In the traditional business model of goods and payment the seller hands the goods to the customer, who then hands over payment. That works pretty well when the transactions take place face to face, over a counter where the goods get examines first and the payment is in currency that goes right into the cash register. Conflicts and questions are asked and answered right on the spot, and if they cannot be answered or resolved the seller and buyer go their separate ways with their goods and money in their respective possession and no one is out anything except a little shopping time.

As a freelancer, i.e. a single entity trying to make a living dealing with many different clients whom you rarely meet let alone transact face to face, and increasingly are doing business from different parts of the globe, getting paid for your work is something that can sometimes become an issue.

You try and protect yourself by doing things like requiring new clients to pay an advance before beginning significant work, collecting payments at various stages of the job, requiring payment in full before delivery of the final work, etc. That system works to a certain extent, but often times for me the short time frame between a client calling and the deadline of the job makes it impossible to go through that kind of a process. This is especially true when working with a publication, because they usually don’t have their accountants sitting around with checkbooks ready to whip off checks at a moments notice. Many publications, in fact it’s probably accurate to say MOST publications, are owned and run by a larger company that requires invoicing, purchase orders, agreements and a process before payments are cut and sent out from some department far away from the art director’s office. Some clients of mine pay within a week of submission of the work, while others take up to 60 days. It’s part of the job, and as with everything communication is the key. You as a freelancer need to ask about payment policy and have a clear idea of what to expect, so if it doesn’t happen you can follow up as needed.

All that is tough enough, but what happens if the very payment the client makes to you isn’t a “real” payment until up to 2 months after it’s made? What if that money the customer paid for those goods that went into the cash register had a fishing line tied to it, and later on the customer had merely to yank on the line and the money was gone?

That is the risk a freelancer takes when accepting payment via PayPal or a credit card.

Maybe Big Box retailers are really at fault here. Companies like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target will take a return on anything, and they have conditioned the consumer to think their purchase isn’t really a purchase until they have used it thoroughly and decided it’s worth the money. Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware) is dead… Caveat Venditor (let the seller beware) is the new law of commerce. Payment options like PayPal make “caveat venditor” applicable to freelancers.

PayPal has a 45 day period where the buyer can open a “dispute” over a transaction. Since freelance creative work deals with intellectual property and not tangible goods, the “proofs” PayPal typically requires from sellers to respond to a dispute… stuff like delivery confirmation and photos of the goods in the condition sent do not apply in these cases. This is especially true when a job goes sour, and even if payment has been made at the end of certain stages it’s hard for a freelancer to prove he’s met his end of the deal as far as the payments thus far are concerned. As a result, PayPal can and will refund money out of a freelancer’s account without their permission if they side with the buyer in a dispute.It isn’t simply a matter of if they got the product, it’s also a matter of if the product was what they expected to get. This policy gives a client Carte Blanche to decide months after the fact if they feel like paying for a freelancer’s work.

Accepting credit card payments can result in the same issues. Credit card companies allow “chargebacks” and disputes over goods paid with their cards, and you can imagine which side they tend to protect in a dispute… the customer paying their credit card bills. Chargebacks can be instigated up to 90 days after the charge was made, and for the following reasons: “if the card was charged fraudulently, either by an unauthorized user or an ignominious vendor, or the items or services that were received by the card holder were not received, or not the same quality or type of item or service they had anticipated receiving.” Again, the decision of if they like the work and want to pay for it can be made months after the work is done.

It’s that last statement that is troubling. You see, it would be very easy for a disreputable client to decide well after the fact they didn’t like what you did and literally not have to pay for it. Accepting payments via PayPal or credit card leaves you vulnerable to those kinds of issues. Here’s an actual story illustrating just such a problem from the excellent resource Freelance Switch. In this story the client in question not only won their dispute through PayPal and was refunded payment for work that was done and delivered, but the client had the audacity to use the artwork they did not pay for anyway on their website and yet PayPal still did nothing for the freelancer. Hard to believe in the face of such obvious proofs PayPal would not return the freelancer’s payments, but they did not.

Of course, the real underlying problem with accepting a PayPal or credit card payment is the same as accepting any kind of payment…a bad client is a bad client. In fact I suppose you can say that if a client is unreliable with payments why would they bother to make a payment via PayPal or credit cards in the first place? They could probably string you along promising a payment and then not delivering it and achieve the same thing… you having done work and not gotten paid for it. The difference is that they can string a project all the way to final by delivering what seems like timely payments while knowing that if they decide not to pay for it they can get out of it, where as if they are pulling classic “the check is in the mail” tricks the freelancer has the opportunity to stop work and not deliver a complete job to someone for what may end up being no payment.

