Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley of Insight Studio have discovered that decades worth of their original art have been taken from their warehouse
Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley of Insight Studio have discovered that decades worth of their original art, scripts, and production materials have been taken from their warehouse, over a period of time, without their knowledge. They only discovered the theft when items were openly sold online.
Diamond states that artist Dan Krall, a former assistant to Wheatley, identified the complete original art for the “Kings Of The West” story from Jonny Quest #28 in a Heritage Auctions event in mid-2022. This revelation led Hempel and Wheatley to discover the nature and size of the loss.
all their artwork from their Jonny Quest issues, the nearly complete Blood Of The Innocent mini-series, hundreds of pages from their Be An Interplanetary Spy series, Mars, Frankenstein Mobster, and Fright Night, as well as unpublished proposals.
The Maryland State Police traced the theft back to its source, to discover that the suspect had died, and the items had been unwittingly sold from his estate into the collectors market, without the nature of the theft being known. Some of the art has been recovered but much of it remains lost.
“We are asking the original art collecting community and retailers to please help us,” Hempel said. Any information on the whereabouts of the stolen art is urged to be reported to Mark Wheatley or Corporal Theodore Buck of the Maryland State Police.
Hempel, known individually for his work on Sandman and creating Tug & Buster, and Wheatley, whose solo work includes Radical Dreamer and Frankenstein Mobster, as well as the stolen work referenced above. Here is a list of what is still missing. FC = Front Cover, BC = Back Cover
Jonny Quest
JQ #1 Pin-Up
JQ #3 Pages 1-28 (full interior)
JQ #7 Pin-Up
JQ #10 FC, BC, 1-8, 10-14, 16-28 (plus color pages)
JQ #14 FC, BC, 1-13, 15-28
oversized FC and BC color guides w/overlay
regular color pages 2, 4, 5, 14, 17, 18, 23, 27, 28
JQ #15 BC, 2-26
JQ #16 BC, 1-27 (plus unpublished pages, guides 1-27
JQ #17 1-27 (plus Oversized FC and BC color pages w/overlay
regular color pages FC, BC, 1-27
JQ #18 FC, 1, 7 (plus color pages for 1, 7)
JQ #20 BC, 2, 4-11, 13-26 (plus color pages FC, 1-18, 20-26)
JQ #22 FC, BC, 1-26 (plus color pages FC, BC, 1-26)
JQ #23 FC, BC, 1-8, 10-27
JQ #24 FC, BC, 1-28
JQ #25 FC, 16-19, 20-26
JQ #26 FC, BC, 1-26
JQ #27 1-28 (plus Oversized FC and BC color pages w/overlay)
JQ #28 FC, BC, 1-26 (plus Oversized FC and BC color pages w/overlay)
JQ #29 FC, BC, 1-27 (plus Oversized FC and BC color pages w/overlay)
JQ #30 Complete
JQ #31 FC, 1-28 (plus Oversized FC color page w/overlay)
Comico Black Book
Unknown page number with JQ sleeping with Bandit on chest, Hadji, Dr. Benton, Quest, and Roger “Race” Bannon in the back
Vampirella # 1 (Harris)
Vampirella Meets Frankenstein Mobster page
Frankenstein Mobster #3
Framed cover
Blood of the Innocent #1-4
Nearly complete art and color, almost 200 pages of original art and the same in color pages
Be An Interplanetary Spy
Be An Interplanetary Spy 1
Pages 1-12, 15, 18-20, 22, 23, 25-30, 32-35, 37-48, 50-60, 62-83, 85-89, 91-94, 96, 97, 99-101, 103, 106-108, 110-113, 117-119
Be An Interplanetary Spy 2
Pages 1-20, 24-39, 42, 43, 46-53, 55-61, 64-66, 68-71, 73, 74, 76-96, 98-106, 108, 110-112, 114-121
Be An Interplanetary Spy 3
Pages 2, 3, 5-17, 19-31, 32-35, 37, 39-47, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58-67, 70, 71, 74-82, 84, 86-96, 99, 101-109, 111, 113, 116-121
Be An Interplanetary Spy 5
Pages 1-27, 33-38, 40, 41, 43-47, 49, 51-58, 60-85, 87-102, 104-121
Be An Interplanetary Spy – unused pages, sketches, development material, research, logo designs, etc.
Spy Silhouette emblem – Used on title page and bottom left back covers for all four issues.
Phatax emblem – Used on the page before the title page (issue 1 only).
Original title: “Be An Interplanetary Spy” (This is actual original artist ink on acetate overlay, not the traditional printed acetate overlay used for color guides.) Used on Front Cover and on title page for all four issues.
Original blank Master Layout Page inscribed “Master Layout Page, Sir!”
Stack of the original pencil layouts for all four issues.
Four unpublished, fully inked pages
Mars
Mars #1 Cover: Oversized production art with original coloring and acetate overlay.
Proposal Art: Original art (double-page) featuring “REBIRTH” plus overlay.
Mars #5 Cover: Oversized production art with original coloring and acetate overlay.
Professionally framed by Medlin Art, Ltd with UV protection. Signed by Mark Wheatley in 2004..
