DC to Bill: No, Fables isn’t in the Public Domain
Yesterday was all sorts of crazy as writer Bill Willingham released a statement claiming that he was putting Fables into the public domain. The reason was his preceived mistreatment by the publisher DC Comics.
While many latched on to it as a victory and blow to corporations who mistreat creators, those that know copyright and trademark knew something wasn’t quite right. We mentioned in our original coverage that in the end, what’s in the contract (which hasn’t been released) is what matters. Like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy, this isn’t how things really work.
Now, DC Comics has released a corporate statement:
The Fables comic books and graphic novels published by DC, and the storylines, characters and elements therein, are owned by DC and protected under the copyright laws of the United States and throughout the world in accordance with applicable law, and are not in the public domain. DC reserves all rights and will take such action as DC deems necessary or appropriate to protect its intellectual property rights.
We’ve only gotten Willingham’s side of the story beyond DC’s corporate statement (which are rare). There’s most likely much more to the story and all of Willingham’s claims and complaints.
In the end, without seeing the contracts and all of the paperwork since, no one will know for sure what the reality of all of this is. So, for those wannabe Spartacus, it’s best to proceed with caution unless you have deep pockets for a potential court fight.
So what’s the story about?
Kindt takes a somewhat unlikeable office worker on a somewhat introspective journey as he explores what living truly is. Is it a life where you go through the motions because you have to, or is it a life where you need to feel a sense of purpose (not necessarily the danger inherent in the post apocalyptic world). Revolver was far more interesting a read than I expected, but it’s when you sit down and just think about the book afterwards that you realize just how deep a story it actually is. The minimalist art only helps in that regard, with subtle shades of colour helping you differentiate between which world we’re joining the protagonist in.
Published by Vertigo in 2006, Pride of Baghdad is graphic novel that tells the story of four lions who escaped the Baghdad zoo after an American bombing in 2003. Although the tale is based on a true story, the points of view it is told from trend further toward fiction than truth. Written by Brian K Vaughn, with art by Nico Henrichon the graphic novel actually won IGN’s “Best Original Graphic Novel” award the year it was released, but there has been very little chatter about the book since – though my benchmark for that is the fact I found the book in a thrift shop for $5 and had never heard of it before, and so twelve years after it was released, I wanted to let you know about the book.
