So, this past Friday night, THIS happened. Someone who runs a site and Face Book page ( that shall remain nameless), posted one of my Hot Mess Mom Comic strips. EXCEPT they added a caption of their OWN. And then, to add insult to injury, they added the logo of their own page ( that’s the hot pink spot on the couch, covering their name. I have removed all names on the screen capture here from my phone, for the record, as you can see.) I was alerted to all of this by a faithful comic follower, and I posted the above to our FB comic page. With minutes, HMM comic fans, Hot Mess Mom Mafia members, and friends and art colleagues of mine had descended on the offending page, calling them out. Go, my peeps! Thanks so much for coming to my support! To their credit, the site owner quickly took the post down and came to the HMM Comic page and apologized.
HOWEVER, here’s the bigger picture. That page publishes other artists’ artwork without giving them credit as well. Sure, they say they “didn’t know my artwork”, but they HAD to know that SOMEONE drew it. But rather than seek me, the creator, out, and give me credit for the art, they just reposted it. With their OWN caption and even put THEIR website’s name on my art.
Do I need to even explain how wrong this is? Do I need to even explain how hard it is for artists to make a living in this day and age off of our talent? When anybody can Google anything they want and just copy/paste to their heart’s content. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.
PLEASE feel free to repost my art wherever you want ( as long as you’re not using it for your own commercial purposes and making money off of it ). Just give me credit for it ( and any money generated ). And for Heaven’s sake, don’t take my name of it, put yours on it ( or your site’s name ), and then put your own lousy caption on there! GRRRR.
Some people!
Hot Mess Mom- the Comic! 