Frank Cho forced to pulp is SDCC Sketchbook!

[samurainoir]

Pulping Frank Cho Rumors

I am so disappointed. Particularly since the quality of Cho's sketchbooks is so much better than most other artists. They are usually nice big squarebound books rather than small stapled pamphlets.

Frank has a certain reputation for drawing company characters, especially the women, in a pose and lack of clothing that can sometimes, well, have them ask him to draw them again. Or possible add a toga.

Which is a bit harder to do when you’ve just printed a sketchbook featuring a number of company characters in rather risque poses, hoping to sneak it past the companies in question, only for the legal department of one of them to object and demand that all copies be destroyed. Which, as Frank probably wants to get work from said company in the future, he is complying. He writes;

I’ve made some rash decisions racing against time to get the sketchbook ready for the San Diego Comicon, and they’ve come back to bite me on the ***.

There were several art that I wasn’t allow to print due to the sensitivity of the images. I made the wrong judgement call and printed those images, thinking the company will allow it just this one time.

However that didn’t happen and I’m stuck with 2500 copies of the new sketchbook with 7 pages of art that I can’t print. Also per their legal request, I have to destroy all 2500 copies. So today, I’m going to spend all day ripping up my new sketchbook and taking them to the dump.

But fear not, this incident was a blessing in disguise. I wasn’t quite happy with the new Sketchbook. This is allowing me to redo the sketchbook completely and giving me more time to replace the offending art with new Mars and Jungle art.

So look for my new sketchbook, Sketches and Scribbles Book 5 VERSION 2, debuting in October at Baltimore Comicon.

[BlackKnight]

It's a Sketch Book... I'd fight it if I were Him,. Not destory anything & Throw them up on Ebay..

[Earth 2 Chris]

Cho is a fantastic artist, but honestly, he should have known better. Although at this point with DC and Marvel depicting their heroes (characters they simultaneously market to children) as flesh-eating, rotting corpses, fuss over nudity seems a bit old fashioned, doesn't it?

Chris

[aquatroy]

Cho is a fantastic artist, but honestly, he should have known better. Although at this point with DC and Marvel depicting their heroes (characters they simultaneously market to children) as flesh-eating, rotting corpses, fuss over nudity seems a bit old fashioned, doesn't it?

Chris

That's a great point.

[aquatroy]

I'm assuming that the characters in question belong to Marvel. If so, then Marvel is sitting on a gold mine. Those pages should be part of whatever omnibus collection they print. It would be that much more incentive for guys that still buy floppies (like me) to purchase those oversized collected editions.
How much money could Marvel make if they released an uncensored Shanna? Oversized & hardbound. Dude, I would be all over that.

[samurainoir]

How much money could Marvel make if they released an uncensored Shanna? Oversized & hardbound. Dude, I would be all over that.

Cho has said that Marvel has greenlit the uncensored Shanna hardcover with the original nudity intact, but the hold-up is on his end because he wants to redraw and expand on it.

I have Cho's other sketchbooks and he's kind of got away with depicting certain Company owned characters nude in the past but I'm assuming this time he's included certain images that have been previously controversial. I'm thinking the rejected Heroes Initiative covers featuring Mary Jane and She-Hulk nude might have drawn certain people's attention to Cho's penchant for provocative images.

I can only imagine what a financial sinkhole this must be for Cho.

[bobws]

What sink hole? just have someone sell them out the back of a car on late sunday afternoon outside the convention center. but mess them up like they were being trashed and someone stole them from the compactor.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

I'd like a copy.

[aquatroy]

Cho has said that Marvel has greenlit the uncensored Shanna hardcover with the original nudity intact, but the hold-up is on his end because he wants to redraw and expand on it.

Awesome!

[samurainoir]

What sink hole? just have someone sell them out the back of a car on late sunday afternoon outside the convention center. but mess them up like they were being trashed and someone stole them from the compactor.

According to Cho, ******'s legal department requested he shred them before disposing of them. It must be heartbreaking have to sit there and tear up 2500 sketchbooks filled with your art.

I'm sure if ANY surfaced, he'd be in trouble. And remember, it's not just the threat of lawsuit, it's the company who provides a great deal of his income these days drawing their characters. Given the amount of rejected covers he's provided featuring their characters nude, I would imagine this is their way of asserting control and making sure the ones from the reject pile are not published in any other venue (despite the fact that they are all over the internet).

