Hey guys, on March 24th I'll be at the Vancouver Comic Con. If you're in the area you should stop by. I'm giving away buttons, select prints, and badly drawn sketches. Hope to see ya there!
Sunday, March 24 @ Heritage Hall
Admission: $4
3102 Main Street (Main & 15th Ave)
Vancouver, BC
Canada
Someone pointed this out to me this morning.
Of course, my gut reaction is to cry foul. The comic I drew went viral and made the rounds of the internet last month with no attribution tied to it -- if you search "Canadian Standoff" on Google Images" you'll see it everywhere, but no link back to my website. I can just imagine an established professional cartoonist seeing it on their Facebook feed, thinking it is just random internet drawing, and deciding to do their own take on it. Conspiracy! Blasphemy! Plagiarism, rah rah!
On the other hand, after thinking through it clearly, I want to give the artist the benefit of the doubt. A classic case of "Simpsons Did It". Canadian politeness is a very common topic that is made fun of, plus I imagine the joke of a "Canadian Standoff" is definitely not new. Also, I have been in this situation before, but that time I was the one being accused for copying a comic. And it sucks. Because the only explanation I can give for the similarities/coincidence is that "we thought of the exact same joke, but the other guy did it first".
What do you think?