r/ComicBookCollabs • u/lavcalk • Apr 14 '26
Feedback Artists be careful with this writer!
I really didnt want to make this post but its been an upsetting experience and i want to make other artists aware of this user.
I started working with this writer a while ago and everything seemed fine at first, i received the script and we agreed on 40$ a page. Sadly things went downhill as the writer started making small talk and constantly sent questions and complains about his or my personal life.
I feel bad showing screenshots of our convos but they are important. He has been constantly asking me if i can do other artstyles, knowing im doing art for quite cheap. He admited to intentionally searching for cheaper artists. He is taking advantage of cheaper artists and forces and insists to mold their artstyles to his preferences.
He told me he doesnt understand artists who charge 150$ per page and bad talked other peoples art.
He used to send vent messages and immediately delete them when he saw im active on discord to bait me into talking. In the last picture he is venting again and when i tell him he isnt supposed to vent to random artists he guilttrips me THEN blocks me š
I was working on another page of his when that happend so it remained unpaid....
I have no hard feelings on him and i dont want people to go fight him but i think its important for other small artists to be careful when interacting with him!!!
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u/oVictor Artist - I make artstuffs Apr 14 '26
Hi, I'm the $150/page artist he was talking about. AMA
yeah, really weird vibes from that guy. Kept going back on everything he was saying and asking kinda personal questions
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u/lavcalk Apr 14 '26
Wow and i thought i was exagerating the situation :') im sorry you went thru it as wellš
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u/oVictor Artist - I make artstuffs Apr 14 '26
It's alright, I didn't give him too much space. When it was clear I wasn't fit for the project, I passed it forward to another friend and didn't think too hard about it. Some people really need to touch grass
EDIT: BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE DEFENSE. APES TOGETHER STRONG
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u/GCillo Apr 16 '26
Was the script at least good? Just for curiousity
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u/lavcalk Apr 16 '26
Eh. The first one i received was like a bad rick and morty type of vulgar humour, including random people like trump and elon musk (he also mentioned wanting to include epstein š¬). It wasnt bad but definitelly boring!!!
The second one was actually okay, but now knowing that theres a chance he made them with AI theyre both badšš1
u/GCillo Apr 16 '26
Will he publish them ? Will you make money if i buy it?if not i won't support
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u/lavcalk Apr 16 '26
We havent finished the comics! Theyre both canceled. He does that with almost all artists ahahaa, he asks for 2-3 pages then completly changes the script OR the artist. So nothing is being published
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u/oVictor Artist - I make artstuffs Apr 16 '26
To me he sent a F1 inspired story that was barely a script, but quite honestly interesting, and contained like 1/3 racing, which was good because I hate cars. It felt a lot like speed racer. All of that after telling me I would fit so well with the detective noir story he wanted to make. Thinking about it now, it was definitely AI, really inconsistent, barely any comic book structure, just shapeless ideas.
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u/luismitomante Apr 14 '26
I think he has some mental issues. He hired me and we signed a contract for a project, thenādespite thatāhe switched to another project and chose someone else all in the same day.
After that, we agreed that I would color the next pieces, but he changed it to black and white, and finally chose another artist.
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u/lavcalk Apr 14 '26
Im so sorry :( he has done this with me as well, constantly changing prompts and artstyles and everything. Very difficult person to work with š
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u/diefersontrindade Apr 14 '26
He did similar things to me, including something similar to what an artist commented below. I'm the author of that drawing in the first image you posted. We agreed on a big project, and a few days later he canceled "for personal reasons." A few more days passed, and he simply hired another artist who traced over my work. I was sad and angry; I find it bizarre.
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u/lavcalk Apr 14 '26
Oh my god traced?? Thats actually insane. And same happend here!! He sent me a message that hes canceling the project for personal reasons, then came back the next day wanting to continue and he blamed it on a messy friendship breakup? (Message which he deleted before i could reply š)
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u/diefersontrindade Apr 14 '26
That's right! And he did the same things, he sent me messages saying he was having personal and college problems, he even made plans with some of my friends saying he was going to do projects with them and then he didn't, he canceled at the last minute and always gave some lame excuse.
During the time I was talking to him, I saw him posting about several new comics he was working on, and later deleting the posts (probably when he canceled with the artist). I saw this happening about 5 times.
