9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off

By Raymond Biesinger. Published by Drawn & Quarterly. 

Softcover, 200 pages, Prose w/ B&W Illustrations, 2025

A veteran illustrator imparts practical advice for the working creative with candid humor

New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Raymond Biesinger has over twenty years of experience as a self-employed creative. You might say he’s been through it all: from chasing down a concert promoter for payment on a fifty-dollar Megadeth poster design, to a regular stint at Monocle, to confronting a government agency for stylistic theft. Biesinger’s ingenuity for solving the most unexpected issues extends far beyond his primary task of filling the page.

Sure, everything an aspiring creative needs to know might be at their fingertips. But the question of what to do when their work has been exploited remains. In 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off, Biesinger undertakes the challenge of answering that ever-present question by revisiting some of the most unforgettable—and at times—irrationally absurd moments in his career with a wink and an encouraging nudge. 9 Times… proves time and time again that creative problems will more often than not require creative solutions.

This portable, and elegantly illustrated guide to navigating and maneuvering the least glamorous aspects of the creative industry is a future classic suitable for everybody from the earnest novice to the seasoned professional.

"As someone who’s more than familiar with being ripped off myself, this book was a cathartic, juicy read. I feel this book! I highly recommend it to every illustrator, photographer, designer—and client." ― GARY TAXALI

"Raymond Biesinger has wittily compiled a veritable police blotter’s worth of instances when he was ripped off—and he sprinkles in some useful non-rip-off related business tips for creatives throughout the text as an added bonus!"―STEVEN GUARNACCIA

"I am relieved and delighted to not be one of the subjects of this book! Biesinger breaks the taboo in illustration of speaking openly about money and theft, and we are all the better for it."― MELISSA BUCHANAN