Scandal hits the comics art world as popular cover artist Rian Gonzales faces accusations of tracing another artist’s original work for an upcoming variant cover of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #15. The controversy centers on claims that Gonzales intentionally traced the work by an artist known as Nina, who drew this piece as a birthday present to an artist friend named Juby.
Here’s Gonzales’ side of the story later referred to on X as a response to “backlash and violent reactions”.
According to all parties involved, efforts were made to resolve this issue peacefully and offline. However, both Nina and Juby have raised concerns about the semantics surrounding the situation. Despite Gonzales’ claims to the contrary, the issue remains significant—largely because the artist denies tracing and insists they were only referencing, which blurs the lines further.
You can compare the original and cover artwork below to form your own opinion.
Both Juby and Nina have rightfully stated online that this type of behavior shouldn’t be condoned. Professional artists should never copy other’s work and claim it as their own, especially to a big publisher such as Marvel. To call it out would help the industry for the better overall and for what it’s worth, Nina has also gone out of the way to share resources for artists looking for references including using https://unsplash.com/ for photos and acon3d.com/en for a reference library. It should also be noted that all 3 of these people are professional artists who’ve published for major companies – so this type of traction wouldn’t likely occur had it been a smaller indie creator that was traced.
Gonzales’ artwork has risen in popularity in the past ten years published in places like Marvel, DC, Boom, and Archie, and then hit a wide audience being featured in her variant cards in the video game Marvel Snap. As to how long she’s traced or copied others’ original artwork, that issue has now come into question. According to Juby, Gonzales has also gone on to delete other works on her socials since speaking with Nina.
Still, regardless of what comes out of this, I and everyone inevitably involved in reporting on this must stress to fans: don’t be that person that results to bullying or hate. Be disappointed. Speak out against what’s unfair. But never result to threats over fandom.
I say this because many people are fans of Rian Gonzales’ artwork and heritage, especially regarding her Filipino background, as much of her color work can be traced to color palettes that are pretty native to the Philippines. She’s really beloved over there (speaking as a Filipino myself) and if you don’t know this, our people have a longstanding history of producing some of the best comic artists in the industry. There’s a large degree of pride here. And a bigger fandom than the average American comics person probably realizes.
Accountability for sure. Apologies most definitely. Though above all else, Gonzales needs to address the issue about tracing versus referencing.
Hey Christian! Great coverage on the issue, but I do feel that your second-to-last paragraph is completely unwarranted. Emphasizing her cultural background and influence in the Filipino comics industry feels like a huge detraction of the very real problem that plagues the entire art industry regardless of race.
It’s one thing to be proud of people from your own culture who have left an impact on the arts, but I definitely do not think this is a point you should be including in an article detailing her tracing. If anything, it leaves a weird taste in my mouth; of course nobody should be name-calling and sending death threats, but what does cultural influence have to do with the very base standard that all artists should be held to?
Speaking as an Asian-American artist myself I understand the inherent prejudices that CAN arise when non-white persons of interest are put in the spotlight, but feeling the need to bring up her cultural roots and significance feels extremely reductive and (from a reader’s viewpoint) reads as if you are implying she should be allowed leniency from bullying only because she is Filipino, and not because people should learn to be decent human beings as a whole.
I would ask you to consider how that paragraph impacts your article’s message; the takeaway should be an emphasis on how widespread tracing and theft is regardless of popularity or skill, not fandom dog-piling and cultural pride.
In any case, thanks for the coverage!
How many indie artists get their work tracedand have no recourse?
Because I doubt that tracing is ‘a few bad apples’ phenomenon.
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