Fa Bd Comics books on SCAMazon: don't buy them
Achievement unlocked: we found with the Pepper&Carrot community Fa BD Comic, the publisher of the worst derivations of Pepper&Carrot made so far.
Unfortunately, the product's are published under my name and also in the name of artists who sent fan-arts of Pepper&Carrot... That's why I write this article to describe a bit this scam and desktop publishing carnage happening right now on Amazon and inform the audience of Pepper&Carrot to not buy them.
Brace yourself, cause we are going in the territory of the zero absolute of quality, graphic designs horrors, colorimetry nightmares and bad layout.
The three books:
A big thanks to Craig Maloney who bought the three books so we could evaluate their quality. He also made all the photos you'll find here and wrote reviews on Amazon under the books to warn other potential customers about the poor quality.
1. Heritage
Link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Heritage-David-Revoy/dp/B0BS1ZHM9T/
Description: This is a December 2022 paper print of my webcomic single episode "L'heritage en couleur" published in May 2012 and under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
click to enlarge
Caption:
(1): while the cover is ok, the print totally ruins the story itself: the concept of the comic is a representation with colors of the feeling of the main character, and the publisher decided to print the full story in black and white. It makes the full story unreadable and meaningless. Try to read the original and then make yourself an opinion about what the comic worth in black and white. Apparantly, it's good enough for publishing like that for FA Bd Comics publishing...
(2): The attribution is here but the publisher "FA BD comics" don't write their role. And wait, a Caramail email adress? I thought they disapeared 20 years ago. I dislike the way my credit and name on the cover and product page looks as if I endorsed and collaborated into this publishing. It's not a explicit 'endorsement infringement', but I feel ashame to get my name on this.
(3): The publisher forgot a page in the story : one before the final, that totally breaks even more the story. And to fill the end of the book, random part downloaded from the making of are dumped like that without any warning just after the end of the story.
2. Pepper & Carrot Novels
Link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Carrot-Novels-David-Revoy/dp/B09ZZVJLDT/
Description: This is a May 2022 paper print compilation of a mix of Pepper&Carrot Fan-art containing speech-bubbles and Comic Fan-art of Pepper&Carrot.
click to enlarge
Caption:
(1): My name is on the top of the cover, and no artworks of me are on this book. This is very problematic, because even if I really appreciate the study fan-art of Pepper sent by Coyau in 2015 because it was among the first fan-art I receive on Pepper&Carrot, I don't think Coyau expected to get it used as a cover artwork.
(2): Even if all the fan-art are correctly attributed to their author the publisher misread an important information on Pepper&Carrot: the author of the fan-art can license their artwork with the license they want. And without mentioning it, they are all copyrighted. It's written clearly on the "License" box on each fan-art on the website. "This picture is fan-art made by \<author's name>. It is reposted on the fan-art gallery of Pepper&Carrot with permission. Do not reuse this picture for your project unless you obtain author's permissions". The publisher on the credit of their book assume "based on the same character with the same license". It's false and abusive. Also, notice that the email of the publisher changes on this credits, and the 'work of fiction line' from Heritage is here too... Speedy careless copypasta workflow detected.
(3): The fan-art are printed in black and white. You won't get a label to know who within the list of authors drew what page, and there is no layout. The artwork is just pasted on the page with big empty space even when the font is too small. Note how the contrast is also poor. Well, it isn't respectful of the artworks at all.
3. Pepper & Carrot Mini
Link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Carrot-Mini-Nicolas-Artance/dp/B0BHMPMM14/
Description: This is a October 2010 publishing on paper of the Pepper&Carrot Mini comic serie by Nicolas Artance. Nicolas Artance is a core contributor and moderator on Pepper&Carrot community, and really plays a big role on the French version of the main series. He publish his series under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International and also share the full sources (link).
click to enlarge
Caption:
(1): The cover is not from Pepper&Carrot Mini, it wasn't made by Nicolas Artance or by my art, but it is a fan-art by Tessou. So a copyright problem here since the art by Tessou is not published under the license of Pepper&Carrot. The cover also contains three names, and it is hard to know who does what or who endorses what. On Amazon product, we are co-author with Nicolas... What a mess.
(2): Same lie as the previous book about the license of the fan-art, and a big typo to the name of Nicolas (Nocolas). Apparently this publisher has zero proofreader, and just don't care.
