THE ART OF REPRINTING 1-29-04
I love when commercial artwork gets reprinted. It gets to outlive it's shelf life of one month, and the artist gets paid twice!
I gotta create a new piece of industry jargon, cause I don't know if there is a decent slang term for this. When a piece of commercial art gets picked up and printed again, reprinted in a best of issue, or reprinted overseas and the artist who did the original piece gets paid a percentage of what they originally got as a reprint fee without having to do any additional work. The term for this should be: "FREE MONEY"
My first experience with this was when I was working steady for THE SOURCE MAGAZINE back in 99. At the time I was doing a piece a month for them; the "Dr. Pain," Heath and Fitness section artwork. Well, one day they asked me to do this piece for their movie review section they were starting called "TWO BLACK GUYS AND A SPANISH KID" because that's who reviewed the movie, and that is what they had me draw.
I did one drawing of 2 black guys and a Spanish kid sitting in front of a TV, and every issue from then on for the next year they reprinted the illustration in every issue with a still frame from different movies dropped into the TV screen, and they kept paying me a percentage every time they printed it.
So for about a year I was averaging 2 pieces in every issue of THE SOURCE, one of which I was getting paid full price, one I was getting paid a percentage...the percentage was automatic for reprints. Automatic money without any additional work. FREE MONEY!
On months when the issues printed slim, the only art in there would my pieces, and Andre LeRoy Davis' last word....ah the memories.
Just another day in the life of an Art Juggernaut.
-Cojo