Art Nichols

[sonicdan]

I didn't want to totally derail the coupon art thread...

The more people that know about this the better.
Copied from:
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/r ... 387394.htm

The Nichols Art Caper

It’s come to my attention that current Moonstone, and former Valiant artist, Art Nichols (Magnus: Robot Fighter), failed to deliver commissioned art pieces to collectors a few years ago, despite having received payments. Nichols had posted an ad on the yahoogroup, Comicart-L, in 2000, offering to draw commissioned pieces for reasonable prices. His identity was confirmed by reputable dealer Spencer Beck of The Artist's Choice, and people began sending in money orders and requests for art pieces.

At first, Art was friendly and seemed eager to do the pieces. Then suddenly he disappeared. “After a few months, (first noticed on 11-27-2000) I saw in my duties as list moderator that Art Nichols e-mail address was returning e-mails as bounced because his account was full, which means he was not reading messages at that address anymore,“ says David Morris. “Posts were sent to the list inquiring if ANYONE had received anything from Art, and at that point we realized that no one was able to get in touch with him anymore, and no one had received any artwork. His art agent said that he had to cut off his own ties with Art in the intervening time, as he had already advanced art monies for future sales of comic pages already in his possession, and that his lawyer had advised him not to forward Art's phone number or any other contact information on to anyone looking to get in touch with him.”

To this date people still haven’t been able to reach Art, nor have they received the pictures they paid for. Rumor has it that Art has specifically asked Moonstone to withhold his contact information in order to avoid the situation. I’ve received many stories from unsatisfied customers, some of whom have claimed mail fraud against Nichols. There are way too many to print, so here are a few selected ones:
From Enrico Salvini

On mid-May 2000, a guy named Kelly posted on the Comicart-L that Art Nichols was taking orders for commission and included a price list, adding that turnaround time would be around a week depending on the position on the list. Payment to be done through money order. Some lister commented that it was strange that someone would advertise commissions when Art already had a representative -- Spencer Beck of The Artist's Choice -- so Spencer chipped in and confirmed that it was indeed Art (through an assistant) that posted the message and that he did so upon his suggestion.

Being that Spencer is an upstanding dealer with whom I've had -- before and since -- many satisfying deals, and being the prices extremely fair, on May 18 I went out and requested an 11x17" three-character Magnus Robot Fighter piece with background and a full-blown 11x17" Frank Zappa portrait: all in all, it was a $175 order. Like I said, very fair prices. A few emails went back and forward between me and Kelly in the following days (May 18-22) to make sure that everything was clear and to agree on another form of payment because in Italy it was a pain to send money orders through the mail. We agreed on well-concealed cash and, on June 1, Kelly (now signing off as Art) confirmed delivery of my envelope containing payment and descriptions: all seemed to be well.

After a couple months, I dropped a line to Art/Kelly asking if I was getting any closer to the top of the list: silence. After a week, I hit "resend": more silence. I let another week go by and hit "resend" again: the silence started to be pretty loud so, every week I kept hitting "resend" with no results. On September 11 I posted to the Comicart-L with Art's name in the subject line asking what was happening: guess what? Silence. From Art, anyway: some other lister started posting about getting the same treatment and some heat started building, even towards Spencer who "vouched" for him at the beginning of the whole thing.

At this point Spencer picked up the phone, called Art and then posted that he was having troubles with his PC and couldn't get online, but everything was fine. This put everybody at ease for a while, but then, on November 26, someone asked for Art's new address because magnut_biter@yahoo.com was bouncing as "unknown". Someone came up with another addy, magnut@airmail.net, but that bore no replies either. In January 2001, Spencer posted about a sale he was having, and someone asked about the Nichols artwork he had available, inquiring about the commissions: Spencer tried to call Art to no avail, and I believe he also had an official letter sent to him. That brought no result so, on March 6, 2001, Spencer suggested to file for Mail Fraud at USPS. Of course such a step is the very last resort that one would want to take, at least in our small collecting community, so a few months went by before someone got fed up with the situation and actually filed a report: believing that strength is in numbers, many of the others who got scammed -- me included -- filed too. About a month later, some of us also filed at the FBI Internet Fraud Complaint Center.

