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After my first and memorable experience with Steranko at a store signing, you can imagine how much I was looking forward to another leisurely friendly attempt to get a pin-up from him at Wondercon. I don’t think I was quite shaking or perspiring, but I was definitely nervous. Here’s what happened at this convention:<\/p>\n
He was right by the entrance and easy to find. There were already a dozen people in line, so I immediately joined the line and waited. While I’m waiting, the guy manning the booth is bustling up and down, working really hard, addressing everyone in line, pointing at all the books on the table, saying, “This one has two never-before-published pages of Steranko pencils. This one has a cover that was rejected by Marvel because it was too racy. This reprints his story from…” etc etc. I asked him, “How’s the convention going?” He kind of groaned. I inquired, “Not so good?” He replied, “HE (using his head to gesture in the direction of … STERANKO!) is in a bad mood.” Apparently, Steranko was complaining, “Where is everyone? The line should be four deep!” And I’m thinking, great, this should prove to be a soothing meeting.<\/p>\n
I finally got up to the front of the line. I learned from my previous mistake with him. I didn’t try to show him my art, and give him an opportunity to tell me he didn’t have time to look at it. I immediately asked up front if he does commissions, and I tried to explain my book a bit. He said he does commissions on occasion, but told me I wasn’t talking about a commission, I wanted work for hire to publish, which is different. He understood what I was looking for, so I didn’t bother to argue semantics with him. He said, how much? I said I wanted to know what he thought would be fair. He said, How about ten thousand. I tried to stutter that that was out of my price range. No? he laughed. Then how about twelve thousand? I just tried to stay on track. I told him the pin-up would be a back page in the book, and he said, “BACK page? BACK page!!!??”<\/p>\n
The woman in line behind me was shaking her head, so Steranko said, much, I think, to his amusement, “My agent (pointing at this woman) says no.” Her thinking being that the great Steranko only accepts cover work. No one should dare to push him to the back pages.
\nSo I’m trying to explain my position, and I began blubbering like an ignoramus that I admired his work, and would do what I could to get anything I could from him. In the midst of my fawning, he stood up, and said, “Chris, Chris. SHUT UP! Here’s what I want you to do. You’ll be here all day? Come back later, and you make me an offer, okay? And take off that tie! That thing’s awful!” And he sent me on my way.<\/p>\n
I wear ties to every convention. Partly I like to show my respect for the medium, but also I know that there are so many faces that everyone sees throughout the day, I want any edge I can get to help people remember me. I’ve been doing it since I first started going to portfolio reviews.<\/p>\n
So I’m sweating all day. My friends think I should screw this guy. They think it’s bullshit that he’s treating me like this. But I really do admire his work, and in the end, I’d really like to try and get a pin-up from him. And deep down, perhaps in a perverse way, I’ve always kind of enjoyed, not being treated like shit, but just the whole attitude he’s giving off. I think it’s just his way of being funny, and I do find it pretty funny, in an outrageous way, when I step back from the shame and embarrassment it causes me. So finally at the end of the day I go back and wait in line again.<\/p>\n
While in line, I realize one of the guys working the table is someone I had showed my monster stories to at San Diego last year, so I get talking with him again and showing him my stuff, and he’s real friendly and interested. I get up to the front of the line, and I say to Steranko, “I know you said to take off the tie, but I wanted to make sure you recognized me.” So he immediately lays into me about the tie.<\/p>\n
“That thing’s terrible. Take it off!”<\/p>\n
I said, “Oh, I assumed you were just kidding earlier.”<\/p>\n
“TAKE IT OFF!”<\/p>\n
“If you’re serious, I’m happy to take it off for you, because I respect you that much.”<\/p>\n
“I’m serious. Take it off! Where did you get that thing?”<\/p>\n
I told him, “It was my Grandfather’s. He passed away.”<\/p>\n
Finally he settled down a little.<\/p>\n
I offered him a payment that caused him to look me in the eye and finally listen.<\/p>\n
“I am self-publishing a six issue comic. I already have the covers commissioned, and they have a cohesive look between all of them. It’s a pseudo-anthology with four different stories in each issue. The final story is the monster story inked by Dick Ayers. Following the monster story is the pin-up section, and each issue will have three pin-ups.” I realize I’m leaning on his table, and my hand is shaking, I’m so nervous to make this proposition. Sometimes I’m stuttering, and I apologize and tell him I’m really nervous.<\/p>\n
He grabs my arm and bellows, “Chris! Chris! We’re all friends here!”<\/p>\n
As I’m about to go through my usual list of what I’d like for mt payment, he booms, “I KEEP THE ARTWORK!”<\/p>\n
And I’m thinking, shit.<\/p>\n
He continues, “I KEEP THE ARTWORK, AND YOU HAVE FULL PUBLISHING RIGHTS!”<\/p>\n
I tell him I was hoping to keep the artwork, but here are some other things. “Go ahead!” he shouts.<\/p>\n
I’d like to announce your pin-up is in my book, for advertising, press releases…<\/p>\n
“DONE!” he shouts, and I jump back a little. “What else? NEXT! NEXT!”<\/p>\n
I want the payment to be in full.<\/p>\n
“FINE! WHAT ELSE?”<\/p>\n
“Well, I offered that price assuming I could keep the art.”<\/p>\n
“NO, I ALWAYS KEEP THE ART. THAT’S MY POLICY!”<\/p>\n
“If you keep the art, is there a price you could work that’s lower, and still put out a nice project?”<\/p>\n
So then he goes into his sell-mode:<\/p>\n
“Chris, I’ve helped out other artists in the past, helped them get their start. For the price you’ve offered, I give you a monster pin-up that’s pretty ass-kicking. It’s in black-and-white? Good, good, then we don’t have to worry about color. You’ve got a good project, and so I’m happy to do it. If I didn’t think it looked very good, I’d just tell you I’m not interested. You can bill me as the top pin-up if you want. You can really push my name any way you want, as long as you don’t make it look like it’s a Steranko book.”<\/p>\n
“That wouldn’t be fair to anyone.” I showed him how we’ve handled pin-up names on the book cover and ad.<\/p>\n
“That looks fine.”<\/p>\n
“So is there a lower price you could work at?”<\/p>\n
“No, that’s my starting price.”<\/p>\n
I told him that was a lot of money, and I’d have to think about it. He gave me his email. “Now that’s my personal email, goes straight to me.” I told him it would be great if we could work something out, because I’d love to get a pin-up from him. I realized, though, that for the money he was asking, I couldn’t afford not to own the art as well. And that was that, and I left feeling exhausted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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