Radical Comics, in response due to plagiarism accusations announced on its official blog that it would be halting distribution and production of mini-series "Incarnate" from Nick Simmons, son of KISS bassist Gene Simmons until the matter is resolved between all concerned parties.

This issue began when several Anime forums and sites began showing a drawing from the comic that looked almost identical to a panel from Japanese comic, Bleach and stated that the comic was outright copying it:

At first, I thought it could've been one of those crazy coincidences, that was until more images from the comic popped up where panels looked almost identical to art and scenes from Bleach as well as various manga titles such as Hellsing and One Piece, things heated up from there as it turned out he also seemd to have copied a drawing found on the Deviantart site as well:

Evelyn Dubocq, Senior Director of Public Relations at Viz Media, the American publisher of the Bleach manga, was quoted as saying:

"We appreciate all our fans bringing this matter to our attention, and we are currently investigating this issue."

Tite Kubo, the author of Bleach, one of the manga titles specifically named, has made a Twitter post twice on the situation, first to comment on the number of people outside of Japan commenting on the accusations and later to note that he is more concerned about the fact that Gene Simmons's son is a comic creator than he is in whether any of his work was actually copied. (Mr. Kubo is possibly joking around, who knows?)

Radical Comics announced halting publication and distribution of the comic on February 25th this year. The company announced the following statment on the official blog:

"We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter. We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry."

Another interesting note is that someone claiming to be "Nick Simmons" posted a series of inflamatory comments on a Facebook page "calling for legal action against Nick Simmons for plagiarism of other works", where that person claimed he never heard of manga, only he pronounced it
"magma". These comments, which have since been removed from the Facebook page, have not been verified by any reputable source as coming from the actual Nick Simmons so it's likely to have been a troll impersonating as Simmons .


The "real" Nick Simmons released the following statement regarding the accusations of plagiarism:

“Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to
artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans
or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium. I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.”

Hmm..... Now then, here are my two cents on this, I'm not going to call Mr. Simmons a plagiarist but I'm just going to say he seems kind of lazy or isn't putting enough effort in his work, many comic artists get inspired all the time but at least they try to make it their own by putting their unique touch, changing angles...etc, while he seems to b just tracing them plus it's not even good looking, I've seen fanart look more professional than the art in this comic and as an Egyptian, I'm really annoyed of Western media portraying Anubis, the Egyptian God Of Judgment (in simple words a God who decides whether one's soul is going to heaven or hell) as an "evil" God Of Death, haven't these guys heard of Google?


Radical halts Nick Simmons' Incarnate amid claims of plagiarism


To see examples of the huge similarities between Simmons art and the ones that "inspired" him:

Gene Simmons' son plagiarisning Bleach?