Gene Simmons is one of the greatest douchebags of our time, but I'd hate you to think I was taking my dislike of the KISS guitarist out on his son. No, his son Nick -- "creator" of the comic Incarnate, to be printed by Radical -- has very much earned my contempt by his own merits, thanks to this:
?You're looking at Tite Kubo's incredibly popular manga Bleach on the left, and Nick Simmons' Incarnate on the right. Yes, Simmons is a plagiarist, as discovered by many, many people. Now, I know the crime of plagiary is a serious one for artists, and I don't want to dismiss that. But what I do want to focus on is how fucking stupid Nick Simmons had to be to steal poses, dialogue and character designs from one of the best-selling manga in the world.
Seriously, there have been over 50 million Bleach manga volumes sold worldwide, more than a million in America alone. Did he not think anyone would notice? Was he planning on no one reading his stupid comic? Did he go to Barnes & Noble and say, "Gee, this silly manga over has 40 fucking volumes for sale here, obviously, no one will notice if I start stealing from it wholesale."? What a fuckhead. He might as well have stolen from Watchmen and created a comic about Evening Owl and New York City, Ph.D.
If you are feeling any sympathy for Nick Simmons at all, I invite you to head here for a massive collection of Bleach panels and Incarnate panels side-by-side; I assure the above was not an isolated incident. And for bonus fun, please head over to the "Calling for legal action against Nick Simmons for plagiarism of other works" fan page or group or whatever it's called over at Facebook, where Nick Simmons himself has joined in! My favorite of his comments, with extra-special bits bolded for your entertainment:
• "Listen everyone... you're all digging your own graves posting on this forum. Facebook is looking into suspending this page and issuing any warnings for slander against me. I can't make this any clearer... I DID NOT STEAL OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK!! I may have appropriated some styles, but I did not steal. My work is full... of homages to everyone in my medium - not theft! You guys are just a bunch of mean spirited mouth-breathers - except all my fans on here who have rightfully supported me. I will ask Facebook not to press any charges against you if you give me a sincere apology here in this thread. Please do so. Facebook keeps all your IP addresses and info... so they will suspend your account if I do not receive proper apologies."
• "Okay.. now looking at some of these photo comparisons, I can see why a few people are up-in-arms. I can tell you right now these are all purely coincidences. I never even heard of Bleach! Who would name a comic after laundry detergent? When I channel my energy when drawing my book sometimes I can pull stuff in that I never seen before. It's like i'm possessed when I start thinking and drawing. Perhaps I just got on the same wave length that all artists share. My dad just called and said I have a real case against all this slander. If Facebook doesn't give into my demands soon there's going to be hell to pay. Now, I have to damage control on another site - more people being mislead. Now I have to deal with this and my book's deadline. I'm not sure how I can think and draw under all this pressure."
• "I have no idea how people are saying my comic looks like that bleach magma. My book is in color and the other is not. My book reads left to right... the other reads right to left. Besides some vague similarities, they're nothing alike. I put my heart and soul into my book - great story and awesome characters... yet people are trying to pull me down. And NO... I didn't trace or copy other peoples work. Most of these photos are starting to look like photoshop manipulations to make me look bad. You can't trust everything you see on the Internet."
