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The Controversy Behind Incarnate Comics

Incarnate is a 3-issue comic book limited series created by Nick Simmons and published by American company Radical Comics. It was first published in August 2009.

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 most notable being Bleach, and from art communities such as DeviantArt.

Evelyn Dubocq, Senior Director of Public Relations at Viz Media, the American publisher of the Bleach manga, was quoted as saying "We appreciate all our fans bringing this matter to our attention, and we are currently investigating this issue". Tite Kubo, the author of Bleach, one of the manga specifically named, made two Twitter posts on the situation, to comment on the number of people outside Japan commenting on the accusations, and noting that he is more interested by the fact that Gene Simmons' son is a comic creator than he is concerned about any of his work being copied.

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 until the matter is resolved between all concerned parties.

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 certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium. I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.”

In 2011, The New York Times stated that Radical Publishing was "forced to stop production" of the comic after the allegations of plagiarism.