¡Parada! ¡Un Ladrón!

Aside from the issue where Batman chucks a car battery at a thug in a junkyard, another one of my childhood favorites was a story from a couple years earlier where a psychopath was going around Gotham City dressed as Batman, using his techniques and methodology to further his own sinister, murderous ends.

Well, not to get all melodramatic here or anything, but tonight, I know exactly how Batman felt about that.

 

 

See, thanks to the ever-vigilant Adam Ford of Monkey Punch Dinosaur! fame, it’s come to my attention that there’s a guy down in Argentina who has made it a habit to take ISB entries that I’ve written, translate them into Spanish, and then post him over at his own site without any form of credit whatsoever in a pretty amazing example of wholesale content thievery.

And I’m not talking about just lifting an image, or discussing the same issue or something. This is the Internet, after all, and that’s bound to happen a little bit. But this is different: He’s outright stealing ’em, to the point where he even took my “Diagram of Computo” (originally posted August 4, 2006)…

 

 

…and photoshopped one of his own:

 

 

I mean, seriously. He even copied Brainiac’s signature. What the hell?

And from the looks of things, adding a couple of arms to a drawing is about the most original thing he’s managed to come up with. Clicking through the archives reveals that an overwhelming majority of the posts he’s done have been lifted entirely from the ISB, right down to the alt text for the images, which, for me, is the equivalent of the Grinch taking the very last can of Hoo Hash.

You can check out the archives for yourself, but rest assured: Even the one-panel gag posts I’ve done aren’t safe, and perhaps the most telling is this entry, where he–in a moment characterizing him as a truly epic douchebag–apologizes for not having the time to update as much as he wanted, and then offers a set of “best of” links, three of which are mine, one of which comes–I’m reasonably sure–from Dial B For Blog, and one of which “borrows” liberally from a piece I wrote for Prism.

And then he posts a picture stolen from the ISB. Which I recognize from the way the lettering’s been cleared up. Because, you know. I did that.

Which brings up another point: It’s not just me–although to be honest, my content provides the source for the majority of “his” stuff. He’s ripped off Dial B, MightyGodKing, Kevin Church, Jake Bell, Random Panels, and many more, I’m sure. Feel free to look through yourselves: It’s like a Comics Blogger Trivia Game, except that a normal game wouldn’t make you pissed off that somebody stole a piece you wrote eulogizing Arnold Drake.

Interestingly enough, as near as I can tell, he hasn’t once stolen from Dave Campbell, thus proving that even the scum of the Earth has standards.

Needless to say, I’m infuriated. Whether it shows or not, I put a lot of work into what I write here, and to be honest, I wouldn’t even mind if he was taking my stuff and translating it into Spanish if he’d bothered to credit any of it. This goes far beyond the standard annoyance and into something both shameless and disgraceful.

And here’s the kicker: The South American Bootleg version of the ISB just won an award, and that… Huh. I was gonna write a joke here, but it looks like I’m too darn mad.

So why tell you guys? Well, in theory, if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you like me enough that you don’t wish me specific harm, and while I certainly wouldn’t advise you to follow my example of letting “Franco” know what a tool he’s being in his comments sections (although I’d certainly consider such thievery “objectionable”), I’d like to remind you of one thing:

Peter Parker once let a thief get away, folks. And I think we all know how that turned out.

 


 

UPDATE

 

 

You know, it’s pretty comforting to know that I can identify a problem, go to work, and then come home later to find that you guys have focused yourselves like a laser and scoured said problem from the face of the Internet. I mean really: After this, I’m seriously considering going into cult leadership.

Yes, as you’ve probably noticed if you tried to follow any of the links in the above post (or if you’ve read the comments section below), my Argentinian doppelganger has shut down his blog after a veritable tidal wave of ISB readers crashed into him, and I’d just like to offer a heartfelt thanks to everyone who left a comment here or sent an email. I thought about explaining just why I was so mad one more time, but from the looks of things, you guys already know pretty much how I feel.

Anyway, like I said: Thanks to everybody (including Mondo Comics for bending spacetime itself to retroactively award me their Blog of the Day), and if there’s anybody out there showing up from South America to enjoy the ISB, you’re more than welcome and I’m glad to have you, but I’m sorry to say that my grasp of Spanish starts and ends with “¡Dios Mio! ¡Un esqueleto!

When you get right down to it, though, doesn’t the sight of a man punching out a polar bear transcend language?

148 thoughts on “¡Parada! ¡Un Ladrón!

  1. I bet he looks like you and has a mustache.

    Seriously though, this is a big shame. Glad it’s been exposed though. He WISHES he was as talented a writer as you.

  2. It may not have YOUR name on it, but it sounds to me like YOU (and the other REAL bloggers) just won an award! So grats on that I guess.

    And if it’s any consolation, that theif Spidey let get away desolved into oblivion. Meanwhile Spidey *points at blog* continues to hold a dear place in our collective hearts. :)

  3. When the two of your are struggling on the rain slick rooftop, briefcase full of ISB original documents at stake, my pistol will waver between the two identical struggling figures.

    Then I will shout “Are you the original?” And whoever answers “Si!”, I’ll shoot ‘im.

