Graphic Artists Guild?

There is a very ugly and terrible book on my shelf. Can you spot it?

Hint: It's between my MST3k guide and a gothic fetish fashion catalog.

Back story: A few of you know that the sales of from the website (which are very very appreciated) have paid my rent a handful of times. It's hella flattering that people want help support me over here as well as give up their hard-earned coin for something from me. Besides people buying stuff and commissioning paintings, I get the occasional offer to do something else, be it character design for someone's animation to a whole horde of bizarre but mega-cool requests/projects. However, as I've heard from other online artist/cartoonist/doodlemen/whatever, you hear a lot of offers that people aren't really serious about. (There was a company interested in taking one of my designs for a stuffed animal....but I haven't heard zilch from them in what seems like forever.) A few months ago a website that shall remain nameless asked if I had a "fair market price" in mind for selling the rights to one of my images with the intent of using it as their new logo as well as merchandising swag and what-not.

I had no idea so I said I'd get back to them. Doing a little research I found out there was one book that had nothing but "fair market prices": The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guide. The book is mostly useless to me beyond learning the legalities of selling art mainly because the prices are COMPLETELY INSANE for any non or monstly non-established artists. It gives the minimum and maximum prices (only as guidelines) but because even the minimum is something that only a corporation could really pay. Then again the handbook's for "professionals" but there's not much of a section on fair prices for lowly internet folks like myself. Anyway that's not why I'm talking about the book.

I'm talking about the book because everytime someone's in my studio (that's the fancy name for my living room) and they see the bookshelf they always seem to notice the ginormous "Pricing and Ethical" book. A few of them read it as the "Piercing and Ethical Guide" and don't ask, but that's not as common a mistake as you'd think.

The irony of this book is the fact that it's published by the Graphic Artist Guild and it's such an ugly book it makes people scream and stagger back in repulsion. I'm not exaggerating. A friend pulled it off my shelf yesterday and actually dropped it saying "What the Hell is That"? My friend might have been over-reacting but well, take a look at it yourself.

Man. You'd think the Graphic Artists Guild would have a better grasp on, well, the graphic arts that people like to look at. (My theory is that the book was actually compiled by the lawyers and bureacrats behind the Guild and no artist were involved. But still. LOok at the damn thing.)

I'm not bitter, but I haven't heard a single person call the cover art for the Guild's legal handbook anything but repulsive. Sorry Lou Brooks (the artist behind this eyesore). Then again, I can't apologize too much to you. According to the handbook itself, you were paid anywhere between $2,000 to $8,000 for this masterpiece.

You lucky bastard.

-jared

(who isn't bitter....not. at. all.)