‘Trouble in Pairs’ Card Artwork Allegedly Pilfered From ‘Cyberpunk 2020’ Novel Cover
Magic: The Gathering artist Fay Dalton has been accused of plagiarism by another longtime Magic: The Gathering artist, Donato Giancola.
The card artwork in question is for the Murders at Karlow Manor commander deck card Trouble in Pairs. This plagiarism complaint originates from March 25, 2024, in a Reddit post by Hypnotic Hog, where they raised their suspicions that the card’s art had possibly been pilfered from the cover art Giancola rendered for the Cyberpunk 2020: Ravengers novel. A day or so later, a flabbergasted Giancola took to his Facebook account:
“Wow. Nearly speechless, but not speechless enough not to contact a lawyer. Copyright infringement,” stated Giancola. “What were you thinking Wizards of the Coast? To be clear, there are exacting details in the neck, arms, background, and hand which show clear copied structures from my art. Copied and pasted. This is not about ‘similarities’, this is about direct copying.”
WotC is currently investigating the situation. This is not the first time in recent history that WotC has had a problem with plagiarized artwork being submitted for new Magic: The Gathering cards. Just last year, David Sondered was suspended from receiving future work from WotC when he was caught lifting artwork from another Magic: The Gathering artist, Lorenzo Lanfranconi. Beyond Magic, WotC has also has had other recent issues with artists handing in suspect artwork, including an artist that handed in AI artwork for D&D (see “‘D&D’ Artist Tries to Slip AI Artwork“).
Source: ICV2