  4. So….I guess that little © you have down there means nothing. At the very least you should learn how to say “you thieving son of a bitch” in Spanish.

  5. I will reiterate the “you with a moustache” joke and the “wait until he steals this post” joke. Great, now I’m stealing from the comment section of a post about stealing.

    Nonetheless, I have to say it says something about your talent that even a post that should have been nothing more than your righteous anger towards an idea thief is still funny as hell. Argentinian knock-offs can;t beat the original.

  6. True Fact: I was going to lead this post with a crayon drawing me with a moustache and a sombrero cackling evilly, but then I remembered the Batman story. Nothing So Savage indeed.

  7. Taking a second look at his Computo swipe, I see that he didn’t just add 2 arms, he completely re-drew the whole thing, (something I’m sure you already noticed.) So basically he’s putting a lot of work into his thievery. Amazing.

  8. You know the phrase “beneath contempt?” Like something is so low that you can’t even have contempt for it? Well it turns out there’s a whole layer even lower than that which, paradoxically, lets you have contempt again. It’s like an M.C. Escher of pure contempt.

    P.S. not going with the crayon drawing was smart. When the Argentinian comics blogger community starts looking here to see what else the guy stole, you don’t want him to win any points.

  9. I was just over at mondocomic, leaving my two cents, when my eye was drawn to the SouthParkesque cartoon figures in the background.

    My pop culture-addled brain was able to place most of the characters therein, but there appears to be one that the only connection I can make to is a blackface minstrel of the 1920s. Please, please, please tell me there is another connotation I am missing…

  10. Well, like a lot of other people who read your blog, I went over there and left a scathing comment, so I guess we showed him.

  11. You know, it’s not theft that astounds me, it’s the massive laziness. If you’re going to be a prick and plagiarize, at least paraphrase.

    Also, I’m secretly disappointed he’s not stolen from my blog. Just when I was starting to think I’d made it.

  12. Just in case anyone is wondering, babelfish translates the spanish phrase for “Holy frigg’n crap!” into “Ah, the excrement!” So maybe you could steal that line from him in a future post.

  13. At the very least you should learn how to say “you thieving son of a bitch” in Spanish.

    ¡Usted ladrón hijo de una puta!

    or more formally:

    ¡Usted está robando de mí, Usted hijo de una perra!

  14. Y’know, on seeing the title of this post, for a second I thought it had to do with spectacular artist Jose Ladronn…

    Nope. Man, I wish I had a reason to go to Argentina just so I could kick this jive-ass in the face.

    Well, I’ll just go off to his “blog” and settle for a verbal face-kicking.

  15. Nail his shrunken virtual balls to the mat with your Cobra Kai, Chris. But until then I suggest we all head to this asswipe’s site and show him what irate American comic nerds can do. I know we can shut him down.

  16. Hey, good thing is Blogspot has a really solid procedure to have him nailed for infringement. If we can’t shame him into shutting down, his server will take it down soon enough.

  17. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but his profile is linked on the side of the blog, and said profile includes an e-mail. Not that I am saying anyone should tell this worthless scum exactly what they think of him and his blog, but it is there.

    [Redacted Per Request]

    Not that you should do anything with that

  18. I’m sorry, too. Wish I knew Spanish so that I could count how many times this guy’s been called a fuckin’ thief!

  19. I am truly astonished that someone thought he can get away with this wholesale thievery, I am mean, the-isb is one of the best, most constantly high-quality sites around and with an unique style to boot. Sooner or later somebody had to come across that rip-off.
    Crazy.

  20. That guy’s a fckn’ thief, alright, and deserves hell. But some of the spanish(kinda) comments posted in his blog by ISB regulars are sooo hilarious.

    “Manera de robar a toda su persona contenta que tiene sexo con su madre. Consiga del Internet.”

    “Usted es espuma.

    Jajajaja. Are those google-translated comments?

    Anyway, fuck the Two Fisted Blog. Go Sims!

  21. hehe, if anything, this travesty reminded me of this:

    Burns: Get me Steven Spielberg!

    Smithers: He’s unavailable.

    Burns: Then get me his non-union Mexican equivalent!

    [later] Burns: Listen, Senor Spielbergo, I want you to do for me what Spielberg did for Oskar Schindler.

    Spielbergo: Er, Schindler es bueno, Senor Burns es el diablo.

    Burns: Listen, Spielbergo, Schindler and I are like peas in a pod: we’re both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, dammit!

    and for that, i am grateful.

  22. LOL I think your title should read
    ¡Para Ladrón! or ¡Detente ladrón! because to me it reads Bus Stop! Thief!…
    Also this: “Manera de robar a toda su persona contenta que tiene sexo con su madre. Consiga del Internet.” reads “Way to steal all your happy person that has sex with their mother. Get internet.”…
    Just wanted to say I read your blog every morning and it’s the most vitamin packed way to start the day! Go Chris!

  23. I have delivered the required verbal kick. Normally I would aim for the balls but in your honour I have made to the face.

    IN YOUR HONOUR!

    JmC

  24. So what is more insulting. This guy stealing from you, or this guy NOT stealing from you?

    I mean, what am I, chopped liver?

