Question for Artists

[stoutcity]

I have a question about conventions and artisits. My brother will be making his first appearance as an artisit in one of Wizard's "Comic cons" this spring with a table in Artist's alley. Selling merch, doing commisions, etc

My question is, does he have to get permission to draw or display work of liscensed charaters (Batman, Captain America, Spiderman, etc) I ask this because it seems silly to have to get permission to draw a character or display the character at a convention at an artisit's table, but since most artists at conventions charge for their work... well that question came up in my mind.

Does anyone know this answer?
Thanks

[Agent Helix]

As far as I know, no, he doesn't have to get permission. If he's selling his own original pages or prints, or doing sketches for a fee, then it's just business as usual. Technically, I believe it's a copyright violation, but it's one of those violations that people know is idiotic to pursue. Now, if he was mass producing Spider-Man t-shirts, I think Marvel might take offense to that.

[Brandon Hanvey]

It is kind of a gray area. He is technically making money off of other's people copyrighted material. But he will most likely not get sued over doing sketches at cons. But you never know. Some companies are very protective of who draws their characters for money.

Fox has told comic artists who worked on Bongo comics such as Scott Show! that they can not draw the Simpsons or other Fox cartoon characters for personal gain by doing sketches.