It's just over a year since I launched myself headlong into the wonderful world of pop culture design and I soon learned one valuable lesson - if you have a good idea for a piece, you can guarentee someone else has had the same idea, or very soon will. It's inevitable of course, by it's very nature working in the realms of pop culture means dealing with existing ideas. The trick is to put a spin on that idea, to take it somewhere new, interesting or just plain amusing. This leaves alot of room for overlap, and in some cases the inevitable repeating of ideas.
Case in point is one of my first designs, a Batman/Harry Potter mash up which played upon Gary Oldmans presence in both franchises, but mostly Jokers 'Why so serious?' quote mashed with Oldman's character in the Potter franchise Sirius Black. I soon discovered this idea had already been done - alot! Where all of these designs stealing from each other? No, of course not, it's simply a gag that would become apparent to anyone who is a fan of both franchises, which given the box office success of them means alot of people.
I've done other designs, only to discover similar designs which seemed to appear at almost the same time. Why? Because creative minds who have gravitated towards pop culture in the first place are inevitably wired into the same wavelength. So far it has been commonly accepted amongst my fellow artists that a good idea can just hit different people at the same time. My Back to the Future watch design is a good example. One of my favourite artists, WinterArtwork, came up with a very similar design at exactly the same time.
As I recall these designs popped up within a day or so of each other, illustrating perfectly how two nerds can have the same idea at the same time. The fact that his was Doctor Who themed further illustrates the point - it was the core idea which we both came up with and we then dealt with it in different ways, but all the time it was a matter of great minds thinking alike. A good artist knows this, a good artist respects this and most importantly a good artist respects his fellow creative. Which is why I was disappointed when someone I would consider a good artist told me that my Anchorman inspired design from yesterday was a 'Rip Off'. They never emailed me to ask if I was aware of their design, they didn't make a post on their own blog raising their concern that a similar idea had arisen - no, they came onto my blog, typed the words 'RIP OFF' and left. Not cool.
So let's just take a quick look, and see if we can identify the theft, CSI San Diego style.
First lets take the similarities into consideration -
1- Anchorman - both designs are riffs on the movie Anchorman, by all accounts a very popular movie, so we can safely chalk that one up to coincidence.
2 - 'News Team Assemble' - this line actually appears in the movie, an obvious parody/call out to the rallying cry of Marvels Avengers team.
So I think it's safe to say there is only one obvious conclusion to be reached - we BOTH ripped off Will Ferrel and Adam McKay!
In all seriousness though, I'd like to think that the layout alone shows that I'm not some 'hack' who steals other peoples ideas. I have over a hundred designs on sale at various places around the internet, so why I would suddenly decide to 'rip off' a fellow artist makes no sense. It disrespects the artist and it disrespects the people who invest in your work and have faith in your ideas.
I work hard to push my ideas, and get the most out of them where I can. To illustrate this, here's a rough breakdown of my thought process on the News Teamers design-
1- I was approached in June to participate in a Judd Apatow themed art show. Though the show fell through, the idea of an Anchorman design had taken hold! I wanted to create an Anchorman comic cover. The movie is set firmly in a bygone era, so a vintage approach was definitely needed, an old school Silver Age feel.
2 - Several titles where obvious choices - A Fantastic Four parody would exploit the Channel 4 News Team element. The Uncanny X-Men could translate very easily into The Uncanny Anchormen. However, the 'News Team Assemble' was just too good, and tied the comic to the movie alot better so it was an Avengers cover I setteled on.
3 -Now I needed to choose a cover to parody. The obvious choice was Kirbys classic cover for Issue 16, we could have a nice bold image of Ron and include a wide range of supporting characters including Baxter, Ed, Wes Mantooth and all the other newscasters from the awesome fight scene. However I wanted something even more iconic, and Issue 4 ticked all the boxes, especially as Ron utters the 'Assemble' line after he is asked to return to his Anchorman status. This ties neatly into the 'Captain America Lives Again' theme of issue 4.
4 - Next I need to allocate characters to each member of the News Team. Ron as Cap is a no brainer, Fantana makes a good Thor as his man on the street role means the hammer can be swapped for his mic, and Brick makes an obvious 'big lug' so Giant Man it is. This left Iron Man, whose flying may have posed a problem but thankfully Brick is the kind of character whose sudden ability to fly isn't too questionable once you know he's killed a man with a trident.
None of this thought appears to have gone into the 'original' design, which instead is a straight up comic of the Anchorman himself. I'd like to think that my attention to detail, pushing the concept further, would also illustrate to my fellow artist that I wasn't ripping him off but simply running with what was, in my opinion, a fun but obvious idea. Another creative friend of mine has also encountered similar issues with this artist regarding another design, so hopefully this post helps to illustrate that when you choose to work in the realms of popular culture, an awareness of the word 'popular' is paramount.