I'm thinking it was the Mary Jane and She Hulk Heroes Initiative covers, the rejected Scarlet Witch and Wolverine shagging cover, and any number of original pencils that initially featured nipplage. Previous Sketches and Scribbles had the original Mighty Avengers nude Ultron art minus the "smoke" and metal goo, and his nude Storm cover sans draping.

[kingdom warrior]

Cho is a fantastic artist, but honestly, he should have known better. Although at this point with DC and Marvel depicting their heroes (characters they simultaneously market to children) as flesh-eating, rotting corpses, fuss over nudity seems a bit old fashioned, doesn't it?

Chris

Yup i feel the same way as an illustrator why bother even doing nude drawings of owned characters he should have done his own thing which he does well....That's why when i get asked to draw a know character nude i refuse to do it. It'll never be published so I don't bother........

[samurainoir]

Yup i feel the same way as an illustrator why bother even doing nude drawings of owned characters he should have done his own thing which he does well....That's why when i get asked to draw a know character nude i refuse to do it. It'll never be published so I don't bother........

You are right of course, but it seems to be something the big companies turn a blind eye to traditionally, given the fact that hundreds of these Lt Ed "sketchbooks" are sold in the artist alleys of comicons, filled with company owned characters, many of them in more saucy reposes ('cause that's what sells). Unless you are Mike Mignola, these generally sell better than your creator owned character nobody has ever heard of (although this is moot since Cho has "brands" he owns such as Liberty Meadows and Jungle Girl). These are mostly folded pamphlets printed at kinko's mind you.

Cho's stands out because his is actually a really high quality "art book", and the Heroes Initiative pieces are already full of controversy given that Marvel had already rejected or in fact commissioned/published other pieces like the Ultron art or Storm cover with the knowledge that the nipplage would never see the light of day, Shanna excluded. He originally drew nudity in Shanna because Marvel editorial told him that it was acceptable in MAX (where it was initially being published).

He should have known better, but keep in mind he'd already published six previous comicon exclusive books with no problems.

I'm sure Adam Hughes is probably a target now.

This actually might start a precedent for other creators to begin worrying about what they include in their exclusives. Let's hope Marvel Legal isn't prowling artist alley this year!


It's perfectly legal for someone to privately commission an artist to do a one-off non-published work with a company owned character nude for their own "enjoyment", I believe that is protected. The problem is the growing internet community of fans sharing that art with others that could start to get problematic since these aren't supposed to be "published" (even online). It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out in the next few years, particularly at sites like Comic Art Fans.

[kingdom warrior]

You are right of course, but it seems to be something the big companies turn a blind eye to traditionally, given the fact that hundreds of these Lt Ed "sketchbooks" are sold in the artist alleys of comicons, filled with company owned characters, many of them in more saucy reposes ('cause that's what sells). Unless you are Mike Mignola, these generally sell better than your creator owned character nobody has ever heard of (although this is moot since Cho has "brands" he owns such as Liberty Meadows and Jungle Girl). These are mostly folded pamphlets printed at kinko's mind you.

Cho's stands out because his is actually a really high quality "art book", and the Heroes Initiative pieces are already full of controversy given that Marvel had already rejected or in fact commissioned/published other pieces like the Ultron art or Storm cover with the knowledge that the nipplage would never see the light of day, Shanna excluded. He originally drew nudity in Shanna because Marvel editorial told him that it was acceptable in MAX (where it was initially being published).

He should have known better, but keep in mind he'd already published six previous comicon exclusive books with no problems.

I'm sure Adam Hughes is probably a target now.

This actually might start a precedent for other creators to begin worrying about what they include in their exclusives. Let's hope Marvel Legal isn't prowling artist alley this year!


It's perfectly legal for someone to privately commission an artist to do a one-off non-published work with a company owned character nude for their own "enjoyment", I believe that is protected. The problem is the growing internet community of fans sharing that art with others that could start to get problematic since these aren't supposed to be "published" (even online). It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out in the next few years, particularly at sites like Comic Art Fans.

Excellent points! I do think marvel will eventually crack down on artist especially the ones on their payroll about drawing their characters in the Raw...
and true they can't do anything legally to someone who commissioned an artist privately....but I'm sure they can speak to the big names who do this and then the drawing ends up everywhere.