I didn’t have this problem with a freelance job, but did get stuck by PayPal when I sold an HD Home Theater projector for $1000 through eBay. In my description I said the projector had “about” 800 hours of run time on it. It was in perfect working order when I sent it to the buyer and I packed it like a tank. Exactly 45 days after the transaction he initiated a dispute saying that the projector had stopped working. I said I was sorry that happened but it was working fine when I sold it and there was no way I could foresee there would be a problem 6 weeks later. He claimed there were over 1000 hours used on the projector (there is an internal timer I didn’t know about and only estimated the time). My response was I estimated the time which is why I said “about” 800 hours. EBay/Paypal refunded his entire payment and I got a broken projector back because I used the word “about”. The guy probably dropped it, or had one like it that was broken and swapped them out. I had no proof of either, so I was the one who got screwed. I canceled my eBay account right after that and will never sell anything on eBay again. Likewise I won’t accept a payment via PayPal for anything except tangible personal property I can prove the receipt of… certainly not for freelance work.

With the increasing frequency of doing business with international clients, it would be nice to have a solid solution to getting paid that is more fair and protected that PayPal’s broken policies. Until then, I’d rather the check was in the mail.

Better late than never today. Our Sketch o’the Week subject is actor Jon Hamm from the critically acclaimed AMC show “Mad Men”. His name has been mentioned in connection with playing several superheroes including Superman, Batman, Captain America, etc. He certainly has the squint-eyed, square-jawed look. Interviews with him indicate he’s not very enthusiastic about those kinds of roles, although he had no problem playing a supervillian recently:

So, last week I posted about how my USO trip coincided with two other events I would have considered attending: the Australian Cartoonists Association’s Stanley Awards and the International Society of Caricature Artists’ annual Convention and Competition. At that time I posted the results of the ACA’s Stanley awards, but I still haven’t posted the results of the exhaustive ISCA competition… so here you go. If you aren’t an ISCA member or not into the live caricature scene, these names might not mean a lot to you, but these represent some incredibly talented folks who are all well deserving of recognition for their work:

The 2010 ISCA Convention Awards-

Likeness Competition

• 1st Place Dan Almariei
• 2nd Place Brian Oakes
• 3rd Place Yuta Honma

Speed Competition

• 1st Place Yonie Woo (21 caricatures in 5 minutes)
• 2nd Place Yuri Kato (20 caricatures in 5 minutes)
• 3rd Place Greg Sumbardo (19 caricatures in 5 minutes)

Outstanding Gallery Award

• 1st Place Ali Thome
• 2nd Place Dan Springer
• 3rd Place Yuta Honma

Outstanding Body Situation

• 1st Place Kira Layli
• 2nd Place Hironori Motohashi
• 3rd Place Andrea Gerstmann

Most Humorous

• 1st Place Brian Oakes
• 2nd Place Bob East
• 3rd Place Mike Shields

Outstanding Black & White

• 1st Place Dan Almariei
• 2nd Place Miguel Aguilar
• 3rd Place Takashi Yamazaki

Outstanding Color Technique

• 1st Place Yuta Honma
• 2nd Place Yves Demers
• 3rd Place Sakiko Ushioda

Outstanding Exaggerated Style

• 1st Place Nathan Kapnicky
• 2nd Place Brian Oakes
• 3rd Place Eric Goodwin

Ismael Roldan Award (Rookie of the Year)

• Sakiko Ushioda

Outstanding Cartoon Style

• 1st Place Kevin Jackson
• 2nd Place Andy Urzua
• 3rd Place Kira Layli

Outstanding 3-D Technique

• 1st Place Johanna Veerenhuis-Lens
• 2nd Place BeeJay Hawn
• 3rd Place Celestia Ward

Outstanding Abstract/Design Style

• 1st Place Nathan Kapnicky
• 2nd Place Yasushi Ito
• 3rd Place Eric Goodwin

Best Studio Piece

• 1st Place Marcus Sakoda
• 2nd Place Glenn Ferguson
• 3rd Place Angie Jordan

Portfolio Competition

• 1st Place Marcus Sakoda
• 2nd Place Dan Springer
• 3rd Place Taka Watanabe

Master Caricature of the Year

• Chewie Lar by Glenn Ferguson

Master Caricaturist of the Year

• Glenn Ferguson

Top 10 Caricatures of the Year

1. Crystal Franklin by Sakiko Ushioda
2. Andy Urzua by Sakiko Ushioda
3. Derek Brennan by Eric Goodwin
4. Kerim Yildiz by Taka Watanabe
5. Miguel Aguilar by Taka Watanabe
6. Carrie McClish by Brian Oakes
7. Steve Silver & Kim Possible by Mike Tofanelli
8. Andrea Gerstmann by Koshiro Saito
9. Karel Op De Beeck by Yuta Honma
10. Andrea Gerstmann by Yuta Honma

