Recently we reported on the upcoming April 2021 release of Aliens Omnibus 1 from Marvel. Kicking off the reprints of older Dark Horse titles had us impressed with its line up featuring a number of more rare comics which have never been previously collected.
In Marvel’s announcement, we saw the direct market cover featuring the original series artwork of Mark A. Nelson, with news that we’d be seeing the primary cover art for the volume by Marvel artist Greg Land sometime soon.
The artwork was shared on twitter exclusively from Near Mint Condition:
Exclusive first look! Get a sneak peek at not one but TWO covers for @Marvel #Aliens Omnibus! Standard edition cover art is from #GregLand and the Direct Market cover art is from #MarkANelson #Marvel #marvelomnibus #aliensomnibus #coverart pic.twitter.com/Nw5J2GOsfH
— Near Mint Condition (@NearMintCon) August 31, 2020
Having not been familiar with Greg Land’s work myself, I honestly thought the cover looked decent enough, until some concerning information started to surface on Twitter…
It’s become clear that Greg Land has ‘swiped’ (plagiarized) the cover using the artwork of one of the most celebrated Alien comic artists in recent years: Tristan Jones.
Been stewing on this all night: I’m 100% sure I’ve been Greg Landed.
His cover for Marvel’s upcoming omnibus + my drawings.
I saw this on IG and recognised the hands right away. Then the rest. Photoshop’s snap function even locked my work in when I put it over his
Am I crazy? pic.twitter.com/tabHPrfKmt
— Tristan Jones (@WallMeatJones) September 1, 2020
Community member SizzyBubbles noticed a similarity with the Alien egg in the piece as well. I checked it in Photoshop and sure enough, the lines matched up exactly. It’s the life-sized NECA Alien egg.
Negative sentiments on this copycat art have been making the rounds on Twitter, with solidarity for Jones shown from fellow industry artists.
Ben Templesmith, co-creator of ’30 Days of Night’
Marvel should really hire @WallMeatJones Jones to do a bunch of Alien things. He is fantastic at it. He is technically doing Alien stuff for them though, just via another artist. This is not good. Pretty horrible swipe. Hope he donates some of his fee for the cover to Tristan… https://t.co/UcAO4zfax6
— Ben Templesmith (@Templesmith) September 1, 2020
Dave Rapoza, Marvel and Magic: The Gathering Artist
Follow the saga where they discover where each thing is taken from, the egg is the most recent discovery https://t.co/bcjHAbu57V
— Dave Rapoza (@DaveRapoza) September 1, 2020
RJ Palmer, Contributor to Titan Books ‘Alien: 40 Years 40 Artists’
What a day for shitty art thief tracing huh? @marvel it is unacceptable that you continue to employ Greg Land. There are so many better artists who should be doing his job. https://t.co/TTy33EfBch
— RJ Palmer (motel livin’) (@arvalis) September 1, 2020
And those are just a select few. The fanbase isn’t particularly happy about this either. Greg Land has a controversial history in the comics industry, with his Wikipedia page introduction noting:
“Land has been criticized for the extent to which he relies on photographic reference for his art, and for his repetitive use of certain facial templates and poses when rendering characters.”
Fandom Wiki site Marvel Database describes his history as such:
Brian Cronin of Comic Book Resources remarked that Land’s art in Uncanny X-Men #510 is “possibly has the most harmful art to a story that I’ve seen in a comic,” saying that the Land’s limited supply of poses and use of the same models for multiple characters “results in terrible art and particularly terrible storytelling.”
Although the use of photographs as models is long established in comic book art, Land has been accused of going beyond the accepted bounds of photo use. Land’s layouts and poses were so distinctive, detailed and repetitive that critics suspected that Land was lifting photos into his pages outright and using minimal Photoshoping to alter the picture and make the work appear an original drawing. Land says that he does Google searches for references, but denies accusations that he does digital manipulations which has since been proven untrue by various factors on the Internet, who have taken his pictures and post them over posters, movie stills, porno images, his own work and other comic book art to showcase that he has traced them indefinitely.
There are currently a number of people who have petitions and groups dedicated to have him fired by Marvel, though Joe Quesada had stated that he wouldn’t fire him because it would be unfair to Land.
This is a misstep for Marvel with the Alien license, damaging what was increasingly good-will from fans after the impressive Omnibus line up announcement. The appropriate action in our view would be that this cover art be pulled and an apology is given to Tristan Jones. Here’s hoping this is the last we see of Land’s involvement with the Alien property for Marvel.
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Unless, you didn't sign anything, and someone just took it, as per the current situation whereby Marvel appropriated Tristan Jones' work.
