27 - Why Pop Art is the Worst.

Art Exclusive

I painted a Self Portrait for my birthday, I am now 29, yay!

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Completed

RED SHIFT RENEGADES

I finished coloring Issue 1 of Red Shift Renegades for Jake Parker! It was a fantastic collaborative experience. I learned a ton from his notes and can’t wait to start on Issue 2. Here is one of my favorite pages.

1313 ANGLER DR.

I finished the test pages for 1313 Angler Dr. The submission for the Creators for Creators Grant asks for 5 sample pages, I submitted 7 because I wanted a full beat from my story, here is one of them. I plan to share the rest later.

FLUKE ZINE FEST

I had my first Comic-Con of the year! Fluke was a great show, welcome to all the new subscribers who entered to win the Tiger drawing. Lee D won the draw, please email me and I will get it shipped to you! My future Con’s can be seen below.

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Current

GRAPHESIS

I get to focus on Graphesis for the next two weeks, cranking out some nice polished inks for the pitch that we plan to send out in mid-April. Here is one of the pages in progress.

JOB

I am still creating illustrations for the Job series by Fish Coin Press. I am really excited about this piece. Now that we have passed the opening narrative piece the visuals are starting to get more trippy and exaggerated.

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Upcoming

2022 CON SCHEDULE

Here are my upcoming Convention dates. I hope to see you on the road. I do an art giveaway at every show that I attend, I would love to meet you and show you some of my art in person!

May 7: Free Comic Book Day

TBD - Savannah Comic-Con

June 3-5: AwesomeCon

June 24-26: HeroesCon

August 27: Fairfax Con

September 1-5: DragonCon

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Book Shelf

I’m trading out the Art Lesson section for the Book Shelf for a bit. Here I want to share what I am watching, listening to, and reading so that you can enjoy them too.

WATCH

The Adam Project: This film is a sweet father-son story. It is full of funny moments like tooting bullet wounds and heartfelt moments of paternal affection. There was a conversation between a father and mother in the middle of the film that really hit home to me and I’ll admit I cried a good bit. Excellent film.

LISTEN

The Trial: Written by Franz Kafka, this is a bizarre story about a man who, similar to metamorphosis, wakes up to find himself in an awkward predicament without any explanation. It is an absurd book and Kafka actually instructed his closest friend to destroy it upon his death, lest anyone read it.

READ

Ant-Man World Hive: This is a very simple short superhero comic. Though it involves a nazi bee man, the soliloquy of a dying ant, and kaiju bugs that threaten the existence of all mammalian life, it is really a story about a dad and his daughter. They learn to trust each other and work together to fight evil bugs! Also, the art is amazing, Dylan Burnett is one of my favorites and I am eyeing a particular original page from this book to add to my private collection.

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Philosophical Rant

Plagiarism is stealing. Not borrowing, it’s stealing.

I am near the end of my Art Appreciation course that I teach with Apologia Online Academy. This week we talked about Pop Art. All of the “greats” in Pop Art were involved in at least one scandal regarding Intelectual Property or Copyright theft.

Andy Warhol stole Praticia Caulfield’s Photo of Hibiscus Blossoms and mass-produced it. She sued and was awarded damages in the form of royalty payments for each reproduction and two of Warhol’s original paintings.

Jeff Koons stole Art Rogers's photograph by creating three sculptures of the image without his permission. The fourth ‘Artist’s Copy’ was surrendered to Rogers by Court mandate. I was unable to discern if Rogers was awarded any of the $367,000 (The total amount that Koons had earned from selling the sculptures) in damages that Rogers claimed.

Jasper Johns stole 17-year-old Jean-Marc Togodue’s drawing of knee anatomy that he had gifted to a physical therapist. Johns invited Togodgue to view the final piece. Togodgue later sued Johns for copyright infringement and the affair ended with an undisclosed settlement.

Finally, and worst of all to me, Roy Lichtenstein stole dozens of Comic artists for his various Pop Art paintings. Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Mike Sekowsky, Ted Galindo, Tony Abruzzo, John Romita, Gil Kane, Arthur Peddy, Jim Pike, Myron Fass, Don Heck, Jack Abel, and Joe Simon, just to name a few. I’ll leave it to one of his victims, Russ Heath to share his thoughts in this one-page comic promoting the Hero’s Initiative.

(It should be noted that “Blam!” was the piece that was stolen from Heath’s work, “Whamm!” was stollen from Irv Novick) Huge shoutout to David Barsalou for doing a ton of research to find the original comic artist’s that Lichtenstein ripped off, you can see a full catalog here, Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein

Plagiarism is no joke, you should not accuse someone of it lightly, but when it is as apparent and obvious as this it is easy to see the truth. Most of these cases went through the proper channels and the original artist’s earned their reward, but sadly posterity is still propping up the “icons” of Pop Art.

It is my aim with this rant to bring light to the real stars of the Pop Art era: Patricia Caulfield, Art Rogers, Jean Marc Togodgue, Russ Heath, Irv Novick, John Romita, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Gil, Kane, Mike Sekowsky, Ted Galindo, Tony Abruzzo, Arthur Peddy, Jim Pike, Myron Fass, Don Heck, Jack Abel, Joe Simon, and the countless other’s cheated by grifters and charloteans.

I remember when studying art history at college, my professors taught me about how amazing Pop Artists were. And when it came time to submit assignments in said class, we were instructed that plagiarism is an evil that can result in expulsion from the school. I agree with that standard, but it is a double standard to glorify it in theory and ban it in practice. Plagiarism ought to be maligned for the evil that it is, and Lichtenstein, Warhol, Koons, and company ought to surrender their crowns to the true kings of Pop Art.

Cheers,

&