Incarnate (comics)

Publication history

The series was originally called Skwlduggery and was released in 2007 by IDW Publishing , ^[3] who publishes the Simmons Comic Group family of titles, headed by Nick’s father Gene Simmons . However, this deal fell through because, according to Nick Simmons:

Well, first off, the art simply was not good enough. The people at IDW must have had the patience of saints to deal with the chicken scratch I turned in to them. My art was messy and juvenile. Amateur at best. I’m nowhere near to now, to be sure, but I’m miles beyond what i used to be, especially in character design and overall neatness. And, with the help of Nam Kim and his team, I can be proud of. ^[4]

Simmons was planning on continuing the series, perhaps as a webcomic , but Radical Comics co-founder Barry Levine saw some art when negotiating a deal with Gene Simmons and offered to publish Incarnate , ^[5] Nick Simmons to Nick Simmons start over. ^[6] The series was then relaunched in mid-2009 ^{[2] [4]} with Radical holding a launch party at the San Diego Comic Con . ^[7] The 3-issue mini-series is intended as a first part of a longer story: “I’ve always planned to make this a long-running series and continue to evolve the second and third arcs”. ^[5] However, production was halted on the comic books and collected editions due to accusations of plagiarism. ^{[8] [9]}

Plot summary

The comic book series is about a fictional species of creatures, Revenants. The Revenants are almost immortal as they can regenerate their bodies. The storyline focuses on a Revenant named Word, who has lived for hundreds of years because of the Revenant’s regenerative capacity. Word desires to die honorably on the battlefield for the Revenants, but can not because they are almost immortal. However, when the “SANCTUM” organization finds a way to kill Revenants, Word sees the avenue to his death.

Controversy

Concerns Were raised in late February 2010 That Nick Simmons HAD plagiarized character designs, fight scenes, plot segments, dialogue, poses and expressions From Both professional and amateur artists, From Both Several published manga , the notable MOST being white Bleach , and from art communities Such as DeviantArt . ^{[9] [10]}

Evelyn Dubocq, Senior Director of Public Relations at Viz Media , the American publisher of the Bleach manga, was quoted as saying, “We appreciate all of our attention and we are currently investigating this issue.” ^[10] Tite Kubo , the author of Bleach , one of the manga specifically named, made two Twitter posts on the situation; first comment on the subject of Japan, and the fact that it is more likely that Gene Simmons is a comic creator than he is. ^[10]

On February 25, 2010, the publisher of Incarnate , Radical Comics , announced on its official blog that it would be halting distribution and production of incarnate . ^[8]

On March 1, 2010, Nick Simmons released the following statement regarding the accusations of plagiarism:

Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are some similarities between some of my work and the work of others. Manga artists who feel that I was too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that some fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium. I am a big fan of Bleach , more Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended by what they perceive to be the likeness between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspires me. ” ^{[11] [12]}

Collected editions

The series is being released as an individual volume in mid-2010, its future links to the publisher’s investigations. ^[9]

• Incarnate Volume 1 (162 pages, hardcover, May 2010, ISBN 1-935417-02-9 , softcover, October 2010, ISBN 1-935417-36-3 )

Notes

References

• ‘ Incarnate’ at the Grand Comics Database
• Incarnate at the Comic Book DB