[Question_Assumptions]

The problem isn't that modern comic/SF/fantasy authors rip off their ideas. The problem is that they are fans. Imagine Shakespeare as a fanboy of Italian plays, for example, and what his work might have looked like.

[discostu]

What it would have looked like was Othello. But the difference was Shakespeare looked at some other plays and saw something cool and took it to another level, the fanboys writing now would do nothing new with it they'd just try really hard to do it again.