Comic artist accuses Netflix of plagiarising its new 1899 series

A comic artist has accused the makers of the new Netflix show 1899 of plagiarising her work and giving absolutely no credit.

The new horror-mystery TV series 1899 was created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar and arrived on Netflix on 17 November.

While it has been pretty well received, it wasn’t long before the show makers were being accused of ripping off the work of a Brazilian comic artist, Mary, known as @marycagnin on Twitter.

Mary created a comic called Black Silence, which she believes has been plagiarised in the creation of 1899. In a series of tweets, Mary shared images of her work posted side-by-side with scenes from the show, which appeared to share similarities between the plot, characters and sets.

She tweeted: “I'M IN SHOCK. The day I found out that the 1899 series is just IDENTICAL to my comic Black Silence, published in 2016.”

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In another, she elaborated: “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.”

Original authors are able to sue filmmakers for copying their work if it is deemed as plagiarism.

indy100 has contacted Netflix for comment.

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