Rob Granito is a FRAUD

[Franklin Richards]

I believe it's called theft.

 

[WompuM]

And from what I've seen at cons, people are doing this constantly. The thing that seems to be bugging people is that he lied about his resume. We've all seen the swipe file on bleeding cool. This crap happens in the industry constantly by professionals. This guy is just a merchant at a con.

Morningstar, if you want to get technical, it is his work, even if it is just a tracing. Go to a con, you will see this **** at, I would say, 25% of tables in the artist alley. Had this guy not lied about his past experience, no one would bat an eye.

 

[Anubis]

Now that I understand more about whats going on, I realize that I really don't give a s**t.

 

[HighFivingMF]

Based on the picture of him I saw, he's fat Jimmy Fallon.

 

[Paste Pot Pete]

He's selling his work not just based on his skill (which is average) but his supposed credentials.

If me and Granito are sitting next to each other at a con and we're both selling prints of equal quality, he's going to get double, triple, quadruple what I would get for equally hard work by lying and saying he's a professional who's worked on Batman, Gargoyles, etc, how is that fair? Isn't that pretty much fraud? It's saying "I'm a quantifiable expert in my field, thus my services are more valuable." I'd be like hiring a lawyer only to find out that he doesn't have a law degree.

Not to mention the fact that he's devaluing the hard work of other artists by taking credit for their work. I'm not talking about the crappy copies he makes, I'm talking about taking credit for Shadow of the Bat covers done by Brian Stelfreeze. He claims he was a ghost artist on these covers, thus defaming Stelfreeze for farming his work out to ghost artists. Stelfreeze deserves 100% of the credit for the work that he 100% did. If I was him, I'd sue Granito for slander.

 

[WompuM]

You're getting very upset about a couple of covers to a few comic books from 20 years ago from a cancelled title. I've never even heard of Stelfreeze before this.

This Granito guy is getting crucified for doing the same thing everybody else does. And you're getting mad because a few hypothetical artists on either side of his are losing hypothetical profits?

 

[Franklin Richards]

People who draw Bruce Timm drawings at cons are not misrepresenting themselves. And if they are they are pretty stupid because Timm's work is one of the most recognizable styles in comics.

 

[Paste Pot Pete]

You're getting very upset about a couple of covers to a few comic books from 20 years ago from a cancelled title.I've never even heard of Stelfreeze before this.

This Granito guy is getting crucified for doing the same thing everybody else does. And you're getting mad because a few hypothetical artists on either side of his are losing hypothetical profits?

Crucified? Really? He's made a living off this crap for years, I'd say that's a pretty good run. Better than most of us could hope for, so I'm not gonna throw him a pity party.

And way to marginalize the work of a comic book artist. It shouldn't matter if you're familiar with his work. Or that its an old, since cancelled title (Really?...Really?) I figured someone who hangs around a comic book message board would appreciate the work of a comic book artist, and take even the slightest annoyance at some weird liar taking undeserved credit for that work.

Come on.

 

[Dread]

i've been saying this for years. i guess it's okay as long as he doesn't rip off other people in the same industry it's okay

Exactly. While it isn't the same, it smacks of a little hypocrisy.

In Cup O'Joe they said they're not mad at Greg Land or anything because he can produce fast art and meet monthly dead lines due to his tracing.

So that allows them to forgive his own kind of fraud?

Greg Land even traces and recycles his own work, the hack. And if Marvel encourage hack work, that says a lot about them.

The fact that he consistently gets on high profile gigs with the company says a lot more.

Well Tom Brevoort also talked how Land is a huge comic fan and a nice guy, so yeah he seems like Liefeld. Supposingly a very kind person and a total geek, but a total hack at the same time.

In fairness to Liefield, while he traces a lot of his older work, he at least draws his own work. Nobody else could draw so poorly for as long. That isn't the same as Photoshopping a WWE cover or what Granito did.

 

[Motown Marvel]

without condoning greg land's tracing, the way he works still requires a fair amount of artistic talent which he does really well. but isnt his blatant tracing more of a recent matter? im mostly familiar with his work way back on nightwing, which looks like its fairly legit, if im remembering correctly. the dude has talent, which makes his tracing all the more perplexing to me.

 

[Drz]

So that allows them to forgive his own kind of fraud?

Yep.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/28/rob-granitos-megacon-adventure-with-mark-waid/

So apparently Granito tried to cash-in with Dwayne McDuffie's death, now thats just pathetic.

 

[Motown Marvel]

wait.....ethan van schivers wife's name is sharis bunny?

