Disney Plus show Werewolf By Night is one of the streaming channel's most creative Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, but sadly, perhaps, the same can't be said for the promotional poster art being used to support the one-off special.
Artist Midiankai has taken to social media to point out the similarities between his own poster artwork of a bold black and white wolf's head created for Dutch rock band Born From Pain, and the poster art for Werewolf By Night, which depicts a bold black and white wolf's head.
"I might be crazy but did marvel just rip me off?" Wrote Midiankai on his Twitter feed when he caught sight of the Werewolf By Night poster art.
I might be crazy but did marvel just rip me off? I did this art for born from pain around 6 years ago pic.twitter.com/2BudSZcXRWOctober 14, 2022
The Estonia-based artist is a regular on Twitter and is well-known in the comic art world for his deft, detailed line art. He told The Direct how he believes his artwork, for the song 'Lonewolf' and various related merchandise, was "traced" by the Disney artist using Adobe Illustrator.
He pointed out how the artist could then use sliders to move and soften edges, remove sharp edges and artefacts and claims the jaw was moved to make the open mouth (see below). He says in The Direct article: "The dark notches from the upper teeth remained there. Someone who did it either forgot or didn't pay attention to that detail."
In this side-by-side image Midiankai shares how he believes the Disney artist traced and adjusted his artwork (Image credit: Midiankai)
This isn't the first time Disney has been accused of plagiarism, back in 2018 the media giant was lambasted for its series of posters Solo: A Star Wars Story that looked an awful lot like a series of Sony Music France album covers by Hachim Bahous released in 2015.
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In the case of Midiankai the artist says he's taking legal action against Disney and is in the process of sorting out the Werewolf By Night controversy and Disney appears helpful. If you're concerned about copyrighting your art, read our guide: Five ways prevent your work being copied.
Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.
