Can video-game related comics get money?

[stagfiesta]

So I'm just starting out, and I'm doing a slice of life-esque comic but I am thinking of other ideas for them. And I also showed my friend the site, and they do a comic on tumblr that is mainly based around a video game character.

I was wondering, if we were to put up a series based around video games [think, AkwardZombie], would turning on Ad-Revenue be allowed? Or will that be against the law? I know parody is allowed to a degree, but I just wanted to ask before hand if I say, did a game comic about Skyrim, if I'd be allowed to set it to get ad-revenue.

I wanted to ask for me and my friend, before anything happened. Also, would we be able to post the game-related comic if its not cash-enabled or whatever the term is, and have another comic series that is?

Thanks in advance!~

[keii4ii]

I'm inclined to say no. The best option may be making a separate account for all your fan comics, so you can turn ad revenue on/off for your original comics and fan comics separately.

[stagfiesta]

Ahh dang. I was just wondering because I do enjoy game-related comics.
I guess it'd have to be straight up parody then.

[keii4ii]

Even straight up parody is a bit ehh IMO. Because even if it's technically legal, should the IP holders take issues, you might need to actually fight to prove that it's legit parody -- and it doesn't seem fair to expect Tapastic to join you in that fight.

[stagfiesta]

Ahh well, I wasnt gonna do that myself. Just curious for the future.

[earthbendercharlie]

I'm doing something very similar with my new comic Button 6 which is about the fighting game scene and features many Street Fighter characters. The way to get around the issue of monetising content based off an existing licensed IP, is to make sure it falls under fair use law - and the easiest way to ensure that it does is to make sure that your work is a Parody of the thing its based on.

I spoke to the UK Capcom Community Manager before I started posting my comic to make sure of this and got solid confirmation of this being the case. All the names of the street fighter characters in my comic were changed, along with their design. (Ryu became Raiyu and Sagat became Sir-Gat) Also, its worth noting that even if you didnt go down the parody route, some video game companies wont really care about a webcomic making a little bit of advert or patreon money using their IP especially if the work is very community driven and only promotes their game for them. Its only if you started making loads of money and if your work started to make a lot of noise on the internet were the company would most likely step it and shut you down. If the work is very good, companies like Blizzard for example would either let your shit rock or may even promote it on official channels. But most companies are not god-tier like Blizzard so thats super unlikely.

tl:dr - Make your work a Parody and you will be safe.

[demthorshie]

I'd imagine you might encounter some legal things if you were to make a video game comic that became popular and monetized. Sure it's totally legal to make parodies of games and movie related things, I would tread cautiously near those waters still.

[L4213]

i mean, if comics such as Awkward Zombie and VGcats can, then there should be no problem with it.

but these comics fall on Parody. which is covered by fair use laws to be perfectly legal to make.

[elixiadragmire]

gamer cat makes a lot of money do this, I think its Nintendo that get their panties in a bunch about it but the rest don't seem to bother. Hell PA guys built an empire on gamer webcomics! most of these formulas are OC's that play games and make jokes about said games