Get myself in trouble...

Howdy again! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Since I am posting for Jim today, I racked my brains on what to ramble on about. I initially thought I might review an issue of the excellent horror series Flinch, but that was already done on the Cosmic Comix web site. SUBTLE HINT: The review/comments are located at http://www.cosmiccomix.com/comics/b_index.htm, I highly recommend looking at them…

Since that had already been done, I thought about reviewing the outstanding TPB Surrogates from Top Shelf. BUT then something happened that made me mad. And, since this blog is all about rants, and occasionally the LSH, I decided to go with rant.

I hate to get on the "honesty and personal accountability" soapbox, but seriously, when did such things become passé. The latest incident occurred on eBay. And, to my utter surprise, there appears to be some unscrupulous sellers there! I know, I know, I felt the same way when I found out! But it’s true. There are some sellers that are, shall we say, less than honest.

The gory details… I was browsing the comic art section when I noticed a listing for a 1981 Spirit page drawn by Alan Weiss. Alan was big in the 70’s and recently did work in Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales. His art doesn’t come up for sale often so I my interst was piqued. Upon inspection of the scan, the art is obviously NOT from Weiss. But, one can never be sure so I dug up the issue in question and looked up the artist. Turns out, Bob Wiacek drew the page.

Now, doing the right thing, I sent the seller an email stating the artist was, in fact, Bob Wiacek. He responds with “No no. I spoke directly with Alan Weiss and he said –the page- is his”

Now, for reference, the comic art collecting world is even smaller than the comic book collecting world so on a lark, I went to ComicArtFans.com to check for the sellers name. Low and behold, I find the seller, and there is the page of art, listed as drawn by Bob Wiacek.

So, not only does this guy get caught lying, he blatantly denied it.

I think that’s what made me so mad. I can understand not changing the listing because it will cost you money, or you will lose bidders, and all that, BUT to lie about it too? That’s uncalled for. Why not say "oopsie, my bad" and continue on your merry way?

If I were the introspective type, I might say my anger isn’t associated with the lying but with him telling me I was wrong. Especially, when I was so obviously right.

Then again, a nicer fellow might not have sent an email from the ComicArtFans gallery listing saying "Appears to be a typo, this page was drawn by Weiss"… Unfortunately I am not that nice. I know, I know, I should have let it go but sometimes you have to call liars to task.

Oh well, was I wrong?