Josef Rubinstein - Bad Commission Experience Warning!!!

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I just want to say I belong to the other side of the fence.

 

I have commissioned Joe in the past and have gotten good results. His communication has been good and also his responses to my comments or requests for revisions after he sends me work-in-progress scans. These were all done in the last year with no problems:

 

Batman Inked over Frank Miller bluelines Convention Sketch

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=890570&GSub=122145

 

Flash 254 Recreation

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=890565&GSub=122143

 

X-Men Dark Phoenix Saga Commission

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=845107&GSub=129595

 

I am in no way defending him or condemning him. I am just sharing my own personal experiences which have been good.

I find that sometimes artists are quicker to turn around a commission with characters they like drawing or if the artist has more freedom in designing the content.

I don't know Joe Rubinstein from Adam, and I also have no connection to his 'clients' except that I've read their posts on an internet forum, that said....

It boggles my mind that a, "hey he gets it right once in a while" mentality means his business practices might be ok? And in saying this I am not denigrating those that received commissions, however I am floored by another example that the comics collectibles world does not reside in real world of business ethics or practices.

Quite frankly the only way this will change is if individuals that have been defrauded, taken advantage of, ripped off, or take your pick, refuse to stand for what has happened to them. It seems as if there are a few individuals that Mr. Rubinstein has taken advantage of. Gentlemen (if one of you is female I apologize), my sincere recommendation to you is to contact one another and gather together as one entity to avail yourself to the various institutions at your disposal to make life as uncomfortable for Mr. Rubinstein as possible. Legally, publicly, through as many avenues as possible.

When situations such as this exist, the more voices in the wilderness the better, it will demonstrate to institutions that are in a position to assist you that this is NOT a one-off, that in fact this may be a systemic issue with premeditated patterns of an individual in society actively seeking to defraud other individuals in multiple instances. Based on the examples illustrated on this forum, I'd say that is a pretty fair assessment of what is going on.

Mr. Rubenstein solicited work, was paid for that work and has not delivered on that agreement in a timely fashion. End of story. I would make life as difficult for him as he has made it for those who have been effected by his unwillingness to honor financial agreements negotiated in good faith by paying customers.

Spencer Beck just posted this on comicart-L, with permission to post on other boards:

 

Due to this situation and the public bashing of Josef Rubinstein ( here on

this message board and elsewhere ), I feel I have had no choice but to get a

bit hands on even though I was not involved in ANY of the commissions in

question.

 

I take great pride in calling Josef friend, both personally and

professionally. The man has great talent and certainly a hell of a legacy in this

industry which nobody can argue about. Josef is also an honest person who

unfortunately got himself into a thick quagmire of black tar and the more he swims

in it the deeper he is getting himself. It is NOT his intention to steal

anyone's money, nor is it his intention to not do the work. As I noted, he is

in a quagmire which I hope he can be rescued from shortly.

 

To be honest, it is this sort of action that gets me upset ... when my

friends get themselves into a pickle by their own device or by the actions of

others or by any combination thereof. I feel an obligation, as a friend, to

try to get more hands on involved to help they get back on track. That is

what friends do.

 

I am currently in consultation with Josef and my lawyer and hope to have an

announcement with more specific information shortly.

 

Please, I REQUEST ... keyword REQUEST everyone stop with the bashing of

Josef at least until you read my announcement which will be in the next day or

so. Once you have read it, if you wish to continue bashing him ... then by

all means do so if you feel he deserves it. Whom am I to say IF what you feel

is right or wrong? I make this request to at least give me the chance to

figure out exactly what has to be done to straighten out all of this ...

STUFF.

 

I am handicapped at the moment since I was not originally involved in ANY

of

> these requests. So it is going to take me a couple of days to get up to

> speed. While I cannot guarantee anything, I can certainly do my best ( as I

> have with others who have gotten themselves into hot water and resolved all

> of their issues to the customers satisfaction ) and try to get everyone

> everything they deserve and a little extra if possible.

>

> I will be saying more as soon as the proper information is gathered.

>

> Thank you for your time.

> Spencer R. Beck

> The Artist's Choice

> http://www.theartistschoice.com

>

PS: Please feel free to post this message on any other boards you think it

pertinent or have already made "bashing" posts on.

Spencer Beck just posted this on comicart-L, with permission to post on other boards:

One of the real superheroes of comic art collecting steps in. Best of luck Spencer, do some good!