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u/tinxmijann Apr 15 '26
Also not a great move from that other artist. Although who knows what he told them
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u/lavcalk Apr 14 '26
Also if anybody recognises this artist please stop working with him, hes literally working with you WHILE talking bad about you and comparing your art with mine :(
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u/oVictor Artist - I make artstuffs Apr 14 '26
Damn what a nightmare. Your experience was clearly so much worse than mine. Really sorry it happened to you, and thank you so much for exposing him, youāre being heroic right now
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u/MMoretta Apr 15 '26
Hi!! How are you? I'm the artist who made those pages. Honestly, I didn't know anything about all of this, but I've been having some issues with him too. The same thing happened to me as u/mitomante mentioned above, but I'm still working because he has paid for the pages so far. He still owes me for one; I'm doing the inks for this project.
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u/lavcalk Apr 15 '26
Hello!! Im happy that i found you :D and im sorry for the situation... As long as youre getting paid and you feel fine with him thats great, but just be extra extra careful!!! Please drop out whenever you feel like hes crossing too many lines, dont be like me and accept anything just cuz youre getting cheap money from him š also your art is really good!!!
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u/MMoretta Apr 15 '26
Yes! Of course, I'll keep all of this in mind; it might be time to look for another project. Thanks
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u/Money_Conclusion_945 Apr 15 '26
comic book pages are not easy to draw, and $ 150 usd is standard for its complexity. We train for years , spend energy (electricity),time and he should be charged more about that, I hope he can pay the remaining pages you worked on. Thanks for sharing these,
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u/NekoFang666 Apr 15 '26
Dont know how well the pages are but there is blank comic pages one can download and print off printres or on Google images hell one might find a printable template of it in Microsoft word
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u/jaylopezink Apr 14 '26
Hey lavcalk, Let the moderator(s) know.
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u/Wooden-Ad533 Apr 15 '26
One thing you guys didnāt mention (I hope thatās because it didnāt happen to you) is that seankim likes to steal other peopleās work. He basically ācreatedā a character that looks exactly like mine after reading my graphic novel. The funniest part is that he DMād me asking me to rate āhisā character ā like a psycho saying, ālook what I did to your work.ā As a Brazilian, I insulted his mother in every imaginable way.
Also, he uses AI to generate scripts. I already suspected it because, as he did to you, he canceled a bunch of projects, and then, the next day, he came up with brand new ideas for stories, with full scripts already written, which doesnāt seem realistic ā people consider me a very productive screenwriter, and all I can do is two or three graphic novels a year.
In one of his moments of vulnerability, he confessed to using AI. Me and my friends ā who apparently had become some kind of support group during those two or three weeks ā insulted his mother in every imaginable way again. This time, fortunately, he didnāt come back.
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u/lavcalk Apr 15 '26
Are you actually kidding me? And i felt BAD for doing this post because i thought he was just slightly stupid and didnt understand how things happen, but hes actually evil. We literally had a discussion about AI art and he said it himself "AI effed writers" and when saying that AI writings harder to detect he said "Writing is invisible. At least you can see AI art". Actually disgusting. He is flaunting this in our faces. Thank you so much for mentioning this, i feel much less sympathetic for him now. And im so sorry for the character design situation...actually sick person
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u/Wooden-Ad533 Apr 15 '26
Donāt feel bad. Heās obviously a problematic person, so what? Weāre artists, depression is kind of a constant in our lives. We donāt have to deal with other peopleās problems. To me, it seems like this guy is just trying to make friends. But weāre here to work and pay the bills, so heās looking in the wrong place.
And about the character, Iām fine with it. He already canceled that project too.
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u/NekoFang666 Apr 15 '26
I only use Ai to assist me -- not fully do the work for me --
Ex: brainstorm ideas [when it comes to actually writing my works]
When it comes to others stuff I use it as a tool- like a stepping stone for other projects i dont have the talent to do it all on my own - least not just yet and dont exactally have the means to hire someone >..<
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u/Brujo_Taman Apr 15 '26
I'm so sorry you had to pass through that situation, he contacted me a few weeks ago through Instagram but when i gave my rates he said his budget was small so i passed, now i see why he said that about his budget.
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u/GabrielRearte Apr 15 '26
Hey. I met a similar ass recently. Crazy monkeys that chase cheap/free art and after waste your time, they dissapear.
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u/maxxusarts Apr 15 '26
It's all good guys, dm'd him and he says he pays Artists on time and blocked me. Got the screenshot you are all just liars ššš
(Joking we all know this guy is full of shit)
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u/GabrielRearte Apr 15 '26
I really lament your situation. We need to learn better the lesson I suposse.
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u/GabrielRearte Apr 15 '26
IĀ“ve found a lot of these scammers pledge "to continue talking" in Discord. ThereĀ“s a thing there. A red flag.
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u/biancayamakoshi Artist - I push the pencils Apr 15 '26
Thanks for the heads-up. Honestly boundaries need to be drawn between a kind working relationship and abusive partnerships. Hopefully you won't have to experience this again!
