QUESTION FOR BOWEN: Death Dealer

[dfchang]

Sorry to take up bandwidth but I was curious about this piece.

A company called Valyrian Resin is just starting up and the sculptor has done some pretty good work for various companies including Gentle Giant.

Please take a look at his website:

www.justicejoseph.com

See anything familiar? Yep, it looks like Randy Bowen's iconic Death Dealer statue. But on a site that shows it off as HIS work.

I contacted the manager (he's not the sculptor) and he responded that the piece in question was the Death Dealer mini-statue not the full size.

So apparently Bowen had done the full size and Justice had done the mini statue??

Does anyone else think that's kinda stupid of Dark Horse? Why would you pay TWO sculptors to sculpt IDENTICAL statues just in 2 different sizes?? I don't get it. Not to mention it's very confusing because most people who collect statues knows Bowen's Death Dealer statue . . . it's quite famous. Who the heck would look at a picture of a mini and then number one know it's a mini and number 2 know it was sculpted by this OTHER guy??

I would love for either Randy or any of you resident Bowen experts to chime in on the details of this one. Can you see confusion easily happening? It looks like this sculptor is basically taking credit for Bowen's work and I don't see how you can AVOID coming to that conclusion without knowing the seemingly completely non-intuitive fact that he was in charge of an identical smaller version. Did he have to go through the same pain-staking approval process from Frazetta?? Bowen has gone on record as stating that the Death Dealer statue was one of his most challenging pieces because of this.

Thanks for any info.

Dennis

[Captain Late]

My understanding is that the DD mini is a "shrunken" version of the FS. Randy disowns it and doesn't sign it because, in my understanding, he wasn't paid for it in any way. I've never heard anything about another sculptor on the DD mini. I'm sure there is someone here who knows more details... Probably Randy, actually..

[randy bowen]

Sorry to take up bandwidth but I was curious about this piece.

A company called Valyrian Resin is just starting up and the sculptor has done some pretty good work for various companies including Gentle Giant.

Please take a look at his website:

www.justicejoseph.com

See anything familiar? Yep, it looks like Randy Bowen's iconic Death Dealer statue. But on a site that shows it off as HIS work.

I contacted the manager (he's not the sculptor) and he responded that the piece in question was the Death Dealer mini-statue not the full size.

So apparently Bowen had done the full size and Justice had done the mini statue??

Does anyone else think that's kinda stupid of Dark Horse? Why would you pay TWO sculptors to sculpt IDENTICAL statues just in 2 different sizes?? I don't get it. Not to mention it's very confusing because most people who collect statues knows Bowen's Death Dealer statue . . . it's quite famous. Who the heck would look at a picture of a mini and then number one know it's a mini and number 2 know it was sculpted by this OTHER guy??

I would love for either Randy or any of you resident Bowen experts to chime in on the details of this one. Can you see confusion easily happening? It looks like this sculptor is basically taking credit for Bowen's work and I don't see how you can AVOID coming to that conclusion without knowing the seemingly completely non-intuitive fact that he was in charge of an identical smaller version. Did he have to go through the same pain-staking approval process from Frazetta?? Bowen has gone on record as stating that the Death Dealer statue was one of his most challenging pieces because of this.

Thanks for any info.

Dennis

It's hard to say without seeing the actual sculpt. From my understanding, DH laser scanned my original and shrank it down. They may have had this sculptor do some touch-up on it. Parts of it obviously draw from my original sculpt.

[risingstar]

At first glance, it looks very much like Randy's perennial achievement.

['Nuff]

Valiant Miniatures did a 54mm kit @30 years ago...I bought several and painted for friends...I see they are selling them again...Any revenue for Frazetta for them...?...Just curious...:confused2

[dfchang]

It's hard to say without seeing the actual sculpt. From my understanding, DH laser scanned my original and shrank it down. They may have had this sculptor do some touch-up on it. Parts of it obviously draw from my original sculpt.

Thanks Randy.

I thought that was something like it.

I think it is completely outrageous and just a little assinine to take credit for a statue that OBVIOUSLY is a rip off of your work.

To suggest that TWO individual sculptors could come up with something that similar is an insult to my intelligence.

At this point, I have serious reservations about giving my money or business to a company that doesn't have the honesty or integrity to tell the truth in this regard.

It's also just plain embarrassing. For statue collectors, this piece is iconic . . . it's like taking the freaking Statue of Liberty and claiming you sculpted it.

Let me cut and paste his original respons in the Song of Ice and Fire forum:

First off let me say all the work is not mine. I'm the management, the logistics and the business behind Valyrian Resin. All the scupting you see from the news article on Georges site as well as at www.justicejoseph.com is the work of my partner and art director Justice Joseph.

He sculpted that particular Death Dealer for Dark Horse. It's actually a smaller scale than Bowens. Justices' is aout 5" tall while Bowens is closer to 12". You could say that Bowens looks like Justices' or you could say that Justices' looks like Bowens. The fact of the matter is Bowen and Justice are both good sculptors who recreated Frazetta's artwork extremely accurately.

Can you believe that??

Dennis

[randy bowen]

Thanks Randy.

I thought that was something like it.

I think it is completely outrageous and just a little assinine to take credit for a statue that OBVIOUSLY is a rip off of your work.

To suggest that TWO individual sculptors could come up with something that similar is an insult to my intelligence.

At this point, I have serious reservations about giving my money or business to a company that doesn't have the honesty or integrity to tell the truth in this regard.

It's also just plain embarrassing. For statue collectors, this piece is iconic . . . it's like taking the freaking Statue of Liberty and claiming you sculpted it.

Let me cut and paste his original respons in the Song of Ice and Fire forum:

First off let me say all the work is not mine. I'm the management, the logistics and the business behind Valyrian Resin. All the scupting you see from the news article on Georges site as well as at www.justicejoseph.com is the work of my partner and art director Justice Joseph.

He sculpted that particular Death Dealer for Dark Horse. It's actually a smaller scale than Bowens. Justices' is aout 5" tall while Bowens is closer to 12". You could say that Bowens looks like Justices' or you could say that Justices' looks like Bowens. The fact of the matter is Bowen and Justice are both good sculptors who recreated Frazetta's artwork extremely accurately.

Can you believe that??

Dennis

It's interesting that the back side of the sculpt looks like mine as well. Before my sculpture existed, no one had seen that particular angle. The details are not a mirror image of the front side, and Frank did not supply design sketches for this part of the sculpture.

The explanation is closer to what I've described above.

[Walden]

I was led to believe the mini version was sculpted by Randy Bowen. I bought both the mini version as well as the Frazetta painted and signed version with the mini death dealer. And both times, they were listed as sculpted by bowen in the auctions. I should check the boxes and the base to see who go credit for this. If I knew this earlier, I wouldn't have bought those pieces.

[dfchang]

It's probably not worth going after them for but once again it just shows a lack of class and integrity which bothers me.

They have lots of other examples of his work which is really quite good. Why put in the Death Dealer? Did they really need that? Now, it throws ALL the other pieces he's done into question. Did he REALLY sculpt them. Or are they just laser scans that he "modified."

Without that trust and respect of a company, I just can't see myself supporting them with my dollar. And resin statues and busts of my favorite characters and scenes from a Song of Ice and Fire have been something I've looked forward to and wanted for a long time.

This is very disappointing to me.

Dennis