AcA

id also say ive had wonderfull art from Joe, and said so here in february

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=48&Number=5478673&Searchpage=1&Main=249938&Words=&topic=0&Search=true#Post5478673

im sure Joe and Spencer will sort this out

Spencer Beck just posted this on comicart-L, with permission to post on other boards:

 

One of the real superheroes of comic art collecting steps in. Best of luck Spencer, do some good!

 

AcA

Spencer really, really is - the guy is the definition of above and beyond in the comic art community.

It sounds like the best advice for both Josef Rubinstein (to restore his reputation and shore up his organizational mindset as well as have skin in the game for motivation) and his fans/customers is to convert 100% C.O.D. - Cash on Delivery, no C.I.A. - Cash in Advance type terms.

Even more so, as I know many artists will "say" they finished a piece and then really not complete it, or it takes 'em a long time to package the art for fulfillment, the terms should be 50% payment upon completion and the balance due payed upon delivery (after receipt).

If Josef Rubinstein's motivation to take on more projects than he has time for is based on financial need to get money up front to cover overhead, I'd probably recommend re-prioritizing his creative process and like those buffet's say "You may eat all you can, but only take what you can eat" - - so, hold off on taking any new assignments 'til he finishes what's on his plate that he owes and is obligated for. If he really really really needs the cash flow coming in, I hope he has some of his original art from the 80's, especially the stuff he did with Frank Miller, John Byrne and others, which he should then just hand over to Heritage to raise top dollar for.

Not to be a but honestly I think a thread about Rubinstein should be stickied to the top of the OA board. This isn't the first thread about him. There have many quite a few artists that have bad reputations for commissions. The thing that seems to set this guy apart is that he continually goes out on CAF and emails people about doing commissions when he has outstanding ones he took money for years earlier. He once sent me an email through my CAF before I ever heard any horror stories. I thought it was weird and I wasn't interested so I just ignored it.

Why not choose a down payment amount that homeowners use when hiring contractors, I wouldn't do 50% at all since if its an expensive piece then you'd still be out of a large sum of cash. Maybe continue to increase the payment as the stage of development nears completion (ie. preliminary, pencils, inks, colors, shipped).

Here's CA law on down payment for contractors (housing):

State law puts a maximum down payment of 10% or $1,000 (whichever is less) before work starts.

Spencer Beck just posted this on comicart-L, with permission to post on other boards:

 

 

Due to this situation and the public bashing of Josef Rubinstein ( here on

this message board and elsewhere ), I feel I have had no choice but to get a

bit hands on even though I was not involved in ANY of the commissions in

question.

 

I take great pride in calling Josef friend, both personally and

professionally. The man has great talent and certainly a hell of a legacy in this

industry which nobody can argue about. Josef is also an honest person who

unfortunately got himself into a thick quagmire of black tar and the more he swims

in it the deeper he is getting himself. It is NOT his intention to steal

anyone's money, nor is it his intention to not do the work. As I noted, he is

in a quagmire which I hope he can be rescued from shortly.

 

To be honest, it is this sort of action that gets me upset ... when my

friends get themselves into a pickle by their own device or by the actions of

others or by any combination thereof. I feel an obligation, as a friend, to

try to get more hands on involved to help they get back on track. That is

what friends do.

 

I am currently in consultation with Josef and my lawyer and hope to have an

announcement with more specific information shortly.

 

Please, I REQUEST ... keyword REQUEST everyone stop with the bashing of

Josef at least until you read my announcement which will be in the next day or

so. Once you have read it, if you wish to continue bashing him ... then by

all means do so if you feel he deserves it. Whom am I to say IF what you feel

is right or wrong? I make this request to at least give me the chance to

figure out exactly what has to be done to straighten out all of this ...

STUFF.

 

I am handicapped at the moment since I was not originally involved in ANY

of

> these requests. So it is going to take me a couple of days to get up to

> speed. While I cannot guarantee anything, I can certainly do my best ( as I

> have with others who have gotten themselves into hot water and resolved all

> of their issues to the customers satisfaction ) and try to get everyone

> everything they deserve and a little extra if possible.

>

> I will be saying more as soon as the proper information is gathered.

>

> Thank you for your time.

> Spencer R. Beck

> The Artist's Choice

> http://www.theartistschoice.com

>

PS: Please feel free to post this message on any other boards you think it

pertinent or have already made "bashing" posts on.

 

I'm personnally very pleased to read that !!!

I want to state I wasn't bashing Joe or Spencer but simply told my story again ...

If I sounded otherwise I apologize again !

