Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:24PM6 comments ›
Thu Feb 28, 2008 — by Rick Marshall
'Y: The Last Man' and 'Transmetropolitan' - Plagiarized?
This changes... everything!
With all the recent talk of creators getting ripped off, here's another one for the old "Things That Make Me Shake My Fist Angrily" pile.
According to the ever-vigilant mightygodking.com, Y: The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, Fables and various other fan-favorite titles were all based on old Silver Age comics -- and the site is chock full o' proof!
Unsurprisingly, the writer of Yorick, The Last Man On Earth was a woman: Sally Polenti, a trailblazer in the comics field and almost totally unknown today. Her work on Yorick is more soap-opera-ish, perhaps, than Brian K. Vaughan’s - but then again, she also doesn’t have any of those Trivial Pursuit factoids Vaughan seems compelled to insert into any and all narratives he writes. And if you thought Vaughan’s depiction of the longing between 355 and Yorick was hot - well, Polenti’s positively smolders. Plus, mad scientists in just about every issue.
Seriously, though, the Photoshop skills are strong with this one. Color me impressed.
(via TheBeat)
Jump to comments (6) 
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Comments (6)
J. Andrew World (1:18 PM on Fri Feb 29, 2008)
I think "Plagiarized" is a harsh word in some of those cases. That is saying that Frank Miller "Plagiarized" Bob Kane in "The Dark Night Returns." Niel Gaiman has always said that Sandman was based on an old DC Comic, we just assumed he was talking about the golden age Sandman. I think that this blog post is the begining of a very interesting essay...
Rick Marshall (1:34 PM on Fri Feb 29, 2008)
Umm... These are Photoshop parodies.... like it says in the article.
Sorry for the confusion, I guess.
J. Andrew World (7:46 PM on Fri Feb 29, 2008)
I didn't finish reading the article, I jumped right to the site. My bad.
Rick Marshall (10:05 PM on Fri Feb 29, 2008)
No worries. I just wasn't sure how to break the news easiest that it actually a parody. That's ALWAYS an awkward revelation.
But you DID have a point about the inspiration for popular series.
J. Andrew World (11:50 PM on Fri Feb 29, 2008)
Often (myself included) Artists and writers find insperation in already created works. Nirvana's "Smells like Teenspirit" guitar hook is from Boston's "More than a Feeling". In fact in music, you can often see where things are spawned from. New Yorker magazine did a great article talking about what I have come to call "Creative Evolution."
A perfect exsample of that is Harry Potter. JK Rawling has admited that she was inspired in 1990, the same year "Books of Magic" came out. Obviously she used Neil Gaiman's story as a jumping off point and built up her entire mythology around the comic. She has never said anything publicly about the books of magic. However, this is the same as Nirvana and Boston.
That parody was done all to well!
Vinnie Bartilucci (8:20 PM on Fri Feb 29, 2008)
I think we all know that Y: The Last Man was lifted from the Rowdy Roddy Piper classic "Hell Comes to Frogtown"...