Response comics/fanart and legality scans

[feyandstrange]

Dear mods: I'm still hopelessly confused as to the difference between fanart and fan comics, and which I am allowed to post without a legality scan. Please help!

I'm irregularly drawing a bunch of "response" comics lately, as practice art for a webcomic I am also working on which has not yet officially started. (And boy does my art need practice.) Since they're mostly responses to comics news I read here, I thought I'd share.


I can't find the pages from the Rainbow Lantern stuff that was posted here a while ago, but this was one of the things I drew in reply to the ghastly costume and ring choices for the formerly-known-as-green Lanterns of Earth:




More recent and thus more relevant, my (wheelchair-using geeky redheaded) response to the Barbara Gordon-Batgirl announcements:

I drew that partly so I didn't have to write a whole flipping essay again on why it's not that I mind Babs getting her legs back, it's that I mind the idea that she would then walk away from being Oracle (literally) and give up twenty years of hard work. Nobody expects Dick to be Robin again, do they?

These are both all-digital Wacom messes. I can't decide if my scanned pencils are better or worse than straight digital work, but either way my inking sucks (which is why I experimented with not doing any on the Babs piece). Also, did both in a bit of a rush hoping to post them while they were still fresh (and didn't get the GL one up in a timely fashion because my server horked).



"Gutters" is a webcomic doing much the same thing as I'm doing, but they do it a lot better: they do comics MWF, featuring a lot of different artists, about what's going on in the comics industry. Today's is their response to the Batgirl business, and it's good too.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

oh.... oh... the Gutters.... oh crap....

that said... hee hee love that last panel with Oracle

[drexer]

To cut those last two panels from the gutters comic and send it en masse to Didio, Johns et al is quite tempting.

Also, are those bunny slippers on Barbara's feet?

[feyandstrange]

Yes, Babs is in bunny slippers. Who gets all dressed up to go work on their own computer? She wasn't expecting time travelers. Although in the DC-verse she really ought to be, so maybe she just doesn't care. Gotta keep those computers nice and cool and those toes warm.

[blunderbuss]

*sobs*

And holy asscrack, she's been in a chair since 1988?? I was fucking four when that happened. And Spidey and MJ got married before I was born. What the fuck is with comics changing events that happened before most of their readers where even there to read comics?

[auggie18]

I was negative one.

[pyrotwilight]

Negative 1 buddies!

[cainofdreaming]

Aww, I can't join the Negative Persons. I was born too soon. At least say hello to Robotman for me when you form Regis, ok?

[pyrotwilight]

Yowza, 1988, DAMN. I mean I was -1 then. She's literally been Oracle all my lifetime and then some.

[darkknightjrk]

That was the year I was born! :O

[arbre_rieur]

Because to people who aren't already fans of the comics, a.k.a. the other 99% of the world, those who even know Batgirl at all know her as Barbara. That's who Batgirl's been in every media outside comics.

[auggie18]

I think that Batman and Robin convinced a lot of people that Barbara is Alfred's niece. And that her last name is Wilson. And that she's blonde.


Seriously, all it would take would be a new movie or cartoon in which there was a Cass Cain Batgirl or a Stephanie Brown Batgirl and the mass majority of people would think that Batgirl was always blonde/asian.

[arbre_rieur]

Very true, but until that show/movie exists, Barbara trumps Cassie and Steph. For whatever reason, the folks behind the various cartoons chose to use Barbara instead of newer Batgirls, and DC's dealing with the hand it's been dealt.

I don't like the idea of adaptations affecting the source medium so much, either -- it comes off a bit tail-wagging-the-dog -- but that's from my perspective as a fan. I can see the logic behind it to someone whose focus is the bottom line.

[blunderbuss]

Which is totally ridiculous, really - shouldn't every person know that every series varies from one another? For example, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics had Casey Jones in it. The 80s cartoons didn't have him. The 00s cartoons did. Notice how the world didn't end!

