I compare it to reading a big stack of comic books and then trying to create your own, painstakingly reproducing the layout, color palettes and character styles

I compare it to reading a big stack of comic books and then trying to create your own, painstakingly reproducing the layout, color palettes and character styles. Or listening to (eg) Pink Floyd and then making a song that really matches their music. YouTube is full of those, it's really similar to SD images. But still not the same as sampling as that requires actually duplicating parts of the original. The reason we have copyright for a limited time is to promote the arts, not to give people a monopoly on a specific style so they can milk it. (although that is what seems to be happening)