    All kidding aside, I wonder if Blogger would consider pulling his page and account.

  25. Hi, Chris! I read the Two-Fisted Blog post yesterday and I thought it was great. So I have to give you my congratulations on this post instead of the plagiarist.

    Regards from Spain.

    PS: The most suitable title on this post is: “¡Alto!¡Al ladrón!”

  26. At the very least you should learn how to say “you thieving son of a bitch” in Spanish.

    That can be expressed as: “Tú, hijo de puta ladrón”. Also, can be for some utility words as “gilipollas”, “cretino”, “chorizo” or “sinvergüenza”.

    If that serves you, i’ve blogging about comics in spanish for three years and never knew about that site. He’s a nobody.

  27. there’s a guy down in Argentina who has made it a habit to take ISB entries that I’ve written, translate them into Spanish, and then post him over at his own site without any form of credit

    Can I take your entries and translate them into English and post ’em at my own site?

    I kid. Anyway, applying Babelfish to that site gave me half an hour of entertainment. I’m not sure whether to credit you, him or Babelfish for that though.

    Of course, copying things and making them available on the Internet is something we’d never do, would we? At least we keep the credits intact. ;-)

  28. “Peter Parker once let a thief get away, folks. And I think we all know how that turned out.”

    …Eventually he’s going to shoot you?!

    But yeah, that’s pretty damn out of order. Isn’t there, like, something you can say to the blogger site that will get it removed? Like “This little shit is stealing my stuff, here’s proof.” I mean, it’s not as though there isn’t any evidence; every damn entry has a date after all, and the minute they see that yours are always posted sooner than his they’ll be sure to act.

    Or contact whoever gave him that dumbass award and tell them “Nice job on giving an award to a plagiarist”. They’re bound to in turn contact this guy and tell him “Yeah, we’re gonna have to take that award back…” which will hopefully be the start to his downfall… Then again, I’m assuming nothing has been done here except a few hatemails which isn’t going to change anything.

  29. I didn’t leave a comment but I flagged his blog, and I’ll try to contact blogger like I imagine a lot of people have done.

  30. Don’t bother leaving comments, he’ll just delete them. Instead, report the plagerism to Blogger.com the host of that blog. If you’re going to visit and leave a comment, at the very least hit the “objectionable content” flag at the top of the page, which marks the blog for review by someone at Blogger.com.

    http://help.blogger.com/?page=troubleshooter.cs&problem=&contact_type=main_tos&Submit=Submit

    If you hit the “Stealing Content” link, they also give you some information on how you can file a DMCA notification with them. I hope Chris has already done this, because it’ll weaken his case if he sends dozens of hecklers to that blog’s comments section without filing a proper complaint first.

    Hopefully Blogger/Google will take this asshole off the web. Little tip if you’re going to completely rip someone off: don’t do it on someone else’s server.

  31. Also, while everyone’s worked up, remember that Eric Bauman of ebaumsworld.com pulled this exact same stunt and has made million’s of dollars. Boycott his site, and make sure you let people know why they should never visit it

  32. Wow, that is some bullshit right there. If I could read Spanish, I would totally boycott his site. Since I can’t, I’ll just continue not reading it.

  33. I am outraged! This blog is a great source of entertainment for me and the work you put into it shows. That someone would steal your labor is devious to the extreme. I hope his blog dies at the business end of a face kickin’

  34. This is so weird. But I don’t think the internet has any rules on this sort of thing, does it? I am outraged by this and it seems self-evidently wrong. And I really enjoy this web site. But it got me thinking about how angry I get when Warner Brothers or whomever send cease and desist letters to web sites showing like Buffy images or the tab to “Crazy Train,” which they see (rightly) as their property. Where is that line? I think obviously, the Buffy web sites would say that they are promoting Buffy. And the parent company would say that they want to have control over how their product is promoted. This guy isn’t promoting you, he’s stealing content. But again, where is that line?

    Did you, Chris, email the guy? Did he respond? He obviously reads your web site. I’d give him a lot of credit if he stole this post.

    Your work is copyrighted, correct? Does that have any meaning in a different country?

    Anyway, keep up the good work. This once again proves that there are douchebags everywhere in the world. Part of me does wonder if the guy is like 13 and if that would excuse anything.

  35. “Jeff Says: I was just over at mondocomic, leaving my two cents, when my eye was drawn to the SouthParkesque cartoon figures in the background.

    My pop culture-addled brain was able to place most of the characters therein, but there appears to be one that the only connection I can make to is a blackface minstrel of the 1920s. Please, please, please tell me there is another connotation I am missing…”

    THE ANSWER:
    THE 1920s character in blackface is a South Park version of the Evil ZOT! villian 9-Jack-9. (Zot! by Scott McCloud)
    “Zot and his friends faced a number of enemies, including:
    9-Jack-9, assassin for hire who can travel through any electrical signal” (FROM WIKIPEDIA)– A PIC OF 9-JACK-9 is in the link below:
    http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/zot/

    CHRIS–I am very sorry that your content is being stolen. May the thiefs computer melt into slag.
    ALAN AKA JETTBLACKBERRYX

  36. I was just over at mondocomic, leaving my two cents, when my eye was drawn to the SouthParkesque cartoon figures in the background.

