Susie MacNelly, Jeff’s widow, has written the following which I’m sharing with her permission:
Mike Peters so accurately described David Simpson as a cartoon kleptomaniac. Tulsa must be in a black hole with different journalistic ethics because neither Simpson nor his editor/publisher seem repentant. His editor wanted me to write the retraction….I declined. Mr. Simpson’s next gig should be matriculating at a state run giggling academy.
I suspect that he pulled Jeff’s editorials off the archives at shoecomics.com. We have been working for years to make Jeff’s work available to the public and we will continue to do so despite the pathetic behavior of one bad apple.
Susie MacNelly, Jeff’s widow
The fact that the publisher wanted HER to pen the retraction to which HE would sign his name is outrageous and maybe indicative of how David Simpson was able to feel at ease with plagiarism – at least while working with the Urban Tulsa. That doesn’t explain the decades of cases that Mike Peters says exists.
When I look at the “side by side” comparison of the 2005 Englehart cartoon theft, I see that Simpson, literally lifted Bob’s cartoon word for word.
It seems that the lesson he walked away with from that scandal was to at least bother to change the text.
Just to really grab the gravity of the extent of this plagiarism – it would be like a stand-up comic not only stealing another act’s material, but impersonating the other act while he delivers it!
Repugnant.
The scandal is NOT Simpson. It is the supposed journalists who have kept him employed and protected for so many decades to continue his blatant plagiarizing. This is a perfect example of ……It’s always the cover-up that is worse than the crime.
A possible nominee for the new Reuben category, Best Kleptoonist.
This news item has grabbed the interest of my cartoonist forum members and we are all shocked. As artists none of us want others copying our work and so unashamedly and blatantly. I am glad the matter has come to light and serves as a warning to all content theives.
LeahG