For more than 50 years, Barbie has been an icon of fashion and beauty — and body type. Now, Mattel is doing something to forever change what Barbie can actually look like. It’s introducing three new body types: petite, curvy and tall, along with seven skin tones and 22 eye colors. One tweet from a fan shows the subtle detail that makes this so amazing.
Gonna have to make room in my office for these <3 <3 <3
Liveblogging from Sacanime with an art thief alert!
This exhibitor (name unknown) is selling across the hall from my table. As you can see, he is selling a wide variety of fandoms and intellectual properties, few, if any, are original pieces at all. Most of these are pieces of official art printed out and being sold at twenty a pop. This person is even selling a very popular Homestuck FANART piece into 3 different prints, the money of which neither the fanartist nor Andrew Hussie/whatpumpkin are seeing ANY profit from.
Right now I don’t know the exhibitor’s name or alias, but my friends have told me that they’ve seen this exhibitor at multiple conventions, including large comic cons like nycc. This person is probably making thousands of dollars off of artwork that he pulled from google images. To add insult to injury, he is signing these prints as if he were the actual artist of these stolen images. If you see this vendor at Sacanime or any other future cons, anime or otherwise, PLEASE refrain from buying his stolen artwork! We’re working with Sacanime to deal with him right now, but because he makes appearances at a lot of cons (specifically in the dealer’s hall , where fanart/ip rules are a lot less strict) keep an eye out and let the con heads know. Right now, please signal boost so we can stop this vendor from profiting off of other people’s artwork and property!
If you recognize the artist of the homestuck fanart (or any of the other pieces- I know a lot of his images are official comic art) please let me know so I can add that to this post.
Update: his identity is Joshua Whitener of Secret Identity Studios. At SacAnime, he is listed as “the Hidden Cape. Please keep an eye out for either of these aliases at cons! ,
Update 2: they are also selling licenced Disney art (i.e official art) that they do not display in their portfolio. Pics forthcoming
Update 3: Reblogging for the night crew!
We took this issue up with the SacAnime dealer’s hall head, who did not take our claims seriously at all, instead chiding us for trying to stir trouble or “create animosity” between artists and dealers. The story they heard from Secret Identity/Hidden Cape studios is that they are “officially licensed” vendors of these arts. In other words, they’re telling convention heads that they’re just resellers of licensed artwork and telling customers that they’re the original artists and even signing official artwork under the pretense of such.
This is probably how they are able to get into so many cons- because the dealer’s hall heads don’t see them as “artists” but as “resellers,” even though there is no way companies like Disney (especially Disney) would be giving license to such unprofessional and obscure people.
Knowing this, it’s even more important that congoers speak out about them and spread word so that they do not get support for essentially stealing art.
It’s also extremely important that we find as many of the original artists as we can. While official licensed images are in their inventory, so are a lot of fanart prints. In particular, if you know the artists who drew any of the following, it’s important to alert them that they’re being ripped off and hopefully help them take action so that conventions can see that these people are NOT licensed resellers of ANY of the artwork presented at their booth.
Please let me know or tell the original artists of any of the following pictures that they’re being resold by an entity called “Secret Identity/Hidden Cape Studios”:
The Homestuck prints (I know the original image is one long, horizontal image, not cut up into 3 parts) (images 1 and 3)
Ryuko Matoi (Next to the Kingdom Hearts official piece) (Image 2)
I apologize for the blurred/unfocused images. More pictures might be coming, but if now, please keep an eye out for these vendors and future cons.
Update 4: Not really an update, but still compiling all the info into one post
Another practice this person does is to keep a bunch of inventory “in the back” so it isn’t on display. An example of this is this Elsa print, which is blatantly Disney official art. This Elsa wasn’t anywhere on display, but when the customer asked if they had the character, they were able to pull it out of their inventory and sell it to them.
Heyyy guyyyys! Remember these assholes? I saw them at another con semi-recently (I think it was Comikaze Expo in LA) and got some fresh evidence! Clearly, they’re still going around and selling shit. Unfortunate, but you can keep your eyes peeled and report them if you see them at a con near you!
I also got a business card from them. They also go by the name “Alternate Reality Studios” and have a website– www.alternaterealitystudios.com
You’ll notice that on their home page, there’s a couple images that exactly the same as some of the pictures on display in some of these photos.
If you recognize ANY of the prints in these photos (sorry for the blurriness), please alert the original artists and let them know that they are being sold unlawfully. I’ve already submitted a tip to Disney, but because of the range of IPs that they sell, it doesn’t hurt to give a heads up to some other companies.
This one’s from artist JJ Kirby/Juvaun Kirby
Website homepage. Note the Joker sample images, which you can clearly see on display in a couple of the above photos.
