This is what happens when you poke the bear...
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 at 8:47PM *Note: this post is author’s opinion mixed in with a shitload of fact and lots of corroboration from witnesses.
This post is just another waste of time, I know, but as I’ve discovered, one of my major personal failings is the need for the last word. I really wish I was more Zen and capable of just walking away, but I can’t. Not at the expense of letting a sociopathic bullshit artist think he's in the right.
Three weeks ago I discussed the numerous (and often hysterical) falsehoods a fellow named Graig Weich was pushing about himself.
Last week Graig must’ve come across the column, either via googling himself or by someone who tipped him off (probably this guy, who emailed me separately to thank me for explaining Graig, since, in the admin’s words:
On the one hand we could never figure out what the hell his deal was - I could never get an answer to "GRAIG - What the hell do you actually DO all day?" "How do you pay the rent?" "12 years is a long time to only have two books..." He was so manic and "awww shucks charming" that it was hard to keep up with him topic wise, but at heart he seemed like a good enough guy and this ain't 60 Minutes so whatever.
because twenty-four hours after I got their note, Graig had dropped an email into my inbox.
In a very short series of email exchanges (which ended with me having his email account blacklisted to avoid letting things go any further), he took issue with a couple of comments I made and challenged me to correct them:
I'm sure you won't correct the things I listed about spawn [sic] Joes class in your write up because you want to allow lies to back up ur Bs, that is just worse than what u accuse me of...
Now, Graig has proven himself to be kind of a borderline sociopath at this stage of the game, because he really and truly believes that everything he says is the truth, and disagreeing with him is just a case of 'haters gonna hate'.
I really wrestled with the idea of even posting this follow-up. This is a guy whose website advertises a quote on the main page, purported to be from the now-defunct Wizard Magazine, that reads "Remember the name Graig F. Weich, for he could be the future of creating comic books!"
....except that that quote was printed on a card which was inserted into Wizard as an ad....by Graig.
This is what I'm dealing with. That's the reality of who Graig is: pay for an ad in a magazine, then quote it as though the magazine said it.
And still, I just find that sad and pathetic, and not worth the time.
No, there's one thing driving me to do this now: His blatant exploitation of September 11th. His disgusting use of the events as a plot in his comic book to uncover alien artifcats?
Yeah, I can't let this pass. On with the show.
Based on the email he sent, there are the only two things he actually challenges as falsehoods.
He doesn’t debate lying about his role in Dark Knight Rises.
He doesn’t debate lying about his appearances on 20/20 or the Howard Stern Show.
But he has an issue with the short version of the story I presented about Joe Orlando’s class at SVA in 1994.
Let me expand a little, then, as to what happened.
Here’s my version: Joe’s class on Thursday nights didn’t start until six in the evening because he came straight from his job as creative VP at DC Comics.
He whipped the hell out of us in a never-ending attempt to make us better, more polished, more professional. Every week we had an assignment, to draw whatever he asked for (a three panel comic involving whatever he decided he wanted us to do on any given week).
For the instance in question, Joe’s directive was to draw a three panel chase sequence. Use any characters you like, superhero or not.
When we finished with the life drawing portion of the class we’d get a break, during which we’d hang our work on the wall and wait for Joe to eviscerate us.
On this particular night, we watched as Graig hung his assignment on the wall. Not three panels, mind you but three full pages. All of them in color, featuring Batman chasing the Joker down an alley.
Scott elbowed me. “Does that look familiar?”
It did, but I couldn’t place it.
“That’s copied from John Byrne. The Man of Steel mini series.”
I recognized it at that point, and it dawned on us that Graig was about to use drawings that were at best directly copied, and at worst directly traced, right out of a John Byrne comic as his assignment.
“Is that comic store next door still open?” Scott wondered.
We spent our break digging through the back issue bin of said comic store, found the third issue of Man of Steel (for just a couple of bucks!), pooled our money and bought it, then made 14x17 copies of the first three pages (Batman chasing Bull, Magpie’s henchman, down an alley) and hung them on the wall next to Graig’s work.
