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Creative Commons and Comics
Sep. 3rd, 2008 11:41 amWarren Ellis posted this morning that a new batch of Apparat Singles may be in the works through Avatar Press. The original concept was intriguing - publish a series of one-shot comics through a fictional label, and never speak of them again. They were distilled ideas, like fine shots of whiskey that fully evaporate on the tongue, leaving only a memory of a sensation. Or better yet, like seeds one could lock away in some godforsaken tomb in the Arctic Circle, hoping to harvest them later when the stars are right.
Anyways, the idea at the time was interesting. But doing it again, even with totally different seeds, isn't necessarily as interesting. So I immediately wrote Warren back and told him he should suggest to Avatar that the next group of singles be released under Creative Commons and made available for mashup, a la Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother".
Not only would that be a system shock to the comics industry (who ever heard of any publisher making their "properties" available for free??), it would be a huge boon to both Avatar and Ellis. People would pick up the ideas where he left them off, run with them, change them - and all the while both his name and Avatar's would be spread all over the place as the original CC copyright holders. It seems like that gets a lot better legs than just the initial idea of one-shot singles that dead end in a trade collection (and in fact, with the spread of CC remixes, more people would be inspired to buy the trade of the next batch of singles when it comes out so they could read the original stories).
How is it any different from what comics have always done in the past, anyways? Haven't Superman and Batman and Iron Man and Spider-Man all been re-imagined and re-written a hundred different ways by now? It's not like it would hurt licensing for merchandise or movie rights, which is where a lot of these properties make money now anyhow.
Anyways, the idea at the time was interesting. But doing it again, even with totally different seeds, isn't necessarily as interesting. So I immediately wrote Warren back and told him he should suggest to Avatar that the next group of singles be released under Creative Commons and made available for mashup, a la Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother".
Not only would that be a system shock to the comics industry (who ever heard of any publisher making their "properties" available for free??), it would be a huge boon to both Avatar and Ellis. People would pick up the ideas where he left them off, run with them, change them - and all the while both his name and Avatar's would be spread all over the place as the original CC copyright holders. It seems like that gets a lot better legs than just the initial idea of one-shot singles that dead end in a trade collection (and in fact, with the spread of CC remixes, more people would be inspired to buy the trade of the next batch of singles when it comes out so they could read the original stories).
How is it any different from what comics have always done in the past, anyways? Haven't Superman and Batman and Iron Man and Spider-Man all been re-imagined and re-written a hundred different ways by now? It's not like it would hurt licensing for merchandise or movie rights, which is where a lot of these properties make money now anyhow.