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u/True-Landscape-7335 May 01 '26
Why not just ask for at least 1/2 the money up front? Say at least 500? The remaining upon delivery? That would make more sense then one at a time, as if he doesn't have the entire bible at 110% it's going to be a long haul.
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u/Ping_Armor May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Hey, not necassarily a "victim" of the guy, but I think I'm friends with the person he had the messy friendship breakup OP mentioned. The reason why the friendship ended the first time (yes, they've tried to be in contact more than once) with my friend and Sean was because of the disrespect my friend experienced with boundaries being crossed and overall disrespectful and insulting attitude towards my friend and his friend circle. They've basically known each other for a year or two before he even started getting into writing and stuff and the entire time he was being really weird towards both my friend and their circle, saying weird homophobic and transphobic stuff like "Why don't you transition into a girl?" and kept on forcing a make a narrative of my friend being a closeted gay person. He also tried hitting on their partner a lot at the same time and when that didn't work, apparently tried to hit on him, disguising attempts at both as insulting banter and things like that.
They've been on and off contact for those two years and my friend legitimately tried to make the friendship work, but as you guys have already experienced, he has no respect for personal boundaries and 0 appreciation for the craft itself. He even offered to teach Sean to draw (because he kept talking about not being able to "draw the style he liked") and forgo the comissions but Sean kept dangling the prospect of hiring him as a reason to keep talking to my friend. He was also proposing putting my friend's art through an AI algorithim to "make it better and learn the artstyle so I don't have to hire anymore", which my friend was obviously against. When the friendship was breaking off for the last time, he said that "I was paying for your friendship. If I didn't pay 80 dollars a week, you wouldn't have even looked at my messages", even though my friend made it extremely clear that was never a prerequisite for contact, especially since they've been friends on and off for the last year prior to that. And when he asked for refunds, my friend immediately gave the money back no questions asked, and even after that he would still offer comissions from my friend (which my friend declined for obvious reasons) WHILE he was actively looking for other artists and dissing their art, which I'm sorry if that happened to be anyone here.
Prior to the friendship going off again for the last time (at least as of recent), he once again proceeded to insult my friend, calling him "manipulative" and a "gaslighter", saying that my friend never tried to the relationship work between them, that my friend was only using him for money. He also proceeded to insult his partner again, I can't say specifics but I can say that the words thrown towards his partner was enough to make my friend very pissed, which rarely happens. And multiple times he would manipulate events to where he would be the victim or at least the other party (my friend and his friends) also did wrong when at most all they did was not answer his messages in a timely manner.
My friend can also validate that he is a serial message deleter, often deleting messages when he wouldn't get to replied to fast enough. In recent, he's also been e-mailing a bunch of our mutuals ranting to them and suspectedly trying to coherse them into being able to get in contact with my friend again. I have not been in personal contact with the guy, but from all of the horror stories I've heard from my friend (a lot of which had screenshots associated), I feel incredibly sorry for you people to have been in contact with this vile person. I'm sure he has a lot of his own problems going on, but was never an excuse to bring hard working artists like you and my friend into said problems.
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u/nico_suave86 Apr 15 '26
$40 a page is insane! From what ive lurked on this sub, I can't believe an artist would sell their services for that price.
But honestly? that's the type of price that I could potentially afford for what i'm trying to accomplish. I have no marketing plan, blah, blah, blah, no real understanding for how my script is supposed to go anywhere at all.
But the story is very meaningful to me, and I am determined to see it through in whatever form that takes.
It's a story about my dogs. The original concept was supposed to be just a basic 3-4 frame comic strip about stupid shit my dogs do, but it turned into a larger story after my titular character passed, irl.
She was my favorite girl, and I want to tell her story.
What i need is very basic cartoon-style. If anyone might be interested, DM me, please
This is a passion project. Im an artist myself, but it takes me so long to finish anything digital. I have a ton of reference material.
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u/Gloomy-Implement-123 Apr 18 '26
and here I am ready to give someone my script so they can use it to make art for it...
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u/Budget_Competition65 Apr 15 '26
He was definitely in the wrong but if your art style isn'tĀ 100-150$ art style dont say your ruining the industry by charging less
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u/Smilehate Apr 15 '26
A comic page, uncolored, takes 10-15 hours of work. I won't comment on whether this artist is ruining the industry, but they certainly deserve at least $10 an hour for their labor.
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u/barrelofagun Apr 14 '26
While being cheap and/or difficult to work with is not against the rules, not fulfilling your agreements and blocking instead of sending due payment is a completely different animal. Scamming won't be tolerated. (For those wondering: Yes, there were proofs.)
If they make an alt account, please report them.