Sunday, January 5, 2014

Non-approved Comic Sketches

I always wonders about the artists who do sketches or drawings of comic characters such as Wonder Woman, Spider-man and Batman without permission from the comic companies that own the rights to the characters.  I thought they might be able to do it under the concept of "fair use" i.e. as long as they did not produces the sketches for commercial reproduction they were ok.

Turns out I am wrong.  I finally asked an artist friend who produces a quantity of prints of his drawings of DC, Marvel and Image super heroines (as they sell MUCH better than do super hero prints) who does not work for any of the companies that own said rights.  According to him, as long as you do not produce and sell prints of their characters naked or otherwise engaged in erotic acts, the major comic book companies pretty much turn a blind eye to artists creating and selling drawings of their characters.  He has sold prints of his work featuring other companies characters for a number of years now and says that, should he receive a ceases and desist order, he would stop producing them in a minute but so far, he hasn't.

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