Author: Rick Marshall

The Jess Fink / Hot Topic rip-off scandal continues to evolve, and recently spilled over into the world of Fleen, where the popular webcomic blog’s mustachioed marksman, Gary Tyrrell, took aim at the clothing company and provided some helpful information for those looking to pepper Hot Topic with bullets of justice and, well… I think this metaphor has pretty much run its course.

First, Tyrrell provides a handy little example of history repeating itself when it comes to comic creators getting ripped off by t-shirt sellers.

For “Shmorky”, substitute “Jess Fink“. For “Todd Goldman”, substitute “Hot Topic“. For my take on the whole situation, allow me to quote Kris Straub on one of the past iterations of Wikimesses:

That’s pretty goddamn weak.

In a subsequent post, Tyrrell offers up some suggestions for resolution that, unlike many suggestions offered up by the online masses, do not involve burning each and every store to the ground and dancing a celebratory jig in the ashes. Tyrrell later updates his call to action and coverage of the whole mess with additional, more appropriate contact information for Hot Topic and even a few talking points.

The last of these posts prompted quite a bit of discussion, including one comment from an alleged buyer for Hot Topic who claimed that the situation "is being handled." Over on Fink’s site, however, [WARNING: NSFW Content Featuring Soaps and Butts and Elijah Wood] the situation certainly doesn’t sound like it’s "being handled."

Disney’s Ratatouille won out over Marjane Satrapi’s critically praised graphic novel adaptation Persepolis in the "Animated Feature Film" category during tonight’s Academy Awards.

Oscar.com has posted an image from the pre-show survey filled out by Satrapi’s co-creator on the Persepolis film, cartoonist Vincent Paronnaud, who apparently wanted to become a clown and a priest when he was young, and finally decided that cartooning was a "good compromise between the two."

Popular adult-oriented cartoonist Jess Fink is mad as hell, apparently — and she’s not going to take it anymore.

After a fan alerted her to a suspicously familiar t-shirt design advertised on chain clothing store Hot Topic’s website, Fink  is on a mission to prevent the store from selling any more shirts with the design that, she claims, is clearly ripped from art she created. Since she was already selling shirts with the design, Fink is looking to pursue legal action against Hot Topic.

The response from Hot Topic, according to Fink’s LJ site, was less than satisfying:

Basically they are not taking much responsibility and blaming it on the fact that they hire freelancers from time to time but that :

"It is my poiicy to encourage freelancers to use the free Getty photo images as reference points & we also use sketches from the Japanese free clip art books, which have inanimate objects with cute faces & legs etc. which are also very similar to the soap."

I’m sorry but I really don’t think this design is coincidentally or simply inspired by clip art. Things right down to the pose of the character and the look of the feet and hands are the same, even the color. I do not know if you know this guys, but most soap is white. Why not make your rip off soap blue or white? I am not trying to give any ideas to any further assholes, I am trying to point out how blatantly similar this crap is.

In the wake of this discovery, one of Fink’s fans created an animated banner for supporters to post around the InterWebs, which she’s made available on her site.

(via TheBeat)

Moon Knight creator and noted Batman scribe Doug Moench celebrates his birthday today. Moench’s byline has adorned hundreds of issues through the years, including work for DC, Marvel and various other publishers of comics and magazines.

He’s the man who made Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu a hit, and the architect behind many of Batman’s Elseworlds battles with vampires, werewolves and, on one occasion, the creature who gave Ah-nuld a run for his money: the Predator.

A personal favorite of mine, Moench’s run The Spectre was my first introduction to the writer, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

Here at ComicMix, we hope you have a great birthday, Doug!