Heavy Metal Icon's Son Accused of Plagiarizing Famous Manga

[Apackof12Ninjas]

Anybody with eyes that can read what Im typing can clearly see that this is pure copy/paste. 100%.

This has got to be one of the most obvious rip offs I have ever seen.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Nick, and this publisher, are so fucked it's not even funny.

 

[Mayuchan]

1. he wasn't just inspired by Bleach... He wasn't just creating fan art... he wasn't writing a parody... which is all part of the slippery slope of protected... some with stipulations of either having the original artist's permission... or not doing it for profit. Also protected (which he was not doing) is to create your own interpretation of an existing character. For example... I can legally make MY OWN rendition of what I think King Arthur looked like, or what the battle of Kawanakajima (Samurai period of Japan) looked like... as long as it is my own work.

In fact... this is where it gets tricky... but I BELIEVE you can create a fan art BLEACH work as long as the design is 100% your own, and you give credit to the original artist as the creator and sole owner of BLEACH and it's characters... and sell it. I believe that's how doujinshi artists (fan mangas) get away with it.

Also, study cases are semi-protected... (beginning artists who copy other art works and try to mimic the technique for educational purposes.) again, SEMI protected... you can't do it for profit and pass it off as your own work obviously.

However, Nick Simmons wasn't creating fan fiction, art inspired by Bleach or other artists, nor was he creating original peices of interpretation art... Nor were these altered copies with the original artist's permission.

These are plain and simple traces of existing art from Bleach and art found on Deviant Art that he is passing off as HIS OWN ORIGINALS for a profit. Some see that as slimey and underhanded... but plain and simple... tracing art and passing it off as your own is plaigerizing.

2. We're not limited to Bleach - there was an overlay which shows he traced art work from other deviant art artists... some of which he has saved on his favorites list on his Deviant art profile.

3. We are also not limiting his alleged plaigerism to art... besides the very Hellsing themes... he's also taking actual text from various manga, specifically Bleach.

For example... in Bleach - Orihime, tears in her eyes, head slightly tilted to the left, says... "Please, just don't hurt yourself anymore than this.

In Nick's Incarnate - his blonde Orihime look alike, tears in her eyes, head slightly tilted to the left says... "Just don't hurt yourself anymore."

In Bleach - Ichigo is holding his chest with a shocked look on his face and says "Wasn't there... a hole in my chest...?!"

In Incarnate - an Ichigo looking character is holding his chest with an identical shocked look on his face and says "My wounds...How... ??"

So it's not just the obvious tracing of copyrighted material, and the slimey nature he tried to steal from unknown deviant artists and an artist half way across the world thinking that was the best way profit off of someone else's hard work and not get caught...

but it's also taking written material as well.

the whole thing is scummy.

 

[ItsAPaul]

All anime is copied from other anime, what's your point?

 

[Mayuchan]

[quote="Daystar Clarion"

-EDIT- though to be fair a lot of those poses and angles are staples of japanese manga and anime. it's hard to say how much he intended to copy and how much was just intending to draw in an anime style and taking too much direct influence.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff330/Kylara21/plag/2i9tonajpg.png

the above link is Incarnate's blonde chick side by side with Orihime.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff330/Kylara21/plag/merge2.jpg

the above link are the two overlaying ontop of each other. That's tracing... not influence or common poses and angles.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff330/Kylara21/plag/j9sinmjpg.png

another case study of Incarnate vs. Bleach

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff330/Kylara21/plag/ulqui.jpg

another overlay

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff330/Kylara21/plag/kenpachii.png

another case study

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff330/Kylara21/plag/ken1f.jpg

another overlay

see the pattern? This isn't inspiration, accidental copying or even coincedental because certain poses and angles are staples of Japanese art.

 

[ultimateownage]

Also, not to nitpick (much) but KISS is, at best, hard rock, not really heavy metal.

I would say closer to a form of glam rock. Not in the same way alice cooper is, more of a darker, heavier version, but glam rock nonetheless.

 

[Mayuchan]

All anime is copied from other anime, what's your point?

A. that's not true.

B. this is more than "copying" themes, designs and what not, this isn't even copying someone's designs... this is pure tracing someone else's copyrighted art.

 

[saintchristopher]

So... who cares, exactly?

 

[CD-R]

All anime is copied from other anime, what's your point?

Reusing old tropes and themes, like the robot that wants to be human, is one thing. Nothing wrong with that if it's done well. Tracing other artists work and passing it off as your own well thats plagerism pure and simple.

 

[Byers]

Wonderful. Hopefully public humiliation will come next.

 

[AyaReiko]

This seems to be declining into "Limbo of the Lost" level of stupidity. It wouldn't surprise if Nick's own art would be very, very awful.

