Karmic Debt Comics

If you have been living in a hole you may have missed the shitstorm unleashed against poor Rob Granito this past weekend.
There was ridicule and scorn thrown his way. Which truth be told he certainly asked for. He was publically called out by the self appointed comic-con sheriff Mark Waid. Who in no uncertain terms informed him  “He’ll  never work in this town again.” * Last but not least he was threatened with physical violence, naturally this last bit was done from a safe position behind a keyboard.
Now, if you were hiding under a rock, you may ask “What did this awful man do?! Is he a child molester? A mass murderer?? Did he kick a puppy???

No, he is an (alleged) art thief. Most interestingly he has been doing the con circuit for years, and suddenly it just came to light that he has been borrowing other peoples work. Uh, wait… it seems like other folks have been saying the same thing for years. So why the sudden venom? All I can trace it to is he invoked the name of a recently passed comic artist, in a way that implied he had worked with him. Apparently this was the last straw. The very idea of him implying that he had worked with this artist was enough to set off the feeding frenzy. There was blood in the water. And the sharks descended. My question is where were all the sharks through the years that he was doing this? Where was Mark Waid during this time? If what he is/was doing is such a grave injustice then why was he allowed to do it for so? And why are others still doing it?

How many of you have been to a Con or a Faire and seen someone doing crappy knock offs of someone elses work? Was there an angry mob gathered around this person ready to lynch them? It seems unlikely. All these irate folks have been emboldened by the anomity provided by the internet. Which, to a certain extent, we all are. But posting about how you would punch someone and break their jaw because they had the nerve to plagerize a piece of art? It shows an extreme lack of reason and possibly that the individual making the threats might want to expand their reading a bit further than just superhero comics.

Perhaps, all these folks are never heard the quote from Picaso about the fact that ALL artists steal. Not always to the extent that Rob did, but still. In the end I don’t think this was ever about him stealing art. It was about him padding his resume, pure and simple. And then continuing the lie that he worked on all these titles. I don’t for one minute think that if he had kept his mouth shut about all the supposed pro work he had done, that this would have ever happened to him.

This a great lesson for all of the folks making crappy knock-offs of other peoples art, keep your head down and your mouth shut and you’ll be fine. You might even bring in some decent money. 

/end rant

*paraphrased for effect