re: #9 ObserverArt

Not to defend an idiot like Zimmerman, but many times illustrators/painters will use images in the media as reference material. Especially if they are in the public domain after many years in history. However, it is all for reference not straight up copying. And many times there will be other backgrounds or themes, distortion of the character to make a point, etc. And, many times they will ask for the okay to do so from the owner of the image.

But what they don’t do is sign the work as their own.

http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Neighborhood-Watch/c1b5e02bb0834921b767403fbeda86a9/35/0