 

[ProtoChimp]

I could give a long rant about how he thinks he can get away with it because he's a rockstar's son, but instead I'm going to handle it with subtlety & grace.

Spoiler

Lazy spoiled prick

 

[open trap]

scary, this guy id exp[ect to be more on the metal side but its not really that metal, by the way what is bleach about

 

[Mayuchan]

[quote="Daystar Clarion"

i'm well aware that these drawings are nearly identical but it's very easy to claim plagarism on the internet so i just like people to wait for a proper industry investigation before judging the situation. it's possible that he's never heard of bleach after all and it's a massive coincidence. (see: aardvark, anteater)

I would agree with you about there being two sides to every story... if there weren't two major glaring inconsistancies with your belief...

1. He knows Bleach. On his official Deviant Art page... he has many works of Bleach Art done by other Deviant art artists saved in his favorites... so that's not even a question.

2. again, this is more than drawings being nearly identical... they ARE identical. I can draw a similar scene with similar looking characters by hand (without tracing them) and I guarantee if they did an overlay, they would NOT match.

the only way you can do an overlay and have them almost match 100% is if one of the artists traced the other work, then changed a few details after the fact... like the hair style, or the clothes.

this is more than people playing amateur judge based on "the slightest" evidence. If you think this evidence is "slight" you must be looking at the evidence with very dark sunglasses on.

My mom who doesn't even know what Manga means saw the pictures and said... "that's gotta be traced. It can't be that similar that often."

One is a coincidence... Two is a bit weird, but could happen. I'll even give him three... but there are more than 5 examples available online and that is called a red flag.

 

[atalanta]

He also ripped off Deadman Wonderland.

Oh yeah? I actually really enjoy DMWL - what'd he rip from it?

A fellow fan!

I'm not too sure about the Deadman Wonderland claim (I have yet to see a pic-by-pic comparison of anything other than Bleach), though I'm pretty sure the Hellsing claim is based off the fact that one of the characters looks like what a young Alucard would be.

EDIT: I don't believe the Hellsing claim myself. Hellsing does not have a monopoly on people with red eyes and wacky hairdos.

The Bleach ones, well... yeah, those are obviously copied. Hopefully it was done as a homage, and not plagiarism but until Simmons explains himself I'm gonna hold back my opinion.

See this comment here [http://community.livejournal.com/bleachness/446299.html?thread=10772059#t10772059]

It looks similar but not obviously traced to me; of course, now that Simmons has shown his true colours and everything he's drawn is under suspicion, the fact that it's as similar as it is raises my hackles.

 

[Mayuchan]

All anime is copied from other anime, what's your point?

Have other animes/mangas ripped each other off? yes... Some animes can be seen as to having similar themes as others... or characters that look eerily similar to characters from another anime or manga... I'll admit, if you look at Tite Kubo's first manga before Bleach took off, Zombie Powder... the main character is a lot like Trigun's Vash the Stampede personality wise... and setting wise (they both had a western like theme)

however, do they actually trace the characters directly from the original writer/artist, put them in similar situations, and have them saying almost identical things? No...

Going back to the similarities of Vash the Stampede and the main protagonist of Zombie Powder, Ganma... while similar in personality... the character was Tite Kubo's own design from head to toe... not Vash look-a-like, and when it came to the personality similarities, Tite Kubo flew off in his own direction... in this case, you could see the inspiration between the two characters... however, Ganma was his own character with his own storyline and unique look.

But we're not talking about a character here, a theme there, a plot line this way a scenerio that way.. We're talking nearly every panel in his comic is a traced rip off of someone elses art. So this is not on the same level as what goes on in Japan. In fact, what people don't know about Japan, is they take true plagiarism very seriously. One mangaka admitted to taking scenes for his manga right from another manga when fans of the other manga started questioning it. He lost everything... works that were to be released were cancelled, works that were on the shelves already were pulled...

so I guarantee you... ripping off themes, characters and ideas goes on quite a bit all over the world... but true plagiarism... such as what is allegedly going on here... is taken much more seriously than people seem to think.

 

[Mayuchan]

He also ripped off Deadman Wonderland.

EDIT: I don't believe the Hellsing claim myself. Hellsing does not have a monopoly on people with red eyes and wacky hairdos.

There's more than character similarities looks wise... but I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, the Alucard looking character is a demon (alucard being a vampire)... and here are panels where he refers to the blonde girl (who looks like Orihime from Bleach... but is blonde like Integra Hellsing) as "master"... much like Alucard calls Integra.

 

[blindthrall]

Fuck him just because he's tangentially related to KISS. The title had me scared, I thought it might be the son of someone with talent.