Photo Source: Gene Simmons' Son Plagiarizing Bleach? (Livejournal)

With the Nick Simmons case doing the rounds, there's no use talking about anything else, is there? Well, here goes.

First of all, let's talk about the Nick Simmons case. Simmons is an artist for a comic book series called Incarnate. Recently, it came to light that he might have been 'borrowing' heavily from his idols. To this effect, fans of various manga series found that the characters depicted in his comics bore a startling resemblance to characters from Bleach, Death Note and a number of others. Folks are looking into the matter and from what I last read, they are not going ahead with his comic until this issue has been sorted out, one way or another. ANN and Manga Blog covers the Simmons news extensively so check it out.

The Simmons case have got folks worked up. On the one hand, people are debating the plagiarism charges, wondering whether this counts as theft of ideas. One side believes that it is quite similar to tracing and he copied stances, facial expressions and whatnot outright so it can't be original. Hence, it is stealing, they say.

Others are saying that it might not be as clear cut as all that. By the way, in most cases, these guys are standing up for the instances of derived work as opposed to defending Simmons himself. Thing is, when you talk about 'borrowing of ideas', you will also be covering derivative works. Ones that took an element or aspect of another idea and gave it a new life. I think Richard Cheese counts as a perfect example of this, don't you? Or Weird Al?

Since I am not familiar with Incarnate, it is not entirely fair to make a judgment on it. After all, I have not read the comics, I don't know how he is portraying the characters, what kind of traits he has given to various folks, etc. Having said that, I must say that, from the snapshots being featured online, the case doesn't weigh in his favor. It does look like he might be using the character traits of his idols' works to add a bit of personality or even a bit of va-va-voom to his characters. You know, rather than breathing a bit of life into his inspired-works. And this is where I have a problem with his 'borrowing'. Take his Kenpachi rip-off. When you look at the Bleach character and his 'inspired' one, doesn't the same personality traits come to mind? That of a formidable warrior who is not afraid of a good fight? In fact, looks like he created the atmosphere and mood for the stories using cues from the manga. Check this LiveJournal link for detailed comparisons.

The reason this case makes me sad also has to do with why he incorporated these aspects into his own work. Fine, he argues that he has been inspired by these works but these are not conscious tributes. Or at least something along those lines. Am I just cynical in thinking that maybe, just maybe, he thought he could take a cool idea and make it better just by 'making it more accessible' to a Western audience? I should hope not. To elaborate, you know how Hollywood producers fall in love with a foreign flick but decide that it must be remade into a Hollywood flick? Not dubbed or subbed but made again? With some semblance left behind but done with tweaking so as to make it less 'out there'. Less out of our comfort zone, out of our area of what is normal for us. Think Quarantine, that flop of a horror flick that was an exact remake of the Spanish version. Another example would be the controversy surrounding the main character, Faith, for the game The Mirror's Edge. The original character was this funky, athletic girl who strikes the viewer as a feisty fighter. Fan art changed it into the stereotypical male fantasy, one that is more identifiable for some audiences.

Well, let's see how this pans out. For now, it looks like this case is being used for arguing all sorts of issues, from plagiarism and derivative works to piracy. Oh boy!