Posted by Dave Kelly at Something Awful:

Goldman’s Publicist has posted in this thread.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

POST POP-ARTIST, TODD GOLDMAN, CONTROVERSAL PAINTING

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.

That does not mean this is over. We will have to find out how many copies he sold and how much he made from them.

For those of you playing at home, one may summarize Goldman’s response to:

1. It wasn’t my fault!
2. I’m gonna be a really great guy and not rip off Kelly in the future
3. I’m making no promises about my working methods in the future

Good luck to Kelly on getting things resolved quickly; since it’s into the negotiation stage, we’ll save the daily updates until there’s something definitive to report. Two last notes:

1. Dave, if you’re reading this, get a lawyer to look over the settlement offer; I’m still willing to kick in my pledge of $200 to that end.
2. I hope it’s possible that Kelly can avoid confidentiality clauses. It should be public record how much Goldman profited from Kelly’s work (which will provide a reference figure what what Kelly’s work is worth — a few commissions from former “Goldman” collectors would be nice), and it should be public record what his working methods are like (which will provide useful information for other artists that wish pursue their due).