Nick Simmons addresses Bleach tracing, blames manga

3:00 PM on 03.02.2010   |   Josh Tolentino

I'm using the above header because it's the face I imagine some folks were making after they accused Nick Simmons, son of KISS rocker Gene Simmons, of plagiarizing multiple manga - most notably Bleach - in the process of creating Incarnate, published (and then halted) by Radical Comics. Now he's released a statement addressing the charges, and unfortunately for the folks who made that face, it's hardly a Tiger Woods-worthy mea culpa.

The statement went as follows:

Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium.

I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.

I'm sure some manga artists might be miffed to think that Tite Kubo's character design for Zaraki Kenpachi is considered "fundamental imagery common to all manga." What I find perplexing is that a few folks fired back in Nick's defense, telling his detractors to consider their actions downloading scanlations and whatnot before lynching Simmons over copyright infringement. Sure, there's IP theft on both sides, but plagiarizing and piracy are two different things.