Anybody else see this: Shin vs. Phil?

[Voodoo Lou]

Anyone else get the email that Shin Tanaka sent to Phil (Filippo Perin)? Seems he is a little angry about Phil's new toys.

PHIL....
Why you always steal my ideas....
I'm disappointed in you.
http://www.nicepapertoys.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=q4r3pogcw743

I have already done what you are going to do.
Don't to be imitation, to be original.

**************************
SHIN TANAKA
http://shin.co.nr
tanaka.shin@gmail.com
**************************

You decide:
Shin's old stuff:



PHIL's new stuff:

[Mistuh_thye]

Shin's execution is way better as well imo.

[Voodoo Lou]

PHIL's response:
from his myspace page

[Voodoo Lou]

And from Shin:

Hi all,

I deeply apology it.
I wanted to reply only to PHIL.
However I missclicked a button "reply all".

And some people say this is a battle "SHIN vs PHIL".
However I haven't meant to battle with him.
I just worried Phil because my many fans mailed to me and said there
are SHIN's fakes,
it's disadvantageous fact for him.
I sent another mail to him and he understood what I wanted to say,
that's not dis but advice.

Anyway I'm sorry I confused you....

Keep a real, Keep Original.
Peace,

**************************
SHIN TANAKA
http://shin.co.nr
tanaka.shin@gmail.com
**************************

[s4ndm4n]

I think this crap is stupid and childish, if you ask me.  Regardless of if Shin's execution is better..  When an artist, ANY artist starts to get in people's faces simply because of a similar idea to their own.. it gets ugly IMO.  Especially for the artist that's pointing the finger.  Even if another artist intentionally "copied" their style a little.. what the heck?  That just means someone thinks your style is worthy of copying!  Danng....

Now we're not talking all out plagiarism or copyright infringement but someone having been "inspired" by another artist. 

I give you this, I like Shin's work but seeing any artist get so full of themselves and prideful just makes me sick.

[Jimmy Foo]

Hmmm....well I like Shin's work a lot, he's very good at it....but looking at both of these figures I can't see why each of these couldn't have developed independently of each other....It's not like it's a mindblowingly original design to begin with - although I do like both of them....The whole words on the head of a character thing has been done a fair bit.....so yea...I think Shin's reaction to it is a lil over the top...but I also think some of the fans who emailed him to alert him to the 'Shin Fakes' may well have pushed the situation along more than Shin would have taken it initially......

....getting back to the characters....I'd like to see a version with Shin's lettering and Phil's body 

[Mistuh_thye]

Hmmm....well I like Shin's work a lot, he's very good at it....but looking at both of these figures I can't see why each of these couldn't have developed independently of each other....It's not like it's a mindblowingly original design to begin with - although I do like both of them....The whole words on the head of a character thing has been done a fair bit.....so yea...I think Shin's reaction to it is a lil over the top...but I also think some of the fans who emailed him to alert him to the 'Shin Fakes' may well have pushed the situation along more than Shin would have taken it initially......

....getting back to the characters....I'd like to see a version with Shin's lettering and Phil's body 

+1

[francz]

he's been catching some grief on the paper toy network site, got to say that Phil has been handling it (and responding) really well.

I think both designs are valid even if there are similarities, overall the artists have a pretty deep catalog of work that's pretty diverse, one similar design shouldn't automatically condemn Phil as a plagiarist.

I like each design too, I have to say that I like Phil's hands and sneaker design and the CMYK colours are cool by me, I also like the dog face on Shin Tanaka's piece too.

[rosered]

Anytime the name SHIN TANAKA pops up and I say "He can kick my alien green gherkin butt".
Basically, years ago, before he became a 'name' in the paperart world we approached him and told him his work was great and we wanted to turn his "WALLMAN" into a toy.
He basically told us to F-Off in broken english.
We hate that.
We think you should share your skills or your talent/techniques and not be greedy. If we ever get off the ground we'll be listening to our fans and have an open email account for people to contact us.