Swipe (comics)
Encyclopedia
Swipe is a comics
term that refers to the intentional copying of a cover
, panel, or page
from an earlier comic book
or graphic novel
without crediting the original artist.
Artists Jack Kirby
, Neal Adams
, Hergé
, and Jim Lee
are common targets of swipes (though even "The King" is not above reproach: Kirby was known to have swiped from Hal Foster early in his career, as were many Golden Age
artists — many of whom kept "swipe files" of material to be copied as needed). Certain contemporary artists have become notorious for their swiping, including Rich Buckler
(who favors Neal Adams
and Jack Kirby
), Rob Liefeld
(many artists), Keith Giffen
(José Antonio Muñoz
), and Roger Cruz
(Jim Lee
and Joe Madureira).
There is a long tradition in comics of using fine art as "inspiration" as well. Most observers do not consider this as objectionable as swiping from another cartoonist's work. Examples include Art Spiegelman
swiping an image of the Russian artist M. Mazruho's in Maus
, Eddie Campbell
swiping Diego Velázquez
, and Jill Thompson
swiping the work of Arthur Rackham
.
Cartoonists have also swiped images from mass media and commercial art. Examples include Batman
creator Bob Kane
repeatedly swiping from early 20th-century illustrator Henry Vallely, Greg Land
repeatedly swiping pornography as well as many popular comic book artists, 2000 AD artist Mick Austin
swiping an image of Toni Shilleto's from Mayfair
: Entertainment for Men, Jon J. Muth
swiping a 1940s photograph, and David Chelsea swiping from Spanish pornography
. Sometimes the swiping happens "in reverse," as in the example of an illustration from Organic Gardening magazine swiping the iconic Kirby cover for Fantastic Four
#1.
Swiping brings to mind the amusing conundrum of whether an artist can swipe from himself. One example is two almost-identical Peanuts
strips by Charles Schulz done almost ten years apart. Another comic strip
-related ethics question was invoked by latter-day Nancy artists Guy & Brad Gilchrist
swiping Nancy creator Ernie Bushmiller
.
has been quite open about his work being modeled on George Pérez
's, though he has never been accused of directly swiping a Perez drawing. Bryan Hitch
started off as an Alan Davis
"clone." Bill Sienkiewicz
's early work was blatantly derivative of Neal Adams, as was Tom Grindberg
's, Michael Netzer (Nasser)'s, and Mike Grell
's. Industry veteran Dick Giordano
maintained that cloning is not only acceptable, but actually preferable, when an artist fills in for a regular artist on a title.
When cloning becomes direct swiping, however, a line is crossed. In the mid-1990s, during the "Image
craze", Marvel Comics adopted a "house style" hugely derivative of Image superstar (and former Marvel artist) Jim Lee
. Marvel encouraged artists like Roger Cruz
, Fabio Laguna, Roberto Flores, and Mark Pacella to clone Lee to the point of the publisher turning a blind eye to blatant swipes done on a regular basis.
ist Roy Lichtenstein
made a splash in the 1960s with his "appropriations" based on the work of Kirby, Russ Heath
, Tony Abruzzo, Irv Novick
, John Romita, Sr., and Jerry Grandenetti
, who rarely received any credit. Jack Cowart, executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation, contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a copyist, saying: "Roy's work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. The panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy." Comics industry figures don't have such a sanguine attitude about Lichtenstein's swipes.
Similarly, Canadian artist Kevin Mutch once drew an entire comic book entirely based on swipes. Mutch's 1993 comic Captain Adam was a "narrative collage" of images and texts from over fifty separate Silver Age
and Bronze Age
comics, randomly put together to form an original story.
s are blatant uses of swipes, cloning, and appropriation, usually using the same characters as the original source. French-Canadian cartoonist Yves Rodier
is known for his many Tintin
pastiches, as is the anonymously written comic book The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free
. In his Masterpiece Comics series, American cartoonist R. Sikoryak cleverly mixes exact cloning of famous cartoonists' styles with classic literary texts, creating unique comics "mash-ups." Alan Moore
and Rick Veitch
's 1963 series is another example of pastiche in comics form, as are the many take-offs of the Charles Atlas
ads found in old comic books.
