Since I know people are going to ask about this more than anything else, haha: The Japanese text says "nyan" which is their equivalent of "meow".

Assuming this news story has not made its way to you yet, here's a short and long explanation of the ordeal behind this picture!

If you don't want to read my crap (I don't blame you! ) but would like to know what the hell this pic is all about, go here: [link] and here [link] and ESPECIALLY here: [link]

In summary: The dude who runs/designs the David & Goliath clothing brand has a habit of ripping off other artists and misusing other people's art, often times for PROFIT.

He is right up there with Eric Bauman, I tell ya. [link]

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Okay, so two things:

1) I have a bunch of other pics [almost] ready to submit (everyone: "yeah, like when, next year? " haha), but because this deals with CURRENT EVENTZZZ, I felt it necessary to post it ay-sap. (everyone: "Did she just phonetically spell out an acronym that is already so annoyingly cliche to pronounce as one word in the first place??" answer: yes.)

2) I am also not one for protests. (I will spare you all my boring opinions/rants on the topic) HOWEVER, this is an issue that I feel VERY strongly about for two reasons (everyone: "So... now you're going to branch off into a two item SUB-list, within your two item MAIN list?" answer: Perhaps, and at this point if you're still actually reading and haven't tired of my hackneyed "audience response" bit, I applaud you. Here is a Pringles man for you. ), but instead of making a two item SUB-list within my two item MAIN list, I will just tell you the backstory behind all of this in paragraph form.

Here we go!!

Back in high school, when my t-shirt making business was comprised of dreams and sketches, I came upon the world of David & Goliath: [link] I had seen their stuff in numerous catalogs, as well as in a few stores (probably Hot Topic and the like) and noticed them gaining popularity quite rapidly. (currently Hawaii has TWO David & Goliath stores ) While I am a fan of the "cute character + humorous phrase" combination (duh ), I did NOT care for the way D&G (lolz Dolce & Gabbana) executed said formula. I found their designs to be a combination of any of the following adjectives: ugly, boring, stupid, lame, bland, generic, etc. (yes, that's right, the adjective "etcetera".) No offense to anyone who is a fan of their stuff!!! I can understand why their stuff is appealing, I just personally don't care for it at all. I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way about my shirts!! wheee!

I admit it, I was quite jealous of the fact that something that I found to be pretty damn crappy (*creamedpotatoes HOPE GIVERS TO DREAMS) was so successful. I continued to loathe their designs in the years that followed, feeling a tinge of severe annoyance every time I passed by their store. (everyone: "How can you feel a TINGE of something SEVERE?" answer: when you are a bad writer! )

Fast forward to today...

I was falling asleep in the computer lab, when Billy came over and asked, "What's the name of that store you hate at Ala Moana?" and I was like, "Sears?" (actually no, I like Sears; I don't remember what I said since I was basically sleep talking. haha) and he was like, "No no, that store, the one with the designs you don't like." and I was like, "Ohhhh okay, that place, David & Goliath?" and he was like, "Yeah, check this article out." So after I woke myself up, I walked over to the computers and he showed me THIS article: [link]

If you don't wanna read the article, basically the guy who started/owns David & Goliath and subsequently designs the majority (but not all) of the designs there made a painting for a gallery show that was an almost exact copy of someone else's work. That someone else happened to be Dave Kelly/Shmorky from Something Awful and various webcomics, and so of course, attention was immediately brought to this subject, and rightly so. As a result THIS page was created: [link] displaying the COUNTLESS times he's copied/misused other people's art for his own designs for PROFIT.

Now, to be fair, as I was discussing with =mandichan, some of the comparisons are stretching (like the Simpsons one, for instance), and if you weren't already familiar, one of my BIGGEST fears when it comes to the art world, is that I'm going to come across someone's work that is VERY similar to mine but purely by coincidence, and they will assume that I copied them. (this has already happened several times, but at least my fears [as is usually the case] were not met. haha) Because of this, I do try to keep an open mind when it comes to stuff like this, however, when the designs in question are almost exact traces and/or use unique styles/qualities, it's pretty hard to argue otherwise.

Aaaaanyway, so all in all, I felt both annoyed and vindicated when I came across this story, as it was nice to see that one of my non-reciprocating (due to the fact that I'm just an unknown jackass living in the middle of the ocean) arch nemesiseseseses (wassup Sarah Silverman) got totally pwnt (well, in the sense that he was caught; I'm sure his 3904859045 lawyers will protect him from any monetary damage) was nice to see, but it was also annoying in that here's the dumbass who [in my opinion/"IMO"] made crappy designs to begin with was ALSO stealing/copying, it just makes him that much lamer and sad.

And to explain my actual deviation (everyone: FINALLY.), I made it in protest after reading Scott Kurtz's post about the matter [link] in which he suggested that instead of litigation, Dave should instead get anyone and everyone to copy his "praying pussy" comic as a statement against art theft/copying, and hopefully it'll become SO prolific, that the image will be forever associated with this incident, tarnishing Mr. Goldman's artistic credibility, however much we can.

I chose to do a Neko Pan/Kitty Loaf fanart (after trying to think of some idea other than just doing a plain ol' copy of the comic), as I think it sorta parallels the Neko cursor/"Goodbye Kitty" (as mentioned in the pic/on the examples page). Granted, I am aware that the Neko Pan image is nowhere near as popular as it used to be years ago, but I still see it from time to time on DA (along with other works by Hirose Takuro), submitted into people's galleries. And so blah blah blah, that's why the internet is good and bad because stuff can get passed around easily and gain popularity, blah blah blah, but if it falls into careless/malicious hands then you end up with unintentional clipart like the Neko cursor, and then some jackass goes and rapes it through all its orifices (NOSTRILS TOO OMG ), and adds it to his multimillion dollar money making machine. [link]


THE END.

everyone: YAAAAAAAAAAAAY IT'S OVER.


^{ps- About the image itself, I know it's not the greatest I did it in like an hour and I have no idea how to use gradient meshes, but I figured I'd try 'em out.}