    My pop culture-addled brain was able to place most of the characters therein, but there appears to be one that the only connection I can make to is a blackface minstrel of the 1920s. Please, please, please tell me there is another connotation I am missing…

    The character you are referring to is one of Zot’s villains, Dekko.

  37. HOLY FRIJOLES!!!

    I flagged the blog & will contact Blogger as well.

    For some reason, however, I keep picturing the guy as looking like Sims but with a “Mirror/Mirror Spock” goatee.

    But, it’s Spain, so he’d be a little more “swarthy”… like John Colicos’ KLINGON; KOR.

    ~P~
    P-TOR

  38. Sad, very sad. It’s true that this is a clear proof that there are douchbags and morons everywhere in the world, but this guy is particularly making us argentinians look bad! I’m argentinian myself, and I’ve been a fervent reader of your blog for over a year now. If it makes you feel any better, I had never heard or read about this guy’s blog.
    Chris, if you need something translated from or to argentinian spanish, let me know.

  39. What an ass. Hopefully such blatant thievery means he’ll be taken down soon. If nothing else, maybe he’ll be crushed by the sheer weight of shame.

    And guys, can we back off from the stereotypes, just a little? After all, I just shaved off my Zapata moustache today after getting up from my mid-morning siesta.

    And let’s not forget – Argentina’s full of ex-Nazis; making fun of those guys never gets old.

  40. Chris – got in touch with one of the MillarWorld moderators (who’s from Argentina) who said this:

    “Feel free to point out that in the blog that the entry about the Doom Comic:

    http://twofistedblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/rip-and-tear.html

    is a copy/paste and translation, with minor retouching, of

    http://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/

    and

    http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Mxyzptlk/…ion-43393.phtml

    The guy even links to that site, but to the page showing the scanned comic, skipping the first page of the article that has the review he translated and retouched.

    First paragraph:

    “En algún momento de 1996, un par de chabones se juntaron y fumaron lo que aparentemente era una cantidad descomunal de crack, después se inyectaron heroína pura en los ojos, y luego procedieron a crear una adapatación en comic del video-juego “Doom.”

    comes from the Doom World article:
    “Some time in 1996 a couple of guys got together and smoked what was apparently a large amount of crack and then injected pure heroin into their eyes and then proceeded to create what is now known only as ‘the Doom comic’. ”

    Perfect translation.

    This comes:

    “Estos dos se han garantizado un lugar en la historia como los creadores de uno de los guiones de comic más non compos mentis. Es como fumarse diez números de All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder sin filtro.”

    comes from here:
    http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Mxyzptlk/…ion-43393.phtml

    “The Doom Comic was written by Steven “Stupid Nickname” Dehling and Michael “Another Stupid Nickname” Stewart. These two have guaranteed themselves a place in history as the creators of one of the most non compos mentis comic book storylines ever created. It would take ten years for this feat to be topped by Frank Miller’s All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.

    So he probably stole from a lot of other places.”

    Have also told Rich Johnson from LITG so lets see if we can get a head of steam up on this.

    all the best mate.

  41. Just FYI for the peeps discussing it, the “South Park” characters are actually drawn by indie comics homeboy Derek Kirk Kim.

  42. I think it’s hilarious. Gives us all a reason to play “Hilarious translations with Babelfish” some more, which is the game that keeps on giving – seriously, that shit’s been funny for like ten years straight.

    I agree with Campbell: you’re much funnier in Spanish. I’ve bookmarked his site and I’m gonna stop visiting yours.

  43. Reminds me a little of the original film of Dracula. During the day, the Bela Lugosi version was filmed. At night, a Spanish version was filmed on the same sets, with a different cast.

    Only that wasn’t outright theft. Also, the Spanish version of Dracula was a little better.

  44. Mister Sims, invoking Peter Parker’s infamous refusal to catch a thief is a funny closer, but I think it would be prudent to not associate yourself with a character who has a history of STUPID CLONES THAT WON’T GO AWAY.

    Actually, the idea now of a new Spidey clone saga where he has a South American clone who repeats everything he says (kinda like Ned Beatty in Superman) being the first post-One More Day Spidey story feels like a fun idea.

    I lovetranslating ISB readers’ comments back from their translated Spanish using the same free online tools they must’ve used. “It stops stealing,” guayec says. Or else it gets the hose again, I presume.

    The best part? His original content, such as the announcement he has won an award. Seeing as Sims has not won the much-coveted Blog Del Dia, it has to be him, just him, writing, right?
    The little twit says: It’s a plan to assasinate me! But in order to save the world as we know it, we must play along.
    AND. And he bolds part of it, for no discernable reason other than he sees that Sims bolds things. He apparently doesn’t see that Sims has a reason for bolding, always.

  45. Us not doing anything would kill Ben Parker?

    Incidentally, does anyone know what the mondoblog site actually said about this douche? all i could read was the testimonials by us, the plaintiffs.

  46. Basically, they say they didn’t know about the ISB, but now that they do, the only thing they can do is take the award off the fckn thief and give it to Sims’ blog.

