Shocking: Mark Rosewater Reveals He Traced the Art for Look at Me, I'm the DCI

Jon Ruggiero • December 4, 2023

Satire

Renton, WA - In a startling revelation on a recent Drive to Work podcast episode, Magic: The Gathering's head designer, Mark Rosewater, stated that he faked the art for Look at Me, I'm the DCI

by using tracing paper.

The art, a crayon drawing of a stick figure throwing darts at a board covered in Magic cards, is not an original piece by Rosewater, as he has claimed for years.

"With all the news and controversies surrounding Magic art recently, I figured it was time for me to finally come forward," Rosewater regretfully said in a tone and cadence reminiscent of a podcast playing at 1.5 speed. "I claimed that the art for 'Look at Me' was hand-drawn, and looked so bad because of my inabilities as an artist.

"In reality I found this piece on the ground outside of a school. I took time to meticulously recreate the art with tracing paper and colored pencils, then added in other elements, like all artists do when they draw. It took me roughly 7 hours to do, but the end product, I thought, justified the work. Now I just feel bad about the $1.00 I was paid for the piece that could've gone to a better, more deserving artist."

Wizards of the Coast, for the second time in a month, released a statement about the copied art.

"We recently became aware of claims that Mark Rosewater's artwork on the card Look at Me, I'm the DCI

used art created by another artist without that artist's permission," stated the press release that seemed to be copied word-for-word from the previous press release. "Such misuse of art is expressly prohibited by our artist guidelines and does not reflect the values of Wizards of the Coast. As such, we will be destroying all cards and artist proofs for a previously planned Mark Rosewater art-only Secret Lair, and refusing his services for artwork in the future."

An actual drawing by Mark Rosewater recreating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by hand on canvas recently sold at auction for $1.2 million.

Jon Ruggiero

Jon Ruggiero

Escape room designer, comedy show host, satire writer; Jon Ruggiero never misses an opportunity to do weird things for money. He's written for Cracked, Hard Times and Hard Drive, and hopes you enjoy what he writes here.