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Re: David Mack Dilemma

Posted By: MACK!
Date: THU, 8/2/01, 4:46 p.m.

In Response To: David Mack Dilemma (Josh)

Hello friends, good to hear from you.

First, I'm glad to hear that you and your girlfriend were in the comic shop together. It's always good to hear when couples, friends, or family go to the comic shops and cons together. There is plenty for everyone to enjoy.

I'm also glad to hear that your store manager wears a KABUKI shirt! What a great way for the store to support the comic, and sell more shirts, while exhibiting literary taste and great fashion sense!

I'm also very glad to hear that your store had the KABUKI trades in stock, and was happy to pull one off the shelf and show it to you. Please give your store my warmest regards and please thank them on my behalf for supporting my work.

It is also good to hear that the girl at your school obviously reads my books. So all of that is very encouraging. Thanks for bringing all of these positive points to my attention in your story. And thank you for considering, and looking out for, my interests.

I don’t really want to bring any trouble or embarrassment to this student (probably a well meaning Kabuki reader) or to your school. I'd prefer to look at the bright side of all of this, and consider it as a sort of extra advertising that your school is giving me.

Based on the current info that I have on the subject, I doubt that the use of my character on the cover of your school poetry and art book is diluting or threatening the integrity of my characters, story, or intellectual property. If you believe otherwise, let me know.

There have been situations in the past when other COMICS have asked my permission for them to include my characters in their comics and covers as a selling point to their books, and I declined, and they tried to do it anyway. Then I put a legal and financial stop to it because I felt that the use of my characters (names and likenesses) was not appropriate, against my intentions, and threatened and diluted the integrity of my characters, story, intellectual property, and the place I had carved out for myself in this industry.

But as long as I don’t feel that this is that kind of situation, I’d prefer to look at the bright side of things (of which there are many in your story), and give the student, and the school, the benefit of the doubt.

I know that a lot of students learn to draw from studying other people’s work, and I am generally very happy that my work can help inspire them and help them find their own stepping off point. I know that a lot of student art and poetry is inspired from my Kabuki books, and as long I don’t feel like it threatens or dilutes the integrity of my characters, I try to be understanding and appreciative about it.

: Here is a story a few of you might enjoy.....

: Recently, while my girlfriend and I were moving through
: my local comic store, she and I came across something
: rather disconcerting. I was talking to the clerk, who
: was wearing a Kabuki T-shirt, when my girlfriend burst
: out: "Hey, you've got the cover from Aquilo (our
: school's poetry and arts magazine) on your
: shirt!" Puzzled, I asked the clerk to confirm my
: suspicion that the image was from David Mack's Kabuki,
: which he did. He was nice enough to pull a trade
: paperback from the racks and show us a piece of art
: almost exactly like the one on his shirt, which is the
: exact image on the cover of the annual publication my
: school produces, AND SELLS, every year. We went home,
: confused and very angry, and I decided to put our
: findings on this site.

: http://kpfalk.8k.com/Plagiarism.jpg
: Enclosed is a link to a page my girlfriend, Kathryn Falk,
: made to prove a point. She has scanned both images of
: the cover and credits page of the 2001 Aquilo of
: Williamsville North High School. I urge every one of
: you to look at it and give me some proof that it is
: not, in fact, swiped art. It is David Mack's image
: repainted as exactly as the artist could. The artist
: obviously knew what she was doing when she submitted a
: plainly copied piece of art for publication.

: I would also personally like to bring this to the
: attention of the comics community, to apologize to
: David Mack on behalf of the artist and anyone else
: involved, and ask if there is anything we could do to
: right this situation and stop the school from selling
: any more of this year's Aquilo, seeing as they printed
: hundreds of these and have many more left that they
: plan on selling during the coming year.

: Sincerely,
: -Joshua Cochran.

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