Since then, nothing happened. Art disappeared completely and only recently resurfaced at Moonstone Publishing. Someone who works there and is also on the list informed us that Art asked his contacts to be kept private and, to me, this means that he's very, very worried that someone might get hold of him and ask for the money back, or just right out sue him.

Now, I'm not saying that Art is an evil person, but he sure made a lot of enemies by being a very unprofessional individual: when you owe money to a number of people, even if your computer is broken, it's not so hard to shoot a message to the people in case and tell'em what's happening. He pretty much shot fish in a barrel when he posted that first time on the list, and also took advantage of Spencer's good heart by profiteering out of his voucher.


From Magnus Ramström

I heard from fellow art collector and all round great guy Enrico Salvini that you are looking to hear about the Art Nichols fiasco a couple of years ago. I believe I was one of the biggest suckers in that mess.

Myself I've given up hope long, long time ago, but I must say I'm glad and thankful that you are willing to listen to us.

My story:
One day on the Comicart-L mail list a new mailer shows up and offers commissions by Art Nichols. It all looks very amateurish, but honest. For example, the same email is sent many times and the business details are very sketchy. So people are curious but cautious. Then dealer Spencer Beck confirms that the emails come from someone representing Mr Nichols.

So I blast of a real fan-boy email and ask if there is room for me in the queue. So Art himself answers and thanks for my nice words and confirms that he will have time for an order from me. I then ask if I at the same time can send along some items for him to sign (living in Sweden I seldom go to comic shows so I ask creators for favours like this now and then). Also I had to discuss payment with him as he wanted a money order made out to the bearer and I could only have one made out to a specific person.

Finally I sent him a package with the money order, some rare comics and a piece of original art by him, all together with a letter where I repeated what we had agreed on. I think I also included some Swedish stuff as a gift and specified what was his and what was to be sent back signed with the commission.

Then silence. I tried a few polite emails and letters, finally just asking him to return my things. Nothing happened. On the mail list others (many others) told the same story. Spencer Beck managed to get hold of him once and got a pile of excuses including both computer problems and family emergencies. Then even that line of communication closed.

I know some people have reported Mr. Nichols for fraud. Myself I considered this long, but decided against it. Maybe I'm too naive, but I just can't believe he purposefully did this. At the same time I can't forgive myself for sending out a piece of art. Losing money is one thing, but loosing a unique object like that is really bad. I still blame and kick myself for that.


From Walt Parrish

I too have had dealings with Art Nichols. I still hold out hope that he will make good on his commitment, but it dwindles month by month.

I also commissioned a drawing from Art in May 2000 (I asked for "Magnus, Robot Fighter" on a cliff -- for my collection, seen at http://www.thecliffguy.com). He agreed to $50 (which I promptly sent) and he was responsive and agreeable for a few weeks, but I have received nothing to this day. I've tried calling him (leaving nice, non-upset messages on his machine), networking with ex-colleagues of his, all to no avail.

I'd really love a drawing by Art -- he's a heck of a talent -- but if I can't have that, I could use my money back!


From Frank A. Baldevarona

Like many of the other collector's, I belong to the ComicArt-L list. I can't remember when and from whom, but we were informed that Art Nichols was accepting commissions. The strange thing was that he wanted payments in blank money orders. But since he was vouched for by his agent, we figured it to be a reasonable risk.

For a couple of weeks, communication between he (Art) and I were good, we talked about what I wanted in my commission, which by the way was Galactus. He gave a time-table of when it would be done.

After that, he just sort of disappeared. I sent him email several times and almost a year later, sent a letter to him demanding my money back with a threat to involve the Dallas and San Jose police. I did, in fact exchange email messages with an investigator with the San Jose police and wrote to the police department in Dallas.

To this date, there has no resolution to the matter.
A little over a week ago Enrico placed a post on Moonstone’s message board, calling Art Nichols out at: http://pub1.bravenet.com/forum/fetch.ph ... m=12421193

But once again, Art has not responded. Know what I say? I say stop being a *SQUEE*, Art. You should do the work AND pay these people back.

