Basically, it goes like this. Ryan Ottley, Robert Kirkman's artist on Invincible, burned a lot of his original art. Don't believe me? See for yourself.
Moment of silence, please.
So, "What the hell?!" you might be asking. Ottley puts it this way on his blog:
My reasoning is, why would I want MORE bad art out there in circulation?! I only give art to charities that I like and think will pull a good profit for them. Giving away bad art to a charity is just…rude. I look at Comicartfans.com, Google, Ebay, and see my old stuff, old pages and especially old convention sketches that look terrible. If I could burn those I would. I should never do a bad sketch, and I should never sell art that I think isn’t that great. I use to sell old art I didn’t think was all that great because I thought even if I didn’t appreciate it maybe the fans would. And don’t get me wrong, some DO appreciate me selling art for cheap or giving it away, but it’s the ones that don’t appreciate it that kinda ruin it for everybody. I remember one time I sold a cover I absolutely hated for 20 bucks, the next week it was up on Ebay and sold for 200. Should I have sold it for more? No, I should have drawn it better in the first place and sold it for more. But the damage was done when I drew it too quick and poorly. Now, I don’t mind if people sell my art if I sold it to them for a decent price, they bought the page they can do whatever they want with it. But if I give you shit for FREE you better RESPECT! heh.
Fair enough Ryan. It's your call. But man, it does hurt a little. Ottley is one of those guys who has been on my shortlist to get some original art from for years. I never seem to pick any up, because I have nowhere to put it, but he's one of those artists who has his own style completely, and I just love the way he does it. Part of that is the obvious pride he takes in his work. I've personally seen him slave away late at night during a convention completing commissions for people. That's part of what makes him such a great comic book artist. He cares.
Now, would I have taken some of that art off his hands? You bet I would have. But then, he wouldn't have given it to me. He made his choice, and there be the flames.
If you do want to get some un-charred Ryan Ottley work, go to SplashPageArt.com, where you can peruse the survivors. Plus you'll be nearly guaranteed to get only his best stuff. Otherwise… the whole fire thing.
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Noooooooooooooooooo! I’ve been trying to get some ottley art for two years, and I just barely missed my opportunity to get a sketch at a con this fall.
The world seems sadder with this art work gone, even if it wasn’t his absolute best, it was still a part of his body of work and will be missed.
I bet he could make a pretty penny selling the ashes for charity.
Aaagh!!! And there are childrenn invovled – somebody call Protective Services!
Only piece of original art I have is from Invincible issue 61 page 20. Invincibleand Conquest flying at each other. It is one of my prized possessions. So glad that this page wasn’t in the burn pile.
i think its a great thing that he’s taken full control over what is put out into the art market. This is a classic tale that so many great artists share. Picasso, Van Gogh, Pollock…all known for destroying art that didn’t’ meet their standards.
The downside of the comic industry being so friendly and community based, is that the creators just give their work away for pennies on the dollar. As a fan its great that you can get comic art for cheap, but as an artist i think that the majority of creators under value their own work. It always boggles my mind when i see pages for $50-100 bucks. There is some low self worth in the comics creator world. I also think the convention sketch thing, while great for the fans, cheapens the overall value of an artists work because the market is flooded with so much stuff with their name on it. Fine artists who live and die through the gallery understand this. The less of your work is out there, the more you can charge for it. If you look through auction catalogs, there are SO MANY convention sketches from big time legends that are selling for 100x what was paid for them originally. very sad for those creators who are struggling as a retired artist.
Oh man, if artists start burning their “bad” original art, I’ll never be able to own pages. I can only afford “bad” art, if that.
