I didn't miss spell mom it just looks like I did.
Anyway, I wanted to touch on a couple of things today. First off the Marvel Disney merge. I know I am a bit late on writing about it but I wanted to give my 2 cents. Many artists have felt frustrated because they do a lot of fan art and they run the risk of getting in trouble. A few people have had there ebay accounts either suspended or removed start literally on the day Marvel and Disney merged.
My friend sherry sent me some interesting Articles though. the first one was about a few daycare's in Florida that some years back had to have murals of Disney characters removed from there walls. You can read it here. The other touches on some opinions expressed over at the Comic Book Resource website.
But what it really comes down to this. I think Us artists that make and sell fan art are simpley relying to heavily on other peoples characters. Even if you are an official Marvel Artist is it really ok to reproduce prints and drawings of characters that don't belong to us. After all we are making a living on this. When you go to conventions the tables are lined with sometimes hundreds of artists in Artist alley selling books and prints filled with "fan art." Marvel has turned a blind eye to it a very long time, but if disney will take a little day care to work for having mickey mouse on there wall I think a lot of us are going to find ourselves reducing the amount of fan art we are making and selling without the permission of these different companies.
Not only that but they might want a cut of the profit.
There can be a good side to this. We may start seeing more independent publisher in Artist alley. Artists promoting and sellign there own ideas. I know one of the things i did at the last convention I went to was I layed out all my fan art and right next to it I put out my own work. And people start asking questions. it gives them a chance to get acquainted with a little something new. Heck i mean where would Chris Sanders be without Lilo and Stitch. He might still be popular but he would still have lots of unknown art under his arm.
I think the arts community should look at this as a plus. The fan art will have to be kept undergraound but we will be forced to show ourselves to the world though our personal work. I have huge amounts of Mainasha work that no one has ever seen I guess I will pull it out an
d start doing more of it. It is a good thing right?God bless,
Arie
