Creating Comics: Copyright Matters

If you are considering writing comics professionally you may be worried about your work being stolen by others. Equally, given the sources that have inspired you, you may be worried about stealing from others. Here's some items on the subject, which I hope you'll find useful. Some of the material is based on a news group posting by Bernie Corbett, General Secretary of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, which he very kindly gave me permission to reproduce on here.

Copyright protects any artistic or literary work that is recorded in any way. Whatever you write or draw is automatically copyright is yours - automatically, legally, inalienably etc. - as the writer/author/artist of the item in question. There is no such thing as paying for copyright in your own work.

Copyright is automatic whenever you write or record a piece of work (in the UK -- it is different in the US and elsewhere). Music is copyright, and there are other rights relating to musical works and performances. If you whistle a tune in the street and somebody copies it, there isn't anything you can do. But if you write it down in musical notation it is protected by copyright. If you tape-record your whistling the music is also protected by copyright and in addition there are rights attaching to your performance.

Protecting your rights is not straightforward. It is expensive to bring a case to court and difficult to prove your case to the satisfaction of a judge or jury. So it better to have a clear idea of what your rights are, and how best to avoid trouble. There are several good books available on the subject and any serious professional writer should read one of them.

Registration of Copyright

Registration of copyright is very different, and is important only when you need to prove it, for any reason. 
 

If you are worried your work may be stolen, then you can register your script with a body which specialises in such things. The United States Library of Congress is one place.

Incidentally, if you're a screenwriter, the Screenwriters (UK and USA) Guild offer a copyright protection service.

In the US, the easiest way to register copyright is just to use the US Copyright office.
It cost about $20, but the good thing is you can copyright a collection of works at the same time for the same fee.

The simplest method of protecting your copyright is to post a copy of the work you have created to yourself (or your representative) by registered or special class post. Make sure there is a good, obvious seal on the envelope, or even consider sealing wax! The date of the postmark is proof of the date of posting, providing you do not open the envelope. File it away somewhere safe, or with your representative.

Posting yourself a copy of your work or depositing a script/copies of character drawings/etc. with your bank or solicitor is not the same thing as registering the copyright (which is yours, anyway, the moment you create it) - but will at least prove the date of your endeavours...

Taking Material from Published Sources

You should be wary of taking material from published sources. The facts themselves aren't copyright, but the form in which they are expressed, and any creative order in which they are arranged, is copyright, and you can't reproduce it without permission. There's a useful article on what constitutes fair use here on BookZonePro.

Upsetting the Dead

It is impossible to libel a dead person. It is the living friends and relations you have to think about. See the article "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" on the UK Writers Guild website. The Guild often advises individual members on these issues.

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Thanks to Bernie Corbett, General Secretary of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for help with part of the information on this page.

How to Get into Comics by Gerry Alanguilan

Philippines artist and writer Gerry Alanguilan has a useful guide on getting into comics today on his web site: alanguilan.com/sanpablo/2006/01/how-to-get-into-comics-today.html

Known elsewhere as Doroteo Gerardo N. Alanguilan Jr., Gerry is a Filipino comic book writer, artist and publisher. He's an Architect by profession, and a member of the San Pablo Chapter of the United Architects of the Philippines, but prefers to be a storyteller through the creation of comic books.

He has written and/or drawn comics like Wasted, Timawa, Lastik-Man, Crest Hut Butt Shop, Johnny Balbona, Humanis Rex!, Where Bold Stars Go To Die and ELMER. The latter two he published from through his own Komikero Publishing. ELMER was eventually picked up by SLG Publishing for publication Internationally in 2010. Editions Ca Et La at the same time released a French Translation in Europe.

He has also been an inker of comics for DC, Marvel and Image, and has worked with Leinil Francis Yu and Whilce Portacio on titles like Wolverine, X-Men, X-Force, Superman, Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man and many more.

He also adapted and illustrated various short stories by classic authors for Graphic Classics including “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Judge’s House” by Bram Stoker, “The Plague of Ghosts” by Rafael Sabatini among others.

He's also very interested in promoting and preserving the artwork created by the many great Filipino comics illustrators of the country's past. You can find galleries of artworks by the likes of Nestor Redondo, Alex Niño, Francisco V. Coching, Rudy Florese, Alfredo Alcala and many others at his Philippine Comics Art Museum Online.

• For more info about Gerry, visit his Main Site. You can view a portfolio of his work here.

 

What Comic Ediots look for in a submission: Submitting Artwork

Although my comic creating guide is in the main primarily aimed at writers rather than artists, be aware of these principles...

1) Have you submitted strip work to the title of your choice, as well as illustrations? In general, when you submit artwork to a company (British or American), they want to see at least three to four continuous pages - that is, a continuing story. They don't want to see splash pages or covers. 

Your whole package should be roughly eight to twelve pages long, so they can look at it quickly and get a good idea of what you do. The most important thing an editor is looking for is your ability to tell a story. The next thing they're going to look for is your ability to draw a car, a telephone, a tree, a house, a couch, and so on. Basically, they're looking to see if you can draw. People are the last thing they'll look at; an editor assumes that if you want a job in comics, you can already draw people. But if you can draw anything else, put it in your samples ? let them see it.