Caricaturist of the Year Award

1. Yuta Honma–Golden Nosey
2. Brian Oakes–Silver Nosey
3. Taka Watanabe–Bronze Nosey
4. Sakiko Ushioda
5. Shinichi Miyachi
6. Yves Demers
7. Dan Almariei
8. Kevin Jackson
9. Koshiro Saito
10. Aaron Philby

These awards are different than the ACA’s “Stanleys” or the National Cartoonists Society’s “Reubens”, as instead of being bestowed for work done at some other time, these are literally work work done AT the convention. The various categories are judged by the attending members and work is recognized for various styles, techniques, etc. The only award for outside work is the “Best Studio Piece”, which judges work submitted by members done in studio or for professional jobs back home.

Explanation of some of the awards:

• “Top Ten Caricatures of the Year”- these are awards for individual “best of show” pieces done at the convention. Each is a specific piece of caricature art.
• “Likeness Competition”- This is based on the best likenesses drawn in a limited time from projected slides by competitors during a single competition event at the convention.
• “Speed Competition”- There is a separate competition event where competing artists participate in elimination rounds drawing live caricatures from lines of volunteer models.
• The “Caricaturist of the Year” AKA the “Golden Nosey” is the top award for best overall work, followed by 2nd place (the “Silver Nosey”), etc.
• Master Caricature of the Year/Master Caricaturist of the Year”- Once you win the Golden Nosey, you become a “Master” and cannot compete for it again. These awards are a special category for Master’s to compete with each other in.

Congrats to the winners, runner up and all the compeitors!

Q: I’ve read on your blog that you have appeared at a couple of comic book conventions, especially San Diego Comic Con. I’m wondering why you don’t do more conventions like New York, Chicago or Atlanta? You should get your own booth.

A: Realistically there are only two reasons to get a booth space at a comic book convention: either to directly sell something or to promote the later sale of something. I haven’t really had either to do before, so getting my own booth at multiple comic cons doesn’t make much sense financially.

The promotion angle doesn’t fit for me because the only thing I really have to promote would be MAD. As much as I like working with them, spending (in some cases a lot) of my own money to promote MAD by buying booth space at comic cons would be silly as I don’t get royalties on sales, and MAD/DC  Comics have their own giant booths at these conventions so they’d hardly be interested in paying for my space. If I am at a convention they always set up times for me to sign copies and do sketches at their booth, but MAD is just one of a lot of comics and graphic novels that DC Comics publishes, and sort of a red-headed stepchild at that, so having a dedicated MAD space is again something they probably wouldn’t go for.

I also haven’t had anything of my own to promote or sell before that would justify the expenses and time involved. Artists like my pal Steve Silver and others have made comic-cons a cottage industry for themselves by self-publishing books/sketchbooks and then selling them at their own booth space. They will also promote their own comics, other publications or internet endeavors like Schoolism, which leads to further commerce. Promoting “The MAD Blog”, which is fun to keep up but nets me basically zero income, also doesn’t make sense. I’ve never been able to bring myself to print something as seemingly narcissistic as an “Art of Tom Richmond” sketchbook, and I am unconvinced such a thing would sell past the usual incestuous “I’ll buy yours if you’ll buy mine” dynamic and the small core group of industry followers whose purchases fuel the sales of a many of these self published materials.

Other kinds of things that artists do at comic cons are selling original art and doing original sketches. While that is cool and all it seldom pays the expenses unless you are a really famous or notable artist. Guys like Sergio can do that kind of thing but guys like me… not so much. My few attempts at selling originals from MAD at comic cons have only netted a few sales, and things like sketches or caricatures don’t sell as well as you might think at these events, and least not for me.

Actually there is a third reason for having a booth space at a comic con… just to be there and participate in the event, meet fans and other cartoonists, etc. You can do that without paying for a booth space however, and there are free or low cost options like “Artist’s Alley” but the waiting list there is long in most cases, so it’s tough to get in. Also regardless if you pay or do not pay for a space, there is a lot of time involved in being in these shows. I certainly cannot afford to do more than one a year.

