It is nice to see a Byrne/Wolverine of a more recent vintage as apposed to the much used....

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Like I said, as far as I understand it, when I do a commission piece of a copyright character (and convention sketches are commission pieces, just on a smaller scale), the money I am paid is a buy out, and the work "belongs" to the person who bought it. So they are pretty much free to do whatever they want with the piece, other than publish it. If, however, the actual owner of the copyright character wants to publish the piece, I can't think of anything that would block them from so doing.

And, also like I said, I would not be particularly inclined to try to block them. This kind of falls under the heading of that "look the other way" thing working in both directions!

Legally speaking, I would expect that most commissions are copyrightable independently of the copyright on the character.  The artist, as the author, would own the copyright on the commission (absent prior agreement with the publisher) provided the commission contains enough "originality" to qualify for copyright protection (a low threshold), while the publisher owns the copyright on the character.  Unless the artist transfers his copyright in the commission to the purchaser, the commission owner has no legal right to prohibit use of the commission under copyright law.*  He simply owns the physical artwork.  He can privately display it but he cannot use it in any way protected by copyright law (thus, he cannot make a copy of it, publish it, put it on public display, etc.) unless he has permission from the artist who created it and the publisher who owns the characters.

But, if the publisher wants to use the commission, typically it would need to seek permission from the artist (not the purcahser) because the artist owns the copyright in the commission.  Of course, as John suggests, no artist is required to enforce his copyright and "block" a publisher if he does not want to do so.  If it is your intent, however, to transfer your copyright in the commission to the purcahser (and so give that right to the purchaser), then it must be done in a writing signed by you to have legal effect under the copyright laws.

And now, may I suggest we move on?

Pretty please?

I picked up Batman and Superman keychains at the LEGO store. A couple of quick snips with a wire cutter and the chains are gone. A quick and cheap alternative to not buying full sets.