FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
POST POP-ARTIST, TODD GOLDMAN, CONTROVERSAL PAINTING
CLEARWATER, FL, April 11, 2007- Popular post pop-artist, Todd Goldman who has made a career of making fun of the world with his sarcastic commentary and cartoon icons, has mistakenly used the design of an another artist in two of his recent paintings. Todd’s painting, “Dear God, Please Make Everyone Die”, was inspired from a drawing he received unbeknownst to him belonging to an underground web comic artist David “Shmorky” Kelly.
In addition to painting, Todd designs t-shirts for his clothing company, David & Goliath. Todd and his design team create and receive thousands of design ideas every month. It’s no secret that Goldman creates a lot of his painting ideas from his t-shirt designs. Goldman says “I made a judgment error and didn’t research the background of this particular submission. “My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else’s idea.”
Goldman has issued a formal apology to Mr. Kelly and has stated that he will not be using his design again in the future. As a gesture of good faith, Goldman has pledged not profit from his mistake. He will instead donate his proceeds from the painting directly to Mr. Kelly or his charity of choice.
Typical lies and transparent ass-coveration, and the spelling error in the headline is hurting my soul. The attempt made by the PR department to soften the blow by replacing "TRACED" with "INSPIRED" is delightfully weaselminded.
The :TODD: account of events contradicts pretty much all the facts, and a decent chunk of common sense in the bargain, but it's good enough to be getting on with. Underneath the bullshit and spin is a nice little win for the good guys of the interbutt against the Cockfaces of unoriginality and swine.
Furthermore, :TODD: has confessed to being an unoriginal twat who uses other people's ideas and then graciously accepts credit for the work. This is nothing short of comedy gold, and my personal favorite part of the entire confession. It spells death for :TODD:'s obnoxious blathering about he's just so zany and cree8tive that he doesn't even look outside his own head for influences. And that's awesome, because that fucking PR spiel really needed killing.
His 'tude still lacks the humbleness appropriate for a man who is essentially confessing to being an artless consumer-pleasuring drone, is at least a start. I'm sure he'll learn fast; that's where the money is.
Speaking of moolah, Shmorky's going to be recieving a bunch of it for the (at least) three instances of his Purple Pussy art being redrawn and sold as an original painting. There may very well be others, but I don't expect Cockface would volunteer that information of his own free will after he barely managed to apologize for the known rips. And so begins the digging!
The amount Shmorky is due just for the known paintings totals more than $11,000, not counting any other miscellaneous good faith gestures (such as asshole tax, hush money, tithing and lawyer fees) that they may also choose to offer while he has the company bent over the kitchen table with an apple stuffed between the teeth. Not bad back-pay for a webcomic that ended several years ago, eh?
Shmorky plans to accept the full amount himself and will donate a portion of it to charity later, so that Cockface won't be able to deduct the donation from his own taxes. Nice try, dude, but you can't win on Apple Day.
Meanwhile, the rest of the internet has smelled blood and the rest of the wronged artists will soon be taking their own bites out of Goldman's vast fortune of ill-gotten gains. I wish them the best of luck.
Meanwhile meanwhile, the Battle of Myspace ended in blood and honor last night when the SA goon who registered the abandoned username switched tactics and deleted the account himself, re-releasing the name for registration. Then he re-re-registered the username and locked Cockface out of it permanently. Goodbye, hax!
Maybe Cockface will wise up and go directly to MySpace this time to ask for his username back--which I doubt they'll allow, after he used it to send furry porn to kids.
On a more personal front, this affair has made me hyper-aware of just how much snatching goes on with internet-based T-shirt/sticker/logo stores. I had no idea it was so rampant, although I always figured there was a risk of rippers.
Now that I've stepped into that world myself with about 80 original slogans, I feel like I should wise up and be more proactive about protecting my rights. I'd hate to be the little guy crushed by big business, even if this week has shown clearly that the little guy sometimes wins.
ETA: Here's the newspaper article we were promised. Not bad, although it bugs me when newspaper writers publish quotes from bloggers but don't bother to attribute them.
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