    (The award is just simbolic, and involves no money or anything)

    They of course disaprove Franco’s treachery and talk a little about plagiarism, web ethics, etc. They were also pretty shocked by the amount of comments sent by ISB readers.

    Oh, and there’s a lot of posts in the infamous Two Fisted Blog from spanish-speaking readers too, shitting on Franco’s mother and the like.

    So please don’t think this shit is common. There’re tons of kinda-decent spanish-speaking ISB readers outside the states.

  47. Here’s a FreeTranslation of the last paragraph of the Mondocomic post about this:

    Of more this to say that Mondocomic obviously is opposed robbery of material bloggeril, and that that prize, mention or recognition to Two Fisted Blog is from this moment automatically transferred to Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog.. although this should to be done with retroactivity because the mention was for being The Blog of the Day, and today already is another day, friends.

  48. Ah, justice is served!I’d have joined in on spamming, but my employer would probably frown on that sort of thing…

  49. My first thought was of Esteban Colberto, the Spanish talk show host who Stephen Colbert fears will steal his job.

    And Guayec, not to worry, I don’t think anyone here is making assumptions about Argentinians being a bunch of blog-stealers.

    Now Paraguayans, those we HATE.

    (That was a joke.)

  50. Well, here we are. My name is edus, and I was the one behind the Mondocomic blog. Just me, a labour of one. Let me say a few things:

    1.- I’m totally ashamed for not to have known earlier this Invincible blog. Shame on me.
    2.- Obviously, Mondocomic does not support the blog thievery (or whatever you name to re-post an entry in another site without any form of credit to the real author).
    3.- The “award” that Two-Fisted Blog wins was just a recognition, it works as a chain between blogs (You recognize me, I recognize that… etc). Nothing related with money, prizes, Oscars or Lotto. I was mentioned there just because it was a blog that makes me laugh, just that. Please, don’t feel mad. Of course, now that award is yours, Chris (and I said this in a post at Mondocomic).
    4.- About the Mondocomic logo: At the left side of the mean banner one could see a picture. This picture changes once a week, two weeks, a month, periodically. Until this morning we could see a Supergirl pic by Luc Latulippe, a month ago you could see a photo of a baby dressed like Batman (the Clooney one), now you can see a Borderline pic by Eduardo Risso. It’s like a game for the regulars to guess who’s the artist or the image there.
    5.- Every being that could read a blog could enter Mondocomic: spanish or non spanish-readers, thanagarians, klingons, aliens, mutants, robots, demons, monkeys, etc. We don’t discriminate by language, skin color or place of the Earth where you was born.

    Hope it helps to bring the peace of the World.

  51. See, I’m scared to visit the blog now, in case he’s translated your post and is complaining about some white American guy ripping off all his posts BEFORE HE’S EVEN WRITTEN THEM, and between them the blogs create an infinitely recursive loop that fractures the space-time continuum, and Star Trek: Voyager comes back…

  52. I love the fact that, in the middle of all this, the ‘bitter’ Sims/Campbell feud rages on. Excellents burns, the both of you.

  53. guayec Says:

    (The award is just symbolic, and involves no money or anything)

    Since it’s on the Internet, that’s something of a tautology.

  54. Now that I’m thinking about it, y’know what would be kind of funny? If Franco were like a 12 year old with leukemia and this was all just “The Boy Who Collected Spider-Man” except he’s reading us all tearing him a new one with a single tear rolling down his cheek.

  55. Chris,

    FACT: Many of my high school drinking buddies are now lawyers.

    FACT: I know many facts about my high school drinking buddies which, if ever made public, would result in divorces, bankruptcy, and public humiliation.

    FACT: Some of my old high school drinking buddies also know international law.

    Just something to consider….

  56. Just checked again and the post is GONE.

    Good work, men. Strike another blow for intellectual rights.

    But there’s more to do because a lot of other posts are VERY familiar still.

  57. It looks like he’s now deleted about 40 posts and posted some kind of confession. Still unconfirmed is whether or not Chris wrote that too.

  58. But if my pidgin Spanish and Babelfish are right, he’s like a nonpology… Something about “IF the ISB really did write these…”

    I’ll need confirmation from someone who knows the language though. More and more offending posts are disappearing…

  59. Good for you, Chris, in getting this guy to ‘fess up and remove the posts. I once had someone steal all the content from a Star Wars site I had up in the early ’90s, and it really pissed me off. With help from theforce.net, I got him to take it all down. As such, I can empathize with how furious you were.

    Sincerely,
    Rich Handley
    Roots of the Swamp Thing

  60. Chris, I understand your anger. It was a pretty douchebaggy thing to do.

    However, some good could have come out of this.

    This was no ordinary plagiarism where you just copy and paste stuff. Dude actually went to the trouble of translating your posts into Spanish.

    Those translations could serve as a gateway for non-English speakers into ISB goodness. It seems a bit of a waste that he deleted his whole blog. It could be used as some sort of ISB en español.

  61. Well, my first language is spanish, so let me translate:

    “That’s right my friends, the rumors are true: a big part of the content (like %50!) it’s a direct steal of the famous ISB (Chris’ Invinvible Super-Blog)… althrough I have to admit that part of me wanted to see how much this lasted ’till somebody noticed.

