Tony Moore’s ‘Venom’ #1 Artwork Damaged and Stolen

In what the artist quite rightly described as "very, very sucky," Tony Moore has reported the suspected theft of five pages of original artwork from Venom #1, his new Marvel Comics series with Rick Remender. The completed pencils were shipped to inker Danny Miki via FedEx, but the package that arrived was obviously "tampered with." Some artwork was damaged and five pages were missing. The comic book art collectors' and sellers' community is advised that these pages were obtained illegally and should be returned to Moore.The artist made the sad announcement this week via his Twitter feed.

Moore noted that he makes high resolution scans of all his penciled pages before sending them out, so March's Venom #1 is in no danger in that respect. However, many comic book artists depend on the sale of original artwork to supplement their incomes. With Venom being the among if the not the most popularly anticipated work of Moore's career, the theft of five pages that could sell for hundreds of dollars each would be a serious loss for the artist and his family.

If you see the penciled pages appear in any collectors' portfolios or for sale anywhere on the Web or at conventions, please alert Tony Moore immediately via his representative Kara Fairfield.