Welcome to Gaia! ::

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
-Herman Melville

Words I wish more people (especially in light of people's inability to withstand the "glory" that is generic animu) would make a regular part of their artistic mindset.

To little Nicky I say "Homage, my big black a**." Anything that goes beyond a reference, cameo, or parody completely negates the homage excuse. I suppose this goes back to the issue that people often forget. There is a clear line between referencing and copying. A homage is still your own creative work. Intellectual and creative effort goes into expressing respect through an insightful reference or parody. Lazily flipping and pivoting copied panels and figures is the farthest thing I can image from respect as an artist.

We spend years doing master copies of paintings and statues in an effort to gain a bit of the insight that our forefathers found as they did the same work. We're retracing steps in order to understand. I can't recall the last time someone toss a paintover of a famous work in a museum and called it a show of respect. I feel confident in comparing this Nick kid to the artist several years ago that s**t on prints of famous paintings.

And yes, Nick is a child. It is incredibly irresponsible, lazy, and stupid to copy another artist. (A more well known and more skilled artist at that). His refusal to own up to his actions and accept the consequences are the most childish part of the whole mess.

I'd like to see him punished to the extent of the law. Bad little boys should be punished, after all. Of course, he's wealthy, so it's likely he can make it out of this with little damage done to his Daddy's checkbook. Fortunately, there are some repercussions that he can't buy his way out of. Whatever respect he did have will most likely be gone, as well as confidence by publishers that don't want their good names tarnished by dealing with him.

How does this relate to us? The lesson to be learned is that you're not as slick as you think. Effective images are powerful and memorable. This is what leads people to copy them. This also ensures that you won't evade the watchful eye of the artistic community for very long. Just do YOUR thing. There's more honor and respect in showing your own insight, skill, and effort, than stealing the sweat from someone else's brow. (AD post)

I'd like to add that the internet mentality has been bleeding into live media for a while now. Usually though, these people don't get much attention because publishers immediately roll their eyes and find other things to publish. That can't get them sued.