#1, Detective Comics
#27, Amazing Fantasy
#15, and Fantastic Four
#1. (John Byrne is particularly fond of doing homages to the latter, having produced at least seven versions to date.) Some observers find homages as objectionable as swiping.
kept a "Swipe File" which documented perceived swipes in the comics field, a tradition that continues on the TCJ website.
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
term that refers to the intentional copying of a cover
Book cover
A book cover is any protective covering used to bind together the pages of a book. Beyond the familiar distinction between hardcovers and paperbacks, there are further alternatives and additions, such as dust jackets, ring-binding, and older forms such as the nineteenth-century "paper-boards" and...
, panel, or page
Page (paper)
A page is one side of a leaf of paper. It can be used as a measurement of documenting or recording quantity .-The page in typography:...
from an earlier comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
or graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
without crediting the original artist.
Artists Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, Neal Adams
Neal Adams
Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...
, Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
, and Jim Lee
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
are common targets of swipes (though even "The King" is not above reproach: Kirby was known to have swiped from Hal Foster early in his career, as were many Golden Age
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
artists — many of whom kept "swipe files" of material to be copied as needed). Certain contemporary artists have become notorious for their swiping, including Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and, with writer Doug Moench, co-creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25...
(who favors Neal Adams
Neal Adams
Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...
and Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
), Rob Liefeld
Rob Liefeld
Rob Liefeld is an American comic book writer, illustrator, and publisher. A prominent artist in the 1990s, he has since become a controversial figure in the medium....
(many artists), Keith Giffen
Keith Giffen
Keith Ian Giffen is an American comic book illustrator and writer.-Biography:Giffen was born in Queens, New York City....
(José Antonio Muñoz
José Antonio Muñoz
José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork...
), and Roger Cruz
Roger Cruz
Roger Cruz is a Brazilian comic book artist.- Biography :Cruz started his professional career as a letterer for Editora Abril, the Brazilian publishing house, for whom he lettered many Portuguese translations of American comics; then worked as a writer and art assistant for Mil Perigos, a...
(Jim Lee
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
and Joe Madureira).
There is a long tradition in comics of using fine art as "inspiration" as well. Most observers do not consider this as objectionable as swiping from another cartoonist's work. Examples include Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
swiping an image of the Russian artist M. Mazruho's in Maus
Maus
Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman, is a biography of the author's father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. It alternates between descriptions of Vladek's life in Poland before and during the Second World War and Vladek's later life in the Rego Park neighborhood of...
, Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
swiping Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
, and Jill Thompson
Jill Thompson
Jill Thompson is an American comic book writer and illustrator. Probably better known for her work on Neil Gaiman's The Sandman characters and her own Scary Godmother series, she has also worked on The Invisibles, Swamp Thing, and Wonder Woman.-Career:Jill Thompson illustrated The Sandman story...
swiping the work of Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...
.
Cartoonists have also swiped images from mass media and commercial art. Examples include Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
creator Bob Kane
Bob Kane
Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman...
repeatedly swiping from early 20th-century illustrator Henry Vallely, Greg Land
Greg Land
Greg Land is an American comic book artist, best known for his work on characters such as X-Men, Birds of Prey, and Fantastic Four.-Career:Greg Land first got a job with an independent publisher as the artist for StormQuest after advertising himself at a Mid-Ohio Con comic convention...
repeatedly swiping pornography as well as many popular comic book artists, 2000 AD artist Mick Austin
Mick Austin
Michael J. "Mick" Austin is a fine artist who lives and works in the UK. Initially a comic book artist and illustrator his painterly style led to him leaving this genre and concentrating on fine art in 1996.-Biography:...
swiping an image of Toni Shilleto's from Mayfair
Mayfair (magazine)
Mayfair is a British adult magazine for men. Founded in 1965, it was designed as a response to U.S. magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse, which had recently launched in the UK. For many years it claimed the largest distribution of any men's magazine in the UK.-Fisk Publishing era:Mayfair was...
