The question of what is and isn't plagiarism in comics is a little bit murky. Some artists deride Roy Lichtenstein's work as a sham built on the backs of others. Others note that he did at least make significant changes to the comics panels he worked with, though he still should have extended more credit to the original artists he worked with. Artists have been known to "swipe" from each other or even themselves, doing partial redraws of a panel from another comic as a shortcut. In some cases, these are treated as homages, especially when presented as such. Other cases are more clear-cut. Rob Granito was a convention presence for several years, known for his work on Batman, Teen Titans, Spider-Man, Iron Man and a Batman stamp for the U.S. Postal Service, but mostly for the original art he sold at conventions-- except that most of what we just said was complete lies. Granito didn't work on most of those titles, certainly didn't work for the Postal Service and his "original" artwork, as you can see in this example, was often anything but. The fallout got him banned from all major comic book conventions, but there are plenty of others out there, willing to "appropriate" comics art without serious alteration and present it as their own. Who cares, right? It's only comics. If these artists didn't want to be plagiarized, they wouldn't work in such a cheap medium.
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.
