Sunday Mailbag: Copying Another Artist?

Q: Looking at the recent Mad magazine’s “This Is Us” parody, I noticed something that has something to do what I am asking about. I saw a panel that you drew that had various cartoon characters in the background, Fred Flintstone, Homer Simpson…etc…drawn in their style. I can understand that because it is a parody that would be acceptable, but what if you were asked to draw/paint in another artist’s style like Norman Rockwell…or Mort Drucker…etc… Have you ever been asked to draw another artist’s style? Is there any legal trouble doing that?

I have a project that I am gonna work on for a friend where she wants me to draw her messy and expanded ideas on that. In my mind, I thought this something I can see Jack Davis drawing…so I’m trying to see where I can draw the line on paying homage to Jack Davis’ style but still try to make it my own.

A: Yes, I have been asked to emulate another artist’s style several times. This is acceptable ethically within the right context… for example a parody like “The Trump Family Circus” I did for MAD a year or two ago, I did in the Family Circus/Bil Keane style, That was important for the parody to work. I did a similar thing years earlier for “The Honey Boo Boo Family Circus“. I’ve done features where I needed to get close to the look of Pixar characters, or video game art, or more video game art, or Rick Meyerowitz, even Alex Ross. Likewise the art I did for the Superman and the …Really Bad Day book was supposed to emulate Ray Cruz’s original look in the Alexander book. If the art didn’t look like the original book’s art, the parody would not have worked. In the new MAD #1, I did three pages in Will Elder’s style (actually the “Will Elder doing Bob Montana” style) as it was an homage (not a parody) to the original “Starchie” parody from MAD #12. An “homage” is different. That is paying tribute or respect to some iconic work or artist through some story or feature related in some way. I threw in an homage to Jack Davis in the splash page of MAD’s “Ray Donovan” parody in the form of duplicating Jack’s famous “knocking his head off” boxing illustration because it was set in a boxing gym, it was MAD Magazine… it fit. There is a difference between parody and homage. Usually in parody you do something different with the visuals that makes it plain it’s not the original itself. Having the Trumps rather than the Family Circus family as the characters is an example. Parody makes fun of the subject matter. Homage pays it respect (although in a way parody can do both). I usually add some form of acknowledgment to the original artist in an homage. For example I wrote “Bill Elder wuz here” as graffiti on the lockers in the splash page of that Riverdale parody in MAD #1.

As far as legal trouble I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t think an artist’s “style” is copyrightable but properties they work on and specific works of art are, so it depends on what you are doing, how you do it, where you do it, and for what purpose. That’s basically no answer at all but, unlike a lawyer who would also give you no answer at all, I am not going to charge you $100 for it.

That said, what you are doing is neither parody nor an homage. You are creating a piece of new artwork where neither applies. You say you “see” this being a Jack Davis drawing. Don’t make it that. Make it a “you” drawing. Everyone has influences, and if Jack is one of yours then glimpses of his work will shine though in your work, but let it remain influences. Draw it yourself even if you are thinking about some of Davis’s action and character design. The last thing you want to do is go looking through old Davis work until you find something similar to what you need and then copy it or even parts of it. That’s unethical and unwise. Be you. If you draw it on your own and it ends up looking like a Jack drawing anyway, so be it. By drawing it yourself and using no specific references from Jack (or anyone else’s) work you are still drawing it yourself, an influence is all that Jack’s work can have on your results. By continuing this practice your work and “style” will develop and evolve on its own, and your influences will fade into glimpses within as opposed to overwhelming dominance.

Thanks to Name Withheld for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!