(3): The quality, the layout... Everything is printed into black and white and low contrast. The comic strips also in landscape are "adapted to width" to the page. Some fonts are barely readable.
What's next?
First, you can help: if you have an Amazon account you can just click on the "Helpful" button on the reviews of Craig on each book 1, 2 and 3. It's not much, but it will probably helps possible buyer to pass their way to see the 1 star review with a high ranking.
I clearly don't have the charity to think this publisher is just suffering of gross incompetences and just try to help printing Free/Libre cultural work. They never contacted me, they never contributed to any of the Pepper&Carrot ecosystem as far as I know, and they just made the lowest quality product with low effort on a market place with now control on quality.
It's overpriced and watching this level of disrespect for my art and for the book industry is clearly what affects my mood. I don't think this derivation is helping at all. Please FA Bd Comic or Amazon: if you read this, just remove the products as soon as possible.
On my side, I'll try to contact both of them to remove the books. They all contains too much problems to be online, including copyright issues. I'll write any later update I have under here. Waiting for that, please do not buy those books!
đ€
Updates
- A. 2023-03-28, 01:20am: I took the time to make an official report for copyright infringement on Amazon. I'll inform you where this report will lead.
- B. 2023-03-28, 01:00pm: I got my answer: "We have been unable to verify that you are the rights owner or their agent." (full automatic letter). Ok, I give up on this...
License additional info: The text of this article is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. However, images of this article are protected: do not reuse them: they contain fan-art, copyrights and trademarks.
30 comments
Unfortunately you can not helpful vote reviews outside of .com as I use .co.uk
Yes, same with my .fr account, but thanks for trying it and sending a feedback about it here.
I understand your anger, it's not nice to see such quality work being sold with your name on it without permission, and speaking of amazon, lately it's becoming a place full of AI-created crap from people who don't even try to get it. do a decent job.
Yes, Caramail e-mails are back. The name was brought over by GMX France, making "Caramail" one of the domain-name you can use for mailboxes created on GMX France.
As for your problems with that scam, I can't do much but whish you good-luck. (I, too, have a .fr account on Scamazon.)
*people who don't even try to do a decent job.
Hey Carloschan! Oh, AI autogenerated 'writing on demand' + no-cost "print-on-demand" products sounds like the source of a lot of future evil.
I can imagine a dystopian future where one could search for a non existing book using the search bar, and still browse a page made of autogenerated products. Made with AI on the fly, from book content, eshop page layout, book cover... all of that to be ready to be printed-on-demand in case of a purchase. That would be super crazy...
Oh thanks! Good to know about Caramail, I had no idea.
Salut David, as-tu rempli ce rapport pour chacun des livres : https://www.amazon.com/report/infringement
?
J'ai pour ma part utilisé le lien "Report incorrect product information" pour les trois ouvrages avec le texte suivant :
The author's name David Revoy on the cover is wrong. David Revoy denies having participated to this book in any way. Please see : https://www.davidrevoy.com/article959/fa-bd-comics-books-on-scamazon-don-t-buy-them
The seller just used parts of David Revoy work, denaturing them with extreme low quality, this being detrimental to the artist's reputation and the original quality of his work. Two other books are sold in the name of David Revoy and other artists (whose work was used on the covers without any permission from them).
You should forbid the seller to sell these books with the usurped name of David Revoy.
J'espĂšre que cela servira Ă quelque chose.
Totalement solidaire avec toi sur cette affaire.
Of course, however human-created art cannot be matched by AI, in terms of creative spontaneity and empathy, humans are far better. and it's something that I don't think AI can replicate (At least not in the near future), I'm sure AI won't disappear, but the original art of humans will be more and more something unique and valuable.
did you contact amazon customer support ?
I can imagine you feel annoyed.
The books also show up on other sites. They are probably in some big database that is used by a lot of bookstores. Even my local store (donner dot nl) lists them.
Actually the documentation on the creative commons website also could be a bit clearer on this. They do indicate that you have to indicate that the work is an adaptation. These comics seem to be in violation of that. However, most of the examples focus on taking a cc work and not indicating that it is (in part) by someone else. It would be interesting to see what their take is on this example.
