Fan Series - Questions and Concerns

[paracosmlex]

Hello again Tapastic! Long time no see!

As I was working on my first original comic script, I ran into a few snags, because I'm inexperienced with script writing and with pacing for comics. So I'm considering doing a fan series comic to test out my pacing and writing skills.

I'm a huge fan of Digimon, and a friend of I wrote a fan series for it long, long ago.. It has an update on the usual cast and story line, so it would not use any of the canon characters, just the Digimon premise and such. The characters are adults and involve a much more complex story and original Digimon designs.

I know that anything monetary would be out of the question because of this, but is this something people can publish to Tapastic?
Do people typically shy away from reading or posting these?
Would an artist not want to work on a project like this?
Are there other questions I should be asking myself about a project like this?

[Kayke]

I've seen people do fan comics on Tapastic... specifically right now I think there are a few Undertale and Steven Universe ones floating around.

As a reader, I tent to not click on them. I feel like doing little one-off fan comics on tumblr are fine, I've done those myself, but doing a whole series of comics on tapastic seems a bit much to me.

What you're describing... you could probably make into an original premise with not a lot of alterations. There are plenty of comics/cartoons/video games involving monsters. If you're not actually using the characters from Digimon you could call it something other than Digimon and make a few changes to the way the digital world works and boom it's not a fan comic any more.

[Marvin]

As long as you don't make any money out of it and put credit where it's due, I'm pretty sure it's ok.
As for your other questions :

Do people typically shy away from reading or posting these?

You'll be adressing a pretty small niche (digimon fans) so you might not have that many readers. (For example, I'm not a fan at all so I would probably not even try reading it for fear of missing something)

Would an artist not want to work on a project like this?

Again, you'd have to find an artist that is pretty fan himself. And finding an artist in general seems really hard so good luck with that... (most of them have their own comic to deal with)

Is it really the comic aspect that interests you or would you be happy with writing a fanfiction ? If so you can write it completely and then wait for Tapastic to open their novels section (last I heard they didn't know if they were gonna forbid fanfictions or not though...)

[keii4ii]

You COULD publish it on Tapastic, but you need to have the ad revenue turned off. This might become a problem if you either plan on also posting an original series in the future, or are already publishing one right now. I would consider using a separate account for it.

[shazzbaa]

From the Terms & Conditions:

You hereby affirm, represent, and warrant that you (1) own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to publish Content you submit and publish through the Service; and (2) all such Content are original works of authorship on your part and have not been copied, in whole or in part, from any other work and do not violate, misappropriate or infringe any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right of any other person or entity.
You further agree that Content you submit to the Service will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the Content or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the Content and to grant Tapas all of the license rights granted herein.

From the Content Policy:

Copyright Infringement: The use of copyrighted material by parties other than the copyright holders is strictly prohibited on Tapastic. Our Terms & Conditions outlines additional information regarding our policy of Copyright Infringement.

Personally, I think the idea of creating a fan comic that you're excited about to kind of get in the groove is fine, but it seems to me that you couldn't post it on Tapastic without breaking the rules. I'm pretty sure that if it's Actually The Digimon World, even if you changed up character designs, it'd still be their IP? Though I do like @Kaykedrawsthings's idea, if that's something you think you could get into!

I'll also say, I think it's okay to learn as you go for your first original story, too; especially if you make your first story a shorter story!

[Doubtcent]

Exactly as @Kaykedrawsthings says, it doesn't take much to make something that could be based off an original concept and then make it your own.
@UzukiCheverie made her comic originally based on a Legend of Zelda fan creation, but now it's an original concept.

There's a saying that if you take five writers and have them all write about the same lampstand, you will read about five different lamps. This has held true for most concepts that are original, and even if they are close to something else there will always be something different to bring to the table, unless it's just ripping off the original concept word for word.

So take your story, alter a few things (maybe turn the concept on its head) and make it your own. Just to be better safe than sorry.

However if you are dead set on creating a fan-comic, no monetization would be allowed.

[paracosmlex]

@shazzbaa - That snippet of the Terms does seem pretty straight forward that anything not originally by myself is against the rules. So I guess that's the cut-and-dry of it, as far as posting to Tapastic goes. Thanks for the info! Also yeah, I could use an original piece to start but... I'm a weirdo perfectionist and don't want to post anything of my own creation unless it's "ready" to be seen.. x.x; Which is probably stunting my growth as a creator, I know..

