Cadence Comic Art is one of the larger comics art reps in the business. At one time they worked with a star-studded line-up of some of the best artists out there including Tula Lotay, Declan Shalvey, Zoe Thorogood and many, many more.

But over the last week or so there has a stunning exodus of artists from Cadence, with creator after creator posting on social media some variation of “I am no longer represented by Cadence Comic Art.” You can see a sampling of just the most recent posts below.

While everyone has been asking what is going on, no public statements have been made, and details haven’t even been leaked. I’ve been told it’s a complicated situation but nothing more.

Some comments on Twitter and other social media platforms from Cadence customers have complained about never receiving commissions and a lack of communication. From the barest bones of what is being said, and speculating, at the very least it sounds like unfilled orders may be part of the problem. 

Another outlet is reporting that Cadence employee Andrew Christman left the company on January  29th but is trying to help tie up “loose ends” while commenting “given the sensitivity of the matter, I can’t comment any further details at this time.”

Cadence is run by art dealer Paolo Belfiore, until now someone generally well spoken of in the industry. Cadence would work with creators to sell original art and prints, and handle commissions and convention appearances –  at last year’s New York Comic-Con, they had a sizable setup, representing many artists.

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All of which means the exodus of artists will have even more repercussions. You’ve doubtless seen blocks of their artists set up at shows if you’ve been to comics-centric conventions of late, with Cadence, Essential Sequential and other “art reps” seating their artists behind matching signage. Besides handling orders for commissions and art sales at shows, art reps often handle signings, and even travel arrangements for clients, all in return for a cut of sales from art and autographs.

While not every artist requires an art rep to handle logistics for them, or wants to give up a percentage of what they make at shows, for some busy creators, its been a useful system that takes away some of the paperwork and planning.

As seen by the often distressed notes from creators in their own social media posting, hon top all the work of selling original art and trafficking commissions will be put on them – and it sounds like there’s an even larger mess to deal with. Or as Yildray Cinar put it: 

I am no longer represented by Cadence Comic Art. Inquiries regarding any unfulfilled orders should be directed to Cadence, as the artists lack involvement in their sales and fulfillment.
I would like to thank everyone who have supported my art through them over the years.
For future, nothing’s clear for me yet. If you’d like to get art from my latest work, you can send me a dm.

 

If you want to know how huge the exodus of artists has been, here’s a screen shot of the artists Cadence repped from the January 12th Wayback Machine:

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And one from today:

 

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It’s hard to believe that other dealers won’t take on many of the creators who left, but if, as many fear, there’s a financial mess to untangle, this could be a very costly matter.

Below just the last hour of comments from creators…but there are dozens more.

Obviously this is a breaking situation which is going to affect a lot of people. We’ll update the story as more details emerge.

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