Beware: Clay Mann, Titanfalls

original:  https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/657163.html

WHO: Clay Mann aka TitanFalls

WHERE: Fan Expo (Canadian comic convention)
Also does work at deviantart, and titanfalls.com.

This artist is a professional comic book artist that currently works for Marvel Comics.


WHAT: A hand drawn commission of an X-Men character (traditional art). I approached Mr. Mann in person at the 2011 Fan Expo Comic Convention. This con is a 4 day convention, and we spoke very early on during day 1. The art was paid for in cash, $100 Canadian, up front by myself and two other friends (who each also paid $100 CAD for a piece each of their own). Each day of the convention we were told to come back and check in to see progress, and by day 4 Clay had left early to catch a flight home. Before he left, he asked each of us to email him with our addresses so that he could mail the art to us directly, implying that the pieces were with his luggage at the time.

WHEN: The transaction began on August 23, 2011 which was also the date of the payment. Within a week after the con myself and both of my friends emailed him with our personal addresses.

PROOF: My post-con email; friend #1's post-con email.

EXPLAIN: After no reply, I waited about one month later to reach him again (Sept 30, 2011), this time trying both of his email addresses. That email was responded to 3 days later with an apology stating that he was very busy working on a mini (Magneto, which was only 3 issues long) for Marvel that required his attention. He told me to pass that along to my friends, which I told him that I would (and did).

I did not hear from Clay again at all after this time. He opened up commissions again on Feb 14, 2012 on his deviantart and blog, so upon seeing this I sent him another email asking for an update, which was ignored.

Friend #1 sent him another email in May 2012. This email was ignored.

Friend #2 was able to reach him July 2012 and was told that all three commissions were being sent to her so that she could pass them along to us. She did not hear from him again, and no commissions were mailed to her. At this time he did apologize and gave us another reason for his busy-ness. Which is fine; crap hits the fan for people all the time and I wanted to give him the benefit of a doubt. It had been 11 months by then and while it had been an inconvenience, it was not utterly unreasonable.

By the time November 2012 rolled along, I had grown tired of waiting and emailed him to ask for a refund. Once again, I was ignored.

Frustrated, I had made a post to my tumblr (which was admittedly a bit bitter sounding) and later got an Ask from another user who pointed me in the direction of this community. All of this was public and could be seen by anyone. The next day friend #2 received an email from Clay, ironically enough, stating that he would have our commissions sent to us within the week and that he was sorry about everything.

I wanted to, again, to give him the benefit of a doubt, but I was very unhappy with the idea of getting art that I did not want and asked a refund for. I searched around to see if this artist has had a bad rep before, and I did find a few things elsewhere.

Needless to say, it was quite possibly a ruse to get me to shut up and not come here. Not sure, but either way I'm tired of waiting and my friends and I are tired of being ignored. If you are a comics fan or a convention goer and you are considering getting a personal piece of art from him, I would do so with caution.