: Entertainment for Men, Jon J. Muth
Jon J. Muth
Jon J. Muth is an American comic book artist and children's book illustrator, known for his painted artwork....
swiping a 1940s photograph, and David Chelsea swiping from Spanish pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
. Sometimes the swiping happens "in reverse," as in the example of an illustration from Organic Gardening magazine swiping the iconic Kirby cover for Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
#1.
Swiping brings to mind the amusing conundrum of whether an artist can swipe from himself. One example is two almost-identical Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
strips by Charles Schulz done almost ten years apart. Another comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
-related ethics question was invoked by latter-day Nancy artists Guy & Brad Gilchrist
Guy Gilchrist
Guy Gilchrist is a cartoonist/poet/songwriter and author whose work includes a run on the comic strip Nancy, Your Angels Speak, Night Lights & Pillow Fights, Screams, The Poetry Guy, The Muppets and The Rock Channel...
swiping Nancy creator Ernie Bushmiller
Ernie Bushmiller
Ernest Paul Bushmiller, Jr. was an American cartoonist, best known for creating the long-running daily comic strip Nancy....
.
"Cloning"
Though not technically swiping, some artists have made a career "cloning" other artists. Phil JimenezPhil Jimenez
Phil Jimenez is an American comic book writer, artist and penciller, known for his work as writer/artist on Wonder Woman from 2000 to 2003, as one of the five pencilers of the 2005-2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, and his collaborations with writer Grant Morrison on New X-Men and The...
has been quite open about his work being modeled on George Pérez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
's, though he has never been accused of directly swiping a Perez drawing. Bryan Hitch
Bryan Hitch
Bryan Hitch is a British comic book artist. Hitch began his career in the United Kingdom for Marvel UK, working on titles such as Action Force and Death's Head, before gaining prominence on American titles such as Wildstorm's Stormwatch and The Authority, DC Comics titles such as JLA, and Marvel...
started off as an Alan Davis
Alan Davis
Alan Davis is an English writer and artist of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail.-UK work:...
"clone." Bill Sienkiewicz
Bill Sienkiewicz
Boleslav Felix Robert "Bill" Sienkiewicz [pronounced sin-KEV-itch] is an Eisner Award-winning American artist and writer best known for his comic book work, primarily for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin...
's early work was blatantly derivative of Neal Adams, as was Tom Grindberg
Tom Grindberg
Tom Grindberg is a comic book illustrator.His British comic book work includes 2000 A.D. Presents #16-19 and Judge Dredd #10-11 for Fleetway in 1987....
's, Michael Netzer (Nasser)'s, and Mike Grell
Mike Grell
Mike Grell is a comic book writer and artist, known for his work on books such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Jon Sable Freelance.-Early life:...
's. Industry veteran Dick Giordano
Dick Giordano
Richard Joseph "Dick" Giordano was an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then–industry leader DC Comics...
maintained that cloning is not only acceptable, but actually preferable, when an artist fills in for a regular artist on a title.
When cloning becomes direct swiping, however, a line is crossed. In the mid-1990s, during the "Image
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
craze", Marvel Comics adopted a "house style" hugely derivative of Image superstar (and former Marvel artist) Jim Lee
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
. Marvel encouraged artists like Roger Cruz
Roger Cruz
Roger Cruz is a Brazilian comic book artist.- Biography :Cruz started his professional career as a letterer for Editora Abril, the Brazilian publishing house, for whom he lettered many Portuguese translations of American comics; then worked as a writer and art assistant for Mil Perigos, a...