As Joe started looking over the work on the wall, Graig started exclaiming “That’s wrong, you guys are so wrong, that’s not cool” over and over.
Joe looked at the photocopied pages, announced that they were the most professional looking he’d seen anyone in the class do (John Byrne gets a passing grade), then looked at Graig’s mirror image work, and asked “Wait a minute, what is this?”
A chorus broke out among Scott, Bill, and myself pointing out the obvious copy job. Graig jumped to his feet and proclaimed he had done that work when he was fourteen.
Oh, well, that’s okay. Why not bring in junior high school work to show off in your fucking sophomore year of college?
Graig was pissed and called us out for ‘betraying him’ at the end of class.
Here’s how Graig remembers it:
but for the record, Joe Orlando, God rest his soul, gave me a specific assignment to pick some of my favorite art and re-created it in my own style, it was no secret as you, bill and scott thought back then.
So it’s my word against Graig’s…except he wants me to set the record straight:
At least correct these facts on your write up.
Well, I decided to go to a few people who were present that night (four of them, in fact) and asked them, without prompting, if they remembered a certain night in Joe Orlando’s class involving Graig, John Byrne, and some photocopies.
And like one of those 'where were you' moments that are frozen in time, everyone recalled this incident, if for no other reason than the freaky surrealism that it created.
Here’s what Scott remembers:
our assignments were just 3 panel strips, 3 panel strips, 3 panel strips. he was drilling us. Graig showed 3 hideous pgs. if you'll recall, graig's excuse was he did the batman/superman pgs a few yrs previous. nothing about a special assignment for a special little boy. no need to tell him what joe told him out at the elevator that day. he wouldn't believe it.
Renzo? Do you remember this night?
What I remember is he posted a page that Scott identified as being from "Man of Steel" # 2 or #3 or something
this was in joe orlando's class
we went downstairs to the comic shop that had just opened up right next door to the school, you me, bill and scott
and we bought the very issue he swiped from and put it up on the wall next to the page he had posted.
Irv? You were there, right? What do you remember?
I remember very clearly Joe's reaction after the pages were thrown out onto the floor that night. He didn't want any part of it. He didn't even want to look at the pages and have to address the issue but knew exactly what was going on. Had he given Graig any "special assignment", that would have been a good time to clear all that up and explain to everyone how Graig was something special.
Oh. Well, this isn't going anywhere close to the direction Graig claims it did. Okay. Bill? Did you have something to add?
From my recollection, I remember we all had to do this assignment. As to what the exact assignment was? Fuck if I can remember. Everyone posted their work. Graig was one of the last to post. I believe Scott was the first to notice the blatant rip off pages. After a bit of chatter between all of us Scott, I and a few others ran down to the old comic store, bought the issue, blew up the pages, and posted them next to Graig's. I remember all of us talking to joe at the end, I don't really remember what he said.
To save Graig the embarrassment of what Joe said after class, I'm not posting those comments. More than a few of us remember a variation on his comment, if not the exact words then certainly the spirit of the statement, and I'll show compassion by leaving that out.
So: In Graig’s mind, Joe Orlando gave him one assignment and the rest of the class a different one; Graig’s response when confronted was to claim he had drawn the piece six years earlier, and Joe made no mention of the special assignment right then and there.
We’ve got four people remembering this story one way, and the guy who’s admitted to bullshitting about almost everything on his resume remembering it a different way.
Judges?
Sorry, Graig. Your claims don’t hold water.
Graig’s second bone of contention came from my description of his work as ‘poster artist in Spawn #30.’
As a refresher, here’s what I said:
So yes, there’s a double page spread in Spawn 30 by him. However…
A) He drew that long before as a fan piece;
B) He submitted it to Image comics because, if memory serves, at the time they were running fan art in every issue. Stuff by kids, mostly, but anyone could submit something, which was chosen either by Todd McFarlane or someone on his staff
This, then, is not professional work. You can say first work published in a comic, sure.
