"Again though--you have John Byrne composing entire issues of Namor in
order to include flashbacks to stories which the vast majority of the
readers would be unfamiliar with or have limited access to. Like the 13-
year old unfamiliar with Frank Miller's Ronin, you'd have a big chunk of
the reading audience thinking "that awesome drawing came straight out
of that artist's head."

One could argue that there really isn't a huge difference. Both artists are
taking a shortcut--both audiences could easily be clued in given access
to the source material. "

The difference between the two examples is that in Namor the homage is within the context of the subject matter (Namor / Sub-Mariner / Invaders.) New Mutants doens't have much to do with Ronin.

When I first discovered all the multitude of swipes out there by Liefeld, I was appalled.  Hand in the air admittance, I was a fan when he first started on New Mutants, so its not a case of liking or disliking the artist.  I think there are many many swipes that are clearly swipes in his work.  The Heli-Carrier is an out and out tracing.  But, big but here, I would actually cut him some slack on the Ronin homages if it weren't for the clear and consistent pattern within his work.

Clearly if someone redraws a scene for a flashback, that's not a swipe.  If you think it is, then you have to answer why, for what purpose?  Obviously that artist is evoking the same scene and could reasonably expect fans to recall the book in question, therefore there is no chance to hide it.

Clearly repeating an iconic cover with variations is meant to evoke a memory.  What constitues an iconic cover might be up for discussion in some cases.  I personally don't think the Superman cover is "iconic", that Jonah Hex cover was an out and out swipe.  But obviously FF#1, AF#15, UXM GS#1 and numerous others being copied are merely the artist comparing the situation and story to the previous one.

John, in Erik's defense,

(1) Quoting past positions is unfair. We've all said things at one time or another that have proven sadly incorrect. You are not immune to this effect, I'm sure. I'm also sure Erik no longer maintains this position although he could if he wanted to.

(2) You're expressing a perception which I don't share: that Erik is being "deliberately at counterpoint". I have spent enough time on his own forum to see that he likes to debate as well as express his opinion in this fashion and is not looking to make trouble.

Debates are healthy people. If you really wanna punish yourselves read some Plato. And I'm no closer to being satisfied about what constitutes a swipe then when I first started reading this thread, I've just moved on asking for clarification.

QUOTE: Mike Mignola. Kevin Nowlan. Alan Davis.

Do you mean these artists are aped or that they aped others?  Just for clarification.

Edit: gotcha; thanks for clarifying your original post.