[arbre_rieur]

I imagine it's not so much about not confusing people as wanting to maximize on any pre-existing interest. That kid who fell in love with Barbara Gordon on BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD or THE BATMAN isn't going to be as interested if a completely different person is under the cowl by dint of the fact that it's a completely different person. They'll understand *why* it's different, yeah, but that won't make the difference any more appealing to them.

[richardak]

Sorry to nitpick, but Casey Jones was in the 1980s cartoon
.

[feyandstrange]

Don't be silly. Everyone knows that Silver Age fanboy "collectors" are the only readers who matter. Kids these days think comics are for *them*?

[pepperspray101]

*sniffles and finally bawls her eyes out* I can't deal wit this shit right now.

[pyrotwilight]

Not sure I get the piece about the Lanterns. John was Compassion not hope and Kyle didn't wear the "weird purple naked ring" HE had hope.

[darkknightjrk]

I think he was saying that John should have been Hope and Kyle should have been compassion.

[auggie18]

Oh, okay. I really didn't get that one.



Like, at all.

[feyandstrange]

Yes, she was. (At the time, a lot of folks commenting here were like "Why is the only BLACK guy the one who gets stuck with the purple 'tribal' crap?")

Should have been.

[nefrekeptah]

Seeing as how they all picked out their own rings, they'd disagree with you.

Okay, technically John's first choice was avarice, but Hal was all "Trust me John, you don't want that."

Re: Should have been.

[feyandstrange]

Well, I disagree with the writing. :P

Make that two of us!

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

Dear mods: I'm still hopelessly confused as to the difference between fanart and fan comics, and which I am allowed to post without a legality scan. Please help!

I'd often wondered the same thing, as I'd recently done a trading card design for a legit (if lesser known) comic that I was considering putting up here (once the colouring was done), as well as working on an indy comic that might need some pimpage, if the work passes muster!

Re: Make that two of us!

[gargoylekitty]

I'd thought that pretty clear. A fancomic is a comic. Fanart is a piece of art. One panel tending to count as art unless it's from a pro-comic. (so the first up there is fanart, the second is a fancomic)

Though, not-a-mod. They could say different.

Re: Make that two of us!

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

Well, then, I would think ALL of it would be considered 'fan art', yes? Still ? over what requires a legality scan and which doesn't ... I'm not trying to be difficult or dense, just erring on the side of caution!

Re: Make that two of us!

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

All sorted, thanks! ^_^

[silvercatmon]

Do you have a deviant art account or a website? Your comic about Babs made me smile, I like your thinking and want to see more.
I can't believe I missed the webcomic the-gutters.com. I now must explore it. Thank you so much for posting.

[angelophile]

By definition, a comic's a series of panels telling a story or narrative, so webcomics and fan comics like you've posted above count. Stories created by fans would still count as comics (and, confusingly, also fanart, but...)

Fanart by our definition is stuff like pin-ups or single images rather than sequenced panels.

Hope this clarifies.

[charlottesmtms.livejournal.com]

It does for me - thanks for putting that up!

[feyandstrange]

Thanks so much! I wasn't sure about one-panel comics particularly. (Most of which have the narrative of two-panel comics without a panel break, I'm finding.)

[blackruzsa]

..... That..... that gutters comic is... so sweet. Still effectively cynical, but sweet at the end.

It reminds me of this kid I met at Boston comic con who was in a wheel chair who was in an awesome full Nightwing costume his dad made for him from scratch. That picture.... I know I have it buried somewhere here!

[auggie18]

Wait, was it this year's Boston Comic Con? 'cause I was there. I remember that kid. That was an awesome costume.

[blackruzsa]

You were there!?
Aw crap I should have asked people if they were going on s_d.

I was taking pictures with him, in my Marvel Civil War shirt. His dad made the whole costume out of some old elastic cloth and garden gloves. So cool.

[runespoor]

Your Babs voice is very, very good. It speaks the truth!

[eyz]

Loved those!

And that Gutters comics was... Wow!