If you’ll allow me to mount a soapbox for a minute… I take what I do very seriously (despite the very unserious subject matter I usually tackle) and I work very hard at it, so when I come across things like this…

… they tend to spike the Rage-o-Meter a bit. Ok, a lot. The one on the left is by an “artist” from Saskatoon who goes by the moniker The Other Guy and the one on the right is my original. Upon further inspection of his website there are a ton of paintings created by referencing my work, as well as work from Matthew Ryan Sharp and others.

The Other Guy rip < Matthew Ryan Sharp original

The Other Guy rip < Farkfk original

The Other Guy rip < my original Mean Drunk Munny

While it is an honor to inspire creativity in others it is extremely disheartening to see someone take your work and ideas, claim them as their own and then put them online for sale.

I thought twice about posting this online, but after seeing that unsuspecting people are purchasing these wonky knockoffs from him I thought it was something I should address. Free life lesson… this is NOT OK.

via an interview with The Other Guy on Uramyx

The Other Guy :: Tumblr :: Twitter :: Facebook

UPDATE (7.18.2012) - He has since reached out with an apology and taken the work offline, so hopefully he will learn from his mistakes and go on to develop his own unique characters and paintings.