Announcing The Rob Granito ‘Put Up Or Shut Up’ Fund
Last week, an email was sent around to various comic news sites saying that we could interview Rob Granito, the self-styled “bad boy of comics” for the princely sum of $250/hour so that we could get his side of the story. Rob, as you’ve probably heard by now, was going around to various conventions and selling artwork that he plagiarized from everybody from Andy Kubert to Bill Watterson, and claimed working with numerous people in the industry, many of whom are deceased, including the recently departed Dwayne McDuffie.
Now normally, someone who’s been accused of plagiarism and theft would be happy to talk to news outlets for free in the hopes of getting his side of the story out there so that he would stop being reviled and might actually get back into a comic convention or two, but not Mr. Granito.
But if that’s the way he wants it, fine. $250 it is.
Here are our terms, Rob:
We will pay your $250/hour rate for a video interview on Skype. At the beginning of that hour, we will provide you with the name of a comic character and a celebrity, and we will ask you to draw the character with that person’s head performing a simple action on camera. It could be Superman with Barack Obama’s head throwing a ball, or Wonder Woman with Jane Lynch’s head skipping rope, or Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Strange.
Any professional comic artist can create a sketch like this in a half hour, but we’ll give you the full hour. Of course, you can take longer than an hour, though we will only pay you for the first hour and we will ask you to keep the camera rolling, as we will be placing the video online so anyone can see your artistic process. We’ll also ask for a picture of the final art if your webcam resolution isn’t good enough to show the quality of your work.
And obviously, if we find evidence that you swiped the work, you won’t see a dime.
As to the rest of the comics community, we’d like to ask you to contribute to the fund to show your support. All funds raised above and beyond the cost of the “interview” (or all of it should Rob decline our offer) will be donated to the Hero Initiative, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book veterans by providing a financial safety net for comic creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. We’ll include your name as contributors to the fund both here on ComicMix and at the end of the video. While waiting for Kickstarter to kick in, here’s the PayPal donation button:
We’ll be updating contributions from time to time. We hope that you’ll contribute. Heck, we also hope that Rob contributes his fee and his drawing to Hero Initiative, though we aren’t expecting him to do so.
So, Rob, the ball’s in your court. Feel free to reply in comments.
Related articles
- Rob Granito launches pay-for-chat plan; plan fails (comicsbeat.com)
- Rob Granito: the man who got drummed out of comics (comicsbeat.com)
- Rob Granito coming to New York Comic Con? (comicmix.com)
I propose instead of putting money into this idea, it ALL goes directly to The Hero Initiative. There is NO reason for anyone to give any money to this guy ever again; even for the sake of “entertainment”.
Although I applaud you for posting this challenge, I’d hate to see any more money end up in that lowlife’s pocket. My advice: Donate ALL of it to the Hero Initiative.
Or perhaps the money could go toward hiring Granito a real marketing/PR person, so that he wouldn’t have to have his wife Alison handle that task anymore, given how utterly she has failed at doing so, due to her non-grasp of basic writing skills or understanding of how to write press releases.
No? OK, never mind.
Really Glenn, shame on you. You know quite a few DC folk from the 80’s all looking for some work or recognition and you choose to devote time to this. The only people who should be concerned with this person are the ones he’s plagiarized.
Someone’s already posted some fake interviews with Rob Granito and his plans for Calvin and Hobbes here: http://newcomicsday.com/article/rob-granito-talks-future
Granito’s certainly becoming a rockstar. In the burned out over played notoriously exposed kind of way.
Dude, those are freaking hilarious.
You know, all of the people i know who used to peddle pirated videos and the like at conventions (i haven’t made it to a con in years, so i have no idea if people still do) were pretty open and honest about what they were doing…
This guy, OTOH…
Just posted the following over at comicsbeat:
Is Granito related in some way to Roy Lichtenstein? Only with less talent?
I’ve read the other articles about this mess, and I gotta say, it’s a miracle Granito is still breathing. Claiming to be involved with the art on not one but two stamp designs for the USPS could elevate this to Federal fraud and misrepresentation charges, which would mean he’d be faking art for his buttbuddies at Leavenworth. And Waid, if you’re following this thread, I gotta say, I admire you and Ethan for your restraint. Ya shoulda killed him.