Gelf Magazine points out the similarities between a recent New Yorker comic and an old Far Side:
The artist of the more recent cartoon is Lee Lorenz, a 74-year-old former art editor of The New Yorker with several books of illustrations to his credit. Bob Mankoff, the magazine’s cartoon editor, tells Gelf that he is sure that Lorenz did not borrow inspiration from Gary Larson’s comic. “They are very similar,” he says, “but I can guarantee you that Lee Lorenz is not a guy who copies cartoons.”
Mankoff explains that the sheer volume of cartoons produced by artists means that there is often overlap of ideas. “Often in the same week different cartoonists will independently come up with identical ideas,” he says. “Other times cartoonists generate ideas that have been previously published in the magazine. This is not plagiarism; rather it is the result of very creative people developing many ideas from a few well-established, well-traveled cartoon settings.”
Gelf has both strips posted on their site; go see for yourself.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:00 am
I can easily see that being inadvertent. The idea of pigeons overwhelming you has probably occurred to lots of people who have fed pigeons. With so many comics being made every day, there have to be some coincidences sometimes.
But some people don’t see it that way. Several years ago Scott Kurtz, author of PvP, threw a fit that another cartoonist made a joke similar to his just two days after he did. It had the exact same punchline, so he figured it must have been a rip-off.
Except the punchline was a movie quote that everyone was saying at the time. They had both adapted it to Everquest addiction, a topic that everyone was talking about at the time. Kurtz didn’t even consider the possiblity that someone else could have the same completely unoriginal idea, he just told all his readers that the guy was ripping him off.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Yeah, it’s certainly possible that this was independent. Especially since this was apparently done by someone living in New York, where people feeding pigeons is a common sight.