Is there an issue using popular franchise references in your comic?

[Syren]

Is there an issue using popular franchise references in your comic? For example, my comic is about a guy who daydreams a lot and puts himself in the different "universes" of various franchises (like Starwars, Dragonball Z, Harry Potter, etc)

However, I'm not using characters from these franchises, just embedding myself in their worlds...

Any advice would be appreciated

If you do something similar, share your comic so I can check it out.

Nanigans! | Tapas

[brilliiant]

Webcomics have a really long history of riffing on popular real life media, you'll be fine!

[snowy]

Isn't there a pretty popular webcomic that uses characters from Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes and Disney in a sort of Dragonball Z narrative ? Don't think they were ever sued or anything.

[Blizzriel]

I think I know which one you're talking about, and I think the reason they haven't run into legal problems is because their income from the comic comes from Patreon. They might not be able to sell physical copies of it or make merchandise.

[MasterValkyrie]

Yep. It's called Scoob & Shag. (It's really good by the way. I highly recommend it.)

[Crusoe]

I know some comics have run into legal trouble for using copyrighted logos and such, but I think as long as you try to use 'knock-off' terms for any brand or name that could be copyrighted you should be fine.

[thedude3445]

Research Fair Use and Parody laws if you plan on making money off this

[nostalgicroxas]

Which is exactly why we have things like YouToob and Wudbeiser, Pineapple logos in comics and such. You cannot directly reference a company without that company's written permission / sponsorship. Which is also why if you watch enough movies you can see product placements everywhere - my favorite being the water the boys drink in the cafeteria in The Big Bang Theory.

[bear1]

Edit: never mind.
I thought Scoop and Shag are not making ad-revenue due to being a parody strip. But they are still in the program.

So, yeah, parodies shouldn’t be a problem even with monetization

[NickRowler]

I dunno how it is on Tapas. I have seen some comic make references to franchises in one off strips.

The newspaper comic Liberty Meadows also comes to mind which sort of got away with making references to franchises. Except for Kathy, which was depicted with a censor bar over her eyes. Tho the series still focused mainly on original characters

Having a whole comic mainly based off of other people's work may fall more under fanwork which you can not put ads on.

[Syren]

Thanks everyone for your responses. You've all been very helpful

[indagold]

Unless it falls under parody it's copyright infringement from what I know but I don't think there's been really any lawsuits against small name indie creators unless the IP holder is a litigious asshole. I don't even think homestuck got any legal threats and that was the biggest name comic out there.