, Fabio Laguna, Roberto Flores, and Mark Pacella to clone Lee to the point of the publisher turning a blind eye to blatant swipes done on a regular basis.
Appropriation
Pop artPop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
ist Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
made a splash in the 1960s with his "appropriations" based on the work of Kirby, Russ Heath
Russ Heath
Russell Heath, Jr. is an American artist best known for his comic book work — particularly his DC Comics war stories for several decades and his 1960s art for Playboy magazine's Little Annie Fanny featurettes — and for his commercial art, two pieces of which, depicting Roman and...
, Tony Abruzzo, Irv Novick
Irv Novick
Irv Novick was an American comic book artist who worked almost continuously from 1939 until the late 1990s.-Biography:...
, John Romita, Sr., and Jerry Grandenetti
Jerry Grandenetti
Charles J. "Jerry" Grandenetti was an American comic book artist and advertising art director, best known for his work with writer-artist Will Eisner on the celebrated comics feature "The Spirit", and for his decade-and-a-half run on many DC Comics war series...
, who rarely received any credit. Jack Cowart, executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation, contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a copyist, saying: "Roy's work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. The panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy." Comics industry figures don't have such a sanguine attitude about Lichtenstein's swipes.
Similarly, Canadian artist Kevin Mutch once drew an entire comic book entirely based on swipes. Mutch's 1993 comic Captain Adam was a "narrative collage" of images and texts from over fifty separate Silver Age
Silver Age of Comic Books
The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...
and Bronze Age
Bronze Age of Comic Books
The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of mainstream American comic books usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books....
comics, randomly put together to form an original story.
Pastiches
Comics pastichePastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
s are blatant uses of swipes, cloning, and appropriation, usually using the same characters as the original source. French-Canadian cartoonist Yves Rodier
Yves Rodier
Yves Rodier is a Franco-Québécois comic strip creator known for his many pastiches of The Adventures of Tintin.- Biography :...
is known for his many Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
pastiches, as is the anonymously written comic book The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free
The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free
The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free is an anarchist parody of the popular Tintin series of comics. An exercise in detournement, the book was written under the pseudonym J. Daniels and published by Attack International in April of 1988 and then republished in 1999...
. In his Masterpiece Comics series, American cartoonist R. Sikoryak cleverly mixes exact cloning of famous cartoonists' styles with classic literary texts, creating unique comics "mash-ups." Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Rick Veitch
Rick Veitch
Richard "Rick" Veitch is an American comic book artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.-Early career:...
's 1963 series is another example of pastiche in comics form, as are the many take-offs of the Charles Atlas
Charles Atlas
Charles Atlas, born Angelo Siciliano , was the developer of a bodybuilding method and its associated exercise program that was best known for a landmark advertising campaign featuring Atlas's name and likeness; it has been described as one of the longest-lasting and most memorable ad campaigns of all...
ads found in old comic books.
Homages
In comics, it is understood that the difference between a swipe and an "homage" is generally whether the source is directly acknowledged — as opposed to being exposed by a third party. Throughout the history of the medium, artists have engaged in homages — most often of well-known cover images like Action ComicsAction Comics
Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#1, Detective Comics
Detective Comics
Detective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and...
#27, Amazing Fantasy
Amazing Fantasy
Amazing Fantasy is an American comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics from 1961 through 1962, and revived in 1995 and in the 2000s. It is best known as the title that introduced the popular superhero character Spider-Man in 1962...
#15, and Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
#1. (John Byrne is particularly fond of doing homages to the latter, having produced at least seven versions to date.) Some observers find homages as objectionable as swiping.
Swiping watchdogs
From 1991 until at least 1997, the industry magazine The Comics JournalThe Comics Journal
The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
kept a "Swipe File" which documented perceived swipes in the comics field, a tradition that continues on the TCJ website.
