Or, as you might suspect, the lack thereof. So, back in February, before we found our current colorist, I was contacting different colorists to see what our options are. Ethan van Sciver recommended a gentleman by the name of Bill Baumann, and I quite liked his approach to coloring so I contacted him. For some inexplicable reason, that email was posted on Twitter today.
I contacted Mr. Baumann to ask how this extraordinarily unprofessional publication of my email to him had come to be in the possession of Corey Hodgdon, and he didn’t see fit to explain himself. But Spacebunny did bring the following Facebook post to my attention; it appears that Mr. Baumann is foolishly attempting to ingratiate himself with the SJWs in the comics industry. Who knows, perhaps they will even reward him for behaving in this manner.
Of course, like all SJWs, Baumann is lying. I never said anything about being in the forefront of either Gamergate or Comicsgate; I never mentioned anything about Comicsgate and I’m not involved in it anyhow. And while I am, of course, the Leader of GamerGate, I did not see fit to mention that. I didn’t brag about anything, but I did give Mr. Baumann an accurate idea of who I am and Arkhaven stands for. The pretense that he didn’t know anything about me until he Googled it after our conversation is entirely false. I warned him that both the project and I were considered to be controversial by some in the comics industry and even told him that we had no problem with him using a pen name; he assured me that he had no problem working with us at all.
As for his over-inflated rates, he must be quite a bit cheaper these days, because the rates he quoted me didn’t seem unreasonable at all for a top-flight colorist. In fact, I was planning to take him up on coloring some covers until discovering how hopelessly unprofessional he is today. So, in order to set the record straight, here is the complete email exchange between Mr. Baumann and me, redacting only his telephone number and email address.
On 2/9/2018 5:39 AM, Bill Baumann wrote:
Heya Vox,
Thanks for the kind words. We’re going to get along a whole lot better if you call me Moose!
My dance card is pretty full these days, but I could probably fit in some covers, depending on what kind of deadlines we’re looking at. I’m in Iowa, I think seven hours behind you. You can usually catch me before I go into the office at 730am, or after 5pm local time. And I’m almost always free on the weekend. Feel free to give me a shout whenever it’s convenient for you. [telephone # redacted]
Moose-
On Feb 9, 2018, at 8:08 AM, Vox
Hey Moose,
Great talking to you this morning! I’m delighted to hear you may have some interest in working with us. Here are some examples of Cliff Cosmic’s work – we encourage the use of pen names – as well as what the colorists have done with it. This is his first pro work, so he’s very inexperienced, but I tend to like his style. I’ll be curious to know what you make of his potential and if you’d be willing to work with him.
As I mentioned in our conversation, I’d like to know your page rates for interiors and covers, as well as what interior scenario is of the most interest to you.
Best regards,
Vox
On 2/9/2018 6:45 PM, Bill Baumann wrote:
Hey Vox, I really enjoyed our talk this morning. You’ve got some exciting things going on, and I look forward to being a part of it all.
I definitely like Cliff’s work. It’s a little rough here and there, but he really has potential. The animation style coloring on the first piece is the type of look that I’d go for, more hard-edged coloring on the figures, which a painted style/look for the backgrounds. I did something similar in the past, and it turned out really sweet.
I’ll quote you my DC page rates, which is $250 for a cover, $150 for an interior page. I think I’d rather just stick with a flat rate, if that’s okay with you. I think it would be less hassle for everyone.
Would this be a monthly book? The standard 22 pages?
Moose-
On Feb 9, 2018, at 11:51 AM, Vox wrote:
Hey Moose,
I’m glad to hear you think Cliff’s work is sound. It will be a more or less monthly book, assuming Cliff can maintain his pace. We usually do 23 pages.
We don’t have the budget yet to meet those rates on the interiors, but I will definitely want to buy a cover or two from you. And that’s good to know for when we plan our summer Kickstarter. Given that we haven’t gone to print yet and we don’t know what our sales range will be yet, it’s probably too soon for us to be working with top notch guys like you and Ethan.
But we’ll get there soon, I think.
Thanks very much,
Vox
On 2/9/2018 7:16 PM, Bill Baumann wrote:
Sounds good. I’ll be here when you need me.
M-