Cartoon too similar to syndicated work
Published: July 28, 2008
Updated: July 29, 2008
A cartoon by Jim Hope that appeared on Saturday’s commentary page was similar to a cartoon published five days earlier by Nate Beeler of the Washington Examiner. See cartoons
Both depicted robust caricatures of banking giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about to fall on a skinny taxpayer; the captions were also nearly identical.
Beeler’s cartoon appeared July 21 on his blog and the syndicate CagleCartoons.com. Hope submitted his cartoon to Star-Exponent editors July 22. The Star-Exponent was unaware of the similarities before publishing Hope’s cartoon.
Hope, who contributed cartoons to this newspaper on a freelance basis, denied any wrongdoing. “It just seems that the muse struck twice but at a different time and place,” he said.
Hope’s work will no longer appear in the Star-Exponent.
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Reader Reactions
Are you kidding me? These aren’t “similarities;“ they’re replicas (i.e. replicate, or “copy”). Let’s break it down. In BOTH cartoons . . .
Fannie’s facing down. She’s on the left. Her dress is light-colored. Her hair is long and curly. She’s wearing glasses. Her dress has a ruffled collar.
Freddie is facing up! He’s on the right. He is illustrated showing his tie pointing up.
“Taxpayers” character has head on left, feet on right and is slanted from upper left to lower right.
Then the kicker—-the “be a dear” quote!!
I’m supposed to believe these are just freak coincidences? I don’t know what is more laughable: the fact that one of these is surely a knock-off of the other, or that we are being asked to believe that it was a coincidence. I’m not saying that Mr. Hope is definitely 100% guilty. Other factors could be at play here that we just don’t know (Maybe BOTH cartoonists swiped the idea from somewhere). But PLEASE don’t insult me by asking me to believe that this is all just a big coincidence. Really?? Seriously??
Having known Jim Hope for more than 40 years, and knowing his talent, I am amazed anyone would think he “stole” someone else’s work. He doesnt need too, his abilities to draw a cartoon and write a quip about it have been proven !
Another reason to wonder why I buy the Star Exponent ! People who know Jim know he used his talents - didnt steal someone elses.
Boone’s Farm anyone ?
Thanks for posting your side Jim. My policy is to believe people but I can also understand that some may be skeptical esp. with the “be a dear” wording. I can’t imagine that you would try to copy a cartoon from a paper so close by that would surely be noticed by someone. Maybe it was telepathy. I remember a cartoon years ago of a voter noticing a coin being flipped in the booth next to his. Virtually the same (but not the same) cartoon was in another paper the same day. Music copyright issues come up fairly often. Maybe someone heard the music but didnt’ realize it was sinking in. Then when they went to write what they honestly thought was original music some of that crept in. Good luck in the future.
To the readers of The Culpeper Star-Exponent,
The incident of two pieces of art work done by Nate Beeler of the Washington Examiner and the one done by myself was truely coincidental. I had know previous knowledge of Mr. Beeler’s work till I was notified by the Star-Exponent.
After locating Mr. Beeler’s work, I was dumbfounded in the similarities. I contacted Mr. Beeler explaining to him the situation and claimed no right to nore did I plagiarize his work. Mr. Beeler responded, stating, ‘No worries, I’m surprised more people didn’t use that image.‘
In my own defense, people in all lines of life come up with the same ideas and concepts, especially in this line of work. I sincerely hope you, the readers understand.
Jim Hope
Sure hate to see this happen.
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