Quote Originally Posted by Friv View Post
I have to say, that doesn't really look like art theft to me, inasmuch as Buckley put together the laziest, most generic "perky goth girl" look possible.

If I were to make a checklist for the perky goth stereotype, it would be:
* Dark hair with highlights
* Skirt over torn jeans, with a studded belt
* Some variation of a skull tank-top, which will always have a white undershirt because that's the only color ever allowed. It will almost always be the same color as the highlights.
* Dumb black bracers

If I were actually going to compare, I would point out that
(a) Buckley's character has a notably different hairstyle, being
(b) Buckley's character has far fewer bracelets and belts
(c) Buckley's character lacks any buttons
(d) Buckley's character has a much more purple hair and shirt, as opposed to the pure pink on the right
(e) Buckley's character has a wildly generic skull shirt, as opposed to the skeleton girl and quote on the right
(f) The coloration in general is different.

While I can accept the girl on the right as being the primary inspiration for Buckley's character, there are several notable differences in style and design (all of which make the Buckley character worse, but still). That's not what art theft is.
Eh, I'm not buying that argument. Sure, Buckley changed/left out a few details, but there are way too many similarities between the two characters for Buckley to just claim coincidence or "inspiration". (The one that stands out most to me is that both characters have a spiked bracelet on their right wrist, and a non-spiked bracelet on their left wrist.)

If the author of the original piece had chosen to take Buckley to court over this, Buckley almost certainly would've gotten nailed for plagiarism.