Well, this sucks. A fan of the legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz—known for his work on The New Mutants, Batman, Elektra: Assassin, and countless other comic books—commissioned the artist to paint an extraordinary picture of Batman and the Joker... only for it to be stolen en route. Naturally, Sienkiewicz is pissed.
The artist posted a shot of the painting to Twitter to warn fans if they see the piece for sale anywhere, with a colorful message to whoever swiped the work in the first place:
It’s an understandable sentiment. Comic artists provide commissioned artwork and sink tons of time and effort into them for fans to get direct access to them, a chance to support creatives that they admire. It’s heartbreaking for the fan who lost what was a fantastic bit of art, but for Sienkiewicz as well, especially if the piece crops up elsewhere and someone illicitly (intentionally or otherwise) profits from its sale.
The good news is that Bill’s warning is being spread far and wide over the world of comics on Twitter, so if it does pop up anywhere for sale, people will hopefully be able to point out that it was stolen. And Sienkiewicz plans to even potentially re-do the piece if it’s never found—so it will all eventually have a happy ending.
If you’re a comics art fan who is part of the commissions scene and you see this piece being floated around, you can get in touch with Sienkiewicz on Twitter or Facebook.