I've been asked to create a whole comic book that this guy wrote for free. He'd publish it, but I wouldn't see a cent of it, because he was doing me a favour by giving me exposure.
I seriously hate that word.
Obviously, I said no.
Ah ok I remember this was like my beginning of middle school (6th) and it wasn't a "potential client" because I did do the drawing lol
I drew one of these guys I can't remember which one was but it was this BTS Group, I know it was a guy who was sleeping in the airplane with a neck animal(?) pillow
Its not the wildest but kind of the weirdest because 1. it was weird to draw something you have no Knowledge of and 2. idk 
I drew it as in a realistic way and got paid …. the drawing wasn't even good though lol
5
A friend wanted me to make her a whole ass Visual Novel in two weeks for free. We are no longer friends. 
About a week ago, someone messaged me asking how much would I charge them to do a portrait of their pet dog. When I told them them that I wasn't available to take commissions they replied...
"Okay, can you just do it for free then?"
Thats like... If I can't walk to the store wearing shoes because the ground has become lava... then maybe I can just walk barefoot?
Has anyone else had the weird thing when some idea person has managed to round up a team of people who are working for free and a big part of their pitch is they have an ex-Disney animator on board? This has seriously happened to me three times now. (only worked once, the animator they had took all the bloom of that rose forever).
Not a commission, but years ago when I worked at my local public access, there was a lady who requested she needed help with an animated project. When I contacted her, hoping it was a short 2D flash animation, I quickly found out it was her wanting people at public access to make her a full length 3D animated film (that is theatrical quality) of a children's book she wrote. And the thing about public access is it is unpaid. So she wanted free labor.
I don't take commissions, but I am on lots of manga forums so I get some odd DMs here and there about potential comics. The one that sticks out to me was when a guy offered me a pretty decent price, so I got excited, then asked me to draw in scrolling vertical ( had never done at that point ), color ( had.. never done at that point ), and demanded I draw similar to wlop ( ?? ).
I wonder what manga forums you go to 
I don't know any! XD
Also crazy that they demanded you drew like wlop, I mean that is pretty difficult.
Ugh, I hate those people. I've lost count on how many times people have done that to me over the years. The worst one I got was this guy that spammed my email and wrote me a long message on how I would be such a generous person if I were to do this favor and then later on in other emails he went off the rails and started cussing at me because I didn't reply yet. The scary part is he kept my email and has sent me emails at least once a year through different emails to "apologize" 
Yikes! That person sounds intense. I'm really glad to say, that I've never had anybody do that to me.
I know that dude, he's also known as Murrlogic. I see around at times. He's a very strange dude. He seems to have a fetish for Rich Girls, deforestations, and wonder bread.
Basically some sort of furry and mermaid porno. I was shocked. They asked me to do a full colored comic in my style. For free. Not even offering me any royalties or anything just contacted me flat out and asked for free.
The first image they asked for me to draw was a full on porn panel. I dunno what made them think this
equalled out to yeah contact me for porn. Especially when I wasn't even advertising myself as open to art slavery for free.
I know I was like you want me to do a full on porn webtoon for free. When I am not even open to commissions just cause you like my soft art style.
That is... Um..
Do I say thank you to this? How do I respond>?
Like I feel like it's a compliment they like my art. But at the same time like what makes you think I or any stranger would want to draw out your kinks in vivid details? period. But then also like unpaid?
I dunno I don't understand.
Don't have any potential wild stories, but I have some pretty ridiculous commissions I have taken on that I really shouldn't have looking back.
- Once did an entire animated meme for $30, while I'm not a great animator and I had to draw a dinosaur for it, which I'm not an expert in. (granted I'm a very lq animator, but that's still very low).
- I once did a full body badge for... $10 I believe? And the customer complained that the hair shade was slightly off. (I don't know what to say, I draw traditionally and I don't own all the colours available in the world!)
- And I used to take some ac commissions on amino, considering that digital currency is basically worthless, people asking you to draw full pieces for like... 10 AC is ridiculous.
To be fair, this was usually all my own pricing on platforms where art is dirt-cheap, so mostly dumb decisions on my part.