Idem que FrĂ©dĂ©ric. Jâai signalĂ© + plussoyĂ© le commentaire de Craig. Ce qui est bizarre câest que quand on clique sur « David Revoy », ça envoie aussi les tomes que tu as fait (si je comprends bien) mais qui sont pas placĂ©s en haut malgrĂ© leur 5 Ă©toiles⊠Câest aussi un problĂšme dâAmazonâŠ
Bref, jâespĂšre que tout ça se rĂšglera vite !
Et apparemment, une explication de ce que signifie F.A. Bd (jâai un peu honte dâavoir les mĂȘmes initiales !) : https://www.amazon.com/Heran%C3%A7a-das-Cores-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B08V54R3TH/ref=sr_1_13?qid=1679947337&refinements=p_27%3ADavid+Revoy&s=books&sr=1-13&text=David+Revoy (la mĂȘme en portugais, apparemment il nây a pas quâavec toi quâil a tentĂ© de faire des bouquins).
Merci pour le signalement, je vais prendre le temps ce soir de faire la demande sur Amazon KDP, j'ai reçu des instructions pour trouver le "content and right notifications dans leur "contact us".
Pour l'Ă©diteur Portuguais; FlĂĄvio C. Almeida , il n'a que deux livres ("L'hĂ©ritage en couleur" et "le tome 1 de Pepper&Carrot") et est rĂ©glo. J'ai eu des copies par la poste, et son activitĂ© est documentĂ© dans le eshop sur mon site. Il a simplement le malheur d'avoir les mĂȘmes initiales que FA Bd Comics et un logo utilisant ces initiales. Mais son travail est bon, son site est diffĂ©rent et son email aussi. Je ne pense pas que Flavio fasse ça. MĂȘme la façon dont le tag auteur est entrĂ© "by FlĂĄvio C. Almeida, Revoy David; (editor), (Author)" est respectueuse.
Ceux de Glénat sont probablement aussi là , mais ici rien à signaler; c'est réglo car j'ai un regard sur les PDF pour les bons à tirer et que j'approuve, demande des corrections et valide la formule finale. Donc OK que mon nom soit en avant et pour endorser les choix éditoriaux.
Merci encore.
I'll do this evening, I didn't know where to start, but I received good how-to after the publishing of this article.
Merci pour le lien et pour avoir entreprit une action (merci pour le message, c'est court, efficace et super!).
On m'a dit qu'aller rapporter à KDP (le service d'impression) et rapporter les numéros ASIN ou ISBN pour les livres serait plus efficace, car Amazon était peu réactif.
Je teste ça ce soir et je vous tiens au courant! Merci.
So there is a sort of pirate copy of even my stuff in the stores, as it seems.... Not sure, if I shall smile or cry... At least my name was spelled correctly. In principle, the idea of a fan-art collection is not soooo bad (despite the fact that no one is gonna read my crap anyways), but: From what I see, it was performed in a bad way and legally questionable... When I sent my drawings to David years back, I perfectly remember the effort he spent massaging it to appear nicer on the web. When I saw it on-line, I was mega-proud. (And still am). And now this? C'mon ....
I am pretty sure, they did not even remove the typos I left (Sorry, I'm not a native English speaker and it was late in the evening).
By the way, David, I still owe you a continuation of the second novel. I never finished it.... Recently found the original drawings on my attic. But: Even now I will NOT put a watermark on it, when I go on... Art shall stay free.
Cheers
Holger
Hey Holger, thanks for your comment. True, terrible printing. Do not hesitate if you want to report the novel book to Amazon for copyright infringement as your work is on it; here I tried (you'll find my attempt on the "update" part of the article) but I was rejected (I also copied a screenshot of their answer). I don't think there is much more I can do.
The photos and review of Craig are undoubtedly the most efficient things possible. Too bad my name is on the header of 3 books with 1 star; but I'll try to not care about how Amazon algorithm decides if I'm a good or bad author based on that ^__^
thought i did the worst derivations of Pepper&Carrot :(
?
When I saw the Heritage section, I was shocked at how they decided to print everything in black and white. Color is a huge part of L'Heritage en couleur, the original comic. (The message the comic seems to send is enhanced hugely by the use of color!) People should definitely never buy it and just read the original. (for FREE!)
