Looking for a character artist for my cabinet

[Vash]

Alright, so here's the deal.  After a few months of searching for images and 3d backgrounds I could use for my cabinet, I've decided to go in a different direction.  I want a Penny Arcade arcade.  For those of you not familiar with the site (penny-arcade.com), it's a webcomic devoted to gaming and the idiosyncrasies of gamers.  I love the webcomic and the characters in it, so I've decided that's what I want the theme of my cabinet to be. 

The specifics:
I have a four player control panel drawn up in sketchpad that can be used for reference as to where to place characters and where to avoid placing them.  I would also like a substantial amount of sideart and a marquee with their logo.  For the panel, I would like Tycho and Gabe to players one and two, respectively, and Twisp and Catsby to be players 3 and 4.  For the sideart, a scene of the Cardboard Samurai, annarchy, and fruit  in some sort of formation.  I'd prefer if Gabe and Tycho on the panel were doing something like fighting, shooting looks at each other, or, if you're an avid reader of the strip, doing something more indicative of their characters.  The bezel may be a collection of my favorite strips, but I haven't really decided on what I want to do with that yet.  As for the main colors...I don't know.  I actually like the color scheme from the site a lot(blue and white with a dash of orange), and artistic license with everything but the basic facets of the characters is more than welcome. 

As far as legality goes...well, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind an homage to their site being plastered on an arcade cabinet, but I'd still very much like their permission to use their characters and strips.  I sent Gabe an e-mail about a week ago and I'm still awaiting a response.  If I don't get one within another week, I'll send another e-mail.  In any case, none of this needs to be completed until mid to late April anyway, being that I won't have time to start construction of the cabinet until classes are out for the summer, so there's plenty of time to think things over and wait for that response.

I'm, of course, expecting a fee, and am really interested in knowing how much the whole package usually goes for, or how much one of you would be willing to do it for.  I know it's a lot of work, so I'm expecting the worst =) 

Anywho, comments, suggestions?  I'm wide open to anything you guys have to throw at me.