Gamers are calling out Papa Roach over a poster the rock band had nothing to do with.
The poster for a July 27 Papa Roach concert features an image of Miranda Vanderbilt, by artist Ástor Alexander, from the 2018 Monster Prom video game.
“Wow way to steal art from a videogame to make your poster,” reads a comment on Papa Roach’s official Facebook page. Another wrote: “Well that’s a nice stolen poster there.”
Gaming site Kotaku reported on Wednesday that “the video game Monster Prom had its promotional art reused without permission by the band Papa Roach for a tour poster” and called it “a pretty egregious instance of art theft.”
The poster, though, was created by Dallas concert venue South Side Ballroom. The band merely shared a screen grab of an Instagram Story by South Side Ballroom that showed a photo of the poster.
Oddly, the Kotaku headline reads "Monster Prom Team Says Papa Roach Stole Game Art For Tour Poster" – even though it goes on to quote the creative director of the game's developer Beautiful Glitch blaming the venue, not the band. Julián Quijano explained that graphic designers for nightclubs and concert venues typically “Google some random cool images to alter a bit.”