Picasso once said “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” No one seems to agree about what he was actually saying, but it is partly why we named this site 8-Bit Cubist. So when people borrow, it’s really no surprise. Nowadays, we expect it. What we did not expect is to have people notifying us of a possible case of the mighty Capcom borrowing ideas from our own Raphael Phillips.

Take a look at these two images. On the left is Raph’s BB Hood image created in 2009, on the right is the image released by Capcom for Devil May Cry a little later.

Just random chance? Of course not. Here’s why our completely unfounded conspiracy theory has legs.

1) Raph knows people from Capcom.
The art in particular was also shared with numerous people at Capcom and recognized by Capcom on its forums, so it’s made its way around. That’s kind of how stuff like this gets around. We’ve also been eating hors d’oeuvres and drinking beverages with Capcom people for a while now at numerous events in Southern California: Dead Rising, SFIV, RE, Triumvir x Shadaloo, SDCC, etc., so it wouldn’t be hard to make the mental link to an artist’s work.

2) He’s a known artist.
The video game industry isn’t that big, and artists tend to follow what each other do. Raph has been creating 3D work for a while now. So unlike fan art, Raph’s work would get shown around in a different way, “Hey, check out this image that Raphael did. You remember him from E3? Cool, right?” Side Note: Raph’s image on the left is actually a 3D model done in Z-Brush. Check the original post Raph made on his blog.

3) There aren’t that many mug shot pictures on the internet.
I figured that there’d be a slew of pictures of Mario, Zelda, Sonic, etc. in mugshot fashion, but it’s not really a big thing at all. So if there *were* any influences (see point 1), then there’d be very few sources that inspiration could come from. Hmmm…

Did Capcom steal anything from Raph? I probably wouldn’t use those words, but somewhere along the way, that image got created, and in the back of someone’s mind, there are fond memories of a badass BB Hood image. So we just want to set the record straight. Raph came first.

Official statement from Raph: “Instead of stealing, just hire me. ”

Mr Benja.