A comic book artist has accused the creators of Netflix’s 1899 of fully plagiarising her work

A Brazilian comic book artist has accused the creators of 1899 on Netflix of plagiarising her 2016 comic Black Silence, prompting Jantje Friese, one of the minds behind 1899, to speak out and fully deny the plagiarism claims.

1899 came out last week to fast popularity and success, shooting straight up the Netflix top 10. On November 20th, Mary Cagnin, the comic book artist behind 2016’s Black Silence, tweeted out that 1899 was a direct rip off of her comic.

In a thread, Mary pointed out side by side similarities from her work to 1899. Translated from Portuguese, Mary says: “I’M IN SHOCK. The day I found out that the 1899 series is just IDENTICAL to my comic Black Silence, published in 2016.

“You must be wondering: how is this possible? Well, in 2017 I was invited by the Brazilian embassy to participate in the Gothenburg Book Fair, a very famous and influential international fair in Europe.

“I’ve been on panels and distributed the Black Silence comic to countless publishers and people in the business. It’s not hard to imagine my work reaching out to them. I not only delivered the physical comic but also made the translated version available in English.”

1899 on Netflix was created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, and the latter responded to the 1899 plagiarism claims with an Instagram post, that’s now been deleted after she deleted her Instagram. The post said: “Oh internet! I haven’t posted anything in years because frankly I think social networks have become toxic.

“The past 24 hours have proven this again. For context: A Brasilian artist has claimed we stole from her graphic novel. To make it clear: We did not!

“Until yesterday, we weren’t even aware of the existence of that graphic novel. Over two years, we have put in pain, sweat and exhaustion into the creation of 1899. This is an original idea and not based on any source material. Nevertheless, we’ve been bombarded with messages – some of them ugly and hurtful. Someone cries wolf and everyone jumps on it, not checking whether the claims make any sense.

“Of course, should this be a scheme to sell more of her graphic novels: Well played.”

The Tab has approached Netflix for comment. 

1899 is streaming on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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