I haven’t been doing a lot of comics as of late. That’s not really what this post is about, but, while we are on the topic, I’m sorry for that.

But even though I haven’t been making many comics, I still love comics, and I still passionately believe in supporting comics. And, sometimes, supporting comics means making fan art.

Fan art does a lot of great things, but the most important thing is it displays how much you care. It says “hey, I love your work so much that I want to put my energy towards realizing your ideas” and “I love the world you’ve created and I want to live in it.”

I posted this comic in the Dinosaur Comics fan Slack chat a few weeks ago:



Not a bad joke, right? I was pretty proud of it, and I was really excited to show Ryan North come April 1st. Maybe he’d like it! Maybe he’d like it so much he’d be my friend????????????

So imagine my mortification when I woke up on April 1st and found out that a bunch of people (no doubt from the Dinosaur Comics fan slack chat) had RIPPED OFF MY ORIGINAL JOKE:

https://imgur.com/gallery/Lmm2R/new

I’m outraged, but I don’t know what to do. I imagine I’m on sort of shaky ground as far as legal action, especially because Dinosaur Comics characters aren’t my original creation. I’m really upset.

Most importantly, my plan is ruined because there’s no way Ryan North is going to be impressed now.



I know I should have watermarked my comic. I know this is my fault. But when unethical cartoonists go so far to steal your work that they would entirely redraw your comic, even watermarking isn’t going to be enough.

My only solace is that maybe because so many people ripped off my joke they won’t get the credit either.