Totally his call, but I wonder if an artist is really the best judge of how good his own work is. If he considers it shit and a fan loves it, who is right? It’s subjective, isn’t it? I know a lot of artists in many fields who absolutely HATE their own work. Just saying.
way to stick to your guns, ottley. but i still woulda bought some of that
the page, third one down on the right is great, the expression on mark’s face is priceless as he burned to ashes
@nudebuddha —its pretty common for highly creative people with drive to hate their own work. It stems from the rush of creativity which is very much like a drug addict looking for the next fix….Its been said that would drove Picasso to be so prolific was the fact that he never felt satisfied with anything he did. DaVinci was sued A LOT for never finishing his commissions. Once he solved the problem conceptually, he moved on to the next thing. They were always searching for the next challenge. Its the average artists who often feel satisfied with being comfortable with creating things in their comfort zone.
The art doesn’t belong to us….we’re just given the opportunity by the artist to enjoy it in the comics.
Some time ago I read an interview about how Kirby’s vexation with all the issues surrounding his original art drove him to use his illustrated boards as a base for cutting with an exacto knife. I can’t remember the source.
I would buy that art but give the money to charity. Did he consider that route? No. So I see this as him depriving a charity. I’m getting off my soap box now.
@ato220 –he said in the article “giving bad art to a charity is rude”
Money given to charity whether it’s from good art or bad art is still money given to charity.
One man’s trash, is one man’s treasure…….
its a bit pretentious to criticize and judge someone for not giving away enough to charity when 99% of his peers and fans give nothing at all.
considering how little comic creators make, its quite remarkable that he donates his proceeds instead of pocketing the cash.
It’s a good thing computer never crash and hard drvies never get corrupted then.
Those top two pages were used as covers for a trade paperback and hardcover, respectively. If it is “bad art,” should I have him draw me new (better!) covers?
Maybe, in 30 years, he’ll be like Ditko and a page of original Ottley art will cost a million dollars.
I do like the joyous expression on his face as he burns it all.
@Andrew Unless that’s him in the hat (it’s hard to tell, the light is bad), then Ottley’s not in the photos.
Would totally buy a page. That stuff looks good, even if he doesn’t think so. eBay it and I would buy it.
Is it just me, or does that art actually look great?
He said he wanted to burn his poor art, but he’s got alot of talent. Even his “Poor” art looks excellent.
Okay. First of all, if you look at his twitter feed a couple days after this he gave away original art to his twitter followers. Next, For anyone who’s worried about how charitable Ottley is… Story time:
There’s a local artist here with family and children who has been battling cancer and the outrageous bills that go with it. Ottley was part of the group that organized an event for him to help raise money to keep him getting the treatment he needs. Along with donating orignal pages for the silent auction, he sat all day drawing sketches for donations. I, being the shy ridiculous person that I am, didn’t talk to him till friends forced me to late in the day and he was incredibly sweet and promised me a sketch. However, since he was one of the bigger names there his plate was pretty darn full. As things were wrapping up (and he stayed late…) he hadn’t gotten to my sketch yet. So the man comes up to me with a full size, beautiful colored piece. He apologized for running out of time and asked me if this piece would be an okay replacement. I was dumbfounded, nodded yes and dumped everything I had left in my wallet to the donations bucket (which was a fair amount as I lost the auction I wanted.)
Personally, I go by the edict of never trashing art, because it shows you where you’ve come from. BUT hey. I’m sure it was a super cathartic experience for him. And I can assure any of you that it won’t stop him from pumping out art he’s proud of for fans AND for charity.
He has joined the illustruous ranks of photographers Guy Bourdin and Henri Cartier Bresson. Sad really. Personally, I think when he grows old he’s totally going to regret this.
@conor That is Ryan in the hat. He’s in one of the photos. A bigger version is on his blog.
As Josh said, Ottley is in the baseball cap. The other guy is his friend Derek Hunter, who is also a really good artist.
Dude, the pictured art as it burns looks…pretty damn good to me! So painful to see it go!
I have a feeling he’ll regret this when he’s an old man not working the industry. All of his income will probably be going to cons selling artwork
Comment deleted. Let’s try to stay on the topic at hand and not denegrate other people’s work.
Well, it’s only ink and paper after all. burn away!
@ato220 – How about all that money you spent on comics this week/last week. Why not just give it to charity? Did you consider that route? No…!
