This morning I asked jokingly if today’s new David Simpson cartoon was an original. Turns out it’s not. A Daily Cartoonist reader who wished to remain anonymous found the source of the cartoon in the Jeff MacNelly official archives (last cartoon on the page). He tells me it took him about five minutes to find it.
Again, here’s the original:
Here’s Simpson’s copy:
Here’s the overlay so you can see how much artistic license he took (or didn’t).
Same story – redrawn, not traced.
And as I noted earlier, the paper has not acknowledged last weeks’ plagiarism.
UPDATE: A couple of readers took the time to resize and position the original MacNelly and Simpson’s cartoon and found the cartoons matched up much more closely than my overlay I posted last night. At this point, it looks more like a light table job than a redraw.
This overlay by Kelly McNutt. Thanks also to Ian Davies for also sending in an overlay.
Press Release from AAEC Board
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists applauds the Urban Tulsa Weekly for removing David Simpson as it's Editorial Cartoonist following overwhelming evidence of plagiarism. David Simpson was not a member of the AAEC. Still, we believe that his long history of stealing material from our members, including the late Jeff MacNelly, and his previous firing for plagiarism provides cause for us to challenge his being given another chance to occupy space that might otherwise be filled by one of the many talented and original editorial cartoonists available today. Cartoonists must respect copyright laws and the individual creativity that makes the work of each cartoonist unique. This incident highlights the importance of outstanding, original, political cartoons and reaffirms their essential position in journalism and Democracy.
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