And did we tell you the name of the game, boy...

So many hands in so many pockets...

Yes, Nick Simmons is responsible for the contents of the book that bears his name. He claims to be the creator of the work and I'll leave it to the courts to determine what part he played (if any.) in any illegal acts of plagiarism he may or may not have have committed in the production of his book, Incarnate. Whatever the case may be with Nick Simmons I have serious issues with the number of hands this book passed through before it hit comic store bookshelves without a single person in the process asking the same questions so many others in the marketplace are now asking. After all, these people are supposed to be the "professionals".

H-m-m-m...

Professionals like those at Studio Il? Now, I don't know how familiar you are with the Radical format Nick's book was designed under, but here's the quick skinny. The Radical Publishing comic book is actually two books worth of material in a single book. They charge a bit more up front of course, but the reader gets more material and I guess even saves a little money in the long run by only having to buy three books instead of six. This means there were a lot of pages of Nick's artwork in the hands of the Studio Il crew who were doing inks, backgrounds and color for the book. (See their blog entry dated 09-03-09)

If you visit their website, as I've done numerous times in the last week since this story first broke, you'll quickly come to notice that these people are all about the Manga style of art. Take a look at the examples of their work listed here or here. Admittedly I'm no expert on the subject, but it seems to have a very distinct Manga flavor to me. No one noticed that the panels they were working on had a familiar feel to them? What, they love drawing Manga, they just don't read it? Either the company doing the work for Nick Simmons was very stupid or very sloppy. Or was it something else entirely?

Clearly from the blog entry posted above Studio Il was working hard to meet deadlines. They publicly expressed how much they were enjoying working on the Incarnate project for Radical Publishing and how much they were looking forward to future opportunities. Is it possible corners were cut and short cuts taken? So far StudioIl has chosen to remain silent and have issued no statement on what may or may not have happened in regards to their efforts on Nick Simmons behalf.

Personally, I don't know if 'd ever entrust my son's career to a group of "professionals" who proved so inept at helping someone as high profile as Nick Simmons avoid potential career ending pitfalls, including those of his own making. That's part of what professionals are paid to do. Why did these people fail him so completely?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to hear what they have to say, but so far they aren't talking.

Don't even get me started on Radical Publishing. All I keep seeing in my mind is a yacht full of corporate executives smoozing it up with big daddy Gene Simmons while his son's career drifted off into the sea of oblivion and ruin. They wind up with a wall full of celebrity handshake photos and Nick Simmons winds up on a wall of shame. I want answers. I want to know how they fell asleep at the helm and let such a fiasco happen. I really do...

We may never get answers. Unfortunately it's looking like no one's interested in raising much more of a stink over this than has already been raised and this is just another ugly little dust bunny the industry would rather sweep under the bed and forget than use as an opportunity to improve the standards by which the artists work and the publishers produce their product for the marketplace. Make no bones about it, I think Nick Simmons may have made a mistake and he is being punished in ways I'm sure he never imagined possible. That being said I also think it's a crime the way Nick's being used as a human shield by corporate executives who filled their office walls with cheesy photographs of themselves posing with Gene Simmons and carted off as much of the family fortune as they could line their pockets with until the gravy train ran off the tracks.

There are those who believe the actions of Nick Simmons to be inexcusable and criminal. I won't argue with them, they have a right to their opinion. But I think Nick was also a victim here too. He was in the hands of professionals whose job it was to keep such a disaster from ever happening and they failed him miserably. Even if it was just a matter of criminal stupidity on their parts, they failed him and they're getting away with it completely unscathed. Sorry Nick, but that's how the wolves roll...