Artists accused of swiping
| Alleged Swiper | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chester Brown Chester Brown Chester William David Brown , is an award-winning, best-selling Canadian alternative cartoonist and, since 2008, the Libertarian Party of Canada's candidate for the riding of Trinity-Spadina in Toronto, Canada.... |
Joe Orlando Joe Orlando Joseph Orlando was a prolific illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades... |
|
| Rich Buckler Rich Buckler Rich Buckler is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and, with writer Doug Moench, co-creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25... |
Neal Adams Neal Adams Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who... |
Buckler has a dubious reputation as one comics' top "swipe" artists, with his early work in particular filled with "homages" to artists like Jack Kirby Jack Kirby Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.... , John Buscema John Buscema John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate... , and Neal Adams Neal Adams Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who... . After being publicly accused of the practice by The Comics Journal in the early 1980s, Buckler denied the charges and sued the magazine for libel; he later dropped the suit. |
| Jack Kirby Jack Kirby Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.... |
||
| Charles Burns Charles Burns (cartoonist) Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for... |
Hergé Hergé Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also... |
|
| Michael Allred | David Chelsea | Allred denied the charges. |
| Denys Cowan Denys Cowan Denys B. Cowan is an American comic book artist and television producer. He gained prominence as the primary artist on The Question, an acclaimed comic book series published by DC Comics for 36 issues from 1987 on, written by Dennis O'Neil.-Career:Denys Cowan is a 1979 graduate of the High School... |
Gil Kane Gil Kane Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and... |
|
| James Chrulski | Wendy Pini | Charges of plagiarism ended Chrulski's career in comics. |
| Roger Cruz Roger Cruz Roger Cruz is a Brazilian comic book artist.- Biography :Cruz started his professional career as a letterer for Editora Abril, the Brazilian publishing house, for whom he lettered many Portuguese translations of American comics; then worked as a writer and art assistant for Mil Perigos, a... |
Jim Lee Jim Lee Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men... |
Cruz has acknowledged on his (now defunct) website that he learned to draw primarily by copying from other pencillers. |
| Joe Madureira | ||
| Glyn Dillon | Jaime Hernandez Jaime Hernandez Jaime Hernandez is the co-creator of the black & white independent comic book Love and Rockets .-Early life:... |
|
| Steve Ditko Steve Ditko Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.... |
Will Eisner Will Eisner William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an... |
|
| Roberto Flores | Jim Lee Jim Lee Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men... |
|
| Ron Frenz Ron Frenz Ronald Wade Frenz is an American comic book artist known for his work for Marvel Comics. He is well-known for his 1980s work on Amazing Spider-Man, and more recently, for his work on Spider-Girl... |
Jack Kirby Jack Kirby Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.... |
|
| Keith Giffen Keith Giffen Keith Ian Giffen is an American comic book illustrator and writer.-Biography:Giffen was born in Queens, New York City.... |
José Antonio Muñoz José Antonio Muñoz José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork... |
Giffen has acknowledged Muñoz's influence, and in 2000 referred to the controversy this way:"I had a bad incident with studying somebody's work very closely at one point, and I resolved never, ever to do it again. I can get so immersed in somebody's work that I start turning into a Xerox In 1986 Giffen was one of the most popular comic book artists in the industry. The ensuing swiping controversy hurt Giffen's reputation. |
| Bob Kane Bob Kane Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman... |
Alex Raymond Alex Raymond Alexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon for King Features in 1934... |
The classic Batman Batman Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics... pose on the cover of Detective Comics Detective Comics Detective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and... #27 (the first appearance of Batman) is swiped from a 1937 Alex Raymond drawing of Flash Gordon. |
| Gil Kane Gil Kane Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and... |
Jack Kirby Jack Kirby Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.... |
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| Jack Kirby Jack Kirby Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.... |
Hal Foster | |
| Peter Kuper Peter Kuper Peter Kuper is an American alternative cartoonist and illustrator known for his autobiographical, social, and political observations.-Early life:... |
Rius Rius Eduardo del Río is a famous Mexican intellectual, political cartoonist and writer born in Zamora, Michoacán.... |
