as krantz began to prepare the paperwork, preparation began on a pitch presentation for potential studios, including a poster-sized painted cel setup featuring the strip's cast against a traced photo background, as bakshi intended the film to appear. in spite of crumb's enthusiasm, he was unsure about the film's production, and refused to sign the contract. cartoonist vaughn bodé warned bakshi against working with crumb, describing him as "slick". bakshi later agreed with bodé's assessment, calling crumb "one of the slickest hustlers you'll ever see in your life". krantz sent bakshi to san francisco, where bakshi stayed with crumb and his wife dana in an attempt to persuade crumb to sign the contract. after a week, crumb left, leaving the film's production status uncertain, but dana had power of attorney and signed the contract. crumb received us$50,000, which was delivered throughout different phases of the production, in addition to ten percent of krantz's take.