So, for those of you who have been following the Todd Goldman plagiarism fiasco, it looks like it's coming to some sort of end. The following is a press release from Goldman's publicist:

CLEARWATER, FL, April 11, 2007- Popular post pop-artist, Todd Goldman who has made a career of making fun of the world with his sarcastic commentary and cartoon icons, has mistakenly used the design of an another artist in two of his recent paintings. Todd’s painting, “Dear God, Please Make Everyone Die”, was inspired from a drawing he received unbeknownst to him belonging to an underground web comic artist David “Shmorky” Kelly.

In addition to painting, Todd designs t-shirts for his clothing company, David & Goliath. Todd and his design team create and receive thousands of design ideas every month. It’s no secret that Goldman creates a lot of his painting ideas from his t-shirt designs. Goldman says “I made a judgment error and didn’t research the background of this particular submission. “My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else’s idea.”

Goldman has issued a formal apology to Mr. Kelly and has stated that he will not be using his design again in the future. As a gesture of good faith, Goldman has pledged not profit from his mistake. He will instead donate his proceeds from the painting directly to Mr. Kelly or his charity of choice.

So basically, Todd Goldman solicits t-shirt designs from the public and doesn't check their sources? Good idea! It's like Threadless, with a missing chromosome. What a jerk. Well, at least he copped to being an uncreative dope, and God willing, maybe this will make his next buyer pause before purchasing his next "work of art" for thousands of dollars.

Also, special thanks go out to Scott Kurtz for helping me come up with the offensive language in today's comic. Inventing a derogatory term for a race of fake one-eyed thing that kind of looks like a muppet is harder than it sounds! Hmmm... looks like another comic is exploring the issue of racial slurs today. Jeffrey, I strongly suggest you get yourself lawyered up. I smell a frivolous lawsuit that will tax us both mentally and financially until one of us is found in contempt of court for urinating on a juror.