Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, etsy, francis manapul, granito, plagiarism, rob granito, twitter

Meet Nicholas Mowdy, AKA Snickers19510, An Aspiring Artist, Rob Granito-Style

Using the name Snickers19510 over on Etsy, an "artist" named Nicholas Mowdy has some amazing artwork for sale at dirt cheap prices. For example, there's this awesome rendition of Superman and Batman that he has posted for sale for only $20.

Hmm… that looks awfully familiar. Almost like this:

Francis Manapul noticed too, tweeting late Friday,

This guy is claiming he drew this and is selling prints. It's hilarious that he can't even get the media I use correct.

Maybe this is a one-off though, and he's not doing the full Granito, right?

Nope.

We have this sketch of Bane and Batman that looks pretty sweet.

However, it looked a lot better on Zenescope Entertainment artist Marcio Abreu's deviantART page.

Then there is this Joker piece.

That happens to come from deviantART user j0kersWILD.

There's this "twisted" Pocahontas piece he has up for sale.

That comes from this page, looking at "Twisted Disney Princesses." Nick did not even bother to remove the stylized Pocahontas logo in the upper left.

I have had to use Google Cache for all of the above links as, when I began to originally write this, Nick's etsy store was shut down by etsy by around approximately 1:30 AM Eastern Time, thanks to the fan outrage triggered by Francis' first twitter post.

It became obvious that there was nothing original about Nick artistically, but what is even more amazing is that even his artist "statement" is even plagiarized. Here is what Nick has to say about why he is an "artist":

"Drawing is my key to serenity, my version of free therapy, my looking glass."I don't set out to produce art about one subject or another. I'm never without a sketchbook in hand so I am constantly drawing and sometimes the drawings are left in the sketchbook and other times they develop into more in-depth ideas and detailed images.

My artwork takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. In my work, I deconstruct the American dream, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and lullabies that are part of our childhood and adult culture. Having engaged subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, southern rock music and modernist architecture, my work reproduces familiar visual signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered pieces.

Growing up I was big on graffiti. As I grew older it turned in to tattoo work. I love working with people with their ideas on what they would like to see or put on their body. The way art is never the same and constantly changed is amazing to me. The way that there are no limits, and can create anything is what fuels me to keep drawing.

Influences

My influences are first and foremost everything I see, feel and experience, but I've always loved comic books particularly work by Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb. I love architecture particularly Art Deco. The artists I most admire are John Martin, a mezzotint artist from the 1800's, Winsor McCay a cartoonist and animator who created Little Nemo, Escher and Lyonel Feininger creator of Kinder Kids.

Now, here are the original sources for that statement.

I don't set out to produce art about one subject or another. I'm never without a sketchbook to hand so I am constantly drawing and sometimes the drawings are left in the sketchbook and other times they develop into more in-depth ideas and detailed images.

This comes from "Martin Langford" and his sample artist statement on ArtStudy.org. In fairness to Nick, that paragraph gets swiped all over the place online.

The third paragraph comes from the same sample page, this time from "Jonathan H. Dough," but his piece on graffiti (which, by the way, is also illegal, but Nick doesn't sweat those details) is all his. He went right back to swiping from the sample however for his influences, which of course look nothing at all like the art he has stolen.

While etsy has closed Nick's shop, his profile still exists there, and he can also be found still on Twitter, but he has not responded to any of the criticism. His most recent posts come from two days ago, immediately before the controversy broke, and include the following:

Grabbing some pencils and paper…let's see what comes out today

Throwing some serious art down…I will be an artist somewhere!! I won't let them turn me away!!

While the incident was short-lived, the comic industry is dominated by those with long memories, so while Nick might not "let" people turn him away, he has supplied them with all the reasons to do so.

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