He could have made comic book style art without ripping off the original artists’ work. But he didn’t, because making original art is hard and copying art is ea

He could have made comic book style art without ripping off the original artists’ work. But he didn’t, because making original art is hard and copying art is easy. Additionally, as the article points out, the original artists were blocked from selling their own art as paintings because the publishers had the copyright and no interest in turning the comic book illustrators (lowly paid commodities) into respected artists.