In 2013, artist KC Green created two panels that have, in the years since then, become ubiquitous. As NPR’s Emma Bowman noted, Green’s comic Gunshow featured a sequence in which a cartoon dog, Question Hound, calmly drinks coffee in a burning room. “This is fine,” says the dog. Odds are good you’ve seen this, either in its original form or adapted as a meme. But now, an unauthorized version of Green’s art has shown up in the last place you’d expect — and Green is (understandably) not happy about it.
It began when writer Daniel Radosh noticed a subway ad for an technology company that used a replica of Green’s comic to advertise some sort of AI tools from a company called Artisan. “Bruh there’s no way @kcg.bsky.social approved this,” Radosh wrote on Bluesky, accompanied by a photo of the ad in question. “Hard to believe an AI company would just steal someone’s work though!”
Shortly thereafter, Green responded, confirming that the use of his work (or a reasonable facsmile of it) was unauthorized – and encouraging people to deface the ad if they saw it. “[I]’ve been getting more folks telling me about this and it’s not anything i agreed to. [I]t’s been stolen like AI steals. [P]lease vandalize it if and when you see it,” he wrote.
It’s unclear what Artisan thought would happen here. If I decide to use a copy of the Far Side’s “Cow Tools” comic to advertise, say, an energy drink, presumably Gary Larson’s lawyers will savor the opportunity to sue me into oblivion, in what would presumably be the easiest copyright violation case in recorded history.
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Artist Philippe Squarzoni has adapted his book “Homicide” as a graphic novelAnd while there’s a school of thought that any press is good press, I cannot imagine Green has not heard from at least one lawyer eager to take on a slam-dunk legal case. (“[I]’ve emailed someone, but I don’t expect much a response,” he posted last night.)
For now, Green has taken the opportunity to direct interested parties to his current comic, Greatures, and a video game featuring Question Hound. “[T]hat’s it. [T]hat’s all you’re allowed to do,” he wrote in a post on Bluesky on Sunday. As for what irate subway riders might make of the ad? That’s one area that remains to be seen.
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