    Seemingly, the Great Gods of Comic Book Internet have punished me, so I will do the sensible thing and return to the darkness that, i guess, has given me origin. Like it happened (rightly, I may add) to Ben Reilly. I will erase all the posts that are originally from the ISB (or anywhere else), so there’s no ( I don’t know how to translate “broncas” anger? bitterness? – c.s.). Ok?

    PD1: Please, direct all your hate to the comments of this post.

    PD2: Ah, the adress of the blogspot is free if anyone wants it, I guess. Just leave a message.

    PD3: It seems I wnet nuts and erased more pposts than I should have. Oh, well.”

  62. I think it’s very much a non-apology. My Spanish was never good, and now its rusty too, but I think he says “part of me wanted to see how long I could keep it up before anyone noticed” (if this is not what he is saying, I’m sorry for putting words in his mouth). I think this is more of a defiant super-villain exit speech actually.

  63. I didn’t visit his site before he started taking stuff down. Did he also steal the cool image tags that the ISB has?

  64. i just read the issue just now, and yeah, all of the posts Chris links to are now nonexistant. i Babelfished the Mea Culpa post at Two Fisted and the translation is a bit dodgey. he does mention something about going back into the black void from whence he came, so does this mean he’s shutting down? who says there’s no justice on the internets? long the live the original ISB!!

  65. Just so you know, I’m stealing your posts and translating them into algebraic formula just so I can get a hit boost like Franco. I may accidentally disprove God.

    Bit of a cop-out, but given the circumstances, it’s about the only classy thing he could do. In less than 24 hours too!

  66. Wow. I’m just attonished.

    I used to read, and with much joy, twofistedblog, and thought it was one of the finest pieces of blogging…things on the net.

    And now I get to know about this…what’s the word…plagiarism?

    thievery!

    I CLAIM REVENGE. and I live in Argentina, I can do physical stuff, or translate stuff (although is way funier when you use babelfish to insult)

    Here’s a translation of his mea culpa post

    That’s right my friends, rumors are truth: great part of the content(like %50) it’s a direct plagiarism, thievery, robbery?(tn: search for “plagio”) of the well known ISB…although I have to admit that a part of me wanted to see for how long this lasted until seomeone noticed it.

    It seems that the great gods of the comiquerish internet have punished me, so I’ll do the most thoughtful thing to do and go back to the darkness that, aparently, originated me. As it happened (adequately, I can add) to Ben Reilly. I’ll erase every post that is original from ISB (or any other side), so there’s no problems. Ok?

    ps1: Please, direct all your hate towards the comments of this post.

    ps2: Oh, the url of this blog will be available for anybody who wants it, I guess. Just leave a message, to let me know.

    ps3: Aparently, I went crazy and erased more posts than expected. Whatever.

  67. The approximated translation of the new post:
    “Yes, my friends, the rumours are true: a big part of the contents (approximately 50%!) are a direct plagiarism of the well-known ISB (Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog)… although I have to admit that a part of me wanted to see how much time it would last to anyone to realize about it.”
    “I will delete any ISB original post (or any other site) to avoid any anger ok?”

  68. Maybe you should hire the guy to do a spanish version. It would be like the Mod Squad!

  69. Yeah, what about country-personalized ISBlogs? I live in Chile, Lautaro in Argentina and Supercool in Spain, I think.
    May the ISB take over the world! Do the polar bear salute! Hail Sims!

  70. So, even in his “apology” he had to steal Chris’ Ben Reilly joke?

    Gotta admire the guy’s consistency at least.

  71. Chris-

    The best and worst moment I ever had as a struggling writer and occasional blogger was discovering The ISB. On the one hand, you provide me with hilarious content that is the highlight of many of my days. On the other hand, you and I write in a very similar style, about similar things, and you’re a damn sight better at it than me.

    What that douchebag did was inexcusable. The site is down now, so I don’t know if he started out writing his own content or just stole from day one, but the most vile act a writer can ever commit is full out plagiarism. The fact that you can still retain your sense of humor and post a few jokes today is an immense credit to your character.

    Stealing from the best is still stealing. Long live the ISB.

  72. “Yeah, what about country-personalized ISBlogs? I live in Chile, Lautaro in Argentina and Supercool in Spain, I think.
    May the ISB take over the world! Do the polar bear salute! Hail Sims!”

    Dibs on the American version!

    …Oh, wait…

  73. I think this is more of a defiant super-villain exit speech actually.

    Indeed. But just for the record, he will be denied membership in the Chris Sims Revenge Squad. No dickheads allowed.

  74. hey chris, i tried to go to the two fisted blog today and apparently its not there anymore. You won!

  75. I was lucky enough to catch the guy’s final post. I don’t speak Spanish, but it read “AAIIEE!!! Un hombre en una máscara y un cabo me está golpeando en el estómago con una batería del automóvil!!!”

    Okay, no it didn’t. I just made that up.

  76. It’s a special Thursday Night Fights – Chris Sims v. mirror-blogoverse Sims.

    UPPERCUT!

    Mother box struggles to contain Chris’ thirst for battle!

