A year and a half ago, a veritable slew of comic book artists abruptly parted ways with Cadence Comic Art, an art dealer that previously represented dozens of artists with work in Marvel, DC Comics, Image Comics, and many more. The messages posted on social media announcing the exits all read almost exactly the same: “I am no longer represented by Cadence Comic Art.” Cut to now, and 17 of those artists have filed a lawsuit against Cadence Comic Art and art dealer Paolo Belfiore — though what happened between those two points has mostly remained a mystery.
Until now! Well, mostly. Polina Ivko is a New York-based lawyer and one of the co-founders of Adwar Ivko, a full-service law firm that represents those 17 artists in the case of Cloonan et al v. Cadence Comic Art Inc et al. While the scope of Adwar Ivko is broad, they do concentrate on art, entertainment and adjacent industries. And as Ivko explained to Comic Book Club over email, “We are litigators as much as we are dealmakers. The firm’s scope is not limited to one area of the law, which is great for our clients as they can get all of their needs met in one place with a business oriented and efficient approach in mind.”
Per documents filed with the court and sent by Ivko to Comic Book Club, we can provide a rough timeline here. In February of 2024, the artists exited Cadence Comic Art for several reasons: the company “failed to hold the artists’ works and sales proceeds in trust”; “misappropriated over $473,000 through unreported sales and unauthorized commissions”; “commingled trust funds of artists and failed to provide accurate account statements to them”; and “refused to return some of the unsold artworks and inventory records despite repeated demands.”
On that last part, Exhibit A, which is a “list of unreturned consigned artwork,” includes multiple pages by Leila Leiz from M.O.M.: Mother of Madness #2, Knight Terrors: Catwoman, and more, ranging from $125 for a sketch study to $2,500 for the cover to the Catwoman issue. Artwork from Elena Casagrande is also included in the list, with pages from Ultimate Spider-Man #154, Hulk #49, Hack/Slash #25 and others.
Those are just two of the artists included. The full list of plaintiffs is: Pia Guerra, Jill Thompson, David Marquez, Becky Cloonan, Joelle Jones, Elena Casagrande, Tyler Crook, Wesley Craig, Leila Leiz, Rafael Albuquerque, Jenny Frison, Valerio Schiti, Allesandro Cappuccio, Mahmud Asrar, Paolo Villanelli, Yildiray Cinar, and Danai Christina Kilaidoni.
While Ivko was contracted by the artists sometime in the Spring of 2024, it wasn’t until September 10, 2024 that an artists’ demand letter was sent to Cadence Comic Art and Belfiore. In it, after detailing the offenses, the artists (through Ivko), demanded the following:
- Cease and desist selling, renting, or exhibiting the artworks, which belong to the Artists, but which are still under your custody and control.
- Cease and desist holding yourself out as the agent of any of the Artists.
- Provide a sworn accounting identifying each unsold artwork and for each consigned artwork (whether commissioned or not), the date of sale, the consideration agreed upon and actually received, the name and address of the purchaser of the work, any discounts offered and the reason for the discount.
- Arrange for payment of all the unpaid sales proceeds to the Artists.
- Return all the unsold artworks to the Artists.
The letter was delivered via FedEx to Belfiore on September 10, as well as via email. Per the records (specifically Exhibit D), the email was opened multiple times by a Cadence Comic Art email address, as well as Erin Belfiore, Paolo’s wife, including on September 10, 11, and 12, then again on November 8 and 11.
Those November dates are likely because, despite a given deadline in the first letter of September 24, neither Cadence Comic Art nor Belfiore responded. A second letter was sent on November 8, along with the message that a formal complaint would be filed in the New York court if there was no response by November 22.
“He ignored all of the demands,” Ivko explained simply.
While there’s a large gap after that, the Complaint was formally filed on August 12, 2025, on behalf of the 17 artists previously mentioned. Of note, that far from covers all of the artists who announced they were leaving Cadence Comic Art back in February of 2024. When asked if any bowed out of being included, Ivko said, “While we have not made any active attempts to seek additional plaintiffs for this lawsuit, any artist aggrieved by Mr. Belfiore or his gallery is welcome to reach out to us.”
On August 16, 2025, a summons was sent to Belfiore. He now has 21 days — i.e., by Thursday, September 6 — to answer the summons and complaint. If Belfiore does not answer by that point? Per the summons, “If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.”
Assuming Belfiore does respond, the next step is a pre-trial hearing on November 18. According to Ivko, this is, “mostly an administrative proceeding during which the judge will sort out the housekeeping matters and set a schedule for the proceedings.”
At that point, it will be over a year since the second letter was sent to Cadence Comic Art, and if this comes to trial, it could be as long as two years since the artists initially left Cadence Comic Art, along with their art and compensation. For Ivko, those last two points are the most pressing.
“Being an artist myself, I can appreciate the clients’ sense of disappointment at having been betrayed by an art dealer,” Ivko said. “As an artist, you tend to trust your art dealer. They are the architects of artists’ careers. When that trust is broken, you naturally want justice and to be made whole.”
We’ve reached out to Cadence Comic Art for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.