This line of reasoning is daft. We all do our best and have to decide how much to give to others. Could we all do more for other people? Undoubtably. But what and how much we do is a private battle that we fight with ourselves, with our consciences.
Besides it’s the creators prerogative to destroy his works. If you can make some fanboys squirm whilst doing it, why the hell not?!
That’s a nice fire pit.
Yeah just as I said on twitter. Unwise. But hey, it’s his work.
I totally understand his reasoning, but it doesn’t make me any less sad. He is such a fantastic artistic with a real distinctive style. There are VERY few original sketches on my “wish list” if I ever had the money and chance to get one: 1- Iron Man by Bob Layton 2- Science Dog by Ryan Ottley and 3Ambush Bug by Keith Giffin. That’s pretty much it.
Why do it so publicly.
@tomhayday fun?
He certainly has a right to do that, but man, that really stinks.
Obnoxious. Oh…wow…you’re just so cool Ryan Ottley. If you want to destroy your art because you don’t feel it’s your best work, fine. But, to take pictures? Tacky.
@mudd agreed.
A Charlie Sheen desperate cry for attention.
Burn your work all you want. You’ll just make 2,000 more similar drawings this year anyway.
To choose to post pictures of it, is a veiled attempt for people to care about the burning and thus about the person who made them.
I assume there were no twitter posts of him throwing out his other trash that day?
You’d think such a fan favorite artist would be more secure.
We all fall to our egos now and again and I hope this is the now and not the again.
Geeze lousie guys. He was making a resolution and decided to share it, probably to solidify his resolve. By following him on his personal twitter account people have already showed that they care about him and what he does. Because they follow him.
If you’ve ever created something… you’d understand this is not something a person would take lightly for some sort of weird stunt. He just did something and posted it on a place for posting what you’re doing. I’ve seen waaaaaay more mundane things posted on twitter.
I think it’s pretty cool that the guy did this. I’m sad to see the art burn because I love his work. Obviously he could sell the pages to people that would want them, but decided they weren’t up to standards that he holds himself to. There are tons of artists (in comics, movies, music, TV, etc.) that just put out whatever they do and don’t even consider this.
Glad I got an Ottley page for Christmas this year.
eh, original art is too expensive for me anyway. I’ll stick to the comic collecting.
Everything you post tells something about the person who would choose to post it, even unconsciously. With so many caring twitter followers it makes it even more odd to still need the attention…
sadly with my MFA far in my back pocket, i have probably destroyed more bad art than most have created…and I and everyone of my artist friends do the same thing…ask their gallery/ friends if they want anything, then they toss it in the trash and go make your next body of work…and even that much is like over-stepping a line. if you felt work was important you put it in storage, if not trash.
this is indeed a weird stunt from anything I’ve ever experienced, perhaps more indicative of the wanna-be-celebrity-culture world we live in more so than the individual.
it reminds me of old rap stars who used to smilingly burn money in their videos (just to probably solidify their resolve to make more of it.)
great. now that i chose to share my personal life with people that i have little in common with just to make a point, i have to now go think what unconsciously it says about me. probably something equally as sad and desperate. sigh.
@jokingofcourse —comic fans DEMAND full transparency with their creators via twitter. It comes with the $3.99 cover price. If he did this and didn’t share pictures on twitter it would have been a nerdgasm of hate.
its kinda like when you quite smoking. You tell everyone you know so they can call you on it when you backslide. He’s making his resolution known to the world, so that if there is ever a piece of art of his out there that he doesn’t like, there will be no excuse.
Ryan is one of the nicest, friendliest, and most genuine people I’ve met in comics. No lie. He takes his craft very seriously, and the one thing he doesn’t have is a smug attitude. Anyone who thinks that’s the case is way, way off base.
why’s everyone taking this so personally, as if it’s offencive in some way? It’pretty funny really, and they’re only pictures, paper and ink afterall. It’s not a ‘cry for attention’, he looks like he’s having a pretty good time in those pictures! I think people need to chill out a bit if they’re taking this as some sort of insult to them as fans…?