@Kaykedrawsthings - I would consider revamping it to be an original piece, but I'm not sure if that would still be violating some sort of rule around it. Like if it was too similar a premise or something.

@keii4ii - I hadn't thought about how writing this piece would effect anything else that I post to Tapastic. Thanks for the heads up, that does change how I feel about it.

@Marvin - That's true, it would be a very niche sort of thing, with not a lot of attention to it. I'm not sure it'd need much attention as a learning project, but that does make me wonder if it'd be worth the time to make then..

[eschaefges]

yeah, you are far better doing something original. I wanted to make Mario/Zelda comics for years and finally decided to make a parody/comedy series playing with those gaming tropes that is SIMILAR but not EXACTLY like Zelda as I own the characters and can make the plots do whatever i want and am fairly safe from legal recourse.

If the world is similar to Digimon in a lot of cursory ways, but is otherwise original, you own it 100% and I am pretty sure no one will come after you!

(the previous statements were not legal advice)

[starsyscomics]

Copyright Infringement: The use of copyrighted material by parties other than the copyright holders is strictly prohibited on Tapastic. Our Terms & Conditions outlines additional information regarding our policy of Copyright Infringement.

/quietly waits for account to get shut down.

[Strontium]

Off topic but I'm a huge fan Digimon fan and I gotta know if your fan comic has original Digimon designs?
I think fan comics do better on tumblr than Tapastic honestly, because it's easier for people to search by fandoms. And if it is original Digimon, there really aren't comics outside of OCTs in that fandom and I'm sure it would be a welcome addition.

[Stellamari]

I am a HUGE fan of Digimon so please share your link if you post it up later.

[paracosmlex]

Retracted because I misunderstood. My bad. >////<

[paracosmlex]

I didn't think of Tumblr, that's a good idea for a place to post said comic. Thanks for the input! Also yes, the Digimon designs are original, created from scratch by myself & my friend. ^.^

@Stellamari - From the looks of it a fan comic won't be a good idea here on Tapastic, but if it ever goes up elsewhere, I can msg you haha.

[Strontium]

Excellent! If you have art of them somewhere I'd love to see them!!

[shazzbaa]

(aw shoot, Starsys wasn't talking about you, I'm pretty sure they were talking about their own account, since it has a Sailor Moon series ;u; )

And while this thread is here -- I'll be honest, at this point, I'm not as sure about my answer. It seemed very clear to me in the terms of service, but there's a few places where others on the forum (including @michaelson!) have implied that fan comics are fine as long as you don't collect ad revenue from them. So I might have been wrong! It would be cool to have an official ruling on this, though. @ u @

But either way, it sounds like you've found some people here who will follow you wherever you end up posting. :>

[starsyscomics]

I was definitely talking about our own account, sorry for the lack of context, that was confusing. We only have Sailor Moon and Harry Potter comics up, but we haven't received any backlash from Tapastic yet (heck, they featured a Sailor Moon four panel in one of their comic snacks a few weeks ago) so there's a good chance you'll be fine with whatever you post, as long as it follows the other rules on the site

[paracosmlex]

Thank you for clarifying, I was very confused by the wording! I apologize for jumping to conclusions and retract my passive aggressive statement about your helpfulness! Because seeing that you actively have fan series that are not being removed is actual helpful. Now I'm on the fence about the whole thing again..

...Also Sailor Moon & HP webcomics... -goes to sub-

@shazzbaa - Yeah it sounds cut and dry 100% for the ad revenue but.. perhaps if I don't collect revenue? But then I wonder if that means I can't even say like, "Donate to the artists if you like it" and whatever because that's technically revenue?? I'm confused on that part, but yeah, I may just start it up on Tumblr or somewhere else and see what that gets me.

[starsyscomics]

It's cool, no worries! And thanks for the subs! <3

As for ad revenue and stuff, yeah, I think you can basically chill here with fan stuff as long as you don't collect on it, and in the end that's probably the wisest choice. The only reason I feel the slightest bit comfortable doing a long form fan comic for HP is because we're getting no money from it whatsoever which makes it way less likely to get sued. If you want to generate ad revenue/get donations/make dat cheddar it's not with fan comics. You can only get so popular before the original creator shows up and stomps you. Fan projects that don't make revenue are usually fine, as long as the creator doesn't have beef with it in general.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck! : ) I think fan comics are super fun and a really great way to practice for original stuff.