Of course it's a good thing to 'exploit' photos or works of art from the past. 99.9999999% of world's history is inspired by the past and yes ALL OF THEM ARE DEAD. go figure. It's like humans only have a finite time here, who would have thought?
As for the 'quality' of the work, personally I like the old photos better than the current drawn art by a country mile. Not opposed to new art, but *this* new art, to me, sucks.
And yes, this is all my opinion and from other's point of view is probably full of shit.