on december 17, 2013, labeouf released his short film "howard cantour.com" to the internet; shortly thereafter, several bloggers noted its close similarity to "justin m. damiano", a 2007 comic by "ghost world" creator dan clowes. "wired" journalist graeme mcmillan noted at least three similarities in their article, one of which was that the opening monologue for the short and the comic were identical. labeouf would later remove the film and claim that he did not intend to copy clowes but was instead "inspired" by him and "got lost in the creative process." he followed this up with several apologies via twitter writing, "in my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, i got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation", and "i deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that i have a great respect for his work". clowes responded by saying "the first i ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. i've never spoken to or met mr. labeouf ... i actually can't imagine what was going through his mind." labeouf was criticized over his apology, with some sites such as "the a.v. club" noting that the apology itself appeared to have been lifted from a 2010 post on yahoo! answers.