    LEFT, LEFT, BODY BLOW!

    Five minutes after this fight ended, Chris was still punching random Argentinians, but got off by telling the authorities that he thought they were Wraiths.

    Long Live the ISB.

  77. wow. tuned in at 3pm and at 11pm, the world has changed. internet justice prevails.

    but of course, Chris is now in contiunity – so of course righteous will win.

  78. So, it turns out that if you ever wanted to run for office, perform a coup d’état, or get a tv show back on the air, you’d probably have enough human power to do it. You are a powerful, powerful man (just don’t let it get to your head).

  79. Well, it’s definitely a good thing that the “Two-Fisted Blog” is deceased, but in retrospect, you can kinda see where the guy’s coming from.

    Who wouldn’t want to be Chris Sims?

    Especially since it’s clear that the ISB has an army…

  80. Well, there goes my plan for having a sucessful blog by translating everything on ISB into norwegian down the drain.

  81. Ok, I’m posting this over here, since I am closing the blog; whoever it was that posted this over there…

    “If you want to do the right thing, close your blog. You don’t deserve to make your name based on a better writer’s talents.”

    …was right.

    First of all, I want to really, really apologise. If the post in my blog sounded like a “non-apology,” I’m sorry; it wasn’t my intention. I’m not here to shoot anybody’s uncle, so to speak. I really want to apologise to Chris and everybody who wrote the original texts, but also to anybody who used to read my blog (like, all four of them), to anybody who linked to the blog, and to Edus in particular, who gave the “Blog del Dia” Award in good faith.

    Also: Good GOD, you have some… let’s say… “passionate” readers. The amount of hate mail is staggering. And I like a good piece of hate mail as much as the next guy, but some of them insulted my family, friends, started to hate-comment in my friends’ blogs, and some other things I’m not gonna reproduce here. That crosses the line, at least for me, even given the circumstances. So, Chris, if you could show a bit of mercy, even if I don’t deserve it, could you erase the post with my e-mail adress?

    About the thing with the header: I wasn’t trying to insult further, just wanted to show how much of a knockoff the blog was.

  82. Puedes desculparte ahora pero todo en tu previa atitud parecia asumir que nunca serias descubierto…
    La ironia es que probabelmente Chris teria autorizado una version traducida y creditada en español de su fantastico blog.

    Too little too late…

  83. Who wouldn’t want to be Chris Sims?
    Master a massive readership on the basis of a few scans and the same gags hovering around comics for the past decade? Damn straight!

    Oohhhhh! There’s always a downer!

    And I like a good piece of hate mail as much as the next guy, but some of them insulted my family, friends, started to hate-comment in my friends’ blogs, and some other things I’m not gonna reproduce here.

    To your (narrowly deserved) credit, I noticed some of that in the comments and would have to agree. I’m classy like that.

    Hey, Jimmy Olsen! That’s funny!
    Classy.

  84. Silly question: Did this guy steal Chris’ post about the ISB being placed in Marvel continuity? Did he replace ISB references with his own? Did he tweak the scan?

  85. “First of all, I want to really, really apologise.”

    Is really, really apologizing somehow better than flat out apologizing?

  86. “Puedes desculparte ahora pero todo en tu previa atitud parecia asumir que nunca serias descubierto…”

    I’m sorry if I gave that impression. When I said, “althrough I have to admit that part of me wanted to see how much this lasted ’till somebody noticed.” I meant that as genuine curiosity, not in a “Ha-ha-ha, I’m so evil!” way.

    “Too little too late…”

    Well, yes. But still, I want to. Also, I would be even more of an idiot if I didn’t say anything.

    “Is really, really apologizing somehow better than flat out apologizing?”

    Ok, that should be “I really, really want to apologise”

  87. As Mr. Sims pointed out, none of the links to his Argentinian thief work any longer, but if you google “twofistedblog”, you can view some of it through the magic of Google’s cache feature.

  88. Wow. Considering cult leadership? By the looks of what happened yesterday I think you’re already there.
    You should rename this to Chris’s Invincible Super Cult. ;P

    Glad to see that rip off site is dead and buried. There can only be one…

  89. “Silly question: Did this guy steal Chris’ post about the ISB being placed in Marvel continuity? Did he replace ISB references with his own? Did he tweak the scan?”

    No, as far as I saw, the stolen posts were random, rather than a post-by-post steal. Still, the ones he copied, were almost exactly the same as the originals.

  90. Franco (post 119) — Nice apology. A lot of people wouldn’t take responsibility. I’m not Chris, I don’t know him, I didn’t get ripped off, so maybe I’m not seeing the whole picture, and you probably need to bang your head on the floor for a few centuries, but at least you’re admitting it. Better than the way our politicians treat us.

  91. Coming soon: ESB.

    That’s right, Esperanto Super Blog, home of the best copyright violations ever.

    You heard it here first.

  92. I would have preferred his final words be:

    Los diablos de Darkseid, el ISB si mismo son techno-activo!

    Cheers! :)

  93. Actually, I think your readers are a bunch of slackers that find fake things to be outraged about and were looking for nothing more to make death threats and hurl insults at someone. So let me say to all of you, “Well done”. The internet, nay the world, is now a better place.

