Lit Highway robbery of Warhammer 40k

So I was reading Aphra issue 14 and I noticed something familiar.
A pod crashing down from the sky and spilling open in a leaf shape.
A blue pod with hazard stripes.
A warhammer 40k drop pod literally shoved into a star wars comic. Not a similar pod, one traced into a star wars comic.
Like, is this legal? Seriously? This isn't a easter egg like putting the enterprise in the background, this is using someone else's design as a story element.
Shame on whoever decided to do that.

*Mods: Maybe undeserving of it's own thread, or maybe it can be adapted into a thread about stuff like this happening in general, your call, I'm just pretty annoyed by this.

 

Drop pods arent a unique concept. They've been done in various forms for the past 40+ Years, and I really don't think having one with a similar design as another one is worth getting up in arms about.

 

And it's possible the artist actually got permission to use it, rather than assuming it was outright stolen.

 

It's not a similiar design, it's literally the exact same, including colour and markings.

 

Games Workshop who own 40k are IP freaks who once tried to sue people for using the word space marine and when they lost, gradually started to rename all their stuff to trademarkable names. They'd never give away their design for free without any credit being given

 

Yeah I’m sure he got permission. The Incredibles got permission to use the word “Omnidroid” from LucasFilm.

 

Alright then, let's put that assertion to the test.

Here is a 40k drop pod in Ultramarine colors.



Here is the drop pod as seen in Aphra #14.



Now, upon initial inspection, I can see why you'd be so adamant that the drop pods are identical. However, upon inspection, it's clear that they're very different. For everyone's convenience, I've itemized the differences.

• The central pillar: In the WH40k pod, the chamber is designed as it's own space, with the shell not intruding into troop seating. However, it's clear from the picture shown of the Star Wars pod that a central pillar runs down through the length of the shell directly through the troop area.
• The fins: The WH40k pod is flat along the inside of its structural fins, while the Star Wars pod is serrated. Additionally, the WH40k pod has an almost straight line along the outside of the fins ending in a shallow edge, while the Star Wars pod has two noticeable protrusions at the top and bottom of the troop openings.
• The profile: The profiles of the two pods are completely different. The WH40k pod has unseen engines beneath the pod and a fairly open area above the troop compartment, while the Star Wars pod has visible engines beneath the structural wings and an enclosed top. It's easier to see in this picture:
• The markings: While both pods are blue, the hazard markings you specifically point out are in completely different places. On the WH40k pod, they outline the inside of the troop fairing, while they are minimally present along the structural wings of the Star Wars pod. We're also talking about a universe where there are dozens of Space Marine chapters, each with their own markings and colors. Is any drop pod painted blue considered to be a ripoff of the Ultramarines the same as any drop pod painted red considered to be a ripoff of the Blood Ravens?

Now, I can see how you might take this as some kind of homage to the Warhammer 40k pods, since they're quite well known and can be seen as the first widespread usage of the concept in Sci-Fi, and the Star Wars pod is painted in the same colors as the most widely known Space Marine chapter. But how you can stand up and vehemently claim that the Star Wars pod is "traced" into the Aphra comics is beyond me. In this case, I don't think the artist is the one who should be ashamed.

 

WH does owe Star Wars one: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/04/the-most-awesome-40k-character-of-all-time.html

 

I don't care that this isn't particularly relevant, I just want to reference the Doomgiver from Jedi Outcast and its drop pods.






I don't know anything about Warhammer, but Jedi Outcast was awesome.

Also I like how Wookieepedia category pages have been ruined by filling them up with images of every example in the category.

 

The only reason this would even be noteworthy - if correct, which I doubt - is the aforementioned trademark madness of Games Workshop, because this kind of thing is hardly unusual. Didn't an earlier nucanon comic have the Battlestar Galactica in a Rebel fleet or something like that?

 

@Outsourced there's another shot where they even show the four protruding spikes of a 40k drop pod. I dunno, the similarities are close enough that it looks like someone drawing a drop pod from memory after seeing it earlier that day. The blue is relevant as it's the colour drop pods are found in most easily on google search....
After seeing Salvador Larroca's art, I don't put tracing as something beyond the comics artists.

 

Here's every single shot of the drop pod from the comic.











This picture may lend evidence to your claim, but it's actually the opposite. The pod changes from the design seen before it lands and this design because the doors open differently than WH40K pod doors do, adding yet another difference between the two.

