Is Sharknado a rip-off? Probably.

[Queen Michael]

I'm sure you'e heard of the movie Sharknado, a movie about, well, a tornado with sharks in it. But guess where the idea appeared years before Sharknado was even in the planning stages?

The comic strip Cow & Boy. The strip can be read here. [http://www.gocomics.com/cowandboy/2013/10/14/#.UmMKnRBAfng] It's a rerun of a strip that was made years ago.

So what do you think? Is it a coincidence or not?

 

[Hazy992]

Could just be a coincidence. Then again this is The Asylum we're talking about here, a studio that mostly makes 'mockbusters', so I wouldn't put anything past them.

 

[Erttheking]

Meh. With all the people in the world it's only natural for them to come up with some similar ideas.

Plus I doubt that kid had the hero in his movie slice a shark in half with a chainsaw in a literal second.

 

[tippy2k2]

Nothing but Mockbusters and nothing but utter garbage comes out of Asylum pictures (the makers of Sharknado and approx. 9/10 of shitty direct-to-TV movies).

I can't stand Asylum. This sounds weird but if I see a zombie movie or a similar movie that interests me that's obviously low budget, I make sure to check to see if The Asylum was the studio behind it and immediately put it down if that's the case. There is no other company in the world that makes me drop a product I'm interested in except for Asylum.

All they do is rip off other people's ideas so I certainly wouldn't be surprised if this is one they actually stole.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

To be honest, I'd be surprised if The Asylum took note of a comic strip from six years ago. Plus, The Asylum is usually a lot more direct [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Train] in their ripoffs.

Also on a slightly related note, there is a sequel planned [http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/08/09/sharknado-2-title-release-date-announced].

 

[Queen Michael]

To be honest, I'd be surprised if The Asylum took note of a comic strip from six years ago. Plus, The Asylum is usually a lot more direct [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Train] in their ripoffs.

The part about directness makes sense, but the first sentence doesn't really. It's not like the Asylum people were less inclined to read the moring funnies six years ago than they are today.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

To be honest, I'd be surprised if The Asylum took note of a comic strip from six years ago. Plus, The Asylum is usually a lot more direct [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Train] in their ripoffs.

The part about directness makes sense, but the first sentence doesn't really. It's not like the Asylum people were less inclined to read the moring funnies six years ago than they are today.

I was more thinking about how likely you are to remember a specific comic from six years ago. I read a dozen or so Garfield collections roughly six years ago (read repeatedly as well), but I can't remember an exact strip from any of them.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Well, we are talking about the Asylum, here.

I think it's just coincidence, though. Even if it were true the comic only mentions the mere idea of a tornado full of sharks. Also, I refuse to believe it took the Asylum that long to come up with Sharknado, and considering all the shark-related films they've released, I'm sure they've got the idea at some point along the way. I don't think they need an old, 4-panel comic strip to get the idea of a tornado full of sharks.