So to prepare the following year for San Diego 2005, an artist who did a pin-up for me printed up a sketchbook, and of course I bought a copy, because I love his pin-ups. Flipping through, I notice he’s included the monster pin-up I commissioned him for and published in my comic. And that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that. I think his fans would like to see it. The reason I felt a little irritated, though, is that he included a paragraph about doing the pin-up, but didn’t mention where it saw print. No mention of my book, or of me. The reason it irritated me so much is that he wrote notes below all the pin-ups, about who commissioned them, or what he was thinking while he drew it. For my pin-up, he basically wrote, “a guy did a book that this was printed in, and I’m sure almost none of you had a chance to see it, because it had a low print run.” So the reason I felt upset was, well if you don’t think they had a chance to see it, why don’t you tell them what book it was? Why don’t you at the very least mention my name if you’re talking about me? I thought about it for a day, then I sent him an email. I wrote, look, I’m a struggling self-publisher, and I paid your asking price to have permission to publish your pin-up in my book. I lost money publishing that book (I didn’t even make back the money I paid you for the pin-up. And then on top of that, I had to pay for the other pin-up artists, Dick Ayers’ inking, the printing….) I said, I don’t mind if you use the image, and publish it yourself, such as in your sketchbook. But it would sure be a nice gesture if you could mention me or my book when you do.
I never got a reply from this email I sent, which I assume means he thinks I’m an asshole. But at San Diego, I went and said hi to him and told him who I was, and he was friendly enough. And ever since, he’s been as friendly as ever. Sometimes, you just have to say something. But you have to be careful to try to say it in a way that’s professional, and that you’re not an asshole.