New Yorker Copies Kirby ‘Tales To Astonish’ Cover Image?

ByMartha Thomases

 According to Gawker, the New Yorker recently ran a cartoon that plagiarizes the very famous cover of Tales to Astonish by King of Comics, Jack Kirby.  The too-cool-for-school blog asks, "Comic book geeks, your services are at last required.  How obscure is this?" 

On behalf of geeks everywhere, allow me to say, it’s not at all obscure.  It’s one of the more famous images around.

[Above image pulled from Gawker for use in comparison.]

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19 Comments

  1. If it doesn't say "After xxx", it's likely a lift, but they'll fall back on "tribute" if pressed. And apparently they already have.At least when Queen did it for News of the World, they got the same guy (Kelly Freas) to do the cover. Not, of course, that this was an option here…

    1. As i understood it, Queen contacted Kelly and asked him for permission to use it and he offered to paint them a custom version for about what they'd have to pay for the rights to the original image.Some lame metal band from Long Island used the *same* Kelly Freas illo – unmodified – for a CD cover sometime later.I happened to run into Kelly's daughter and mentioned it, and she was rather interested, asked me to find the name of the band. Unfortunately, the CD was gone before i could get back to the store (HMV in Lenox Mall in Atlanta, where i would never go normally, their prices haveing been ridiculously high).There's a pinball machine that knocked off images from several different Staranko "Agent of SHIELD" comics – can't recall the name; i thought it was "Blackout" but i recently saw a photo of that one and it seems not to be…

  2. If it doesn't say "After xxx", it's likely a lift, but they'll fall back on "tribute" if pressed. And apparently they already have.At least when Queen did it for News of the World, they got the same guy (Kelly Freas) to do the cover. Not, of course, that this was an option here…

  3. If it doesn't say "After xxx", it's likely a lift, but they'll fall back on "tribute" if pressed. And apparently they already have.At least when Queen did it for News of the World, they got the same guy (Kelly Freas) to do the cover. Not, of course, that this was an option here…

    1. As i understood it, Queen contacted Kelly and asked him for permission to use it and he offered to paint them a custom version for about what they'd have to pay for the rights to the original image.Some lame metal band from Long Island used the *same* Kelly Freas illo – unmodified – for a CD cover sometime later.I happened to run into Kelly's daughter and mentioned it, and she was rather interested, asked me to find the name of the band. Unfortunately, the CD was gone before i could get back to the store (HMV in Lenox Mall in Atlanta, where i would never go normally, their prices haveing been ridiculously high).There's a pinball machine that knocked off images from several different Staranko "Agent of SHIELD" comics – can't recall the name; i thought it was "Blackout" but i recently saw a photo of that one and it seems not to be…

  4. Outrageous.I live in Fairfield County Connecticut. There are a LOT of old cartoonists here that I respect that would rip that Roy Lichtenstein's lungs out if only they could. Of course, the bastard is dead, as are most of the guys he ripped off. As for the New Yorker's "tribute," I'd like to suggest that start running copies of Charles Addams' work… as, of course, a "tribute." Betcha their lawyer has a different definition of the term than the magazine.

  5. Outrageous.I live in Fairfield County Connecticut. There are a LOT of old cartoonists here that I respect that would rip that Roy Lichtenstein's lungs out if only they could. Of course, the bastard is dead, as are most of the guys he ripped off. As for the New Yorker's "tribute," I'd like to suggest that start running copies of Charles Addams' work… as, of course, a "tribute." Betcha their lawyer has a different definition of the term than the magazine.

  6. Outrageous.I live in Fairfield County Connecticut. There are a LOT of old cartoonists here that I respect that would rip that Roy Lichtenstein's lungs out if only they could. Of course, the bastard is dead, as are most of the guys he ripped off. As for the New Yorker's "tribute," I'd like to suggest that start running copies of Charles Addams' work… as, of course, a "tribute." Betcha their lawyer has a different definition of the term than the magazine.

  7. It's no different than what Greg Land and Jorge Lucas—and many others, I'd guess—have been doing at Marvel for the last several months.

    1. Yep. Sorta.The one difference — and it's only a legality — is that Marvel has the right to trace and publish its own copyrighted material.

  8. It's no different than what Greg Land and Jorge Lucas—and many others, I'd guess—have been doing at Marvel for the last several months.

    1. Yep. Sorta.The one difference — and it's only a legality — is that Marvel has the right to trace and publish its own copyrighted material.

  9. It's no different than what Greg Land and Jorge Lucas—and many others, I'd guess—have been doing at Marvel for the last several months.

    1. Yep. Sorta.The one difference — and it's only a legality — is that Marvel has the right to trace and publish its own copyrighted material.

  10. Had homage been intended, the signature would have included a "for Jack Kirby" or "with apologies to Jack Kirby" line, something like that. Back-pedaling makes up for no bad intentions. Looks like the Lichtenstein Monster, all over again, operating under the hipper-than-thou assumption that nobody knows the Genuine Article.Reminded of an experience that Gahan Wilson once related to George Turner and me … Early in the 1950s, Gahan sent a batch of gag-cartoon roughs to the New Yorker and received rejections in reply. Continuing to follow the magazine, then, he found various of his rejected gags in print — reworked by other hands.

  11. Had homage been intended, the signature would have included a "for Jack Kirby" or "with apologies to Jack Kirby" line, something like that. Back-pedaling makes up for no bad intentions. Looks like the Lichtenstein Monster, all over again, operating under the hipper-than-thou assumption that nobody knows the Genuine Article.Reminded of an experience that Gahan Wilson once related to George Turner and me … Early in the 1950s, Gahan sent a batch of gag-cartoon roughs to the New Yorker and received rejections in reply. Continuing to follow the magazine, then, he found various of his rejected gags in print — reworked by other hands.

  12. Had homage been intended, the signature would have included a "for Jack Kirby" or "with apologies to Jack Kirby" line, something like that. Back-pedaling makes up for no bad intentions. Looks like the Lichtenstein Monster, all over again, operating under the hipper-than-thou assumption that nobody knows the Genuine Article.Reminded of an experience that Gahan Wilson once related to George Turner and me … Early in the 1950s, Gahan sent a batch of gag-cartoon roughs to the New Yorker and received rejections in reply. Continuing to follow the magazine, then, he found various of his rejected gags in print — reworked by other hands.

  13. Had homage been intended, the signature would have included a "for Jack Kirby" or "with apologies to Jack Kirby" line, something like that. For the 60th anniversary of VE Day, Jeff Parker of "Florida Today" showed Willie and Joe reminsicing, sitting on a living-room couch in precisely the pose of one of Bill Mauldin's better-known cartoons; he not only included "Homage to the great Bill Mauldin" under his signature, but sneaked a small version of the original in as a framed photo on an end table.Mor erecently, Pat Oliphant reused the basic gag of one of Mauldin's post war cartoons about the treatment of veterans and credited Mauldin (though his was a little less obvious and might have slipped by a lot of people – the Mauldin original shows a cop talkng to a guy in a beat-up combat jacket sleeping on a park bench using a canvas banner that says :"Welcome Home Sergeant Jones" for a blanket – the cop says "You're lucky – mine was made of paper and wore out in a week."Back-pedaling makes up for no bad intentions. Looks like the Lichtenstein Monster, all over again, operating under the hipper-than-thou assumption that nobody knows the Genuine Article.Well, certainly not sophisticated, intelligent people who read The New Yorker.(Considering who the art director at that magazine is married to, and her own CV, i don't think they can get away with "Oh, gee – the cartoonist turned it in and we didn't realise…")

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