*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....