Nick Simmons Bleached



Gene Simmons' son accused of plagiarizing Bleach and other manga/fanartists.

It's a cut and paste state of mind...

7 comments:

Creginald Vandercleve said...

Seems to be a pretty clear case of the old lightbox trick, neh?

Like father like son --
Free Alice Cooper!

Unknown said...

I just realized I could've used "nicked" in that.

Still waiting for a statement from Nick Simmons. I'm curious to see how they'll spin this one. I'm betting that they'll blame the "studio" that does the "art assistance."

RWGibson said...

Yawn.

American comic book folk have been doing this kind of thing for decades. From the Japanese, from each other, etc. Usually, they're smart enough to choose lesser known work so it doesn't get caught until much later, if at all.

I remember the stir Frank Miller caused in "Ronin" where he "lovingly adapted" a bunch of "Lone Wolf and Cub" sequences. That led directly to the publication of the source material here in the US. And that was back in the very early '80s.

RWG (without Miller's hyping, LWaC may never have been translated and published)

Unknown said...

Ronin was so obviously cribbed from LWaC it was painful. And then it was REALLY obvious that he'd been doing LWaC all over his Daredevil run for Marvel.

And when you think of that, remember that Eastman and Laird created TMNT as a parody of Miller's Daredevil.

So it's:

Lone Wolf and Cub > Daredevil > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

My head hurts.

LWaC would've been scanslated. I still have LWaC tankobuns I bought at used book stores before First Comics translated and published it stateside.

So screw Miller. He's a hack.

_______ said...

A bit of "plagiarism" might be good for innovation. At the same time, this could be bad because schedules force artists to "copy" when they could be coming up with "new" material.

The thing I find funny is that Tite Kubo, the mangaka for Bleach, seems to be more interested in that Gene Simmons' kid is a comic artist.

Unknown said...

Reading all the comments from various threads and forums and groups I just get this feeling that most people don't understand the process of creating comics or manga. Lots of commments about how, "that's how it's always been done," reveals to me a lot of misinformation about the process.

Yeah, I've used lightboxes. I've got pads of vellum. But I don't use them for tracing other artists' illustrations.

If you're tracing you're doing it wrong. You're a lazy fuck with no skills!

Yeah, it takes years to get good at drawing. I'm over 40 and I'm STILL trying to improve my drawing/cartooning skills. But I put the work in. I draw every day. I fill sketchbooks and draw comics at numerous stages of completion and I shit you not, it is work. If you want something that's easy don't become a cartoonist. Because it's a shitload of work. Even doing half-assed comics is labor intensive.

It's when you're trying to cut corners and lessen the workload that this shit starts happening. If your skills aren't up to the task of doing a monthly book you better get the skills or hire assistants to help. Assistants who have the skills to do the work. Not trace other people's work. But it's quicker and you can clean it up in the computer and do all the tricks like flip the art, recolour, etc...

I still say if you can't do the work you have no business doing a monthly comic book.

Lazy.

Creginald Vandercleve said...

@ Toho

What you said! It shouldn't be "easy" to be a cartoonist, and this example of lazy, money-grubbing opportunists being caught in the act should wake some people up.

Part of the reason I stopped collecting is that I started to notice this stuff happening more regularly in the realm of 'independent' comics, and I just couldn't brook spending the money on hackery. The fact that it still happens (and has made the jump to larger and more 'legitimate' companies) doesn't much surprise me, but it shouldn't go unpunished, either.