  94. Franco: Believe it or not, I appreciate you coming over here to apologize, and while I still think what you did was pretty low, there’s absolutely no need to continue the issue past this point. You did it, I called you on it, you fixed the problem and apologized, and really, that’s all I wanted. So long as you know it was a lousy thing to pull–even out of curiosity–I think we can put it aside in the spirit of forgiveness and move right along.

    Now let’s go read some damn comics.

  95. Damn Sims, that is COLD! Too bad I didn’t have time to get there too! You know, Argentina was one of the prime asylum countries for Nazis. Guess they still breed scumbags down there.

  96. Er, in retrospect, that does sound a little cold. What I meant by “no need to continue” was that we should all move on and be friends again. That’s all.

  97. Wow, I came in late here — which in internet terms is often, like, 20 minutes — but that was actually pretty awesome. Well done, all.

  98. I sure missed a lot in two days. This guy went to a lot more trouble than the Romanian guy who copied my artist friend’s entire site, changing only the contact information.

    I’m glad this got resolved quickly.

  99. My last 5 cents… and this have nothing to do with Chris, Franco and the Cloning Fisted Saga that explodes yesterday. I’m really shocked about all those hate messages calling Argentina an “asylum country for Nazis”, “they still breed scumbags”, and things like these.

    I’m Argentinean too, and I can assure you that I have nothing to do with a Nazi, plus, I never see any Nazis around my home. I don’t deny the History, I know that some Nazis came to my country in the 50’s, and also I know how the Judges and the opinion here condemn them nowadays.

    Pals, please don’t generalize so bad. Nobody could be so naive, so offensive and so free to believe that kind of generalizations.

  100. Sorry, Mondo. This is what us American Interneters are good at. Hurtful insults in the name of fairness. And also commenting on dead issues, which I will stop doing now.

  101. Props to Franco, I have to say. Pretty classy. Also, mad linguistic skillz (like so many people from outside the linguistically stunted USA).

    As far as the Nazi mentions… In the ISB comments, I think one should keep in mind that, well, Nazis come up fairly often, usually in the context of being kicked in the face, but it was pretty much guaranteed that they’d be mentioned in the context of Argentina. However, I suspect it would have been intended as tongue-in-cheek snark, rather than as any kind of serious accusation.

    If anyone went to the Argentinian blogs and made comments with Nazi references, that’s a bit out of control and uncalled for given that we’re talking mere comics blog theft rather than anything political or racist or whatever.

  102. Seriously, I want to stop writing about this, and even Chris rightly said “there’s absolutely no need to continue the issue past this point” but…

    Believe it or not, I really didn’t mean to do it with malice.

    The thing actually started because when me and some of my friends would get together, we would often check the ISB archives; but since they don’t speak english, I would read it to them, translating it as I went. Since this was rather inconvenient, I started the blog so they could read it directly in spanish.

    The only reason asking permission didn’t really cross my mind was because I thought I was posting just for this small circle (4-5 people) of friends (who of course already knew about the isb), and nobody else would care or know about the blog. Believe it or not, there’s not a huge demand for silver-age-comics-based humor around here. Still, I should have said something when they mentioned the 2FB in Mondocomic’s “the Blog of the Day” last week.

    The thing about “how much this can go on without somebody noticing” was actually something me and my friends said ironising the fact that they were the only ones who were reading the blog.

    I should apologise (besides all the people I already mentioned in the previous comments, that is) are the few readers who found the blog later and were outside of this circle (Lautaro, Amadeo, Jotace), who didn’t know where the original texts came from.

    Still, this is no excuse, and I feel awful about the whole thing.

    I’ll shut up now.

  103. hey franco,

    props to you for admitting what you did and sorting it out.

    and now that you know there’s an audience for comics comment/satire where you are, there’s nothing stopping you from trying out your own original material…

    after all, you’ve shown that you’re a dab hand at simplistic drawings of robots – that’s a great starting point, i reckon.

  104. Orson Welles: Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash – the triumphs, the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life: we’re going to die. “Be of good heart,” cry the dead artists out of the living past. “Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing.” Maybe a man’s name doesn’t matter all that much.

  105. Hey, two cheers for franco – for being a stand-up guy about the whole kerfuffle. All hail the ISB. (Official Cult Decoder Rings available where all fine comics are sold!)

  106. Damn, did I show up late to the party?

    Hey stop stealing! Oh wait… you already apologized (quite nicely I might add).

    Nevermind, going back to read old posts.

    Teddy B

  107. “If you want to do the right thing, close your blog. You don’t deserve to make your name based on a better writer’s talents.”

    That was me. Glad to see you took it to heart.

  108. Dear Chris,

    Remind me never to cross you, or make you angry.

    But thankfully, even though there has been an apology, a simple *link* to your blog might have done.

    Thanks, and congratulations,
    Your pal,
    Gordon

  109. No entiendo porque son asi. Se la agarran contra la argentina como si ese tal “FRANCO” fuese toda la nacion. Igualmente ya tuvo su merecido y estamos alegres por eso. Pero por favor, no sean racistas, no todos somos iguales. Es como decir que todos los estado unidenses son como Bush.