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Artists have always drawn inspiration from other artists. But at what point does inspiration cross the line into plagiarism? This is the question put forth by the documentary WHAAM! BLAM! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation.

Lichtenstein is considered to be one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, and today, his paintings sell for as much as $165 million. Along with Andy Warhol, he created the Pop Art Movement in the early 1960s, utilizing the appropriation of items from modern American culture and incorporating them into art that found favor and acclaim in the galleries and inner echelons of the art world.

Warhol's appropriation of the Campbell's soup can is the most remembered icon of this era. Lichtenstein sought to do the same, taking what was then considered the tactless "low art" of the masses — comic books — and elevating the form into "high art" for a supposedly more sophisticated audience within the galleries of Manhattan.

But the comic art appropriated by Lichtenstein was created by other artists — the comic illustrators — who often lived austere lives, while Lichtenstein's copies of their work are valued at millions of dollars. And they are not pleased by the unauthorized acquisition of their work.

WHAAM! BLAM! provides these last surviving comic artists with an opportunity to tell their side of the story alongside a defense of Lichtenstein and his actions by noted biographers, scholars, and advocates.