titles) and cartoonist Jimmy Gownley (for Best Publication for Kids plus coloring and lettering on his Amelia Rules! series). 15 creators have two nominations each, a new record.

Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. A downloadable .pdf of the ballot will also be available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 22 at Comic-Con International.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

(more…)

Finally, we have the solution to all the problems currently bedeviling Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark… we’ll get George Takei to play the lead part.

He certainly has a fan following from his time in Star Trek, Heroes, and the original cowboys and aliens film, Oblivion.

However, while I think Broadway is finally willing to accept a gay lead actor, should we really be adding to the stereotype that gay men are swingers?

Image via Wikipedia

We understand there are Doctor Who fans reading this site, so we should give you a heads up: the Doctor and his companions are coming to America earlier than you thought.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will be making an in-store appearance this Friday at the Barnes & Noble store at 555 Fifth Avenue, New York, to sign copies of Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series boxed set. You will need a wristband to join the signing line for this event. Wristbands will be distributed starting at 9AM on Friday, April 8 with the purchase of the Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series boxed set. Call the store at 212-697-3048 for more details.

Then on Monday, BBC America will host a free premiere screening event of the first two episodes at the Village East Cinema, 189 2nd Ave at 7 PM. The event will be hosted by Chris Hardwick, with guests Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Beth Willis. Following a screening of the two-part season premiere (The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon) Chris will lead a discussion and Q&A, which he’ll record for a special Nerdist Podcast.

Last year, Matt, Karen and Steven Moffat went to New York for a publicity tour to promote Series 5. They attended a ‘Meet the Cast’ event at the Apple store in SoHo and did an episode premiere event, and ComicMix contributor Alan Kistler shamelessly flirted with Ms. Gillan at both events.

And of course, if you can’t make it, BBC America will premiere the show on April 23.