They really don't bother to check their English; "a many artists" is gramatically incorrect, in a very conspicuous way! These are such low quality books. Some works in Pepper & Carrot Novels also, as mentioned, are copyrighted. A higher quality book would be only the CC-licensed works, maybe some actual artworks of yours mixed in, in full color.
I will definitely never buy these. I never found them interesting.
Sad to inform you, but these books are sold in more places than you might be aware of. I just discovered this one in a shop here called America Book Center (ABC.nl). https://abc.nl/book-details/pepper-carrot-novels/@9798201465711
They have capabilities to print books so I can imagine they might be able to print your books for the local market. Either way, I sent them the pull request below and suggested they contact you. They're nowhere near as big as Amazon so I have good faith they're actually a bit more reasonable. The mail I sent them is below and I hope they reach out to you.
"
Dear people at ABC,
you offer this book in your shop:
https://abc.nl/book-details/pepper-carrot-novels/@9798201465711
Pepper and Carrot is a creation of David Revoy and he publishes his works as creative commons. However, the work you offer for sale does have his name on it, but isn't his and doesn't live up to his standards. People are free to create derivatives but only if the references are correct, which is not the case here. David is aware that these books are being sold as such (over Amazon) and is madly upset. You can read more about it here:
https://www.davidrevoy.com/article959/fa-bd-comics-books-on-scamazon-don-t-buy-them
All actual comics can be read for free on the actual website (https://www.peppercarrot.com) and he can be supported through Patreon (which is what I'm doing). He has prepared his comics for print and he does work with a publisher to have them sold. They contain all comics except for the most recently published one. If you wish to sell the authorized books, I suggest you contact him. He doesn't intend to make much money through the sale of these books but as an artist he does demand that the prints are correct and faithful representations of the works as intended.
Once again, the prints you're attempting to sell there don't conform to the CC-by 4.0 license and even though he might not have the legal power to fight you, what you're doing there is illegal. Please stop.
Have a nice weekend,
Vinay
"
Hello,
Is there a sequel to "L'Heritage en couleur"? On the official page there is mention of "already working on the next one".
Perhaps good will come of this as some people who purchase these unwittingly might look you up and find the original, and perhaps buy a quality copy of Pepper & Carrot? :)
American Book Center sent me a response. It seems like the supplier doesn't actually stock these books so maybe they have actually been pulled. Luckily this reseller does respond and maybe the wholesalers do too. So yeah, maybe in this case it would be good to contact Ingram and Gardners as they suggested. Maybe as it is an English language book anyway, there aren't too many companies behind it anyway. Below you can find their response.
"
Dear Vinay,
Titles on our site are only partly in stock and partly what our suppliers indicate as available. This title was fed to our database through our UK supplier, but as I looked it up, no stock information is showing there. (They may have pulled it from sale as well.) I have made the title invisible for customers, and as far as I can see, it was never ordered by us for stock nor for a special order. I would recommend mailing wholesalers as well (Ingram and Gardners for instance). Toi toi on your efforts!
Kind regards,
Steven
Special Orders Dept.
"
In this case, you have to contact Amazon support and provide them with your profs and they will remove all of these
also, you can make live chat with them
I have excellent news: the Amazon link to "Heritage" led to a 404 error! Yay!
Unfortuantely, the Amazon links to the two other books still exist. :(
I'm so sorry this is happening David. I am a longtime reader and lover of your work, from the USA. I have been so inspired by Pepper & Carrot and it has encouraged me to dive more deeply into my creative passions. I am just beginning to make some things to sell on Etsy now :) So, thank you very much for this.
That said, it is sad and upsetting to see this happening to you. I REALLY hope that this gets resolved soon and that Amazon cooperates well with you.
I have clicked "helpful" on all of the reviews that exist on the current copied work on Amazon. I have also written one review warning buyers as well. I hope that helps. If you desire future support or actions, we are all here for you.
Wishing you all the best <3
C'est moche, ça. Le point positif, c'est que ça m'aura fait découvrir cette pépite qu'est "L'héritage en couleur".
Post a reply
The comments on this article are archived and unfortunately not yet connected to a dedicated post on Mastodon. Feel free to continue the discussion on the social media of your choice. Link to this post:You can also quote my account so I'll get a notification.
(eg. @davidrevoy@framapiaf.org on my Mastodon profile.)