Warning: Remedial Comics

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to post this up for awhile now. This is not so much a "doesn't pay" client as a "client with a bad attitude you should beware of."

The guy's name is Rob Tracy, writer of Remedial Comics, who goes by quikthnkr on deviantart.

I worked with him briefly before deciding that he was a little too picky for the pay he was offering. Then I ended up running into him again in February: http://flameraven.livejournal.com/273412.html

The reason I'm posting this now, is that he has yet again brought more drama to the table. He posts a spec ad on DA's Job Offers forum, which clearly states that the job needs to be paid; if not, it goes in Projects. Several people, including me, point this out to him, and he goes into full-on rant mode. Lulz ensue.

I will let his actions speak for himself: http://forum.deviantart.com/jobs/offers/1516790/

In short, don't work for this guy.


Update 10/05 Combining all the updates into one massive update here. So the day after the massive drama on dA, the one Rob gloated about winning, he apparently finds this post and gets upset, sending me a Cease and Desist e-mail (that was almost 3 pages long). Briefly worried and thinking he'd go away if I let things cool down, I locked this post and hid a few comments on my dA page.

Apparently this wasn't enough. On 10/3 he sent me another e-mail, saying locking the post so only "my friends" could see did not fit the C&D terms. He informed me that he'd be sending the legal documents out to LJ, dA, and a personal addressed he ripped off my resume. Any attempts by me to reason with him (like "nowhere do my actions constitute libel") have failed.

So the post is once again unlocked. Clearly I cannot reason with his vendetta against me. I tried, but failed.

I also found out last night that the post is also up on fandom_wank. Will he sue the entire Internet when he finds that post? Who knows!

Y'all enjoy the drama. I give up. ;)

Comments

[uozlulu.livejournal.com]

You know, he did everyone a favor by making that "job offer" thread because his comments to the replies are like a big fat red flag.

[ocean-storm.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was extremely lulz to read. His never ending 'It's just your opinion!' baaaawing is classic. The guy is out of his mind.

[maryseif.livejournal.com]

Sadly, not the first or the last of people like this we will see in this community.

[cesarin.livejournal.com]

three fully colored comics a week for 15?
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS DUDE SMOKING? o_O

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

I dunno about you, but I can TOTES live on $90 a month.

Cant you?

-Westly, who's rent is over $700/month

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry but- "And lasty... at least I know how to spell flavor and color properly."

... *the Brit dies laughing*


Ah, another 'pay when published' project, oh the joy, just what the world needs.

[purpule.livejournal.com]

The Brits, the Irish, and the person who can see through "YEAH WELL, AT LEAST I CAN TIE MY SHOES!" kind of playground tactics can die laughing! Seriously, how does anyone over the age of 15 think that's a way to win an argument? Let alone a debate that concerns business and money!

Also, is that a direct quote? Because if it is, deliciously enough there's an "l" missing from that lastly haha!

[genkigami.livejournal.com]

15 dollars per inked and colored comic (A WEEK) plus wallpapers, graphics, and other extra goodies for no pay. Pardon my French, but are you fucking kidding me? That comes out as... what, 2 bucks an hour or something?

Sounds like another entitled kid who wants to be the next Penny Arcade and doesn't get the time and effort that goes into comics.

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

It wasn't even $15/comic, it was $5/comic and he wanted three a week. :/

And sadly, this guy isn't a stupid kid; I think he's in his 30's or something. His comic is based on his own life, and his character is supposed to be 35 or so.

[foxombie.livejournal.com]

He's so arrogant and sure this is going to work. He thinks that he's telling a great story and that the publishers will lap it up and that the storytelling will change lives, and it shouldn't be about the money - he has no idea how the real world works.

I love that he's saying that the artists are only doing 5 measly sample pages for free to send off to publishers. I did the colour work for 5 measly sample pages a while ago and I got paid $75 a page. :P

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

My favorite bit is where he keeps talking about how he wants someone who will be professional and how he is trying to run this as a business. Professionals know that if you want quality work, you offer decent pay. :/

[kamakru.livejournal.com]

Wow, the cups of stupidity over-floweth with that one.
That whole thing piled up because he couldn't accept that he simply put his ad in the wrong forum :/ Sad. Very sad.
Apparently the rules are "just your opinion" 8D

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

Well obviously since he MIGHT pay you later, he thinks it shouldn't go in the "projects" forum, which is for jobs that offer no pay. :/

[coyote-feathers.livejournal.com]

This guy makes me rage, not only as an artist but as a writer, too. Not all writers are as egocentric and oblivious to the artistic process (in fact, very similar to that of a writer), but UGH does he do a really great job of making writers look like assholes.

Would he writer three chapters a week for $15.00? Probably not. How dare I suggest such a thing!

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I will never understand why aspiring writers often think that they're so amazing that we should be willing to work for them for nothing or don't realise that good artists of the level they want to work with can literally have their pick of writers because there's so many writers out there.

Anyone can write, much like anyone can draw, people who do it well however are not common, good writers still often outnumber good artists. Some writers however seem to think their their quill/keyboard is made of gold and they are the next Stan Lee/Tolkien/insert an awesome famous writer.

