Fables Auction for the Benefit of... well, Us, really
Can capitalizing on comics drama pay the bills?
If you’ve heard the hubbub and want to skip the spiel, scroll down to the Auction Time section at the bottom, but if you haven’t heard, Fables writer/creator Bill Willingham did the equivalent of a table flip last week by declaring his Fables-related intellectual property public domain.
Fables had been a pretty solid seller for Fantastic Comics when it first opened; it occupied an interesting niche — a goto series for anyone who wanted to be recommended a “not-a-superhero” comic along with most of the Vertigo back catalog, though of course myths and fables are really just primordial superhero material, and indeed as part of the DC pantheon, you occasionally got things like Neil Gaiman’s Death meeting Lex Luthor.
More recently, we saw the Bigby Wolf / Batman team-up, notably on DC’s Black Label because DC had retired Vertigo, which had been in decline since longtime editor Karen Berger’s departure.
It was apparently sour negotiations from the latest revival that prompted Willingham to release his ownership of Fables intellectual property into the public domain, which as Willingham understood it, left him in the curious position of being unable to publish any further works without DC’s blessing (as per their existing contracts), but allowing quite literally anyone else to do what they want.
DC for its part put out a release threatening to put the kibosh on any fan works. Let’s just say that even without DC’s vulgar display of power, we probably weren’t going to be making any, at least not with our current skills at AI prompting.
Will DC retaliate ever so passive-aggressively by neglecting to reprint Fables material? Will they take the opposite approach and keep Fables in print forever (much like Watchmen, to Alan Moore’s eternal chagrin), but find some way to spite Willingham, taking his IP rights abdication as a means to wiggle out of monies owed?
Tune into Uel’s newly monetized (thanks, superfans!) Fantastic Comics show at 8PM tonight (link below) to hear more commentary and speculation, comics news, plus this week’s comics.
Auction Time
In any case, we’ve got seven (+1 double) Fables trades to auction as a lot — over $100 MSRP of potentially never-to-be reprinted (or forever spitefully reprinted) books could ALL be yours for as little as $1! Just reply to this email with your single best-price bid. Out-of-towners, be sure to bid at least $25 to cover shipping (or pay shipping separately if you’re feeling generous). Auction closes… next week-ish? You’ve got till at least the next installment of our newsletter.
Sad trombone! — not a single bid came in for our last auction of Smallville and Orphan Black trades. They will now be laid to rest… RIP speculative continuing TV seasons in comic book form!
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