On the left is the second panel from a "Do's and Don't" segment I ran in my Christmas issue six years ago. On the right, a
Strange Brew strip from (as of this writing) two weeks ago. Nearly identical, right down to the joke, the poses, and even the color palette.
Now I'm
not saying John Deering, creator/artist of
Brew, ripped me off. I
am saying, as long as pinheads like
this guy are in power, misunderstandings happen. Disputes are tough to arbitrate, and damaged reputations and bruised feelings take years to heal. So maybe newspaper edtors should learn to be a little more careful about casually throwing life-rending charges like plagiarism around. After all, which is easier, settling a fight with some writer or artist who's probably never read your paper but is following his lawyer's prompting, or having to pay off a furious ex-staffer whose attorney is advising him he can fatten his settlement by telling the other local rags where all the (figurative, I hope) bodies are buried?