I actually found the comic he was wittering on about doing for gutters, it's here: http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/18-corey-kramer I'm not especially impressed, the writing is nothing to write home about to be honest, it's supposed to be poking fun at the comics tendency to kill off and bring back characters when sales flop but I've seen better jokes made by the comic artists themselves, a writer should come up with better if he wants to be taken seriously.

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

I've seen that joke done before in an actual dead tree format comic.

No kidding, the exact same joke, done 10 years ago...

Wow.

[fix-the-spade.livejournal.com]

Well, he's a professional, I'll give him that.

It's just not the profession he thinks he's in...

[kohaku-chimaera.livejournal.com]

http://comments.deviantart.com/18/1516790/1679598979

How did I know he was going to bash my art? Haw.

These kinds of people are so depressingly predictable. :/

[lashiec.livejournal.com]

Yeeeep. His art is also ridiculously bad, he has no room to be insulting anyone.

And anyone who feels the need to point out their intelligence...usually isn't very intelligent.

[raeraesama.livejournal.com]

Oh, HIM. I thought his name sounded familiar...he runs the Webcomics Community forum. Over the course of which he essentially told another webcomic artist to shut down their new site(specifics here (http://www.webcomicbuilder.com/site/cease-and-desist/)) because he wanted people to congregate to his own webcomic community. I left his forum because I felt his attitude poisoned the atmosphere.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Wow, such a pleasant individual. This beggars the question why anyone is willing to work with this guy.

[armaina.livejournal.com]

- Says he's not hiring anyone for a job
- Posts request in Job Offers

<______________>

That aside, these are definately the worst kind of people to work with for anything. I really hope no other artists get suckered into this and he just gives up.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

Ha ha what a MAROON!! XD

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

Because if you disagree with him, you are obviously an idiot. All those fancy words and sensible logic? To him it's Idiotese unless you agree with him.

[mandyseley.livejournal.com]

Absurd probable pay and expectations aside, I HATE it when people take that kind of tone. "I am a professional. I am a serious person with a serious project looking for only serious artists who are serious about their seriously serious work and if you don't get that, you just don't understand anything, so I need to talk down to you until you realize I am seriously right... and being a serious professional means I don't have to be nice or personable. Manners are for kids not serious adults like me."

As an artist who openly admits to not really caring if my work is "taken seriously," maybe I just don't "get it."

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

The Internet is SRS BSNZ.

Nah, it's not that you don't get it, a lot of clients are just clueless, or if not clueless, irrationally hostile. Clientsfromhell.com has plenty more examples.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Huh. This guy (or whoever he's got working for him) is doing the guest strip for Questionable Content today. I wonder if Jeph knows how unprofessional this guy is...

[meleeisgood.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Jeph has a Livejournal, so if someone sent him this post in a message or something, he'd probably get it.

I would, but I'm whacked out on muscle relaxers due to a pinched nerve and all I would be able to get out would be "OMG HAI JEPH YER AWESOME! PINTSIZE IS MAH SOULMATE!".

[thanatoast.livejournal.com]

Wow. What a truly incorrigible asshole.

The thing about not paying the artists until after (IF) the comic gets published doesn't bother me NEARLY as much as his damn attitude. What a foul man.

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

LOL! he's done a pretty good job of making himself look like a total douche bag =\...surprised that anyone would be willing to email him with the attitude he's been giving people.

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up, I will warn everybody I know to not work for this man.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Good, cheap, fast; pick two.
And if you're not paying at all, get on your knees and be grateful for anything people give you.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Also, he can say he's a professional until he's blue in the face, that doesn't make him one. Actions > words.

[hunter-san.livejournal.com]

http://comments.deviantart.com/18/1516790/1679695428

The lack of professional attitude hurts me so bad. If I had to manage someone like that I'd just fire them. Not worth the fuss to have someone like that on the team D:

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

payment should NOT depend on the comic being published, no matter if the comic is published or not the artist still works.
PLUS, a professional artist should be paid somewhat more than minimum wage per hour especially for comics as it is a very stressful job.
If you are looking to hire someone for a project you have to be prepared to pay the correct amount.
this person is taking advantage of inexperienced artists.

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

didnt finish XD

i just wanted to thank you for the warning.

[jono-m.livejournal.com]

http://forum.webcomicscommunity.com make sure to avoid this as mentioned before

[keaalu.livejournal.com]

Nice to see he's touting that devArt discussion that he "won" (I don't think his definition of "won" matches mine) as some badge of honour, too:
http://forum.webcomicscommunity.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=8caddia93optafidulklggg8p6&topic=502.msg5847#new

"I took all comers and even though I probably looked like a mean asshole I cooked those suckers (even a former member from here). I was on. I mean on. It was one of the most liberating, cathartic and hilarious experiences in recent memory. I finally got to say all the things I've wanted to say to a certain kind of artist for years."

Definitely worth the warning, if he thinks that's appropriate behaviour for an employer. And he wonders why he can't keep his staff. ¬_¬