davemerrill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
davemerrill) wrote2011-03-27 12:59 pm
davemerrill) wrote2011-03-27 12:59 pm
Entry tags:
do your job, people
So I've been following the whole Rob Granito story - for those who don't know, he's this guy who made a lot of claims concerning his work for Marvel, DC, and, uh, Calvin & Hobbes. He used those claims to get invited to a bunch of conventions like Dragoncon, the Toronto Wizard Comic Con, and Megacon, where he'd sell original fantasy and superhero paintings that in some cases weren't so original. You can get started with the story here or maybe here or perhaps here. It's pretty amusing, particularly the poor grammar on display from anonymous commenters pretending to be DC editors defending Granito.
It's an old story - everybody went to school with somebody who had a desperate psychological need to impress everyody around him with amazing stories that never quite panned out. Additionally, the super hero comic book world is up in arms because Granito's work for super hero comics is, shall we say, swiped like crazy from other artists, and his other claims of employment haven't quite lived up to his big talk. (I say, superhero artists swipe from each other all the time. Every time you're drawing a corporate-owned character you're swiping. Some of these characters have been being drawn regularly for SEVENTY YEARS. Originality is not even on the table here.)
But there's a larger story here, and that story is this: why was he a guest at conventions AT ALL? This is somebody who has inspired fandom to ask "who is Rob Granito?" Obviously he's not going to be a draw. Nobody is going to look at your flyer and say "Hey, it's Rob Granito, I wasn't going to go to the con before but now, SIGN ME UP!!" Why was he a guest at Dragoncon? Why was he a guest at Wizard World Toronto and Wizard World Anaheim? Why was he at Megacon? Why was he at JACON?
And even that question isn't the real question - we know why he was at those shows; he was at those shows to make money by selling "art" to convention attendees. I ask, why did the conventions not charge him for a dealer's table? Why let this big-talking fake talk his way onto your guest list? Are you that stupid?
He needs conventions WAY MORE than conventions need him. Let him shell out for a dealers room table and do his own promotional work. His name on your guest list only makes your convention look desperate, confused (JACON?) and now, clueless.
There are quite a few people who pad their resumes out in an attempt to work their way into the green rooms of conventions - it happens at anime cons all the time. For some I think it's an addiction; as long as they can find their name in a con guide or on a con website, as long as they get a panel room to talk at four or five people for an hour, as long as they can talk the con into taking them out to dinner three or four times over the weekend, all's well with the world. And there are plenty of conventions that are too polite to refuse, too ignorant of the true cost of padding their guest list out with nobodies, of taking one more room out of their room block and adding two or three mouths to their catering bills. At least Rob Granito is walking away from these shows with a pocket full of cash and business cards of potential business contacts, in addition to a belly full of free convention food.
AWA's taken some heat under Stan's administration for a pretty strict guest policy - there's always somebody desperate to see their favorite internet celebrity recieve a guest badge, or something, who takes offense at Stan's bias towards working industry figures - but it's avoided a lot of Rob Granito nonsense over the years, and I continue to support it fully.
I don't see this Rob Granito story as anything other than a slightly more extreme version of The Way Things Are; liars lie, hacks hack, suckers bite. Don't be a sucker.
It's an old story - everybody went to school with somebody who had a desperate psychological need to impress everyody around him with amazing stories that never quite panned out. Additionally, the super hero comic book world is up in arms because Granito's work for super hero comics is, shall we say, swiped like crazy from other artists, and his other claims of employment haven't quite lived up to his big talk. (I say, superhero artists swipe from each other all the time. Every time you're drawing a corporate-owned character you're swiping. Some of these characters have been being drawn regularly for SEVENTY YEARS. Originality is not even on the table here.)
But there's a larger story here, and that story is this: why was he a guest at conventions AT ALL? This is somebody who has inspired fandom to ask "who is Rob Granito?" Obviously he's not going to be a draw. Nobody is going to look at your flyer and say "Hey, it's Rob Granito, I wasn't going to go to the con before but now, SIGN ME UP!!" Why was he a guest at Dragoncon? Why was he a guest at Wizard World Toronto and Wizard World Anaheim? Why was he at Megacon? Why was he at JACON?