Musicians ARE artists.
It really comes down to your agreement prior to starting the work.
I don't really see how this one can be considered Marvel's fault.
If they were legally required to pay royalties, they would. If they're not doing it, it implies artists don't have the same rights as music creators, in which case it's the law that's the issue and not Marvel. And as someone (I forget who, sorry) pointed out earlier in this thread, Dark Horse apparently didn't pay all their contributors royalties further down the line, and I don't see anyone criticising them for doing exactly the same thing.
Can't believe people still unironically whip out that "woke" crap.
https://i.gifer.com/Bdva.gif
No need to attack your fellow fans dude. It's not cool.
https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/3/a0/5991fa03329b7/clean.jpg
That is a man named Captain America punching actual Hitler in the face during World War II.
1: Marvel stealing designs from fans, examples, ships, charachters, lore ideas etc from fans for years especielly in the star wars franschise but also happened in their other ips.
2: Not giving artist money by royalties, as artist do have the same rights as music creators but its rare here.
3: their whole disrespect for previous comic makers as if all they did was bad and their own comics will be amazing(when doing the same ideas).
4: How marvel have become political aware and woke with their old franschises which turned me and others away as they redid iron man and others, now they focus on new charachters named snowflake, boomer etc and changing what we older fans loved, yes im an old marvel fan from the 80s.(ok that maybe dont count as old)
5: Plagiarism, and in the alien related tristians design being used and traced and copied and marvel allows such behaviour and done so for a long time and its not just one artist.
Ok if one only look at it from alien related then marvel havent done much wrong but I look at marvel from what they were and how they behave overall, a official excuse/apology from marvel on this and improvment on what happened with tristian would improve things on my end but as you wrote: nothing will happen from this and Im 80% sure we will see marvel do something similair in the coming year or 2 years, maybe some fans alien design they like and use and then claim as their own or similair is my guess now.
What will likely happen though, is Mr. Land will do it again, and there will be a similar response. This will create a significant body of evidence that proves his actions were numerous through their precedents. At that time, legal action should be easier, and perhaps done in concert as a class action in partnership with other victims.
Who are the "schills"?
Hallucinating much? Lol. A lot of new schills in here. Dude, until they change the cover, apologize, and also hire Tristan and fire the scumbag who made that crap, here's my answer to the wackjobs at Marvel and Disney: just replace things with wackos.
Four issues doesn't automatically make it a good story.
That said, Tristan getting ripped off aside, the over the top anti-Marvel sentiment is a bit dumb at this point.
After Berserker from 1995 to 1999 they couldn't even muster up a four-part series, just mediocre 2 and 3-parters and nine one-shots. After Destroying Angels they had four years of low-quality crossovers 1999-2003 (Green Lantern, Superman II, Judge Dredd II, Batman II). Followed up by 6 years of no content whatsoever 2003-2009. I love where DH was going the past few years with unproduced screenplays and tie-ins to the originals, and I trusted them more than Marvel, but it's too early to judge and it's certainly not impossible to do better than DH (even after this cover fiasco).
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7d6993df-3d77-4fbb-878f-4afdb136d515/de55c9r-a49f644e-2ab9-4baf-8921-3bdb083cc6aa.jpg/v1/fill/w_896,h_892,q_70,strp/yes_please_meme_by_warrior1944_de55c9r-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD0xMjc1IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvN2Q2OTkzZGYtM2Q3Ny00ZmJiLTg3OGYtNGFmZGIxMzZkNTE1XC9kZTU1YzlyLWE0OWY2NDRlLTJhYjktNGJhZi04OTIxLTNiZGIwODNjYzZhYS5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.V0r-mCBzkEpuZUIKAOb_EZQ_Hn2jMfYKzsHcaKFL5-E
But as I see many will buy the marvel collection I doubt it, but the alien franschise was its best at dark horse and as they say: they kept the franschise alive on their own and not treating it like Marvel do or the past artists and how they behave as a corporation.
...and if there are no changes to the cover, this discomfort will be overshadowed by the weight of conscience on the chest...
Expensive at the moment though and also the cover is wrong. So be careful as I guarantee that will change soon and you may end up with that awful Land cover. Like i have said before, Amazon don't get the DM variants.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1302928155/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I'm willing to bet they won't. From what I've heard Land was caught before by Marvel fans and I'd guess that Marvel comic fanbase is much larger and NOISER than Alien's
Ironic indeed. I don't think the old man imagined what his company would become
*Slow Claps* Well Done Greg Land *Slow Claps*
what a dick
Also im actually looking forward to reading the full version of Countdown.
