This is the most pirated image of Spider-Man in existence. I am its artist.

A place to study math at, matter of fact, I learned it all, burnt it all.

This (blog) is where I bury the ashes at – Jay-Z, “No Hook” 2007

I am a failed comic book artist.

Let me back up; from around age 12 to about age 28 I wanted to draw comic books. Comics were all I cared about, they were all I thought about. I wrote and drew my own comics since I was in middle school. I went to college to study art. I met other people who were also aspiring pros who are still my friends today. I went to comics conventions with my portfolio. I did a try out for DC in 1993. I self-published my own comics in 96-97. I also lost a whole lot of money! This time was before digital short run printing, so I had to print a minimum of 1000 copies at about $1 per copy. I had to give Diamond Distributors ½ of the cover price, plus other costs = I was barely making enough to support doing my own comics. The comic book business in the late 90s and early 2000s was utter garbage. After the speculator boom of the early 90s came the implosion of the later part of that decade. All the fan interest in “collector’s editions” of new comics, the dawn of Image comics and some other heavy-hitting independents and outright inflation in interest of comic book entertainment came to an abrupt halt…right when I graduated from college and started to really try to make it as a comics artist. Also, as I transitioned from “talented fan” to “aspiring professional artist” the entire medium of comic books was a whole lot less fun to be a part of. As I showed my sample pages to editors, I did not like being told “we love that you know how to draw, but we don’t like your style”. One editor told me to “go find a comic artist and copy his style”. I was CRUSHED. I could not adapt to trying to find a unique voice for myself and find paying work in a crumbling industry. I made a very hard grown-up decision and stopped trying altogether and went to my “fallback job” of graphic design.

By 1998 I’m working full time as a graphic designer. After years of toiling through working small-time jobs in northern Indiana, I finally made the leap to working in Chicago nearby. I was hoping I’d get hired to illustrate for ads and to draw storyboards for commercials. I eventually found my way to drawing and designing for several super large consumer product companies (Unilever, PepsiCo, Kraft, and many others). Even though I was working full time as a freelancer I found myself with many hours with no paying work and long wait times for checks to arrive…and the bills would not wait. What did I do? I combed through my portfolio drawings and started selling them as fan art on eBay. I would later do some commissions for some of my buyers. I never pocketed a lot of money; I sold them for $50-100 each. This was between 2001 – 2003. As my design workload started accelerating and my career in consumer products took off, I stopped selling comics art altogether. I never actually cared what ever happened to the pieces of art I did either…until last week. 

Fast forward, it’s now 2024. I still love comics as an entertainment medium (although I must admit that I stopped buying them years ago). I watch tv on YouTube. The algorithm suggests stuff I might be interested in. To my utter shock I saw a suggested video with one of MY Spider-man paintings as the thumbnail. Often in my dreams I wonder about the comics life I left behind 20 plus years ago. When I saw my spider man drawing, I froze. I thought I was hallucinating. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing my art in this way or was it some break in the multiverse, of a fantasy world where I never stopped doing comics art for a living; a universe peeking into the one I know as real…something right out of a comic book plot. Or was I going insane? This was real and I’m living through it. I called Estelle in to the room and showed her the video. The whole clip is a Spider-Man fan showing some of the t shirts and fan merchandise from the marketing for the 1st Sam Raimi movie. Folks on eBay were selling t shirts, posters, and all kinds of merchandise with MY fan art on them, as if they were produced with “real” art from the movie. They were emphatically not. I also found some real trading cards from Topps with very heavily edited versions of my art. Furthermore, a google image search found my art in dozens of places online: twitter threads, art forums, eBay listings, and even more merchandise. Hundreds of thousands of people have bought hats, cups, socks, and all kinds of shit with my art on them without my knowledge, consent or more importantly payment. I even found a reddit thread from a Spider-man fan asking, “does anyone know who this artist is?” I found out all of this at once on a random Friday afternoon. For 20 plus years my Spider-man art has lived a life of its own in comics fandom and paid merch and I never knew about it.

To add further context, I sold the original drawings so I don’t have them as “proof” I did them. I do know they are mine by that janky ass rendering of the piping on Spidey's costume. BTW, the fans online say this is the one thing they HATE about my drawings, and I agree with them. I’m sure I still have the original sketches somewhere; I’m just not going to search through all my stuff for them. I did find a tear sheet I used to mail to publishers with one of my Spider-Man drawings on it. I sold that drawing too. I also can’t find my eBay listing to get the names of who I sold them to. eBay only keeps about 5 years of records. My sales were around 2001 when I first signed up. My username is davejohnsonart. It’s still the one I use today.

Since they are fan art, they are not covered by copyright law, not by the artist anyway. The original copyright holder can use fan art without compensation to the original artist. Marvel, Sony, Topps, anyone else have NOTHING to lose by stealing fan art. There are SO many artists who’ve been ripped off this way, and here I am in the exact same predicament. 

So, what happens now?

For me, nothing. Nothing at all. I left the profession of comics many years ago and I do not regret that decision. I’ve gone on to consult and create product designs for the biggest brands in the world, leading to my current role as a Lead Designer for Procter & Gamble. I have a great marriage, a great lifestyle, money, investments, and a future I do not think I would have had as a comics artist. I’ve seen way too many professional artists in the comics business struggle financially. I’ve never needed to put up a gofundme page because I lost my job. Thankfully, I’ve always found paying work, even when we were going through a recession in 2008-2011. I’ve seen too many of comics artists pass from this earth because they simply didn’t have insurance or enough money to pay a hospital bill. I am very fortunate that this isn’t my story. I am grateful for the opportunity to do the things I’ve done and to be able to create a path for others. I am also letting this go, as I want nothing from those who stole from me and do not wish to press this any further.

I will say this: I am very bummed that I never got in as a comics artist with any of the major publishers, but I am still angered that my art was considered “good enough” to steal. I am disturbed at the predatory nature of the comic book business, and I am SO thankful that I found a fruitful alternative. My story could have simply been that I was a struggling artist who found out the comics business was stealing from him. Instead, I’m a thriving professional in a leadership role at one of the biggest companies in the world working on some of the biggest brands in existence… who can shrug off that the comics business was stealing from him.

I like that story better.

Peace!
David Johnson, aka davejohnsonart, aka that other artist named Dave Johnson.

PS: Marvel please don't sue me! Thanks!

Spider-Man, ©2024 Marvel Comics, Inc.

Illustration by me, if you haven't read the blog.