I had thought all day long of lots things to say about the thread but THIS awesome news I hope will settle things right !!!

And I promise to give all the credits to the supertalented skills of Master Rubinstein if I ever see my double cover cosmic commission and of course to Spencer Beck !!!

I want to salute also all the professionals who spoke on the yahoo group and the friends

Dang, those stories on comicart-L were pretty interesting. Most interesting were the comments from comics pros on their own issues with Joe.

I'll add a few facts ..

Actually everything described by Rob is what I experienced !! The same excuses for delays, the same way of replying only to threat, the same way he asked for the funds to be able to "begin" the work and so on ...and of course he was the one who asked first since I never did any commission but was trying to get infos on Jim Starlin to get me a Starlin commission he offered me his skills !!!

I'd say there is a pattern of fraudulent activity ...

That's for all of you reading and still wondering what to think between the great commission pieces posted regularly on CAF and what we have to live with ...

 

BTW he did me the '" please remind me what was this commission about ?" as well !

 

And I'll add for my own that I didn't have any luck through Spencer Beck who prefered to judge my tone ( unfortunatly I always input my humor in my writings ..well I'm french !!! ) rather than the acts and the facts !

 

After a lot of arguing on this board I ended up with a weird offer to send me Starlin OA but it is not about the money is it ? I feel robbed and worse I feel insulted by someone I truely had respect for ....The Starlin art I want I buy and I don't expect it as a second hand opportunity I have too much respect for it !

 

Artists are what they are, can act the weirdest way or work the slowest but still they should be able to respect their commissioner if not their fans !!!

 

Joe you're more than welcome to write to me !!!

Anytime !!!

 

Romain,

I have asked Joe about your piece several times and he has told me iit is in the list of pieces that he knows he owes and has been slowly working off. He has never shirked his responsibility to get it done. I have no doubt that it will be done because Joe is not a thief. He is just a person that ran into some horrid luck which has caused several commissions to be extremely late. It is tragic that it has taken so long and you have every right to be angry (I'm pissed off when people are late for me) but Joe will get your piece done. Michael

Spencer Beck just posted this on comicart-L, with permission to post on other boards:

 

 

Due to this situation and the public bashing of Josef Rubinstein ( here on

this message board and elsewhere ), I feel I have had no choice but to get a

bit hands on even though I was not involved in ANY of the commissions in

question.

 

I take great pride in calling Josef friend, both personally and

professionally. The man has great talent and certainly a hell of a legacy in this

industry which nobody can argue about. Josef is also an honest person who

unfortunately got himself into a thick quagmire of black tar and the more he swims

in it the deeper he is getting himself. It is NOT his intention to steal

anyone's money, nor is it his intention to not do the work. As I noted, he is

in a quagmire which I hope he can be rescued from shortly.

 

To be honest, it is this sort of action that gets me upset ... when my

friends get themselves into a pickle by their own device or by the actions of

others or by any combination thereof. I feel an obligation, as a friend, to

try to get more hands on involved to help they get back on track. That is

what friends do.

 

I am currently in consultation with Josef and my lawyer and hope to have an

announcement with more specific information shortly.

 

Please, I REQUEST ... keyword REQUEST everyone stop with the bashing of

Josef at least until you read my announcement which will be in the next day or

so. Once you have read it, if you wish to continue bashing him ... then by

all means do so if you feel he deserves it. Whom am I to say IF what you feel

is right or wrong? I make this request to at least give me the chance to

figure out exactly what has to be done to straighten out all of this ...

STUFF.

 

I am handicapped at the moment since I was not originally involved in ANY

of

> these requests. So it is going to take me a couple of days to get up to

> speed. While I cannot guarantee anything, I can certainly do my best ( as I

> have with others who have gotten themselves into hot water and resolved all

> of their issues to the customers satisfaction ) and try to get everyone

> everything they deserve and a little extra if possible.

>

> I will be saying more as soon as the proper information is gathered.

>

> Thank you for your time.

> Spencer R. Beck

> The Artist's Choice

> http://www.theartistschoice.com

>

PS: Please feel free to post this message on any other boards you think it

pertinent or have already made "bashing" posts on.

 

 

I'm personnally very pleased to read that !!!

I want to state I wasn't bashing Joe or Spencer but simply told my story again ...

If I sounded otherwise I apologize again !

I had thought all day long of lots things to say about the thread but THIS awesome news I hope will settle things right !!!

And I promise to give all the credits to the supertalented skills of Master Rubinstein if I ever see my double cover cosmic commission and of course to Spencer Beck !!!

