Bill Willingham, the creator of the long-running Vertigo series, Fables, which was recently revived as part of DC’s Black Label line of comics, has announced that he is putting the characters into the public domain as a result of years of disputes with DC over his contractual rights to the characters of the series, which is about a group of mythological beings who were exiled from their homelands to go live among humans. Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha have been the art team throughout most of the series, but Willingham has been the sole owner of the IP rights to Fables.Willingham announced that, as of tomorrow, “15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain. What was once wholly owned by Bill Willingham is now owned by everyone, for all time. It’s done, and as most experts will tell you, once done it cannot be undone. Take-backs are neither contemplated nor possible.” This move does not affect any of the works already in print, and Willingham still plans to collect all owed royalties for past work (and any future royalties on licensed deals DC makes with the Fables characters).Willingham notes that since it has been so many years since he first struck his creator-owned arrangement with Fables with DC, there is little to no one left that actually dealt with him at the time, and so no one at the company seems to know (or is willing to honor) the terms of his agreement. One example he gave was regards to a deal DC struck with Telltale Games to do a Fables video game in which Willingham says he was not paid royalties he was owed, “When they capitulated on some of the points in a later conference call, promising on the phone to pay me back monies owed for licensing Fables to Telltale Games, for example, in the execution of the new agreement, they reneged on their word and offered the promised amount instead as a ‘consulting fee,’ which avoided the precedent of admitting this was money owed, and included a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent me from saying anything but nice things about Telltale or the license.” He pointed out that, “At that point, since I disagreed on all of their new interpretations of our longstanding agreements, we were in conflict. They practically dared me to sue them to enforce my rights, knowing it would be a long and debilitating process. Instead I began to consider other ways to go.”RELATED: Fables Creator Bill Willingham Exposes DC
Bill Willingham, the creator of the long-running Vertigo series, Fables, which was recently revived as part of DC’s Black Label line of comics, has announced that he is putting the characters into the public domain as a result of years of disputes with DC over his contractual rights to the characters of the series, which is about a group of mythological beings who were exiled from their homelands to go live among humans. Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha have been the art team throughout most of the series, but Willingham has been the sole owner of the IP rights to Fables.
Willingham announced that, as of tomorrow, “15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain. What was once wholly owned by Bill Willingham is now owned by everyone, for all time. It’s done, and as most experts will tell you, once done it cannot be undone. Take-backs are neither contemplated nor possible.” This move does not affect any of the works already in print, and Willingham still plans to collect all owed royalties for past work (and any future royalties on licensed deals DC makes with the Fables characters).
Willingham notes that since it has been so many years since he first struck his creator-owned arrangement with Fables with DC, there is little to no one left that actually dealt with him at the time, and so no one at the company seems to know (or is willing to honor) the terms of his agreement. One example he gave was regards to a deal DC struck with Telltale Games to do a Fables video game in which Willingham says he was not paid royalties he was owed, “When they capitulated on some of the points in a later conference call, promising on the phone to pay me back monies owed for licensing Fables to Telltale Games, for example, in the execution of the new agreement, they reneged on their word and offered the promised amount instead as a ‘consulting fee,’ which avoided the precedent of admitting this was money owed, and included a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent me from saying anything but nice things about Telltale or the license.” He pointed out that, “At that point, since I disagreed on all of their new interpretations of our longstanding agreements, we were in conflict. They practically dared me to sue them to enforce my rights, knowing it would be a long and debilitating process. Instead I began to consider other ways to go.”
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