Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations

BichonBistro

@Bricz-Art I emailed Chronicle to express my disappointment with their lack of support to @Jake-Parker and failure to communicate the status of the book to advance purchasers. I also shared my opinion that charges of plagiarism are baseless, after reviewing my copy (having viewed Mr. Dunn's video in August). I had to email twice to get a reply. Here is their reply:

"We have paused the publication of Inktober until further notice. Last week, Amazon inadvertently shipped a small amount of copies to customers that had pre-ordered the book earlier this year. They have since placed all books back on hold and returning remaining copies to us. We apologize for the confusion."

I feel very fortunate to have received a copy and hope this will be resolved soon, no thanks to Chronicle btw.

@BichonBistro
of course...and its not listed anymore where i have seen it before. shouldnt have waited.
i guess its time to wait till he finds a other publisher? i am not sure how all that stuff works but the book itself should be jakes, right?

danielerossi

@BichonBistro What a beautiful cover!

I went to check indigo.ca where they had originally canceled my order in June and.... the book is still listed for pre-order for March 2021. So I pre-ordered it along with a copy of The Little Snowplow to add to my creative bank account. I’m curious to see if Indigo cancels it.

burvantill

@BichonBistro Wow! I am sorry for everyone that did not get the copy they preordered but I can’t help but feel like I won a lottery here.
Jumping for joy while trying to feel sympathetic is a tough emotion.

demotlj

I, too, got my copy and am thinking I should seal it in plastic because it might become a collector's item some day. But I'm enjoying it too much to seal it up.

I hope you all get yours eventually and I will add that I bought Alphonso's Dunns books a long time ago and now that I have Jake's and can compare them, they are very different. The controversy should never have happened.

Drawboy77

Glad I looked at this forum. I pre-ordered my copy from Amazon a while ago and I noticed that my copy has been shipped, but there have been "delays"getting it to my door for the last couple days. I've never had this problem with Amazon. I hope it gets here, I've been looking forward to getting it.

jaepereira

This is the message Amazon just gave me:

Unfortunately, a problem occurred during shipping and we had to cancel your delivery. The package is being returned, and we will issue a refund within 3 - 5 business days after the return is processed. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

Does that mean no more copies are available? This “controversy “ continues to be a pain in the butt.

jaepereira

@BichonBistro just saw this. Arghh

Pinky

My copy seems to have made it to within 20 minutes of my house -- and now "may have been lost." I can request a refund if I want, but I'm just going to bide my time, cross my fingers, and hope it can escape Amazon jail and arrive at my door. Call me overly optimistic, but it IS Christmas!!

Kristin Wauson

What the heck?!? Some people got a copy? Mine said it shipped and then it said there was a problem and they refunded my money. I don't want my money back, I want my book!

Drawboy77

Yep, went to check today what the status is and found that it was marked "Undeliverable" and sent back. Last I saw Barnes and Noble.com is still selling it so I may go there. Upset about this. I want the book.

Drawboy77

@Pinky This was what happened to my order too. Today, I learned they marked it as "undeliverable" and sent it back.

Pinky

@Drawboy77 Sorry yours was sent back!! Mine still seems to be trapped in limbo at this point.

danielerossi

From the reviews (you lucky people!) it sounds like Jake’s book is definitely worth the long wait.

krish iyer

When I first heard of this whole thing, I honestly couldn't believe it, and honestly I was shocked in the beginning that this sort of thing could ever affect or go toward Jake Parker.
Knowing and following his work for over 4 years, my friends kept asking me if I was sad, or worried but, my response always dissapointed them because I always told em, Jake parker has always been intensely purposeful and responsible with the work he puts out , as a publisher, as an illustrator , as a podcaster and as a youtuber. I can clearly tell that this pointless outrage wont affect Jake in the slightest because at the end of the day , the internet or the public can and will say what it wants and great creatives like Jake will continue to do what they've always done , make. good. art.
And at the end of the day, that's what matters and that's what inspires me.

danielerossi

I checked Indigo today (bookstore in Canada) and it lists the book as being released on March 9. Hopefully this true

glenfx

I was a huge fan of Jake until the inktober debacle, I understand what he did and would have supported him but not the way he did it by keeping it all under wraps for a really long time until it blew on everyone's faces and people started getting notices from lawyers.
I still respect his work and craftsmanship but not himself as much unfortunately.

With that being said, the book, I'm still looking forwards to it, I think Alphonso played him bad since whatever he claimed as his creation I was taught in art school back in the 90's and have seen it in numerous books already and I even defended Jake about it several times.
To be honest, I wasn't blown away by Alphonso's book, it seemed very uninspiring and I personally are not into his art style while I do love Jake's work so I was looking forward to his book instead.

I hope it does come out in March or this year as it would be proof Jake didn't do wrong or wasn't stealing from Alphonso, and it would be a good addition to an art book collection since there aren't that many cartoon related art books out there with decent quality or fun and inspiring to look at.

lpetiti

@glenfx I interpreted his keeping things “under wraps” as him keeping it private. I think in a social media world, fans feel like creators and artists have an obligation to tell them everything; that’s not the case. It’s for lawyers to decide privately and it makes sense that the public wasn’t told everything. Personally I wouldn’t want every piece of my business aired out for the entire world to see.

Nyrryl Cadiz

@glenfx i think the reaction would still be the same had Jake announced it or not. ‍️ there’s really no safe way to go about it

glenfx

This wasn't supposed to be the focus and merely a note but,

@lpetiti In this case when he created Inktober he encourage everyone to use the hashtag and even said people could use the logo (I joined it since the start), so after years of people promoting it as a community he registered the trademark without telling anyone until two years later when people found out by receiving cease and desist emails by lawyers and just after that he said it was due to concerns and because he wanted to do a book using inktober as the title.

If he had told to the community about it, something like "hey guys since I've seen companies selling stuff with my inktober logo without permission and before someone with ill intentions take it as theirs and maybe harming the community, since I created it I took a step and I'm in the process of trademarking it, unfortunately this might make some changes but we'll figure something out together".
Instead of two years later be like, ooops I forgot to tell you guys but you can't use the inktober title and logo in your books alone but hey keep using it and promoting it, I'm sorry you knew about it due to those who received a C&D letter, I will give some sort of special pass to use the title while I'm still not telling you I trademarked it a couple of years ago until someone looks for it.

I think more people would stand by his side if he had done something like this.