 

I want to salute also all the professionals who spoke on the yahoo group and the friends

 

 

Romain,

I have spoken to Spencer and he is pretty unhappy about your language and tone in the emails you wrote him since he was not a party to the transaction and was trying to help you. I also know that Spencer feels you are attacking him on the message boards. I tell you again that you will get your piece and I will say that Spencer is a really not happy. Kind of a shame that you have done this as I think you have offended the person who could best help you. All that said, I know Joe will get to your piece in due time. As for Spencer, I suspect you could use his help now and probably again in the future with someone else -- truly an error to alienate someone trying to help you.

Michael

As for Spencer, I suspect you could use his help now and probably again in the future with someone else -- truly an error to alienate someone trying to help you.

Michael,

I don't want to throw the thread too far off topic.

Not to speak too much for Romain, but I think he's doing his best to learn from and correct his mistakes, just like anyone else. I believe he has apologized publicly to Spencer a couple of times.

He has been an enthusiastic and helpful contributor to these boards (IMHO) and an amazingly loyal friend to me offboards.

Andrew

I honestly don't see how any explanation is going to make this problem go away. There's no excuse for taking a customer's money and not communicating (or bending the truth) with that customer. It takes a lot of damn work to write e-mails for two years to find out the status of a commission. Even if Josef were to finish the piece or refund the customer's money, what is that customer's time worth?

Andrew,

You know the high esteem I hold you in and the great things you've done for me in the hobby. I can't thank you enough for them!

Michael

At this point the only reasonable thing to do is issue anyone who has been waiting a year plus for an already paid for commission a full refund. Then if they want the commission still they then pay for it upon completion. That or give them a partial refund, people waiting 1 year, 2 years or even 4 years should be looking at getting the commission plus a large % back as a refund.

Romain,

 

I have asked Joe about your piece several times and he has told me iit is in the list of pieces that he knows he owes and has been slowly working off. He has never shirked his responsibility to get it done. I have no doubt that it will be done because Joe is not a thief. He is just a person that ran into some horrid luck which has caused several commissions to be extremely late. It is tragic that it has taken so long and you have every right to be angry (I'm pissed off when people are late for me) but Joe will get your piece done. Michael

Sorry for Joe's horrid luck. However...why has he still been soliciting commissions when he has so many others outstanding?

As his friend...perhaps you could gently advise him to knock that off because it just makes a bad situation worse for those who have been waiting.

As for Spencer, I suspect you could use his help now and probably again in the future with someone else -- truly an error to alienate someone trying to help you.

 

Michael,

 

I don't want to throw the thread too far off topic.

 

Not to speak too much for Romain, but I think he's doing his best to learn from and correct his mistakes, just like anyone else. I believe he has apologized publicly to Spencer a couple of times.

 

He has been an enthusiastic and helpful contributor to these boards (IMHO) and an amazingly loyal friend to me offboards.

 

Andrew

Andrew,

I can see you are good friends with Romain so you might want to tell him in the nicest way that Spencer is a very good guy but even Spencer has limits - in this case, Romain was rude to Spencer the last go-round, threatened physical violence to Spencer/Joe, and then earlier today said above that Spencer was no help to him. I've spoken with Spencer and he is having a hard time seeing those actions as belonging to someone who actually wants Spencer's help. The "I'm sorry I'm French" may not be enough to gain INSTANT foregiveness.

As for Joe, he again confirmed that he owes Romain a piece and that he is very, very late. Joe also reiterated that it is on his backlog list and he continues to slowly pare that list down and will get to Romain's. I know that is of little comfort but I believe it will get done.

Michael

Michael

Hi dear fellows collectors !!!

I'm sorry if you have been waiting on my replies but I just opened the computer, read Spencer's email and answered to it right away...So I read only now your posts ...

I find a bit exagerated the fact that Spencer be still angry at me after I apologized on this very board 2 years ago !!?

Since then several Rubinstein threads appeared and I didn't even post a smiley's ...

Well my dear friends I DON'T CARE ! I'll soon be the MOST happiest collector of all

To Michael I want to say THANKS !!!!

Michael should be the one mad at me and not Spencer and it's Michael helping me !!!

Well that's how life can be ... Still I wish Joe had replied to my emails ...

AND FOR THE NEWCOMERS : I NEVER THREATENED TO HARM PHYSICALLY ANYONE !!!! And if I have to get a lawyer to serve my cause it will not be for refund issues but for a diffamation claim !!!!!

Peace