For a more complete history of this story, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comicart-l/. Join the group, and search the message archives for "Art Nichols".

Thanks to Blair Marnell for uncovering this story.

This Has A "Show Them the Money" Factor Of Ten Out Of Ten

There you have it.
DAN

[Unblessed]

Holy missing art work SonicDan, man.

~The Unblessed Soul

[Daniel Jackson]

Makes you wonder what would possess a guy to do something like that, especially to his fans.

[jedimarley]

Wow! What a d!ck,
Bet magnusr would like to get his hands on him.

[justin]

I will ask him (Art) next time I talk to him!

-j

[Ryan]

http://thedirtsyndicate.org/arthur_nichols/

[slym2none]

AVAILABLE FOR WORK AND COLLABORATIONS - feel free to contact me at storyboarding@gmail.com

-slym

[Elveen]

http://thedirtsyndicate.org/arthur_nichols/

WOW.

[ckb]

It's stories like this that make me doubt the "society is too litigous" line. If one of the people who commisioned work happened to be a lawyer this would have had a much better ending.

[robb77]

[sonicdan]

WTF! Email sent!
DAN

[Ryan]

WTF! Email sent!
DAN

I didn't mean to stir all this up again, but I came across it and figured some of you guys would want to know.

Let us know if anything comes from it.

[tmcneil82]

WTF! Email sent!
DAN

It would sure *SQUEE* me off. Where you the one that sent some rare books in?

[sonicdan]

WTF! Email sent!
DAN

I didn't mean to stir all this up again, but I came across it and figured some of you guys would want to know.

Let us know if anything comes from it.

Naw man, thanks for the heads up!
DAN

[sonicdan]

WTF! Email sent!
DAN

It would sure *SQUEE* me off. Where you the one that sent some rare books in?

I paid $150 for a Magnus & Leeja commission that never materialized.
DAN

[comicsyte95]

WTF! Email sent!
DAN

It would sure *SQUEE* me off. Where you the one that sent some rare books in?

I paid $150 for a Magnus & Leeja commission that never materialized.
DAN

i would be seriously angry if this would happened to me!Hopefully you will see your artwork one day!

[Crow331]

I'm going to post this on the comic-art list

[Phantom..]

What about David Lapham?
I sent books, and even a present for him to keep.

All with self adress envoples etc as requested.

Got nothing back.

OK, not as bad as Magnus. And David was doing it for free, but all he had to do was sign and return in the envlope provided?

Hope, really hope magnus gets his stuff back one day.

[ian_house]

What a cock badger.

[Elveen]

What about David Lapham?
I sent books, and even a present for him to keep.

All with self adress envoples etc as requested.

Got nothing back.

OK, not as bad as Magnus. And David was doing it for free, but all he had to do was sign and return in the envlope provided?

Hope, really hope magnus gets his stuff back one day.

Bummer. I wonder who else this happened to?

Bummer dude.

[sonicdan]

to his credit (Lapham's) he's been busy updating his twitter & facebook about 20 times a day
DAN

[Brother J]

Lapham was also ridiculously slow in shipping the artwork that he was selling on eBay. I was thrilled with the art and the prices were pretty good, but I had to stop buying from him because of that.

[Elveen]

Lapham was also ridiculously slow in shipping the artwork that he was selling on eBay. I was thrilled with the art and the prices were pretty good, but I had to stop buying from him because of that.

Can I ask how slow?

[geocarr]

Lapham was also ridiculously slow in shipping the artwork that he was selling on eBay. I was thrilled with the art and the prices were pretty good, but I had to stop buying from him because of that.

Yeah, I had a similar experience and haven't bought anything since but can't say that I won't in the future.

[Brother J]

Lapham was also ridiculously slow in shipping the artwork that he was selling on eBay. I was thrilled with the art and the prices were pretty good, but I had to stop buying from him because of that.

Can I ask how slow?

It was a LONG time ago, so I just went back through my feedback left and found it. This was back in Spetember 2008. It took five weeks from the time I paid to the time I received the art.