Watching his machinations, Laurence Olivier asked Richard Burton "Dear boy, do you want to be a great actor, or do you want to be a movie star?" Burton replied "Both."

JB, I'm not a fan of Godland or even really know of this guy's artwork but I think comparing swipes and his open nod/inspiration of Kirby is apples and oranges.

What he's doing is, to me, an obvious homage and/or tribute to the King.  I can see how it could also be viewed as riding Kirby's coat tails but I can give you an example of that which is much more fitting.  Ever hear of a painter named Mike Hoffman?  He's a blatant Frazetta clone but staunchly denies being influenced by FF.  His whole career is based on swiping Frazetta and acting like he came up with it himself.

The Godland stuff doesn't fall into that category for me.  I don't begrudge him and the fans who want more Kirby style comics to read.  If he was calling it his own or if Kirby was still around I wouldn't feel the same. 

Another example of the "bad" way to do it would be early...and even current Terry Dodson.  I really like his work but it's really just Adam Hughes-lite.  I can see how he was able make a pretty good career out of aping AH since AH rarely does a monthly style book.  Tom Derenick's another guy that hasn't really made that progression to his own style.  He's an Alan Davis clone, which is a great source of inspiration, but TD hasn't moved on. 

Trying to come up with another acceptable(to me) example, I thought of Carmine Infantino.  If I had the ability, I would love to be able to mimmick his unique art from the late '70's as a tribute to him and a way to see "new" art in that style.  As long as it was done as an open tribute to Carmine and his style, I don't see the downside.  Money isn't being taken out of the original artist's pocket and fans get to enjoy a style and memories of a great artist.

I disagree.

QUOTE: It makes me sad inside to see Fegredo's style disappear under Mignola's like that.

Sheesh, I looked this guy's name up and he been around a while!  I wonder why I've only recently learned his name.  Interesting.

Anyway, I can't comment on his submerging his style but I will say that it's nice to see the return of Hellboy's shoulders.

"Thievery is done by artists people dislike.
Homages are done by artists people respect. "

A homage is starting a Beatles tribute band. Swiping is trying to pass the songs off as your own. (or parts of them.)

Other artistic fields have standards and legal precedents that draw the line between "swiping" (plagiarism) and influence.  The comics field lacks legal deliberations beyond copyrights, trademarks and corporate concerns.

This has led to a greater pragmatic acceptance of swipes, one that could establish common law precedents, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't argue an ethical stance against swipes and seek to find definitions of what is and is not ethically acceptable that would set an industry standard (informal though it may be). And we should clearly express outrage against those who overstep the ethical boundaries. (providing those boundaries are set correctly)

The problem is that as long as definitions are too loose, people are more inclined to forgive their favourites and condemn those they don't like.

"Thievery is done by artists people dislike.
Homages are done by artists people respect. "

I couldn't disagree more.  Homages are clear as long as you are not intentionally trying to be obtuse.   Again, it is obvious that JB's use of the Mole Man's monster coming out of the ground on a cover, and variants, (while perhaps too often for some people) is clearly an homage to FF#1.  Swiping the composition of a panel or page layout and superimposing your drawings is the so-called thievery.

Again to use the often maligned Rob Liefeld as an example, when he obviously used panel and page layouts over and over again instead of coming up with his own, he is swiping.  However, I believe that certain aspects, such as the classicalk scenes from Ronin he mimicked or the cover where Sunspot is leaving New Mutants are homages.  I don't like the guys art, but not everything he did was a swipe.

Now the dude who is out there tracing porn and putting it in comics just has bad taste.

QUOTE: While Erik has expressed affection and admiration for JB's work, he's also been critical and I seem to recall JB and he have a history.  Certainly the GODLAND thread has been pretty tense.  Though I'm curious about some of these too, it seems to me it's JB's board and he should be free to choose what questions he answers.

I think you meant this post for another thread.

Now the dude who is out there tracing porn and putting it in comics just has bad taste.

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Greg Land has become almost as infamous as Mr. Liefeld at this point.  That being said, I'm a huge fan of his work on Sojourn and have liked his other projects after his transition to his photo-referenced style.  Didn't like him when I met him but his work is still good to me.

Even after seeing all of the oft-used reference photos and "porn-positions" I don't get taken out of the story when looking at his stuff.  The porn thing is something that I never saw and sometimes even after people pointed it out.  The characters may be in "obvious"...<ahem>positions or facial expressions but they never came across as vulgar in comics form when I read them initially.  And, although not a conesseur perhaps, I'm not unfamiliar with adult related material.