Once they sort the omnibus cover of course
I find it ironic in one sense. Walt Disney early on in his career created a comic character called Oswald the Rabbit (before Mickey Mouse). It became very popular at the time. Made someone lots of money. He didn't own it even though he created it. After that experience he made sure he "owned" his creations. I would think he would side with Tristen Jones on this if he was still here. This is from memory so if I mixed up something apologies I didnt Google it. My memory is not as good as a computer's.
But then again its to be expected as the white slavers: disney has once again got under the spotlight of treating their workers badly and even using concentration camp prisoners in the making of mulan movie....and reports from the lion king and how the production of star wars movies shows what we can expect from disney and marvel.
Cant say im feeling safe for what they will do with the alien franschise and so far theres only signs for the worse and reports of reboot of the alien franchise with new ripley and making aliens v2 movies....
And wouldnt call that collection great as its already released in dark horse collections besides countdown which is to me unknown comic that is easy to find on the web for those who want it that badly but it wont be an excuse for marvel in how they treat previous artists and what they are doing, for me.
Um... No.
It's a bad cover artist for an otherwise great collection.
The franchise will live.
This 1000%
Guy should have his own Alien series going.
Wow, haven't been here for months. Who's this Land dude, wtf? Marvel hired this jerk off? From his wikipedia page:
Plagiarism accusations
Land has been accused of going beyond the accepted bounds of photographic reference, lifting images from sources that include hardcore pornography, and copying them into his pages outright with minimal Photoshop alterations to make the work appear to be an original drawing, a reputation he developed from his work on Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate Power. Land has agreed that he does employ photo reference to a large extent, and that he uses pornography as a source, but denies that the extent to which he does so is questionable. The A.V. Club included him in their 2009 list of "21 artists who changed mainstream comics (for better or worse)" for this reason.[1]
Commenting on Land's work on Uncanny X-Men #510, Brian Cronin of CBR.com remarked that the issue "possibly has the most harmful art to a story that I've seen in a comic," saying that Land's limited supply of poses and use of the same models for multiple characters "results in terrible art and particularly terrible storytelling."[2] He was also mocked for his limited use of facial expressions on the Thing.[3]
Land has also been accused of directly swiping art from other comics artists, and is considered "notorious" for tracing his art from other sources[4] to the point where some fans make a hobby of finding the original sources Land traced for his art.[5]
Land's art for Marvel's Aliens Omnibus was pointed out by artist Tristan Jones as containing direct copies of various pieces of Jones' own Aliens artwork.[4][6] Similarities were also found between elements of Land's cover and an Alien portrait by Andy Brase, a catalog photo of a sculpted Alien egg toy by NECA, and a screenshot from the Sega video game Aliens: Colonial Marines.[7][
Wow, what a fkin embarassment. These morons basically kill off anything they buy...
Here's to the Marvel/Disney Stars Wars and Alien franchises:
Yea no sh!t lol
Ya think? After seeing this dumbasz dumbo shiet, i don't think I'll be going to the theaters to see Marvel or Disney movies even. To come out with the first issue in this fashion...Dumbo must be running things there.
I know ay, I'm sitting here reading for the first time what they've been doing to Star Wars for 5 years, and than I'm reading the sheep saying let's give them a chance. Lmfao. HHHHoooo wer funked now Binshop.
Btw, that was one ugly mfkin Alien on that cover.
Man us peeps in South Australia have got it pretty easy compared to other states (fairly relaxed across the board). Keeping tabs on my mates & relatives in Melbourne (some are doing ok, others not so good).
Stay safe my fellow Aussies.
Maybe he does possess some self awareness.
Same old, same old. The First Lady and I are fortunate that we have jobs that allow us to work from home, and I do not miss the commute at all, so it can go for a bit longer as far as I'm concerned. However as you said, it's all the people who aren't as lucky as us who are being more affected and the wider knock on problems from that.
I dunno, you guys have open a lot longer than us and it seems like it's not getting out of control. Be interesting to see what happens with the border restrictions with the election coming up.
Yeah, this is something I've been battling with. It's not my intention at all to be seen as this. I don't actually WANT anything from Marvel except for this to just NOT happen to anyone else.
Would I come back to work on Alien? Yes. Would I do Predator? Yes. But the day Dark Horse lost that, I moved on emotionally. I'll always have those stories in my back pocket. But at this point it's all incredibly disheartening, demeaning and flat out insulting. And that's all on Greg. The guys at Marvel have fires to put out constantly, and maybe you could argue that one dude that hired Greg to do this in collections is vaguely responsible in a round about way, but this is on Greg as far as I'm concerned.
Or it backfires and T ends up getting seen as 'difficult'.
Man's gotta eat.