So, like a week ago, I posted a quick commission sketch I recently did of a Green Lantern character Mark Waid and I created, like fifteen years ago. I did it for a Green Lantern fan named Christopher Matusiak. It was on green paper, and I used pencil, ink, marker, pencil crayon, blackboard chalk and other tools I’m sure I’ve forgotten. Maybe some hair tonic and crushed walnuts, how do I know, I wasn’t all there towards the end. It turned out not too bad, and it looked like this:
So, we sent off the package, and Christopher emailed me on Monday to tell me it had arrived, after getting soaking wet along en route, and now the drawing is a green smudge on the inside of the cardboard envelope it was sent in. Dead, destroyed, it is an EX-drawing. It is no more.
So I did Christopher another drawing this afternoon, the same character yelling at his Green Lantern ring.
I’ll be wrapping this one up in tin foil and sealing it in wax before it goes in the box. And since I have a blog, I post it here, just in case it dies en route and no one gets to see it.
I lost the original art for some fairly decent Batman Adventures covers this way as well. They were shipped to a museum in Europe as part of a Batman Anniversary display a while back, and shipped back soaking wet, ruined.
I’ve lost a ton of original Stig’s Inferno pages to water damage, and some original Wally Wood pages to a cat pulling a full pot of liquids over onto them. The cat has since passed away and the police were willing to call it “natural causes”.
Clearly Poseidon has never forgiven me for beating him at rock paper scissors. We met at a party, he got all competitive about this and that, cause there were girls there, you know. he challenged me to the rock paper scissors thing, and I knew he would never go for “paper” because he doesn’t really understand what it is, and I stuck with “rock” until I totally whipped his ass, and now he curses my artwork with water damage every couple of years, just to remind me we’re all ultimately his bitch.
Ty the Guy, out! WHOOOSH!
Here now, you comic book moment of zen:
Come now, sarcasm is not needed. Breeon has appeared in at least half a dozen individual comics, truly making him one of the great characters in comic book history:
http://www.xowcomics.com/search.htm?s=all&c=all&q=Breeon
Cheers!
Steven G. Willis
XOWComics.com
This broke my heart. That Joker cover is/was an honest-to-god classic.
That is an appalling tale! Best I can do to match it is noting that during a move in 2000 I lost a black portfolio containing some thirty pieces of original art, including dailies by Stan Drake and an old jungle page plausibly attributed to Matt Baker. By the way, IMHO, that Haley’s Circus cover of yours is worthy of Toth. And speaking of Toth (yes, I’m rambling, privilege of age, ha ha), did you know that he was diagnosed as bipolar? Could explain why he happened to be such a jerk when you met him, and so gracious when I did — luck of the draw!
I feel your pain. I lost a bunch of drawing to mold after my portfolio was wet, from a backed toilet, no less. The one that hurt the most was my version of the “new” Justice Society which featured 13 heroes against about 65 villains.
It’s Aquaman I tell you!
No one listens and everyone thinks he’s a good guy, but ruining artwork with liquids is his real superpower and the talking with fish thing is just a party gag he’s milked too much.
The Wally Woods must a hurt!!!!
@Jeff: The Wally Woods did hurt, but I got them by accident, so it seemed appropriate to lose some by accident. Karma est une salope! @Richard…the guy I played in rock paper scissors was Poseidon, he had a t-shirt on that said so. You can’t lie on a t-shirt. And @everyone else: I’m sorry if you got caught up in my watery curse. We should all move to Arizona.
Ty
Hey, I live in Arizona. And, when I broke my arm a few months ago it was while messing around near a waterfall. So, believe me, there is plenty of pain and punishment in AZ waiting for all of your Poseidon-fearing jinxes if you dare to invade my solitude…
Cheers!
Steven G. Willis
XOWComics.com
Wow, thats just…heart wrenching. Those awesome covers…destroyed 😦
Yeah. Well, they were insured, so in the long run, I got paid for ’em, and they’re still sitting in a box in my house as I didn’t have the heart to just throw them away. But they’re all wrinkly, and warped, and the parts that were done with marker just ran all over the place, a giant mess. Thanks for the concern.