All that said, things have changed a little for me this year. I actually will have something to sell this time, and I have reserved my own space at the San Diego Comic Con for this summer. I’ll be at booth #4616 (if all goes according to plan) where I will be debuting my long awaited and much procrastinated on book of drawing caricatures. You heard it here first, and I have officially painted myself into a corner by promising it. Unless unforeseen circumstances like the end of the world, the maiming of my drawing arm or horrifically late final print delivery derails me, that is the plan. Of course I’ll also be doing sketches, caricatures and selling original MAD artwork as well as the book. I’ll also be spending some time at the National Cartoonists Society booth and likely signing copies of MAD at the DC booth.

As for other comic cons, I don’t think time will permit me to do the kind of tours that guys like Silver do. If things go well at San Diego, maybe more comic cons will be in the future for me. Who knows?

Thanks to Richard Griffin for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me your questions and I’ll try and answer them here!

This is just a reminder that there is still plenty of original artwork straight from the pages of MAD available on The Great MAD Art Sale page. A lot of pieces have been snapped up, but many more remain including full parody pages from movies like “Traffic” (Oscar award winner), “Behind Enemy Lines” (Oscar Meyer winner), “The Royal Tennenbaums” (Oscar the Grouch winner) and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (Oscar Madison winner), as well as TV shows like “Scrubs”, “Entourage”, “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, “the Bernie Mac Show”, “America’s Most Wanted” and “Boston Public”.

I’ve been accused by some very well respected pals of really earning my title as one of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” for how cheap I’m selling these pages and spots for. I’m not sure I agree… the market is what people are willing to pay and while I’ve sold a lot of pieces there are plenty still available. So take advantage of my stupidity while you still can!

A few people have asked if I can include a copy of the magazine the art appeared in. In most cases I can’t because I only have one copy of most of those issues. However I’ll see what I can do.

The Great MAD Art Sale won’t last forever… In fact it will end on Dec. 20th or when all the pieces are gone, whichever comes first! So don’t delay! Get a piece of original MAD art (signed by the furshlugginer artist even) today for that big MAD fan in your life who has everything already except a guaranteed cure for constipation.

Just click on the image above to see the many pieces of original MAD artwork still available! Questions? E-mail me!

I haven’t been able to get caught up since coming back from the USO trip… plenty to do and still a lot ahead. Here’s what’s currently cooking in the studio:

• Feature Illustrations for Honolulu Magazine- A full page and several spots for an annual year end article. Might be hard to wrap my head around Hawaiian imagery in the midst of Minnesota winter.
• Column Header illustration for Penthouse- Several spots for a new monthly celebrity column in the magazine
• MAD TV parody- Just got assigned a 6 page parody of a show that’s been begging for the MAD treatment for a few seasons now. Sorry, can’t divulge the name of the show but the parody will be in MAD #508 due out in February. BTW, this will be the 6th issue in a row in which I will have done a movie or TV parody (if you count “Toyota Story” from MAD #504), which is great news… MAD is definitely stepping up its frequency of these kinds of features after a year or two of not seeing as many of them.
• New Members of Congress for “Bobble Rep”- after the U.S. election last month, there will be a new crop of bobblehead caricatures in the iPhone app I did last year… 106 new ones to be exact.
• Workplace Poster- My usual monthly assignment.
• Character Illustrations- Several pieces of art for a well known comedian for possible use in products, etc.
• Odds and Ends- Doing a Christmas card for a very good client (and friend), a caricature illustration of a popular morning show cast for a little side endeavor I am working on and a few other little projects.

Speaking of my usual workplace poster assignment, here is last month’s illustration, obviously scheduled for distribution in February… Click any image for a closer look:

Pencil Sketch

Finished Inks

Final Artwork

Oops… forgot to post this yesterday. Too busy. This quick warm up sketch is in honor of the passing of one of the all-time great comedic “straight-men”. Leslie Nielson, who passed away a few days ago at age 84, also was one of the greatest “career reinvention” stories in entertainment. Nielson had a long career as a protoypical handsome leading man and was often cast as the serious minded hero in movies and TV. Then in 1980 his turn in the hit parody movie “Airplane” changed his focus from drama to comedy and launched him to greater heights as a deadpan staple in spoof movies including the “Naked Gun” series.

Airplane came out at the perfect time for me… I was a freshman in high school and found it to be comedic gold. R.I.P. Mr. Nielson. God has probably been laughing himself silly all week in your company.