Has editorial cartoon plagiarism raised it’s ugly head again? Gawker.com – “a daily Manhattan media news and gossip blog” (which also is part of the same publishing network as Wonkette, Defamer and Gizmodo) is questioning whether Sean Delonas, New York Post editorial cartoonist has “ripped off” a cartoon by Jim Borgman (one of Jim’s 1991 Pulitzer portfolio pieces).
Here’s a Jim Borgman cartoon from 1990, when the Communist regime began to fall in the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Now we’re not trying to imply that Delonas plagiarized the idea – as we’ve seen before, all cartoonists are hacks. And, you know, 1990 was a long time ago – there’s no reason Delonas would remember that cartoon. (Except maybe that it won the Pulitzer Prize.) We’re just gonna chalk this one up to coincidence, right? But if it proves nothing else, it pretty much proves that Sean Delonas is a sh—- artist. The shading on those dominoes sucks.
The reference to “all cartoonists are hacks” is a previous blog post regarding Daryl Cagle’s defense of The Harvard Crimson cartoonist Kathleen Breeden who was caught plagiarizing work from Walt Handelsman. Gawker.com has posted Sean’s cartoon along with Jim’s. See for yourself. An act of plagiarism or coincidence?
plagiarism is not good