Todd Goldman is a plagarizing bastard
Just copy/pasting the note I wrote on my Facebook...
You may or may not know Todd Goldman. Basically, he is an "artist" that creates those oh-so-"funny" t-shirts and stupid crap you find at Hot Topic, etc. His website is http://www.davidandgoliathtees.com/
As it turns out, the man has been plagarizing a handful of artists and been making good money off the plagarized pieces. He's made up to $1000 on lithographs of the plagerized pieces and who knows how much in merchandise. It has been said here and there that he has infact made millions off of original pieces.
A few artists he has blatantly plagerized from are Roman Dirge (Lenore), Dave "Shmorky" Kelly (webcomic Purple Pussy, now does art for website Something Awful), and Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac). He has gone so far as to TRACE the art of Dave Kelly. Not only has he plagarized art, many "internet phrases" he claims his own. It also seems he has gone so far as to GoogleImageSearch various pictures to copy. Just look at his website and be agast at all the familiar material.
Oh, and let me tell you, it gets worse...
Many people emailed Goldman direct from his website, calling him on his plagarizing. Goldman then sent out autoreply emails that contained pornographic pictures originally done by Dave Kelly (It was later reported by Kelly that these were not drawn by him). PORN! He did this, claiming that Dave Kelly was a "pedophile furry porn artist" (which he isn't). As many artists know, when you need to make money, you'll take any commission you'll get your hands on. Case in point for Kelly here. Kelly no longer does these pornographic commissions, deciding he didn't want to draw such filth ever again. Can't blame him.
Of course, a lot of the people that got this email were underage, so he got into a bit of trouble over that, but the lawsuit still hasn't begun.
The news outlets are just starting to get onboard with this issue and a court case will probably come of it.
Please pass this around the art community, or any community for that matter.
For more info, check out the main forum on http://www.SomethingAwful.com
You may or may not know Todd Goldman. Basically, he is an "artist" that creates those oh-so-"funny" t-shirts and stupid crap you find at Hot Topic, etc. His website is http://www.davidandgoliathtees.com/
As it turns out, the man has been plagarizing a handful of artists and been making good money off the plagarized pieces. He's made up to $1000 on lithographs of the plagerized pieces and who knows how much in merchandise. It has been said here and there that he has infact made millions off of original pieces.
A few artists he has blatantly plagerized from are Roman Dirge (Lenore), Dave "Shmorky" Kelly (webcomic Purple Pussy, now does art for website Something Awful), and Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac). He has gone so far as to TRACE the art of Dave Kelly. Not only has he plagarized art, many "internet phrases" he claims his own. It also seems he has gone so far as to GoogleImageSearch various pictures to copy. Just look at his website and be agast at all the familiar material.
Oh, and let me tell you, it gets worse...
Many people emailed Goldman direct from his website, calling him on his plagarizing. Goldman then sent out autoreply emails that contained pornographic pictures originally done by Dave Kelly (It was later reported by Kelly that these were not drawn by him). PORN! He did this, claiming that Dave Kelly was a "pedophile furry porn artist" (which he isn't). As many artists know, when you need to make money, you'll take any commission you'll get your hands on. Case in point for Kelly here. Kelly no longer does these pornographic commissions, deciding he didn't want to draw such filth ever again. Can't blame him.
Of course, a lot of the people that got this email were underage, so he got into a bit of trouble over that, but the lawsuit still hasn't begun.
The news outlets are just starting to get onboard with this issue and a court case will probably come of it.
Please pass this around the art community, or any community for that matter.
For more info, check out the main forum on http://www.SomethingAwful.com