2) Have you read the comic you're trying to get work on? Do you know what makes the character you're writing/drawing tick?

3) Have you submitted work to a company featuring that company's characters? No-one at Rebellion, publishers of 2000AD, wants to see how well you can draw Spider-Man, for example, and no-one at Marvel wants to see Judge Dredd. Tailor your submissions according to which company you're selling yourself to.

4) Have you submitted photocopies? Never send original work. It is almost never returned. 

5) When you send something to a comics company, include a covering letter telling them who you are, where you're from and thank the addressee for looking at your samples. Hopefully, they'll have time to respond although the big companies receive hundreds of submissions a day. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to include a stamped addressed envelope or International Reply Coupons if sending material to the United States. Any response is good, although most US companies now return material as a matter of course to avoid potential claims against them for ripping off characters.

6) Always include your name, address and telephone number on each sample and each page that you send in. In a busy editorial office it's very easy for a covering letter to become separated from the art? it happened to me on a couple of occasions and this is frustrating, not just for the aspiring creator!

7) Presenting art at conventions: Artist Dave Gibbons' advice is: "Leave the sketchbooks and most of the pin-ups at home. Take a few (maybe six) finished pages showing continuity and a couple of un-inked pages. Don't bother lettering them unless you can do it to professional standard. Make sure its your latest, best work. And never, ever, apologise for it!"

To Infinity and... er, Japan! An interview with Russell Willis

Simon Mackie and Russell Willis, Tokyo, 2008

Russell Willis produced and published a number on important underground cartoon magazines in the 1980s. He moved to Tokyo in the early 1990's where he now runs a web based publishing company in Tokyo.

UK underground cartoonist, Simon Mackie, who also lived in Tokyo in the early to mid 1990's, recently met up with Russell in Tokyo where they talked about Russell's involvement with the UK comics underground two and a half decades ago...

Simon Mackie: Russell, I first met you back in 1985 at the Portobello Projects Cartoon Workshop in West London. You'd come down for the evening to meet us all but I can't remember what for exactly?

Russell Willis: At that time, I was hoping to expand Infinity to include features and news on all sorts of cool comics-related projects -- so this was most likely a news gathering operation! At the same time I was publishing The Alternative Headmaster's Bulletin with [Mad Dog editor] Smuzz and had put out No Frills Funnies, an underground comic that later attracted the interest of Rip Off Press -- so I was probably looking for contributors too.

Simon: I remember that evening that you had brought with you a copy of the truly excellent INFINITY magazine. For the unenlightened what was Infinity and what was your involvement?

Russell: INFINITY was different from most comics fanzines at the time in that it was dedicated to non-superhero comics. It was inspired by the work of Eddie Campbell and the Fast Fiction table [run by Paul Gravett and Pete Stanbury], along with things such as Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows. The idea was that there was a whole world of comics outside of the X-Men and Infinity would use a bit of "positive discrimination" to explore that world.

Infinity #5, featuring the first part
of an extensive interview with
David Lloyd

Simon: How long did INFINITY run for and what was the print run?

Russell: Eight issues were published along with a couple of "mini-Infinitys" between December 1983 and sometime in the first half of 1985 -- I forget exactly and have no records! The first issue was 40 copies, photocopied then stapled on the steps of Central Hall where the Westminster Comic Marts took place. I met a brash, young Warren Ellis stapling on those steps. Copies went on the Fast Fiction table, but I sold most of them accosting people in the hall and badgering them into buying a copy.

The second issue had a 200 print run. By the third issue, Virgin Megastores were selling them (I would trudge around London with a huge suitcase and go to every comic, record and "alternative" shop I could find and get them to stock copies). The last issue had a print-run of 800, which wasn't bad for a small fanzine that didn't cover superheroes.

Simon: For a small press publication INFINITY had high production values. The covers were glossy, the last issue had a two colour cover and the inside pages were properly printed, not photocopied. You also had a high print run. How could you afford this?

Russell: High production values? Perhaps relative to some of the really badly photocopied stuff back then! At the time, I was publishing a tourist guide twice a year for Broadstairs where I lived. This (and the DHSS) provided enough cash to publish Infinity -- though by the last issue, I was breaking even. I started Infinity when I was 15 and was still living at home -- by issue 8, I was 17 and was living with bunch of hippies and anarchists.

Simon: Were you involved in any other small press projects at this time?

Infinity #7, featuring an interview
with Posy Simmonds - an interview
so memorable Paul Gravett
quoted from it (and credited
it) in a feature for
Comics Journal some
23 years later!

Russell: Just TAHB and NFF. These had strips from the likes of [the late] Mike Matthews, Dixie, David Hine, Smuzz, Chris Brasted, Eddie Campbell, Chris Webster, Martin Hand and more.

Simon: You had some pretty important contributors and interviewees. Remind me who they were and how you managed this.

Russell: Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Posy Simmonds, Eddie Campbell, Hunt Emerson, Myra Hancock and more... a great list.