But ‘featured poster artist’ implies that this was work for hire. And it wasn’t. No money changed hands. I know this because we were both sophomores at the School of Visual Arts in 1994, when this whole thing went down. He showed up in class with a letter from McFarlane’s studio that his Spawn-Angela drawing had been selected to appear in an upcoming issue.
Now far be it from me to shit on someone’s ice cream cake. It’s pretty cool to get your work featured anywhere if you’re an artist.
But for fuck’s sake, that was eighteen years ago.
Graig’s response:
With the Spawn job, Yes, I got paid, it was a real job, and I was blessed enough to get a shit load of cash for it too, I think I still have that check they sent me back then.
I was Hired and Paid, it was NOT fan art though I will always be a fan-boy at heart.
Well, that clears it up, I guess I was wrong—
Wait. Hold it.
So Spawn #30 is dated April 1995. The images below (no pun intended) prove as much:
Okay. So Graig was hired to do this piece a little before it went to press and—
What’s that, you say? Graig’s shield signature also lists the date of his art? No kidding. So what’s the date on this piece in question? Surely has to be no earlier than November or December 1994 if he was hired…
Hmm.
Graig has dated HIS OWN ART February 27, 1994. So he was hired to do the job in early 1994, completed the job by the end of the February, and then it was sat on by Image for over a year.
Now it’s entirely possible that Todd McFarlane paid him for the piece. Granted, he was making money hand over fist back in the halcyon days of Image, so maybe he decided to give Graig a break and pay him to use the piece.
But it likely wasn’t commissioned. The date tells the story. McFarlane didn’t come to him in early January asking for a double page spread (and offering him a shit load of money) for something that would appear in print more than a year later. That’s just not terribly likely.
I'll tell you what, though, Graig: I'm willing to admit I am wrong if you can provide the evidence you claim to have:
I think I still have that check they sent me back then.
Ok, if you have it, post an image of it somewhere. Link to it on here. Just try not to post something photoshopped, okay?
I’m glad we were able to settle this, Graig. Now you can go back into victim mode about how wrong it is for me to call you out.
The reality is you were taught that it’s okay to bullshit at every turn, in your own words:
Look man, we're almost 40 for God sakes, and just trying to pay our bills and take care of our families, as independent artists/writers, we should be supporting each other now since the giants overshadow us little guys, truthfully.
I wish you felt the same way instead of trying to tear me down.
Yes. Let’s take the word of the guy whose moral compass directs him to bullshit and cover up when challenged, all in the name of paying the bills.
Graig, I’m not kidding. This is the end. You’ve been caught with your pants down. AGAIN. Move on and do something productive. Stop living a life of complete bullshit. Use the lessons you ignored from Klaus, Walt, Carmine, Joe, etc. and produce some comic work. Considering your supposed love of the medium, you turn out a surprisingly small amount of work.
Quit star fucking, sit down and produce. And stop pretending your extra work is something that it's not. That’d go a long way to stop yourself from being raked over the coals.
Why the hell am I even wasting my fingers typing this? It will have absolutely no impact. Again.
Cue the pigeon....
Reader Comments (13)
I'll post this here too since it relates. So I dont care about if you hate or like this guy but I pride myself for getting correcting information, and since I do actually remember seeing this poster on that TV show he lists in his comment above, I thought I would give it a go and so sure enough with my detective skills in tact, I found this, seems he really was the poster artist for spawn. I used to collect spawn and in most of the books you will see art dated over 1 year before it saw print, in fact, Spawn was known for delays in getting their books released on time. One of their big issues to deal with.
You have to go through a major approval process to get on IMDB, I know because they still wont list my work on their, but here is his Spawn work: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1903303/otherworks
I also personally remember the issue of Wizard magaine and that trading card in it, and I also remember that quote you mention in your write up but it was not listed on the card, it was in fact written in a write up in the actual issue, just get a back issue of it and you will see. I think you should check your facts before you post, makes you appear unprofessional, I am saying this as a supporter not to be an ass. I enjoy your posts but you are off the mark on this.
