Radical Publishing has halted production on its American Manga series Incarnate while they investigate claims of plagiarism against the series’ creator Nick Simmons, son of KISS founder Gene Simmons.

Radical Comics launched the series, which Simmons wrote and penciled, back in August and released three single issues, which were to be sold later this year in a collected volume. Read their full official statement regarding the allegations here below.

Earlier this week, accusations arose against Simmons on the GameFAQ forum stating that his artwork on Incarnate was copied from popular manga titles like Tite Kubo’s Bleach, which has sold over 50 million volumes worldwide. The Bleachness fan site posted side-by-side comparisons of the artwork from both titles to show similarities, and even superimposed the images. There’s also word balloons that show similar dialogue between the new comics.

The image at top is one of the examples from the Bleachness site [note, we do not have either source material to verify the claims]: on the left is a panel from Bleach; the center is a panel from Incarnate; the image on the right is a both of these images superimposed.

Viz Media, which publishes Bleach in North America, said “We’ve got our team on it” regarding the situation, while Radical said that they were “making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter.”

Kubo sent two tweets after hearing the news which people are translating it to say that a lot of foreign sites contacted him about the Simmons comic, but that Kubo, who does not understand English well, was “…more interested in the fact that Gene Simmons’ son is a mangaka than whether he’s plagiarizing me or not.” (Kubo’s tweets were not in English.)

Other manga titles mentioned in connection with Simmons’ alleged plagiarism are Hellsing, One Piece, and Vampire Hunter D.

Radical’s response in regards to Incarnate

We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter. We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry.

A Facebook page was started called “Calling for legal action against Nick Simmons for plagiarism of other works” where someone claiming to be Simmons responded to the allegations, though there’s no verification on whether the poster was actually Simmons.

It seems highly unlikely under the circumstances that Simmons would risk responding to such serious allegations on a Facebook page. The 21-year-old reality-TV star, who appears along with his famous parents (his mom is actress Shannon Tweed) and younger sister Sophie on the A&E series Gene Simmon’s Family Jewels, has not made any official statements at this time, nor has anyone from the Simmons’ camp. Simmons and his ultra-famous dad made the convention rounds last summer to promote the younger Simmons’ foray into the world of comics.

[Source: Radical Publishing; Topless Robot; Anime News Network; CBR]