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| Ralph Steadman Ralph Steadman Ralph Steadman is a British cartoonist and caricaturist who is perhaps best known for his work with American author Hunter S. Thompson.-Personal life:Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, and brought up in Towyn, North Wales... |
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| Alan Kupperberg Alan Kupperberg Alan Kupperberg is an American comic artist known for working in both comic books and newspaper strips.-Career:Kupperberg began writing and drawing for Marvel Comics in 1974, mostly doing fill-ins and one-shots... |
Gil Kane Gil Kane Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and... |
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| Fabio Laguna | Jim Lee Jim Lee Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men... |
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| Rob Liefeld Rob Liefeld Rob Liefeld is an American comic book writer, illustrator, and publisher. A prominent artist in the 1990s, he has since become a controversial figure in the medium.... |
Brent Anderson Brent Anderson Brent Anderson is an American comic book artist known for his work on X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills and the comic book series Astro City.- Early life :... |
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| John Byrne | ||
| James Fry III | ||
| Kevin Maguire | ||
| Frank Miller Frank Miller (comics) Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300... |
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| George Pérez George Pérez George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:... |
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| Ron Wilson Ron Wilson (comics) Ron Wilson is an American comic book artist known for his work on titles starring the Marvel Comics character The Thing, including the titles Marvel Two-in-One and The Thing... |
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| David W. Mack David W. Mack David W. Mack is an American comic book artist and writer, best known for his creator-owned series Kabuki. Mack is known for his unique painted and collage-like work... |
Adam Hughes Adam Hughes Adam Hughes is an American comic book artist who has worked for companies such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros... |
Mack admitted the Hughes swipes online:". . . About the reference to Adam Hughes, yeah, I owe him credit here too. When preparing for the look of this book, I wanted to really embrace the comic book look of things while keeping things looking realistic as well, and I'm a big fan of Adam's ability to do that, . . . and I was looking at a lot of his work, among others, as a kind of training wheels in considereing [sic] styles, and getting started on this issue. . . . This was one of the first pages that I drew in this issue, getting into the vibe for the series and you may be right that I referenced it too heavily. Sometimes when you are getting rolling on a project it takes a few pages to work the influences out of your system. So props to Adam, you have to give credit where credit is due. . . ." |
| Alex Maleev Alex Maleev Alex Maleev is a Bulgarian-born comic book illustrator, best known for the Marvel Comics' series Daredevil , collaborating with writer Brian Michael Bendis.-Career:... |
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| Todd McFarlane Todd McFarlane Todd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn.... |
John Byrne | |
| Otomo Katsuhiro | ||
| Mark Pacella | Jim Lee Jim Lee Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men... |
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| Joe Phillips Joe Phillips Joe Phillips is an American artist, known for his mainstream comic book art and for his work depicting his views of gay life. He currently lives in San Diego, California.-Early Years and Comic Work:... |
Barry Windsor-Smith Barry Windsor-Smith Barry Windsor-Smith, born Barry Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States.... |
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| Andi Watson Andi Watson Andrew "Andi" Watson is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Love Fights, published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics.... |
Mike Allred | |
See also
- Comic strip switcherooComic strip switcherooThe Comic strip switcheroo was a series of jokes played out between comic strip writers and artists, without the foreknowledge of their editors, on April Fool's Day 1997...
- Comics vocabularyComics vocabularyComics vocabulary consists of many different techniques and images which a comic book artist employs in order to convey a narrative within the medium of comics....
- List of Tintin parodies and pastiches
- BricolageBricolageBricolage is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts, to refer to the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process...
- Doujinshi
- Fan fictionFan fictionFan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
- HomageHomageHomage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
- ParodyParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
- PastichePasticheA pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
- CheersCheersCheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...