 

[fifthfiend]

without condoning greg land's tracing, the way he works still requires a fair amount of artistic talent which he does really well. but isnt his blatant tracing more of a recent matter? im mostly familiar with his work way back on nightwing, which looks like its fairly legit, if im remembering correctly. the dude has talent, which makes his tracing all the more perplexing to me.

It's not all that perplexing why he does it, since as soon as he started doing it he went from "unremarkable hack" to "big-name artist on high-profile series", because lots and lots of people love his ******, ugly tracings.

 

[Assassin]

wait.....ethan van schivers wife's name is sharis bunny?

her FB name, her real name is Sharis Van Sciver

 

[Assassin]

You're getting very upset about a couple of covers to a few comic books from 20 years ago from a cancelled title. I've never even heard of Stelfreeze before this.

This Granito guy is getting crucified for doing the same thing everybody else does. And you're getting mad because a few hypothetical artists on either side of his are losing hypothetical profits?

all respect status: LOST

 

[qwerty]

First time poster, and since Friday completely intrigued with what's going on. IMHO, I think the biggest difference between Land and Granito (other than industry status) is that Land's work goes through editors and publishers and then is printed for the general masses. And somewhere in there probably is a mass of lawyers who advise on these things before they get printed. I am not implying that editors and publisher are making a mistake, but saying that the more probably these things go through massive amount of due diligence before getting printed. Second biggest is that the repurposed art was used in a completely different context than wherever Land originally saw it. Regardless of where people stand with Land's art, he was not repurposing images/content in their original context and passing that off as his own (as far as I could tell) or as using said images as the main bulk of his work.

Granito, on the other hand, was not only swiping work but was using them in allusion to the original context which he was taking credit for participating in when he never had. I think that's were most of the anger comes from. Also, instead of getting paid by an employer, Granito took money directly from fans. And not just regular fans, but convention fans who had probably already spent so much money to 1. get to the con and 2. get into the con. IMO I don't think anyone would have been this pissed if he had just said/wrote/signed with "after <artist>". Frustrated sure, but at least they could say it was a good copy. Oh, and I think that's the final straw for me: Granito's work was not all copy. Many were prints he "painted" over. It's like if Land were to print a b&w image of something, paste it on a comic book page, add pencil lines and call it his own (which I'm pretty sure he doesn't do).

Just my couple of cents.

 

[Kitsune]

Wow a friend of mine from the old Fred Perry Fan Club Forums Limeykat just posted about this guy on her Deviant Art site.

 

[Johnny Drama]

this site needs more threads like this. Something said in here will be quoted for life. Fact.

 

[Motown Marvel]

It's not all that perplexing why he does it, since as soon as he started doing it he went from "unremarkable hack" to "big-name artist on high-profile series", because lots and lots of people love his ******, ugly tracings.

why do you consider him, prior to tracing, to be an unremarkable hack? im not taking issue with the idea of it, im just genuinely curious. like i said, the only thing i remember seeing from him was his work on nightwing....which i remember enjoying quite a bit.

 

[yenaled]

Roy Lichtenstein used to copy comic book art or paint over it. He never gave credit to the original artists and he's considered one of the finest Modern Artists. Y'know.

Frankly, I would have never heard of this guy if it wasn't for all this hysteria (clearly he wasn't getting himself hired for any real gigs) and even if I had ever seen him selling anything I definitely would never have even thought about buying any of his art. There are hundreds of people doing this exact ting on sites such as e-bay are we going to witch hunt every single one of them too. I just can't really bring myself to care.

 

[Motown Marvel]

thats not quite what roy lichtenstein did. and even if you did want to break him down with such demeaning simplicity.....at least what roy did looked good. unlike granitos work which looks like crap.

 

[Franklin Richards]

I guess since you're not the one who is getting his pocket picked, you prolly wouldn't care. But believe it or not some people do.

 

[yenaled]

But it's not stealing, it's copyright infringement. You don't steal something when the original still exists.

There are legal channels for the artists to get money from him if they feel they need too but making a *****y Facebook group isn't it.

unlike granitos work which looks like crap.

I agree totally and is why I can't bring myself to care. His copies are poor and were obviously not getting him any real work in the industry.

Now does he seem like a compulsive liar and a scam-artist? Yes. But shouldn't the people who run the con be accountable and not allow that type of person to set-up a stand and sell? And maybe fans buying art should maybe have a little more sense about themselves before spending hundreds of dollars on art (Tip: Someone you've never heard of and has no verifiable credits may not have produced that artwork that you swear you've seen somewhere before).

 

[Kitsune]

I was thinking of pretending I drew this, but nah...

 

[Kitsune]

Here is some of his real art

I don't claim to be a great artist and I can do better than that.