So I was checking out the variant covers for the upcoming Transformers vs. The Terminator #1, and came across this large double-page spread by Alan Quah... but is it?

Can you spot the stolen art?

My Twitter thread has a few amateur sleuths on the case already!

 

Thanks for sharing but can you insert the comparitive images in your post for those who don't have/or use Twitter? Thanks

 

Didn't see it in that Twitter thread but I immediately recognized Scorponok's pose from a Lost Light issue.

 

The teminators look tiny next to optimus & megatron & the rest...

I never saw any of the movies, so I guess they're not toddler to Micronaut size?

 

Terminators are normally 5-6 feet, since the idea is you can put them in synthetic skin and they pass for humans.

 

Yeah, I feel like if you're going to start a discussion, you have to mirror all of the content for it.

Anyways, here are the comparisons from Twitter:

 

Okay, so here we go. This is the largest version of this cover I can find.


Collage of the original art coming soon.

And just for the record, the techniques at use here are either "swiping" (redrawing from reference without giving credit) or outright tracing.

The originals:

Alex Milne (IDW):


Casey Coller (IDW):


Priscilla Tramontano (IDW):


Rob Ruffolo (IDW):


Don Figueroa (Dreamwave More Than Meets The Eye):

 

Wow. Just... wow. It's not even similar poses or riffing on various iconic TF poses, panels etc., that's straight up 1:1 tracing.

 

Isn't that Devastator also stolen from the DW More Than Meets The Eye profile book?

 

Wow! This is blatant when you compare the cover with the original art.

 

Seriously IDW?

 

It's not IDW, it's the artist.

 

To be totally fair IDW shares some of the blame too. Being hired on or doing freelance still needs a work portfolio. Someone at IDW saw this artist work, vetted it, hired them to do it and now this fiasco. I just wonder if the artist's portfolio was likewise swiped from others...

 

Here's their Twitter profile, check out their other work.

 

Collage made from the original art:


The swipe:

 

i think hot rod is the same art as the one with bee

 

I agree that Hot Rod is also from the same art as Bee.
And I think this is the art Drift is from, a panel from IDW (found through Google, I don't have my IDW collection with me right now to place which issue it is from):

 

What's crazy is that the artist is an established one with a big portfolio. The biggest thing that gets me is that his style is so radically different than what he did for this cover. While artists are certainly free and able to try new styles, there's nothing really indicating that thia covernis from the same artist. The portfolio doesn't even have any robots in it from what I could tell!

 

It's from Spotlight: Drift. Art by Casey Coller.

Collage updated:


Still needed:
Sixshot, Ironhide, Grimlock, Soundwave, Frenzy/Rumble, Ravage

 

With so many elements of this splash image being traces, I wonder if that Terminator in the bottom right corner is also copied from somewhere. It's looking pretty egregious so far.