Nick Simmons (Gene Simmon's son) plagiarized Bleach.

POSTED BY: Haken
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 00:17
VIEWED: 3217
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HAKEN

Friday, February 26, 2010 12:44 PM

I'm a big fan of Bleach and came across this bit of news yesterday about Nick Simmons, son of Gene Simmons of KISS, plagiarizing the Bleach manga series.

Here's the story:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-25/nick-simmons-incarnate
-halted-over-alleged-bleach-plagiarism

Here's the comparison of artwork:
http://community.livejournal.com/bleachness/446299.html

Not cool!

KWICKO

Sunday, February 28, 2010 4:28 AM

Very not cool, UNLESS he's doing it as an homage to those artists. I know with some painters, it's kind of a "thing" to put other painters' subjects in their works; Lichtenstein did entire series on Monet and Picasso, and dropped some Fernand Legier figures in some of his works as a tip of the hat to them and their art. Plus he used LOTS of comic-book panels and images, as well as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

Andy Warhol was rather shameless at it, and then Keith Haring did his "AndyMouse" series, which morphed Warhol and Warhol's use of Mickey Mouse into one character, albeit clearly done in Haring's frenetic style.

So it's not uncommon or unheard of for an artist to pay respects to another artist he admires (Haring idolized Warhol, for instance); I'd like to see something to confirm this, though - some communications between the Bleach artists and Simmons would help, something that shows them as having a mutual respect, or at least a passing knowledge of each other in real life.

Otherwise, it looks like he just traced other peoples' panels, and often enough, their words as well! :(

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions

HAKEN

Sunday, February 28, 2010 11:34 AM

Deb Aoki of ABOUT.COM wrote an interesting article about the matter.

http://manga.about.com/b/2010/02/26/nick-simmons-bleach-manga-plagaris
m-scandal-rocks-the-comics-twitterverse.htm

KWICKO

Sunday, February 28, 2010 2:28 PM

Yup, there are some good points. There's really no doubt at all that Simmons copied elements of Bleach. If it were a face here, a pose there, a panel frame elsewhere, that would be one thing. But it's often the face, the hand, the WORDS, and even the frickin' background patterning. That's not random, that's not chance; that's deliberate.

NOW - *IF* he had come out on the day it was released and said basically "This is my 'love letter' to the Bleach series and school of Manga. I intentionally put in several tributes to certain moments and things in Bleach's illustrious history; see how many you can find" - if he had done that, the books would likely be accepted and even enthused over by the fandom, and sales would likely have increased, as Bleach fans tried to find all the Easter Eggs he'd cleverly hidden.

But he didn't do that, so we're left wondering - is he trying to HONOR those earlier works, or just trying to rip them off?

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions

BYTEMITE

Sunday, February 28, 2010 7:33 PM

Hmm. It's not a coincidence. Definitely Incarnate was inspired by Bleach. You're right about the similarities in panel construction, layout, character designs, certain panels, wording, and it appears certain plotpoints.

The one thing I can say is that it doesn't look traced to me. Slight differences in angles, tilts in the perspective, tell me it wasn't outright traced, and the other artwork is good enough to tell me that it wasn't traced badly.

Everything else could apply.

FREMDFIRMA

Monday, March 1, 2010 2:13 AM

My first thought ?

His dad is SOOOoooo gonna kick his ass...

While I don't excuse it, I think he mighta been payin homeage, a lil bit - problem is in these days of overlegislation you have to be careful about even the appearance of similarity, especially here in the US where you can practically be arrested for whistling licensed music, bleh.

The folks over at Bleach were more "That crazy guy, from Kiss, his son's doing comics/manga ? COOL!" than they were all in a bunch about it, which amuses me somewhat - I hope they can work it out without too much lunacy.

Not that I am all that fond of comics/manga, especially with Drew Hayes gone, but each to their own appreciation of art.

So here's for hopin things get sorted without the blood gettin too deep, eh ?

-F

HAKEN

Monday, March 1, 2010 8:34 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

My first thought ?

His dad is SOOOoooo gonna kick his ass...

The funny thing is Gene Simmons is quite popular in Japan, especially with his recent appearance in the live action adaptation of the manga, 'Detroit Metal City.'

KWICKO

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 12:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

My first thought ?

His dad is SOOOoooo gonna kick his ass...

-F

Well, yeah! Say what you will about KISS, but they were definitely original. They didn't rip anyone off, except maybe a touch of Bowie's Ziggy period and some New York Dolls. :)

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions