They Practically Mock Themselves
In the four-and-a-half years this site has been around, I’ve gotten quite a few reports from people who have seen my drawings in some pretty strange contexts. Just this week, for example, I learned that a Vietnamese restaurant in Kingston, Ontario is using a Slap illustration in their Thanksgiving ads. (I’m optimistic that this means a free meal is on its way, because I could really go for some Phở gà right about now!)
Of all the illustration thefts though, my favourite are from anti-gay forums, Facebook pages, and blogs. Violating international copyright laws is one thing, but using the evidence to publicly mock yourself is delightfully nutty.
In that spirit, let’s do the meta thing today! Presenting my top-most stolen illustrations used for anti-gay purposes by people who clearly can’t tell they’re being made fun of.
I’m not too sure what everyone who stole this image assumed I meant when I drew it. It originally accompanied a post about how people misunderstand the point of Pride flags, but I guess it’s more easily interpreted to mean that if children ever see a rainbow, their sexual orientation will instantly set its arrow to über gay. Like most copyright infringements against me, I didn’t document all the times this was stolen, but at least JJ over at Unrepentant Old Hippie caught one of them a while back for posterity.
This barely made sense in its original context, but seeing it on at least a dozen generic (as in having nothing to do with the T-Dot or radio towers) anti-gay Facebook groups and blogs makes even less sense. Perhaps they think we insatiable gay activists are actually erecting full-spectrum laser towers to terrorize… what? Train Operators?
This drawing, which I apparently made when I was 2, has been stolen hundreds of times by my estimates. It accompanies a post about a real-life male nursewho pickets health centres, claiming that all gay people have AIDS. I’m not sure what I can say to justify this thing, other than that if I knew so many people would see it, I probably wouldn’t have held my pen with chopsticks instead of fingers.
If the previous illustration has been stolen hundreds of times, this one is probably approaching the thousands. To demonstrate, there’s a great Facebook group dedicated to reporting other, homophobic groups that violate the site’s terms of service, and at any given time, two or more of them will have this set as their profile picture , guaranteed. I can’t even tell you the number of forums and message boards this has appeared on. And all from people who, apparently, think chasing their children with cut-outs of green, leather-clad monsters on a stick is actually a pretty good training exercise in case they encounter a real life gay. My intention was to exaggerate the already irrational hysteria about gay people, but it’s now clear that I really ought to capitalize on this. The monster-cut-out-on-a-stick business must be a lucrative one! It’ll be a great investment opportunity for you, too. (Contact my CFO for details.)
Of course, if you see a Slap somewhere out in the wild, be sure to let me know. A high-profile theft from some well-publicized anti-gay organization is overdue, I just know it!
