I am a “Shameless” Thief

 I have a google alert on “Bearman Cartoons” and “beartoons” just in case anyone gives me a shout out that I was unaware of.   On Monday, I had an alert and  clicked on the link to see this Entry:

Bearman Cartoons Shamelessly Copies Me.

The Herbert TSA cartoon over at Bearman cartoon is dated November 21, 2010. I published mine November 12. A major political cartoon flagrantly copied me!! By Dr B

The same day a similar comment was posted on the pic (I initially missed it because I don’t tend to look for comments on the pic page but rather the blog page).

So for comparison here are Dr. B’s and my cartoons:

Editorial Cartoon: TSA Pat Down

Now at first glance you might think “Bearman, you ARE Shameless.  However there are several things that must be corrected in his post.

Shameless – In order to be shameless, there has to be something you should be shameful for and choose to do it anyway.  Because I never saw his cartoon until this week, that would be impossible.   I use google images for reference pictures when I draw celebrities or characters.   Nowhere in the top 100 images of “Herbert, Family Guy” did this image pop up.  In fact, in the past, I have abandoned ideas when similar cartoons showed up in a reference search.

 I did a long post on the topic (last year) of how and why several cartoonists coming up with the same idea.  In short  talks about how certain events in the news can drum up similar gags.  September 11 caused many cartoonists to draw the Statue of Libery crying.  Similarly when you think about the TSA potentially hiring creepy guys to perform pat downs, Herbert is on a short list of creepy guys (also to possibly include Ron Jeremy, David Hasselhoff, and the Burger King guy). 

Now “shameless” are the people who have been copying my wrestling signs and holding them up at WWE events without plastering my URL all over them to drive  some traffic over here.

Major Cartoon(ist) – I love this adjective but once again doesn’t apply to me.  One might assume that in order to be a “major cartoon(ist)”, I would have to be making some money off this venture.

Artwork – Obviously if you look at his artwork and then mine, There is a BIG difference.  He can draw perspective and I suck at it.

Now to his credit after I responded to his comment here, he did back down and even took the word “shameless” off his post…yet “flagrant” still remains..haha.  Keep up the good work Dr B. and now that I know you are out there, I’ll be stealing crap from you from now own.

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53 Responses to “I am a “Shameless” Thief”

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  1. Lynn and Rip says:

    well personally speaking, yours is waay better in a number of ways. the lotion thing hit a home run in my book whereas his is jsut a generic representation of herbert only! oh and the fact that you depicted herbert with the posture of a jumbo shrimp is a more accurate description of that character… but the icing on the cake was that last sentence. i love it!

  2. Mel says:

    You’ll be stealing crap from him? That’s right, his drawing looks like crap. Way better than what I could draw but nothing compared to what you drew.

    I’ll have to look into these Google alerts.

  3. CDowd says:

    Shame on you you shameless major cartoonist!

  4. jb says:

    Parents Hide your son. And make sure there not a papper boy.

  5. Friggin Loon says:

    Blahahaha and here you were bitching about me stealing stories 🙂 . Hmm, anywho, WTF is MR B and who gave him the right to pick on the Bearman. I have the right mind to send him a Susi Spice yogurt loaf. Dunbo!

  6. MJ says:

    Woot! Cartoon yahtzee! Woo Hoo! Hey it happens. Is that guy serious though?

  7. Yours is better.

    And I’m an expert.

  8. I would have loved to see the Burger King creepy guy. Do that one too!

  9. tut tut tut 😀
    Yours is way more imaginative

  10. Goeber says:

    The cartoons do look similar, but are different in many ways.

  11. Tony says:

    Your toon out ranks him heaps BM. Wow I am a fan of a major cartoonist.

  12. Bo Lumpkin says:

    See how popular you are. You are showin’ up all over everyone’s site. I have no idea who this Herbert guy is but it amazes me that people think they are the only ones to think of an idea that is all over TV. You just have to do something with the Creepy Burger King though.

  13. jynksie says:

    With the sheer volume of cartoonists out there, similar content is a given. All one has to do is read a simple weeks worth of themed editorial cartoons to see how easy it is to overlap ideas.

    I hereby declare that Dr. B may no longer use the word “major” and “flagrant” in a sentence. He got it wrong on both counts. o.O (*zing*)

    In fact, I declare that before he goes accusing people of “stealing”, he reach out like a civilized person and have an adult, mature discussion with the other person before “ASS-uming” there was malicious intent! Bad Dr. B— BAD! You won’t be able to play in our comicing reindeer games if you’re gonna flick your bleepin beacon in your peers faces like that.

    • Bearman says:

      It is funny though…anyone who does single panel gags these days either stole every idea from the Far Side or the New Yorker. (or in my case…readers digest)

      • Binky says:

        That’s so true. I think Gary Larson is an excellent cartoonist and very original, but far too many people attribute the crazy animal cartoon genre to him, and he didn’t invent it. It’s as if no one thinks there were cartoons before about 1980.

  14. I have checked the number of comments at this blog and the “alleged original post”. It is 27:1 in bearmans favour… nuff said.

    • Bearman says:

      Well that is because I have worked hard to cultivate this following. Now for those who have a blog, if I stopped commenting there, I am sure 90% would stop commenting here.

  15. If you use Dr. B’s logic, everybody who draws Barack Obama is a plagiarist. They all look like Barack Obama.

  16. George says:

    Did this guy actually have to put you on blast for this? With millions of cartoonists out there having accessibility to instantly broadcast their work, there is bound to be many similarities. There are probably at least a dozen guys who used Herb in the same way, but just don’t have the tags to locate them.

    In any social transformation (i.e. 911, TSA, celebrity faux pas…) there are bound to be some repeats of information. I think this guy just wants to fan controversy and ride the coattails of your numbers. I run into lots of guys in our own webcomic world who may create a comic so similar to one I’ve done before, but I’m like so? They’re not costing me any of that “big bank” I don’t get. The only one I put on blast is you. And that’s outta love and the joy of watching you scramble for a piss-poor excuse, you thief! 😀

  17. Colleen Dick says:

    He may have some perspective but your shading and posture is way better. Hell, Scott Adams often does a Dilbert that is a very similar idea to one of my old toonlet sketches (and I know he couldn’t have seen them because virtually nobody sees them even though they are online) but yes there is a whole philosophy about when the time is right for an idea it will occur to a whole bunch of people independently.

  18. If you’re going to be flagrant you might as well be shameless too.

  19. SpilledInkGuy says:

    I however, am shameless enough for both of us, Bearman. 🙂

  20. Jande says:

    Didn’t have time to read any of the other comments, but I wanted to say that your version is a much better… ahem… artistic rendering of the situation. (he needs to work on his perspective, as well as his attitude) lol

Trackbacks

  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by OutLoudLaughing, Mel. Mel said: Crap Drawings and Bearman drawings: http://t.co/N5Xajgd via @bearmancartoons […]

  2. […] I am a “Shameless” Thief: Bearman cartoons gets accused of stealing really crappy cartoons.  I don’t think he stole but let’s assume he did.  We have to ask the question why.  I think he saw a crappy cartoon that needed to be improved.  That’s if I thought he did it. […]





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