.R.
Why you hating on this guy, man? lol. you are like those bitches on the real housewives. so I have his justice comic book i got at midtown comics and by the way, there is no mention of anything with aliens, though i do see an ad for other super heroes in it that look alien i guess, but in the story it is about a guy who becomes a hero to stop terrorists and gives hope to the people. so i dont get it, you and he went to school when you were kids and what not? Who gives a fuck anyway? so stop hating and start loving. i never heard of your work but i have heard of his. so guess he is doing something right, then again, no one has heard of my work either so we are in the same boat and maybe we can learn from this guy... i see a scan of his signature you posted, do you actually have his work and then scanned it and posted it here? that is kind of weird, man,lol, you like have a crush on the guy or something, lol. stalker alert, lol...
peace.
Great posts, Grai-Rober-Jose! and the "tells" appear again! just like here, here, here, here and here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457609/reviews
all you, under a different name each time. snore.
17 hours a day, 7 days a week. and yet, when googled, there's nothing really to show except the same images. just do some work already, and stop resting on 20 yr old laurels. i can believe todd paid you. he put a pin-up in every issue, and you probably sent him what you did and he printed it. great at that age. no lie. but really, spend more time on your creator owned work. you want love, work on that. less bullshit like editing out your ex, or adding kevin smith to your videos. hang your hat on what you HAVE done. stop forcing a circle into a square. time to grow up and be a big boy now.
Wow Joe, that's pretty thorough stuff....
Roberto, dig up that issue of Wizard and scan it in. I checked Graig's site, he has the quote, but I never see an image of the article it was in. Anyway that has to be a huge miss by Wizard, this guy's released 2, maybe 3 books in 12 years since? Spawn may have been notorious for being behind schedule (Savage Dragon's the only Image book that came out on time).
So let's guess that Wizard was in 2002.. summer maybe? We'll go with August.
Issues of Civilian Justice published - 2?
Number #2 issues - 0
Spawn Issues - 103
Savage Dragon - 80
Scott Pilgrim - 6
Walking Dead - 101
Invincible (oh look, it's a superhero created after Spawn!) - 100
Yes, his claim of having the first new superhero since Spawn?
He must not read much Indy's for someone so supportive of it.
Scud the Disposable Assasin?
Hellboy?
The Crow? (might've been before Spawn)
Avatar and CrossGen's lines?
I'm sure to be missing a bunch...
So why does this guy keep grasp of being "The Future of Comics" when, even if Wizard said it, is so totally off the mark?
Nobody tell Jose, but he shares the same IP address as Terri, Graig, and Roberto.
Graig, there are medications for this kind of behavior.
Sorry, can't help myself, this guy's a jackass.
You have your story about him tracing comics, looks like he traces magaizines as well:
Vanity Fair photos on Star Wars:
http://www.eyeonstarwars.com/episode1/picture/e211.jpg
Art on Graig's website:
http://www.beyondcomicsinc.com/images/Obi%20vs%20Maul%20color.jpg
This guy's the biggest hack ever, I want to see him explain this one...
Joe Reiter,
I was googling comiccon artists and found your write up. Mr.Welch has raised a lot of money for my friend’s charity and he has always been good people to the kids. Though he doesn’t personally know me, I know of him through my friends and I hope to meet him one day. They tell me about him. He never says shit about anyone and he does a lot of good for kids. Where I come from, that means something. We look out for one another. Family can include those you respect, too, so Welch is like family to me. Do you understand me?
So listen up, if you or your lackeys write one more slanderous piece of bullshit lie about him or any more negative shit about him, my brothers and I will personally crush your fucking skull in!
We know what you look like (smart to post your photo on your sites, you dumb fuck) and you don’t know what we look like, so you’ll never see it coming, you atheist fuck.
Accidents happen every day, so go ahead, DO IT!
16 years of martial arts we’ve had, motherfucker, can’t wait to unleash it on you.
