Was Roy Lichtenstein a great artist, a thief, or both? This is the question addressed by the feature documentary WHAAM! BLAM! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation. Along with Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein created the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. His comic-based paintings reside in the greatest art galleries and can fetch more than $150 million. But some view this renowned artist as a plagiarist. WHAAM! BLAM! focuses upon the last living comic artists whose work was “appropriated” by Lichtenstein, and they are not happy.

In conversation with Roy Lichtenstein, critic Lawrence Alloway places Pop Art on a continuum of twentieth-century art that includes collage, Dada, and Purism in referring to signs and objects of contemporary society; Lichtenstein argues for distinctions between himself, Warhol, Oldenburg, and others. In his Long Island studio, Lichtenstein works on an elaborate composition; one of his 4 major paintings on the theme "The Artist's Studio."