Dear VPE members: You might recall that, a few weeks back, I put up some photos from when I met Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez at Motor City Comic Con. Among those were two pics that Id snapped of art he had on display in his portfolio. Well, last week, Jimmy Palmiotti commented that, at many cons recently, hes seen fans taking photos -- without permission -- of art laid out on the table he shares with his wife Amanda. Many others in the comic book community quickly chimed in, saying its happened to them as well. This appears to be a growing problem at cons, and many of the creators arent too happy about it, as some of these photos have apparently led to illegal copies of said artwork, not to mention the possible loss of a sale as the fan walks away with a free image of the art as opposed to buying the print or whatever. Due to this, Ive decided of my own volition to take down those two pics I snapped from Mr. Garcia-Lopezs portfolio, as I did not ask for his permission at the time (he was away from the table, and I didnt bother to get a clear OK from his assistant before doing it). Even though my only intent was to show you fine folks at VPE some never-before-seen Hexy goodness, I realize now it wasnt right for me to whip out my camera like that and play shutterbug with someone elses work. You could say that many of the images put up for the Sunday Sketchbook fall into a similar area, but those at least are already up on the Web for public consumption -- you Google or Bing Jonah Hex art and whammo, theres tons of it -- whereas those two pieces of art I photographed have never been published and probably never will be...which was what made me decide to whip out the camera. That was wrong, no matter how innocent my intentions. Ive already sent Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez an apology for what I did. If he gives me permission to re-post those photos, Ill do so, but unless that happens, theyre staying off the page for good. I also ask all VPE members to keep my error in mind the next time youre at a con or signing: If you can afford to buy the art on display, please buy it, dont just swipe the image with your camera or mobile device (remember, these folks have bills to pay, same as you). If youre too broke to buy it, ASK PERMISSION TO TAKE PICTURES, and be nice about it, especially if they say no (if necessary, imagine Jonah standing right behind you, ready to smack you upside the head if you dont act proper). Thanks for reading, - Susan Hillwig
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 21:29:18 +0000
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