And even that question isn't the real question - we know why he was at those shows; he was at those shows to make money by selling "art" to convention attendees. I ask, why did the conventions not charge him for a dealer's table? Why let this big-talking fake talk his way onto your guest list? Are you that stupid?
He needs conventions WAY MORE than conventions need him. Let him shell out for a dealers room table and do his own promotional work. His name on your guest list only makes your convention look desperate, confused (JACON?) and now, clueless.
There are quite a few people who pad their resumes out in an attempt to work their way into the green rooms of conventions - it happens at anime cons all the time. For some I think it's an addiction; as long as they can find their name in a con guide or on a con website, as long as they get a panel room to talk at four or five people for an hour, as long as they can talk the con into taking them out to dinner three or four times over the weekend, all's well with the world. And there are plenty of conventions that are too polite to refuse, too ignorant of the true cost of padding their guest list out with nobodies, of taking one more room out of their room block and adding two or three mouths to their catering bills. At least Rob Granito is walking away from these shows with a pocket full of cash and business cards of potential business contacts, in addition to a belly full of free convention food.
AWA's taken some heat under Stan's administration for a pretty strict guest policy - there's always somebody desperate to see their favorite internet celebrity recieve a guest badge, or something, who takes offense at Stan's bias towards working industry figures - but it's avoided a lot of Rob Granito nonsense over the years, and I continue to support it fully.
I don't see this Rob Granito story as anything other than a slightly more extreme version of The Way Things Are; liars lie, hacks hack, suckers bite. Don't be a sucker.
no subject
To be honest, they are probably going to be worth a LOT more now than they were, say, a week ago.
I don't even know who Ellen Muth or Stan Bush are. They're not relevant to the discussion. The discussion is about Rob Granito and his lack of ethics, talent, and honesty, and how that reflects upon conventions who have him as a guest. If the reaction of Wizard World and Dragoncon and the Chiller Expo is any indication, the reflection isn't a good one.
I realize there aren't any more JACONs, so it's not like you have future conventions to worry about. But it was kind of curious to see him on that '09 guest list.
no subject
He was at JACON 2008 and JACON 2009. At 2009 he did a number pieces of 'original' pieces for the event, and I felt it was considerate to give him Featured Artist status. Steve was there as talent not as an artist. That last year I was throwing everyone on as a guest, because... it was the last year.
Rob probably was lying about his credentials... I never asked for any, so I guess he never lied to me. What I am finding strange, Rob has been doing the convention circuit for nearly 6 years and this has come to light now. It does prove things do come back to bite you in the ass.
Does this make me like the pieces I own any less... nope. I got them because I liked how they looked, just like other 'stuff' in my home. Would I commission Rob to do work in the future... probably not.
no subject
Due diligence needed to happen at all these shows. It *is* actually the job of the convention - this is what I'm talking about when I say "do your job" - it's the convention's job to check the credentials of the people they advertise as 'guests' and make sure that Joe Whoever actually did shoot Hitler right in the face on the Moon in 1954, or whatever the claim is, to ensure that the attraction you're advertising honestly does exist, and that people who pay money to come to your show are getting what they paid for. When it turns out dude really didn't shoot Hitler on the moon, or work on the Batman animated series... somebody's been lied to. And that ain't right. Conventions shouldn't be a party to these kind of lies, even unwittingly.
This goes right in hand with the fact that the convention organization has a responsibility to ensure its attendees aren't being sold fraudulently represented works. That could be bootleg videos, or bootleg merchandise, or artwork Rob Granito claims he did all by himself. There's a basic level of honesty here, not just on Granito's part, but on the part of major, major conventions (well, okay, expecting honest behavior on the part of the Wizard organization is probably asking too much) that is disturbing.