Shmorky, the creator of Purple Pussy had his stuff stolen and then displayed in art galleries by Todd Goldman. Who is Todd Goldman? The genius behind the whole 'Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.
After some serious nerd rage and threats of a lawsuit. Toddy-woddy finally Ifessed up and offered the creator of 'Purple Pussy' a bit of money. He claims that "“My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else’s idea" in his press release on the Something Awful boards.
Sadly though, it doesn't appear this is the first time he's participated in such grand insanity. Good run down of thievery on Mikey Tyndall's site.
I won't rehash the whole stealing debacle, or comment on how lame it is to have gnomes find your art for you and the tax benefits of donating someone's just dues to charity. It's been pretty much beaten into the ground by all and sundry.
What I will comment on is how disappointing Wikipedia is handling this.
Lots of enterprising goons and fans of David "Shmorky" Kelly edited his wikipedia entry in an effort to show how dreadfully untalented and lacking in creativity he is. The text originally read:
In April 2007, Goldman was accused of plagiarism by webcartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly in a post on the Something Awful forums[1], claiming that Goldman's piece "Dear God Make Everyone Die," featured in his Gold Digger exhibit at Jack Gallery, was traced directly from a 2001 comic by Kelly.[3] That comic was published on September 19, 2001 in his Purple Pussy strip and reprinted in the book Keenspot Spotlight 2004 for Free Comic Book Day.
In response to the accusations, Goldman has stated, "I made a judgment error and did not research the background of this particular submission. My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly." He has also stated that he intends to issue a formal apology as well as donate the proceeds of the sale of the piece to David Kelly or a charity of his choice. David Kelly reports that he has received Goldman's apology.[4]
Since Kelly's initial accusation, other premier figures in webcomics joined in criticizing Goldman, including R. K. Milholland of Something Positive,[5] Scott Kurtz of PvP,[6] J. Grant and Mel Hynes of Two Lumps,[7] Kristofer Straub of Starslip Crisis,[8][9] Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade,[10], and Erin Lindsey of Venus Envy[11]. Roman Dirge, creator of Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl, criticized Goldman, and has also noted similarities between his own character and those drawn by Goldman[12]. Writers including Rich Johnston, author of the popular comics column 'Lying in the Gutters,' and Ert O'Hara of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine joined in accusing Goldman of plagiarizing a number of sources.[13][14][3] Penny Arcade, PvP, Starslip Crisis, and several others all published strips explicitly referencing plagiarism or Dave Kelly's image. Fetus-X arist Eric Millikin suggested the possibility of fair use of the image by Goldman.[15]
In response to the criticism and accusations of plagiarism, Goldman is reported as stating, "This is just a bunch of hater artists trying to take me down. I'm not an online Web guy. I'm not trying to rip people off. I work with a team of artists at David & Goliath. We create thousands of designs." Goldman has denied the accusations, claiming that some of the other accusations are incorrect and reference his own art. He states that in 2006, he sent over 50 cease-and-desist letters to other artists for plagiarizing his work.[4]
These accusations of plagiarism were picked up by mainstream media outlets and received press coverage in the days following the immediate events. [16][17]
All of this is notated, with obvious examples of Goldman's copyright violations. But Todd convinced Wikipedia to lock the article (no doubt with threat of a lawsuit) and potentially edit those bits out.
Screen shot of original Wikipedia entry.
So, not only is he a thief (willingly or not) he's also unwilling to have his admitted 'mistake' be documented against him. And while shameful and irritating, I'm pretty 'meh' about it.
As an example of how such an Internet tantrum was almost his destiny, check out his reaction when people didn't like his work:
The artist himself, lurking at a nearby cafe table and supervising the reactions of the gallery's passerby, leapt to his feet and verbally laid into us. Sputtering and red, he demanded to know what we had said about him, if we knew who we were dealing with, and who the hell we thought we were. We pointed and laughed at the poor crazy man who couldn't draw, and went to a movie.
(From Wired.)
So no, his protest had having his good crap making name sulllied isn't particularly surprising. If he hadn't tried it on, the Earth would have collapsed into a giant blackhole of surprised suction.
What is getting me is Wikipedia fell so easily. Amongst all the nerd rage and alleged MySpace hacking, the evidence was there. We had the statement of an artist, Goldman's PR person and some damned good comparisons. Somehow, though, is this still considered defamation?
I'm waiting to see how the fine folks at Wikipedia handle this. Will they or won't they? I'd like for the plagiarism scandal to stay on. I mean, the guy's an artist, surely that's pretty damned relevant scandal? But then, in my world, you don't trace webcomics done by others and hang them in galleries.......
I will say, it's a terrible world when you must get your news from Encyclopedia Dramatica
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