Scandal has rocked the comic book art world as popular cover artist Rian Gonzales faces accusations of tracing another artist’s original work for the upcoming variant cover of Ultimate Spider-Man Issue 15. The controversy centers on Gonzalez’s deliberate pursuit of an artist’s work ninahe painted this work as a birthday gift to a man named jubi.
This is Gonzalez’s story, later described on X as a response to “the backlash and violent reaction.”
All parties stated that they have made efforts to resolve this issue through offline and peaceful means. However, both Nina and Jubi expressed concerns about the semantics of the situation. Despite Gonzalez’s claims to the contrary, the issue remains relevant—mainly because the artist denies tracking and insists they are merely references, further blurring the lines.
You can compare the original and cover art below to form your own opinion.
Both Jubi and Nina have rightly stated online that this type of behavior should not be condoned. Professional artists should not copy other people’s work and claim it as their own, especially from a large publisher like Marvel. Pointing this out will help the industry as a whole become better and more valuable, Nina also said Dedicated resources for artists looking for references including using https://unsplash.com/ for photos and acon3d.com/en For use by reference libraries. It should also be noted that all three are professional artists who have published for major companies – so this attraction would be less likely to occur if the ones being tracked were smaller, independent creators.
Over the past decade, Gonzalez’s art has grown in popularity with publications in Marvel, DC, Boom, and Archie, among others, before reaching a wide audience with her variant cards in the video game Marvel Snap. The question of how long she has been tracking or copying other people’s original artwork has now been called into question. According to Jubi, Gonzalez also deleted other works from her social media Since talking to Nina.
Still, whatever the outcome, I and everyone involved in reporting on this must stress to fans: Don’t be the one who causes bullying or hate. disappointment. Speak out against injustice. But never threaten your fans.
I say this because many people are fans of Rian Gonzales’ artwork and legacy, especially her Filipino background, as much of her color work can be traced back to the native Filipino palette. She is really loved there (speaking as a Filipino myself) and if you don’t know this, our people have a long history of producing some of the best comic book artists in the industry. There’s a huge level of pride here. Its fan base may be larger than the average American comic realizes.
Accountability is a given. Absolutely apologize. But most importantly, Gonzalez needs to solve the problem of tracking and citation.
