Comic Book Creator Accused of Plagiarism (original) (raw)

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Comic Book Creator Accused of Plagiarism

By By George Gene Gustines

March 1, 2010 5:57 pm March 1, 2010 5:57 pm

10:21 a.m. | Updated Nick Simmons, the son of the rock star Gene Simmons and a member of A&E’s “Family Jewels” reality series, sought to make a name for himself in the comic book industry as the writer/artist of “Incarnate,” from Radical Publishing, a manga-influenced story about a group of immortal creatures. But the attempt seems to have backfired.

On Thursday, the publisher announced plans to halt production on a collected edition of “Incarnate” after Internet message boards exploded with accusations that Mr. Simmons had copied layouts, dialogue and character designs from other manga series, including Bleach and Hellsing.

On Monday, Mr. Simmons issued a statement: “Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went to far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga.”

Judging from the response, manga fans were not buying it. “Note that he doesn’t acknowledge he went beyond ‘homage’ to flat-out copies,” wrote Johanna Draper Carlson, who frequently reviews manga series at comicsworthreading.com. “ ‘Certain fundamental imagery’ appears to be code for ‘I couldn’t find a different way to show a guy screaming/girl crying/etc. so I just copied them.” Another Web site, magnetic-rose.net, has side-by-side comparisons and overlays of art from “Incarnate” and “Bleach.”

An earlier version of this post gave an incorrect URL for comicsworthreading.com, the Web site of Johanna Draper Carlson.