As always, please signal boost! Yes, there are a bunch of big company IPs that are being stolen, but it looks like there are a bunch of independent artists’ stuff there too. It seems like they stick to California cons, but again, if you see them ANYWHERE, report them to the con head and get them kicked out!
Thanks!
Signal boost!
You are on fire with all of your comments today... I love it.
I FEEL LIKE WE’VE BEEN SAYING THIS… FOREVER. BUT ONE WAS WAS LISTENING. AT ALL…
word! I definitely feel like this needs to be discussed in the black community.
Pedophilia and sexual assault are definitely major elephants in the room in the black community.
^
As much as I recognise and aware about this topic within the community , the findings should be treated with some caution as the sample size consisted of 300 participants. Nowhere near enough sample size to make claims about entire race. Claims of this will not assist in helping and supporting out girls but will go the other way of demonising black men.
Much offense, but shut the fuck up. You think we’re all speaking just from this article? HA. HAAAAAA. No. Asking for a bigger “sample size” FOH. You are the type of person to read discussion about rape, molestation, and pedophiles which YES are in the Black Community (as well as all communities) and say “let’s not hurt the perpetrators feelings though”.
You’re also assuming it’s only men doing these things. Speaking about solutions to the “hush hush” of sexual assault in an intracommunity basis is helping Black Girls and Black Boys.
It’s this mentality of protecting people no matter what they do that gets people killed. Black Females aren’t second class to Black Men and should not be silenced in order to “protect the black man” like…… No.
SPEAK UP BABY GIRLS AND BABY BOYS.
I saw a post on Facebook that addressed this and added the toxic victim blaming that goes on, how black girls are blamed for being “too fast” and no one is pointing out how grown men are approaching these little girls. I was 11 years old the first time a guy tried to have sex with me and I’m sure there are plenty of other girls with similar stories. I didn’t do anything with him, but if I did, I’m sure I’d be labeled the bad one.
Bigger sample size for the study? It doesn’t get any bigger than an entire community of girls who aren’t being listened to.
Geekdom is the only place where socially shunned males can be save and be themselves. So when women, who exclude them outside geek culture, invade those save spaces and force the scene to conform to their wants and rules they leave the men with nowhere to go. Where can they flee? They're backed into a corner. Attacking invading women is not harrassment - it is defense. Women hate socially inept males. Why should they not hate them back when they try to destoy their only sanctuary.
Gaming was never yours. Never. It was not designed as a safe space for guys free of women and you have no exclusive rights to the medium in the same way that no gender have exclusive rights to film and television. If women said you were not allowed to read books because that is their safe thing you would think they were ridiculous, you do not own a medium.
Women are not required to want to hang out with you in real life in order to game, that is another bullshit standard you apply to them and not to men. If a guy is a jerk whom you wouldn’t want to hang out with in real life you don’t throw a tantrum.
Women are not a hivemind, we each have our own individual thoughts and feelings and judge you individually.
That being said, women don’t want to hang out with you, not because you’re socially inept, but because you are an entitled asshole who thinks that women owe you their time outside of games in order to be able to play games without hostility.
If men weren’t hostile towards women, who have just as much a right to game as them, and weren’t so hostile towards the concept of fair representation then there would be any changes to the “scene” required, because people would already have a fair and fun experience.
Games are not your sanctuary mate, they are a product medium and never once has it been yours. Get over yourself.
To add.
What if women said that men weren’t allowed to enjoy the things they contribute to geekdom because it’s their “safe space” and, therefore, didn’t want men to invade it? You’d lose out on a lot of gaming, a lot of animation, a lot of comics, a lot of everything that has become a staple to geekdom in general.
Also, would this mean that female characters are just for your enjoyment or are they also invading in on your “territory” because geekdom should only be a boy’s club? I mean is it uncomfortable to play Tomb Raider or Metroid? Bayonetta? Do Chun-Li and Cammy terrify you? Does Wonder Woman make you cringe? All that screentime for Black Widow must’ve been hell. You hated Star Wars, didn’t you? Rey was all up in that. I’d recommend not going anywhere near Sailor Moon.
Naw I’m betting you enjoy the female driven aspects of geekdom, just not the actual women who are a part of it, for some asinine reason of believing they owe you something, as if you were the one courteous enough to let them in when geekdom has always had an open door policy to everyone. And when some woman (or women) didn’t see things your way you declared it to be an invasion on a thing that you don’t own. At all.
But hey, what do I know, I’m just a girl.
Made a fun discovery with my new hair color this morning.
This is the story of a geeky anime/gaming gal by the name of Chibi. Please fasten your seat belts and prepare for... some sort of ride? Oh! I love to write, and I also love doing crafty things. I go to conventions with my partner and sell woodburned things, clocks, mirrors, and more! So expect to see those on here too :)
Anonymous
