The comics world is abuzz about Bill Willingham’s statement announcing he was putting Fables into the public domain yesterday, as a result of mistreatment by DC Comics. And now DC Comics has fired back with a rare corporate statement:
The Fables comic books and graphic novels published by DC, and the storylines, characters and elements therein, are owned by DC and protected under the copyright laws of the United States and throughout the world in accordance with applicable law, and are not in the public domain. DC reserves all rights and will take such action as DC deems necessary or appropriate to protect its intellectual property rights.
It’s a clear shot across the bow to anyone who was thinking of making their own Fables fiction or comics – which based on social media a few people were thinking about.
Untangling all of this is going to be a loooong process!
Willingham has made his own thoughts clearer on Twitter as well:
Several questions have poured in over Fables rights. No, this doesn’t include the right to reprint previously published Fables books and stories. And if you come out with your own Fables books, others couldn’t decide to reprint them. “Create your own” is the new order of things.
No, I am not in any way soured on Fables. And I’ll happily still sign Fables books and talk Fables at cons. I’m just soured on a certain publisher that joined the dark side.
While much of the comics industry has responded with a “you go, guy!” for Willingham standing up for his rights against what sounds like some ham-handed creative unfriendly from DC Comics, he’s also come under fire for his anti-woke views, and past anti-Palestine, anti-abortion storylines in Fables.
The problem with the comic book industry is all of you blindly supporting a bigot just because he’s letting Hansel and Gretel go into public domain. Racists supporting racists. pic.twitter.com/uzkVNfm49y
— Henry Barajas 🌵 💭 (@HenryBarajas) September 15, 2023
Former Vertigo editor Stuart Moore also posted a cryptic statement on FB, suggesting that this story is just getting going!
Why is everyone dumping on Bill Willingham? He’s publicizing a dispute with a big corporation. I helped review those Vertigo contracts in the early 90s, and I can tell you they’re COMPLICATED.
EDITED TO ADD: I’m reliably informed there’s another whole side to this story that isn’t currently being commented on.
And cartoonist James Owen has jumped on the “First!’ post by being the first, very tentative hat in the ring:
Bill Willingham is an old friend, and one of the earliest supporters of my creative work. I have Imaginarium Geographica novels in twenty-two languages. A FABLES-based novel written and illustrated by me, under the permission of his having declared his work to be public domain, would be a seismic event in the pop culture world. And I might do it – not just because I can, or because I have an affinity for the material – but to also put companies like DC Comics on notice: we don’t need you. But you are NOTHING without us.
The last part is an admirable sentiment, but as DC’s statement shows, they are going to fight back against any attempts to monetize Fables derivative works, aside from already legal fanfic.
Also a side note: it’s very rare for DC to release any kind of corporate statement, however in this case, part of defending a copyright is showing you are defending it, which the statement proves. And as Willingham accurately observed, very few people are going to be abel to outlast Warner Bros Discovery lawyers. Just this statement alone should dissuade anyone from going up against WBD.
I’m sure there will be more developments throughout the day so we’ll update this story as needed.