Pop Culture Safari!

It's no secret among comic book fans that pop artist Roy Lichtenstein frequently copied the works of real cartoonists for his famed paintings.

One of those cartoonists was Russ Heath, who a couple years back, created an autobiographical comic strip about the experiences.

Over the past couple week, the strip has been shared widely online. Robot 6 has some background details on it:

...the comic strip (colored and lettered by Darwyn Cooke) was initially published in May 2012, in IDW’s Hero Comics 2012. (In fact, ROBOT 6 ran the comic that month.) Also, the Lichtenstein work cited in the comic, 1963’s “Whaam!,” was actually based on a panel by Irv Novick in 1962’s All-American Men of War #89, published by DC Comics — Lichtenstein lifted from Heath in 1962’s “Blam,” with a panel also from All-American Men of War #89. Same issue, different artists.

Here's the strip. The Heroes Initiative is a program that helps comics creators in need.

And here's a look at Lichtenstein's painting (bottom) and the original comic book art (top):

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Russ Heath's comic strip about being ripped off by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein