Seems to me like the guy was looking for something to get offended about. If he wanted something specific, he could've said it. The rest of world aren't mind-readers.  Obviously, other than the nega-bands he loved the piece so much that he went to the length of getting another artist to copy it.

I've heard of this being done in other design businesses. People will solicit designs etc from a high-priced firm /desginer(or several) , then after they've "viewed' (or copied) those designs and rejected them for being unsuitable (at little cost) they take the copies to cheap contractors or production facilities and get the end product cheaper.

I'm not saying that Ditton did that intentionally, but he ended up with a very cheap JB designed piece. He's lucky that he only got cut from JB's comission list. That guy should be blackballed by every artist out there.

(And I'm not suggesting MAC did anything wrong. For all I know Ditton told him he wanted several versions of the same piece. Some collectors like that.)

From Pat:

> I actually have the skill to have copied the piece myself --

What skill is involved in tracing? I was a kindergarten prodigy and didn't even know it.

So there you have it. As you can see, I very specifically indicated I would prefer to do the Neal Adams version of the character
*****

In my field, we have to do confirmations on a regular basis so customers understand what it is we are providing.  I'm sorry, but I find it bad customer service on Jim's part to use one reference with a customer and then hand them something else. He should have given the customer a different link to the correct version to be drawn.