You say that it looks like a drop pod drawn from memory, but imply that the artist (Emilio Laiso) "traced" or "used google". Considering the pods are completely different design wise, and thus couldn't have been traced, I don't really think you want to dig this particular hole earlier.

Now, if you'd like to actually submit some evidence to back up your claims outside of vague feelings, then I'd suggest you do so. Otherwise, it seems like this whole thread was just an attempt at generating outrage.

 

Well fair enough outsourced, it wasn't traced. But the amount of aspects lifted are far far to close to call it original.

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...And?

Look. We can all sit here and debate the nuances of the drop pod, what the artist's intentions were, and whether we should get the pitchforks or not. Or, we could look at it, go "That's neat", and move on. At best, it's a homage, at worst, it's an accident. Either way, the discussion is pointless and leads nowhere.

 

If I'd designed it and seen such a clear rip of my work being used like that, I'd be annoyed. It's even blue

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Did you design it?

 

Not the point. A quick look at the history of GW and IP shows they certainly never asked permission to use it, especially as the designer is probably unknown unless they said it in an old white dwarf magazine. As it is, it's star wars blatantly using someone elses idea as a story element in a comic. It just screams of laziness, and nothing will be done about it as GW can't afford to sue Disney. It's the start of a slide. First we get the drop pod. Then what? Dreadnoughts? Orks?* If someone else used a millennium falcon with some gribble stuck on and no prongs in their comic it would be lazy, this is the same.

*am actually now hyped for Vader v Orks now tbh

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Ah, yes. I forgot that you're the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to what you perceive as "ripping off" something else. You didn't have the time or inclination to actually compare the two in order to notice their differences, instead accusing an artist you aren't actually familiar with of tracing directly, but you're 100% confident in saying that the design was stolen, and we're now watching the decline of Star Wars into a referential pit? Not even getting into the gem @MercenaryAce posted where Warhammer literally took a Star Wars character's name for a character. But oh no, the pod is blue! Sound the alarm people.

And on top of all of that, we're really gonna get into the usage of ideas across mediums? Star Wars is an homage to old Sci-Fi serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Warhammer 40k is literally Tolkien fantasy in space. Should Games Workshop pay royalties to Tolkien's estate? They won't be making much off of that, because Tolkien will need to pay out for the usage of Dragons and Wizards.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, and trying to get all high and mighty on an assumption of where one came from is ill-advised. Drop pods are a sci-fi staple and were around since before Warhammer 40k used them. Unless you want to track down the guy that specifically designed 40k drop pods and make sure the idea was 100% original, i'd suggest moving to a new tactic.

 

Yeah, you know what maybe let's just drop this conversation. I made an accusation of tracing and have withdrawn it. That is true. I came to this conclusion when I instantly without the slightest need to check, that it was a 40k drop pod. The blue is relevant as all the stock photos found as soon as you open google are blue, often with hazard stripes.
Judge Jury and...no it's called having an opinion and expressing it. People do that from time to time. Sorry! If I was jury I'd have just posted my verdict without any room to debate it.

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A more serious issue is the original fan design that was used without permission in an earlier Dr Aphra issue. And that one was never addressed.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they accidentally canonized a ship that looks like the Bellator because of it. And there's really old Mon Cal designs that have snuck in the same way.

 

@TK-421 Is vader Not talking about the Bellator, though, but rather about this.

 

I guess on the general topic, the Jaxxon comic from this summer used the Regula I space station from The Wrath of Khan. Just flipped it upside down, but it's absolutely the Star Trek station.

 

Ah yeah the Nebulon K. I see the artist was in the thread, uncontacted and found having his design copied without permission rude.

 

I don't see any problem with the Drop Pod. You have things in the EU like Lando's YVH Droids that resemble the Terminator, and Battlestar Galactica designs are made by McQuarrie, so they naturally fit in with the rest of Star Wars designs. The Viper looks like the missing link between an X-Wing and A-Wing, and the Battlestars fit as Rendili vessels.

Use of a fan-made ship is telling though, that the fans they hate are more creative than what they can come up with. Technically since its a creation for a fictional universe they own, I'm not sure they're entitled to pay royalties though, but its really telling of the laziness that goes into the creation of the new works, that they'd take a fan design found on Google, whereas in the old canon we had things like a really good-looking modified Providence for the Rebels, etc.