I’ve done some bad things before, I don’t give a fuck, but I got smart, now I work for the law, you can’t imagine the shit I get away with by working for the law, fucker,
so when I’m off duty, it will be worth it to see your face bleed.
Write one more piece on him and give me a fucking reason, you low life waste of sperm. Go ahead, I fucking WANT YOU to do it, do it and give me the green light to fuck you up. I’ll make you shit your pants and feed it to you.
I believe in giving everyone one last chance, so don’t say I didn’t warn you, looser, failure in life, failure as a man, failure lonely fuck, pusy.
I always give you snot-nose fucks a warning but you all always push it,
it is up to you, stop now and it ends here, then you will have your “last word” you talk of,
but keep going and watch, when you least expect it, that is when it will go down.
You brought this on your sefl.
Write one piece and you can look forward to having one of my brothers or I drop by your neighborhood in Brooklyn, Joe! Or see you at the next convention. I’m serious, you have been warned!
Ignore my warning and then I will have the last word, bitch!
Hey Martial arts asswipe,
Why would you threaten someone with physical harm who posted the truth? You say you personally know that Graig has raised money for charity, wouldn't the civil thing to do be post that charity, say how much he has given and ask Joe to match it?
And if you do work for the law, why would you risk you job by threatening someone on a blog? In a public forum? You must not be very bright to do such a thing.
So, just to clarify, you have a friend with an unspecified charity, you say Joe has been slanderous, when it all appears to be fact and opinion. When you say "we" have 16 years of martial arts, does that mean there's 16 of you with 1 year each, 2 with 8 years? You should be clearer.
I know a lot of cops, most would get in serious trouble for what you're posting, and you claim to do this often?
What's a sefl?
So do you and your brothers (related? just a gang thing?) normally go around beating people up on behalf of someone you've never met? Who did some charity work for some friend? That's quite a lose connection? Jerry Sandusky did some charity work for a friend.. so you really can't know what someone is capable of, Graig could be just like Sandusky for all you know. Not saying he is, just pointing out you have no way of knowing. He did do art that hung in Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, so...
Sorry, one more thing bugging me on that comment...
"We know what you look like (smart to post your photo on your sites, you dumb fuck)"
Umm...
You have seen Graig's website right?
Mr. Super Martial Arts Master,...
What is funny is that your entire crazy ramble sounds like bad dialog taken right out of Graig Weich's comic. That aside I think you need to take your crazy talk else where since Joe has posted nothing about Mr. Welch. He has been talking about Mr. Weich. Sad thing is that looking at other sites that have attempted to shed some light on the "stories" Graig has told... Mr Crazy talk shows up. Now, seeing that it has been proven that all the other people that have posted here in Graig's defense has been proven to be Graig himself..... makes me wonder if Mr. Crazy talk is just another one of Graig's many personalities. Seek help Graig... please.
IP Address update:
No, Graig did NOT make those posts, but the interns here in the studio did not like what you said abouthim so we took it upon ourselves to make our points against what you said clear.
We've worked here for over 3 years and will keep defending him against your lies.
Meant what we said about liking the other things you wrote, but you are stuck in you school years, it is just sad. Good for Graig pushing his work out there and we will continue to hype it up, maybe you can learn a thing or two about getting exposure, maybe that is why no one knows of your work and why you keep trying to use Graig's name to get noticed.
You are just Sad.
Are you paid or unpaid interns? Earning extra credit? And what do you do? Graig's claims are how hard it is to do all this work as one person, and he's got at least three interns? One way or another more lies are being exposed.
"You have to go through a major approval process to get on IMDB"
Not really. There is some editorial control over the content, but it's inconsistent. Material can be submitted to the site by users, which is why even Wikipedia, of all things, won't allow it to be used as a cited source.
"I know because they still wont list my work on their, but here is his Spawn work: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1903303/otherworks"
Yeah, because Weich probably himself submitted that information, just as people in general who have IMDB profiles do so.