10 Comic Secrets Hiding In Plain Sight

Being inspired by other artists is arguably an important part of being motivated to create art. Seeing different styles and methods and appreciating their pros and cons is undeniably integral when you're trying to consistently develop and perfect your own.

But some artists take the concept of being a little too "inspired" by other artists - in that they totally trace and copy panels for their own use. While this was not a rare thing, especially in the early days of comics, nobody was ever exactly happy to see others more or less stealing their own work.

James Cruz's particular penchant for doing so came into the spotlight via the Swipe of The Week website, which used to compare panels they thought look similar or copied, allowing fans to vote on whether they thought this was the case, or just a coincidence. Generally, the art he was found to have copied came from artist Joe Madureira.

Madureira clearly became aware of this at a certain point, because he left a diss in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #325, on a newspaper that states "Cruz swipes again", making his frustration known.