A decade or so ago I used to write & draw these annual Xmas Card/Books. They were a lot of fun, but they were also a lot of hard work— and for little or no reward. I'd slave away on them every day for three or four months in order to get 'em done by Xmas. I did 'em for five straight years before becoming burned out on them.
Of the five, my favorite of the books was SantaTaur Is Comin' To Town. At the risk of tooting my own horn, everything just came together on that one. The concept, the story and especially the art— it all clicked (at least for me).
Apparently I'm not the only one who liked that book...
A few years back I was perusing the website of the Archie McPhee company, purveyors of fine bizarre novelties and geegaws. Imagine my surprise then when I saw they were selling this.
Hmm... looks pretty familiar, eh? Note that their Xmas ornament is called "Santaur," while mine is "SantaTaur." Well, gosh, that's completely different then, innit?
Their ornament is also described as being "Half-Horse, Half-Santa, All Christmas Spirit," which doesn't make a lick of sense. Why would you make the animal half of a Santa centaur a horse instead of a reindeer like I did? But I digress.
OK, the corporate lawyers here at Bob Canada's BlogWorld have advised me against outright accusing anyone of plagiarism or theft. So I won't.
But I will say these are some mighty big coincidences. What are the odds that all three examples feature a shirtless Santa half? Or the same basic "arms akimbo/front leg up" pose? I've been poking around the internet for decades now, and I never once saw anything remotely close to SantaTaur before I drew him. It's such a bizarrely stupid concept to begin with that it boggles my mind that three people could have come up with it independently.
But in the spirit of the season, I'm assuming that's exactly what happened. These are all just enormous and highly improbable, er, I mean everyday and run of the mill coincidences.
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