On February 26, American comic publisher Radical Publishing announced that they halted production and distribution of Nick Simmons' comic series Incarnate on Wednesday. The title was halted due to allegations that the title plagiarized the Bleach manga by Tite Kubo. Radical stated that they "are taking this matter very seriously, and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter."

Nick Simmons, son of KISS lead singer Gene Simmons, launched Incarnate last August. GameFAQs forum posters noticed the similarities in the two titles' artwork, which quickly spread to fansite Bleach Asylum's forum and the Bleachness community on LiveJournal.

Kubo personally commented on the situation via Twitter on February 25. He noted the number of overseas fans who responded to the situation, and confirmed that his team is working on the situation.

Bleach is currently distributed in Japan by Shueisha, and America by Viz Media.