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As we predicted last week, the Rob Granito team is attempting to get their second act rolling with a round of tell-all interviews. You may recall (it was all so long ago and little noted) that Granito is a person of dubious artistic skill who has been going around to comics shows for 15 years selling copied art that he’s passed off as his own. Now, Comics Cube reports a letter is making the rounds:

Dear Comics News, Blogs, and Journalists:

March 2011 was a month that the comics industry, and comics fandom, was not expecting! A month where suddenly comics websites became ‘TMZ-like’, and scandal and tabloid excitement erupted. This was due to the controversial Rob Granito.


We ask you to consider looking past personal feelings and judgement to consider the following:

-A Facebook Group about Robert Granito had over 3,000 members in less than a week

-Websites such as comicsalliance, Wired, and many others made Rob Granito a major headline

-An entire convention panel is due to Rob Granito, called ‘How Should An Artist React To Being Granito’d’?

So, regardless of personal judgement you must admit that Rob Granito creates controversy- and controversy attracts attention. Rob Granito gets attention. Rob Granito gets people talking.

The Blog owner at All Things Geeky even explained how he had thousands of visitors to his site when he had never experienced that before. Rob Granito has gotten more attention and caused more talking amongst his detractors and his fans than any other comics professional!

Now is YOUR chance to take advantage of this red-hot story. As Charlie Sheen has proven in the mainstream media, controversy sells. It has been proven, and suggested by the convention fans blog that Rob Granito is the Charlie Sheen of Comics. And just like Charlie Sheen caused MAJOR headlines with his controversial 20/20 interview, now YOU can get Rob Granito to sit for an interview for your site or blog!

Rob Granito will live up to his image as the bad boy of comics, who admits he has made some mistakes (but who hasn’t?) but also points out that comics fandom at large does not know the WHOLE story. Find out how Rob Granito began as an artist. Discover what his experience was with the legendary Dave Stevens. Find out what REALLY went down with Mark Waid. Learn how Rob feels about the comics professionals who have derided his name in the past few weeks like Ty Templeton Jamar Igle, Al Rio, and more!

We assure you Rob Granito will live up to his interview commitments. We guarantee candid, explanatory revelations. Rob Granito proved he shook up the world in March 2011! Now watch him light up the Spring comics schedule. “I will keep going to conventions”, he says. Also, why did BleedingCool decide to break the Rob Granito story out of nowhere? Why was it pursued with such a fever? “There is more there that you dont know about”, says Rob.

ALL WEBSITES: the following is a list of Rob’ interview fees

-e-mail interview (20 questions ONLY) $150.00 PayPal
-30 minute phone interview $200.00 PayPal
-1 Hour Phone or Skype interview $250.00 PayPal


Thank you for your time. We look forward to working with you.
Alison c/o
Robert Granito Art Services


$250 an hour for Skype? Not bad. We should have thought of that ourselves. The Beat will give you “candid, explanatory revelations” out the yin yan.

Comic Cube’s Duy Tano engages in a brief correspondence with Alison, aka Granito’s manager.

It’s not clear who will be willing to shell out for this. We know of at least one major website that had to be talked out of an interview with Granito; such a thing would doubtless be hilarious from a typo and Didillo standpoint alone, but we stand firm in our conviction: Mr. Granito needs to find an honest line of work. The comics thing is over.

1 COMMENT

  1. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure CA never covered the recent Granito nonsense.

    If I’m wrong, please feel free to correct me.

  2. ah — just didn’t remember ever seeing anything on CA about it and a quick search brought up nothing. I stand corrected.

  3. so let me see if i got this straight. this guy gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar and decides that his best course of action is have everybody pay to hear him defend himself. are these folks out to lunch?

  4. OK. OK. I see. I get the picture.

    My complete and sincere apologies to one and all for trying to discuss this #!!%**#% rationally.

    Yeah, I still think it’s a matter of degree, but I had no idea the degree difference was between absolute zero and the heart of the sun.

    I get the anger now. Boy, do I get the anger now. I’m truly sorry I didn’t research the details with an eye to emotions.

    ‘Cause this is just– just—

    Could I share your pitchfork? If you need someone to hold a torch, I can help….

  5. Dear Rob Granito,

    You are not a highly paid television actor who many people, for some reason, find funny enough to watch every week. Your post-trainwreck entertainment career will be proportionately smaller.

    $250 per hour, no. Free drinks at San Diego Comic-Con, yes.

  6. This reinforces my theory that he’s doing it for attention (the money is just icing on the cake).

    Seriously, stop talking about him in public and he’ll go away.

  7. In my 20-plus years as a professional journalist, I have never ONCE been asked to pay an interview subject for an interview. I think the gossip tabloids pay subjects for stories, but I don’t recall ever hearing of it in the traditional media. Let alone the bloggers and web journalists who cover the comics biz. This is just ridiculous.

  8. What if we all chip in and go on this together? Can we all be on the phone call together? Tell me that wouldn’t lead to hilarity….

  9. Rob Granito will NOT stop, he has no shame. I can see him ripping off old people for their social security checks….

  10. What an incredible opportunist! He needs a proofreader, though… some of the grammar in that press release is terrible. Maybe if I look over his missives I can hire his PR folks?

  11. “…Rob Granito creates controversy … Rob Granito gets attention. Rob Granito gets people talking.”

    Interesting. Now substitute the name “Granito” with … oh, I dunno … “Steranko”, let’s say.

    “…[Steranko] creates controversy … [Steranko] gets attention. [Steranko] gets people talking.”

    Same words, big difference. The latter (Steranko) is a pro who gets fans talking by pushing the boundaries of his own work and his own opinions. Granito is making news because he’s going all Richard Nixon and saying, “I am not a crook.”

    Didn’t Jennifer Flowers, or some other babe caught in a scandal, have a special phone hotline where you could hear her talk about the real story and her feelings?

  12. The funny thing is that my site was averaging maybe 200 hits per day. On a good day. That’s not even 6% of the Robert Granito is a fraud page. And she expected me to shell over 250 dollars?

    I had an opinion about Granito when it broke out, I posted that opinion and went on with my business, and then she went and emailed me. I would have happily left it alone and let it die.

  13. “They’re attention-seekers. Stop talking about them publicly and they’ll go away.”

    Probably. But not talking about Granito is pretty much what allowed Granito to get away with it for 15 years. So while it would be nice to see it die, I suspect there’s somebody else out there thinking, “Hey, he did it, and so can I.” Or worse yet, thinking “That moron got caught but I’m still getting away with it.”

    Ideally, this continued attention would lead to some kind of validation process that conventions could use, but I don’t know who would set that up and administer it. Because right now, it looks to me like just about anybody can make bogus claims and set up a booth at shows and con people until he/she gets caught. And yes, caveat emptor and all that, but if somebody’s in Artist’s Alley at a major show, it’s reasonable for an attendee to expect that the show management verified that person’s bona fides.

    Do conventions publish disclaimers on show websites and in programs stating that the show is not responsible for the veracity of the bios of people featured there? I’ve never noticed one, but if not, they will probably start.

  14. The “Alison” is his wife. I don’t think this is going away any time soon as long as Mr. and Mrs. Delusion continue to grasp and claw for an extention on their fifteen minutes. I hope I’m wrong, but…

    Lance Roger Axt
    The AudioComics Company

  15. I just stumbled across this today. It’s one thing to imitate pros you admire and learn from their work, but selling cheap knockoffs is serious douchery.

    I think I’m most shocked by the shamelessness of it all. Rob, do us all a favor, and stay out of the art world for good.