A chap called Dixie, who helped me with the layout of issues 2-5, was a member of the Society of Strip Illustration and helped me secure an interview with David Lloyd. Paul Gravett got me the interview with Posy Simmonds. I would solicit articles (such as an early one on underground comics from someone who hated them -- I knew that would generate controversy) and give editorial direction as to the angle I wanted, which I don't think was common for fanzines at the time. I was a pest and badgered people whose talents I respected for contributions. All of this led to quite a high quality for the time -- and because of the "no superheroes" policy I think people wanted to be associated with something that was a bit forward-looking.

Also, at the time, you could meet comics creators at the comic marts. I drank beers with Alan Moore and David Lloyd et al in the Westminster Arms (although I don't think they knew I was 17). I'd later tell them they'd promised me stuff over beers... Just kidding!

Simon: In the early to mid 1980's there seemed to be a lot of creativity and hope in the underground comics scene and also a New Wave of underground cartoonists. Would you agree and if so what do you think was the catalyst for this change?

Russell: Absolutely. It was an amazingly creative time. In the UK you had Fast Fiction and Escape -- Paul Gravett, Eddie Campbell, Phil Elliott et al --, with Warrior really showcasing Moore and Lloyd and Davis. In the US you had RAW and Maus (being serialized at the time) and a whole bunch of mainstream stuff which wasn't superheroes.

Fast Fiction especially gave a real outlet to photocopied and small print-run stuff, and I this must have been inspiring to a lot of artists and writers who are well-known today. Warren Ellis talks about it often.

Catalyst? I don't know, but the above kept the flame burning.

Simon: You suddenly stopped producing INFINITY in 1985 and other projects came to an end. Why, so suddenly, when you seemed to be riding the crest of the wave?

Russell: I was ripped off by a guy with whom I'd set up a studio and a bank account to publish Infinity and other projects. Ironically, I found out the day I received a cheque from Rip Off Press for an order of hundreds of copies of No Frills Funnies. I went to deposit the cheque and found out that all the money had gone, a big overdraft had been run up and that the guy had done a runner and disappeared with nearly all the artwork and contact addresses for the comics projects we were planning.

I still remember the stunning Dan Maniac cover to No Frills Funnies #2 by the late Mike Matthews. I'll never see it again.

All of this just made me so depressed that I just froze and dropped out of the scene. Fortunately, I kept most of the contributions for Infinity #9 at my home. I'll tell you about those later.

Simon: In the late 1980's/ early 90's there seemed be a kind of implosion in underground comics. Knockabout Comics stopped producing their anthology, Escape and the Fast Fiction distribution came to an end and several new titles folded after just a few issues. Do you have any thoughts on why this may have happened?

Russell: I'd reluctantly quit the comics scene by this time, so I don't know. I can only guess that the wave of creativity hit a stony shore still bereft of commercial opportunity -- that would come though.

Simon: You're living and working in Tokyo now. What is it exactly that you do now? Has what you have learnt from your small press ventures helped you in your present career?

Russell: Well, I'm very careful about business partners! I own and run a web-based publishing company here. We run a very large portal site for learners of English in Japan which is advertising funded and provided lots of information about learning English, studying abroad, why Americans are strange, etc.

We also publish books, audio books, magazines, podcasts etc. For example we were doing the TIME magazine podcast for Japan here (it's on sabbatical right now), which was fun, we have a book out in October with Macmillan which interviews foreign CEOs of multinationals in Japan, this kind of stuff.

INFINITY and the other zines taught me about editing, writing, design, working with creative people. I was rubbish at it when I started (I didn't even know how to order the pages properly so they'd print right), but learnt on the job and it was very natural for me to feel that I could take on professional projects later on, with that experience behind me. Though I shudder when I look at the wonky, scratched Letraset, bad paste-up and acres of IBM Golfball-generated typos in every issue of Infinity!

Infinity #9, available to
fans of the original 'zine.

Simon: Would you ever consider working on an underground comics project again?

Russell Willis: Funny you should mention that! I've just put together INFINITY #9 -- with all the articles and letters and some of the artwork that should have been published 23 years ago. It includes front and back covers by the late Steve Whitaker, to whom I've dedicated the issue. I've created it as a private gift for people who read Infinity back then -- "friends of Infinity."

If you were a reader, contributor or just knew me back in the day, then drop me an e-mail at russjapan (at) mac (dot) com and I'll send you a copy.

Simon Mackie: Living and working so far away from home, and for so many years now, do you often think back to your days working with underground comics in the early 80s?

Russell Willis: I do. It was a wonderful period. I feel so lucky to have been even a small part of it. In the last few years I've been confronted with so many things that remind me of those days -- whether it be picking up an Eddie Campbell book and seeing references to Infinity in it or watching the American Splendor film on DVD or just seeing names of people that contributed to Infinity or who I knew from back then as I browse the book section of Tower Records in Tokyo. Great stuff!

• Since this interview was first published in 2008 on downthetubes, Russell Willis has launched Panel Nine, a dedicated digital comics publishing company, which launched SEQUENTIAL, a digital platform for quality graphic novels in 2013. More info at: www.panelnine.com

• Download SEQUENTIAL for free from the iTunes here

• Read our 2013 interview with Russell about SEQUENTIAL