Graphic artist Midiankai has come forward with suspicions of Marvel and Disney Plus ripping off an art design he did for Dutch hardcore punk band Born From Pain some six years prior. He shared a comparison on social media of the art pieces in question, with the offending Marvel/Disney Plus piece being the poster art for the recently launched Marvel Studios horror film,’Werewolf By Night‘.
I might be crazy but did marvel just rip me off? I did this art for born from pain around 6 years ago pic.twitter.com/2BudSZcXRW
— Midi (Commissions Open!) (@midiankai) October 14, 2022
as a vector artist i can tell that these rounded ends mean the art was auto traced and then edited pic.twitter.com/F4CFgiMbT1
— Midi (Commissions Open!) (@midiankai) October 14, 2022
Didn't expect this to blow up and thought I'd be ridiculed for this, but I'm so overwhelmed with the support I've received from this community! From my side, i already took some legal steps towards this case. Once again, thank you for your tremendous support ??
— Midi (Commissions Open!) (@midiankai) October 15, 2022
Numerous commenters have weighed in on the matter since, offering some seemingly compeling evidence:
The teeth are a dead giveaway – look at the shapes of the bottom row and where you can clearly see the bottom canines we're meant to be underneath the top set of canines pic.twitter.com/wBAlaRxaYk
— Morgan Drake ?? (@Skipti_LLC) October 14, 2022
The linework around the nose and teeth are the same, they are just slightly resized pic.twitter.com/WvoGdplZ53
— I N F E R N A L M A C H I N E ? (@infern4lm4chin3) October 15, 2022
Speaking to thedirect.com, Midiankai offered:
“I think Illustrator live trace was used on the initial art because it has rounded edges. There are sliders called noise and corners, moving them softens edges, removing sharp edges and artifacts, this is where rounded corners come from. Next, mesh tool was used to widen the snout, and after that lower jaw was moved to make it an open mouth, but the dark notches from the upper teeth remained there. Someone who did it either forgot or didn’t pay attention to that detail.”
