Shia LaBeouf rips off Daniel Clowes

[Brazoo]

Well, this has been causing a storm online.

Apparently LaBeouf plagiarized a Clowes comic for his 2012 directorial debut. Slightly crazier - he apologized for what he did on twitter, but then apparently plagiarized parts of his apology from an online source.

Here's a link to a buzzfeed page with details about the whole thing and the short movie:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/shia-labeouf-rip-off-daniel-clowes-howard-cantour

LANGUAGE WARNING
In the apology, not the short movie. The movie is PG.

[pmwasson]

How did he think he could get away with ripping off Clowes? What a clown.

[sprytel]

This reinforces my impression of LaBeouf.

[Hedji]

That's pretty much word for word. This is what happens when a youth doesn't get properly educated about plagiarism. Our high school teachers wouldn't have let us get away with that.

[Brazoo]

According to a editor at Fantagraphics Clowes is perusing legal action:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/daniel-clowes-pursuing-his-legal-options-regarding-shia-labe

How did he think he could get away with ripping off Clowes? What a clown.

It's mind boggling - and apparently this isn't the only time he's done this. Apparently he stole works from Charles Bukowski and another writer too:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/shia-labeouf-copied-charles-bukowski-others-comic-books

[palitoy]

Did he go to school with Gene Simmon's kid?

[Brazoo]

That's pretty much word for word. This is what happens when a youth doesn't get properly educated about plagiarism. Our high school teachers wouldn't have let us get away with that.

I've got a bit of a minor fascination with plagiarists. as a graphic designer I've come across people making a career from plagiarizing work many times. (I even personally fired a guy for this once.)

In my experience the people who do this have a very similar mindset. They don't just do it once, they do it over and over - even after they get caught. When they do get caught they all kind of do the same little half-appology dance LaBeouf is doing here. To me it almost seems compulsive or maybe even pathological in some way. I never get the idea that there is genuine remorse - like the way psychopaths are described as missing the ability to empathize, their minds just seem to be missing something to me.

[Brazoo]

Did he go to school with Gene Simmon's kid?

Haha - this reminded me of that too! Though, in that case I think Simmons basically trained his kid to think that way. Did you ever see that show? There was one episode where he flat out tells his kid that it doesn't matter if someone else is using the band name he wants to use, because all he has to do is trademark the name before they do.

[Brazoo]

To be fair, the cast of LaBeouf's movie is fantastic.

[samurainoir]

and it's not like he's ripping off some obscure indy cartoonist either!

Clowes has done features... Ghost World and Art School Confidential.

[thunderbolt]

This is perfect, and fits right in with my impression of him. The fact that he even lifted his apology from elsewhere is icing on the cake. What an idiot.