Vertigo comics plagiarism scandal!
March 10, 2008 7:52 AM   Subscribe

Plagiarism scandal rocks DC's Vertigo line. A comics blogger has discovered shocking evidence of theft in Fables, Y: The Last Man, Sandman, and other major Vertigo titles. (Via Comics Should Be Good!)
posted by UKnowForKids (27 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Um...well, that was kind of a letdown. MGK has done better. That said, Horrific Tales from the Darkness of Our Own Subconscious might be my favorite subtitle ever.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:59 AM on March 10, 2008


Good photoshop work.
posted by papakwanz at 7:59 AM on March 10, 2008


Brevity is the soul of wit. This is not brief.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:00 AM on March 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


But thanks for the post - Comics Should Be Good! looks to be a very nice blog.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:02 AM on March 10, 2008


Note to future forgers: hand drawn golden age typography does not have drop-shadow filter applied.

Other than that irksome detail I really enjoyed these.
posted by dirtdirt at 8:24 AM on March 10, 2008


kinda funny, but uh.
Isn't the gimmick of Vertigo kinda that they take old, out-dated comic characters and pump interesting new life into them? So, like, isn't this kind of like calling the White Stripes on ripping off 60s and 70 garage bands? Or making fun of Law and Order by relying on topical allusions?

There has to be a word for this type of failure in parody. Kinda the poetic version of "turn your sarcasm detector on," but along the lines of completely missing a shared reference and treating it like plagiarism.
posted by es_de_bah at 8:24 AM on March 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Oh, I so want to read those...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:28 AM on March 10, 2008


“Fableheads” were one of the earliest organizers of dedicated-subject conventions, and all 1,245 fans of the comic were killed at the inaugural convention when the roof collapsed. DC immediately cancelled the title and now refuses to admit that it ever existed. [emph added]

.
posted by public at 8:52 AM on March 10, 2008


Yes I know it's photoshopped :)
posted by public at 9:00 AM on March 10, 2008


Comics Should Be Good! is one of my favorite comic blogs, always worth browsing. They're currently compiling the Top 100 Comic Runs as submitted by their readers.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:05 AM on March 10, 2008


I'm trying to imagine the 1950s version of the Invisibles.

King Mob: SAS soldier in WW2, initiated into the worlds oldest conspiracy by a Sufi master in the closing days of the war. Deserts to California and becomes a Hell's Angel where he recruits...

John-a-dreams: Jack Parsons, who lets a room of his boarding house out to...

Fanny: a blacklisted transvestite communist screenwriter, who can only get work as a stylist for...

Ragged Robin: Frances Farmer, who thanks to shock therapy developed psychic powers and sees the Christ of the new aeon in...

Jack: Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli, a juvenile delinquent from Kenosha, Wisconsin who is destined to be the next Buddha, as long as...

Tom O'Bedlam: Aleister Crowley can toss him off a skyscraper and not kill him.
posted by bunnytricks at 9:23 AM on March 10, 2008 [4 favorites]


I don't know whether to be upset or relieved that almost all of those whipped straight over my head.
posted by Naberius at 9:38 AM on March 10, 2008


I thought this was pretty awesome, and was surprised that no one had thought of it earlier. Nice post!
posted by jonson at 9:45 AM on March 10, 2008


bunnytricks: FTW!
posted by horseblind at 10:15 AM on March 10, 2008


Isn't the gimmick of Vertigo kinda that they take old, out-dated comic characters and pump interesting new life into them?

That was kinda how it started, when they finally put a unifying imprint onto titles like Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Sandman and Swamp Thing. Trouble was, Morrison was wrapping up his Doom Patrol run, while Animal Man was floundering after Morrison's departure. Ditto for Swamp Thing, which would never again hit the heights it reached under Alan Moore, then Rick Veitch.

Within a couple of years, Vertigo would be better known for original titles like Preacher, Transmetropolitan (which started under DC's short-lived SF imprint, Helix), and Y.
posted by mgrichmond at 11:12 AM on March 10, 2008


Fake. Do not deface the image of respectable publishers with lies.
posted by malusmoriendumest at 11:46 AM on March 10, 2008


Oh, I get it -- he used Photoshop to paint out Garfield on every cover.

No, hold on. Let me look more closely.
posted by CheeseburgerBrown at 12:03 PM on March 10, 2008


malusmoriendumest will now return to his ongoing protest of Mad Magazine. Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT working on a follow-up called "There will be Blecch".
posted by Gary at 12:07 PM on March 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Fake. Do not deface the image of respectable publishers with lies.

I'm imagining the shrieks of horror emanating from your house whenever someone links you to The Onion.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:16 PM on March 10, 2008


Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT working on a follow-up called "There will be Blecch".

I drink your milkshake! SPLORP! SLOOPLE! SLURK! GLUP! DRIPPLE BLIT. SHPLIPLE!
posted by turaho at 3:47 PM on March 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


I seem to recall a comic where the super-villain had every single Super-Power, but if you named them out loud he would lose the power. Anyone know what I'm talking about? The irreverent writer was featured previously on MeFi, I just can't remember any of the details.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:04 PM on March 10, 2008


I mention it only because I had the notion in my head that the publisher was Vertigo.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:05 PM on March 10, 2008


I seem to recall a comic where the super-villain had every single Super-Power, but if you named them out loud he would lose the power. Anyone know what I'm talking about? The irreverent writer was featured previously on MeFi, I just can't remember any of the details.

I'm pretty sure you mean The Quiz, from the Grant Morrison run of Doom Patrol.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:16 PM on March 10, 2008


YEAH! Thanks, kittens!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:09 PM on March 10, 2008


Okay, whether or not the metajoke works, that is some excellent pastiching work there.

I think the Civil War remix is sort of his "Rick James" moment- by that I mean it was the bit he did that was so awesome it makes everything else he does or ever will do not as good by comparison.

See, I thought the Civil War remix was completely unfunny, but the Brand New Day remix? Comedy gold.

But then, I'm really, really, really bitter about Brand New Day.
posted by bettafish at 11:07 PM on March 10, 2008


Glad that some enjoyed it, which is as much as I could hope for in my first posting in a year or two. And not that anyone's reading down here anymore, but Civil_Disobedient's question also reminds me of a moment in Grant Morrison's JLA run (I think it was a Mark Waid fill-in issue, actually), where Amazo attacks the Justice League. It's a bitch, because Amazo is a robot who (somehow) can duplicate the powers of every member of the Justice League, which recently added a bunch of new members. So in order to defeat him, Superman disbands the Justice League, leaving him powerless.

God damn, I am a big fat nerd.
posted by UKnowForKids at 10:43 AM on March 11, 2008


Oddly enough, I did catch a bit of plagiarism in the last issue of Jack of Fables. Jack conducts a con that is exactly the con that was in David Mamet's House of Games, and you know it was directly from that movie because the con was created specifically for David Mamet by one of his friends... Took me completely out of the moment when I recognized it... I thought it was going to be about that based on the title.
posted by every_one_needs_a_hug_sometimes at 9:29 AM on March 12, 2008


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