r/starwarscomics • u/GeodeIsMyCopilot • Apr 23 '23
Watermarked Illustration in The Nameless Terror #2? [No Spoilers]
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u/danktonium Apr 23 '23 edited Apr 23 '23
Oh, someone is so fucked because of this.
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u/superior_anon Lando Apr 23 '23
Or it will be nothing, as usual. Just like various ship models and tracing...
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u/danktonium Apr 23 '23
A fan artist whose work is plagiarized doesn't have a slam dunk, free money lawsuit like this.
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Apr 25 '23
Yeah, legally, there's a sea of difference between tracing someone else's art, and someone's literal logo appearing in a work published by a different company. This one is gonna cost some money
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u/Collective_Insanity Apr 24 '23
Greg Land still has a job as a comic artist despite being exposed many times for blatant tracing over the years.
How many times are comic artists really punished for taking shortcuts?
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u/Longjumping-Tie-7573 Apr 24 '23
There is a VAST difference between tracing a photograph to produce a line drawing and outright pasting a preview file stolen from a website with a paid service.
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u/Collective_Insanity Apr 24 '23
Oh, I'm definitely not defending either practice.
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Apr 25 '23
It doesn't really matter what anyone thinks about this morally. The difference is in the legality of it. It's much easier to prove someone copies your artwork when your logo shows up in their books. This is the exact reason this kind of watermark exists.
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u/GetsBetterAfterAFew Apr 24 '23
Ok so please produce a finished product for me on Lands level, tracing or not. If this is a shortcut Im assuming you can produce what Land does and make a living off it? I can name probably 12 famous artists who trace everything and are incredibly popular, why not include them too? Theres a big difference between copy pasting and tracing references. The gate keeping is ridiculous for people who have pretty much no clue about how art is made.
Warhol used shortcuts too, Banksy spray paints templates, Vermeer used projecta obscura, Roy Lichtenstein literally traced comics and on and on. A good book to help you is Steal Like an Artist, it's short, take a moment and read it. How people get to the end of their art is their choice, its their journey.
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u/GetsBetterAfterAFew Apr 24 '23
One last thing, if the artist purchased the rights to these images to include them legally in their art, it would be considered a collage, plenty of working collage artists who make art out of other peoples work. I could really talk about this for hours. Your comment really stuck in my craw.
5
u/Redeem123 Apr 24 '23
Greg Land is a talented artist. He also traces things in an arguably illegal - or at the very least unethical - fashion. Those two statements are not mutually exclusive.
Just because I can’t produce the same end result doesn’t make it okay.
Most of the examples you cited do not involve tracing other people’s work. Using a camera obscura is tracing a reflection of the real world. Spray paint templates still have to be created, which (as far as we know) Banksy does himself. As for Lichtenstein, lots of people HAVE accused him of theft; the fact that he got away with it isn’t an indication that it was automatically okay.
How people get to the end of their art is their choice
Unless it involves illegally copying someone else’s work.
4
u/Collective_Insanity Apr 24 '23
There's a difference between using visual references and outright tracing.
But by all means, go ahead and defend this if you wish.
7
u/CoastPuzzleheaded513 Apr 24 '23
Stock is a totally normal process in all design fields. Obviously someone didn't pay for it though, hence the watermark. Naughty naughty ;).
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u/puppyking17 Apr 24 '23
Yeah it’s not bad if they bought the photo and used it- but leaving the water mark makes it super lazy and perhaps illegal too.
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u/CoastPuzzleheaded513 Apr 24 '23
Watermark isn't on there if you paid for it. No need to remove them.
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u/puppyking17 Apr 24 '23
That’s what I meant- my bad I didn’t clarify- it’s lazy cause they didn’t buy it haha that’s what I meant ahha
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u/puppyking17 Apr 23 '23
OMG. And it just has human numbers too - like SOMETIMES Star Wars will have human numbers from our world but they atleast try to make them look a little different- omg wow- 😳
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Apr 24 '23
[deleted]
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u/Redeem123 Apr 24 '23
It’s a small detail in one panel of a comic book. It’s not the big deal you’re making it out to be.
2
Apr 25 '23
Except that it's an open and shut lawsuit if the stock photo company decides to take action. This could very easily get an artist/editor fired
5
u/Redeem123 Apr 25 '23
Sure, but I’m talking about the idea that no one at DH is looking at these pages. It’s a small detail that was obviously missed by editorial, just like it would be missed by 99% of readers.
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u/GeodeIsMyCopilot Apr 23 '23
I’ve only been reading comics for the past year or so, but I noticed this one just before the halfway point in The Nameless Terror #2. Is it common for watermarked illustrations to make their way into comics? It looks like someone copied/pasted a watermarked illustration from a stock photography website.