What can I do to protect the comic book superheroes I've created?

[Mann Slaughter]

Long story, but please bear with me:
Back in 1981 while still in high school I was a huge comic book fan and artist and started creating my own characters who I hoped would one day grace the pages of Marvel and/or DC Comics. Over the years I've created about 120 heroes & villains, but after 1994 I stopped drawing, and my art sat idle.
Fast-forward to May 2012. I've had a Facebook profile set up for a few years now, and I'd been thinking that some of my FB friends would get a kick out of seeing their characters, (Many of whom never even knew I'd created a comic book version of them) so I created a photo gallery called "Characters" (available only to friends, and FoF) and scanned in 20 of my old colored drawings, and tagged them with the relevant friend. Needless to say, they were a big hit.

That same day I got a posting from a guy I graduated high school with. He now lives in CA and works at ABC/Disney Studios and wanted to know what I was doing with these. My reply? "Uh... Nothing really." "They're basically sitting here turning yellow." He said he liked them and wanted to show them to some people there to see what they thought. "Wow! 20 years after the height of my creativity and NOW they're gonna take off? Sure. I'd be honored if you'd show them around." I asked which ones he planned to show and he told me: an android super-hero and a demonic super-villain both based on high school friends; a female super-speedster based on my 1st wife; and ME! My super-heroic persona! A few days later I got an update from CA: "I wanted you to know that I showed them to my friend who works in animation, and he's gonna show them to his people at Marvel Comics. I'll let you know what they say."

Now I'm getting worried. I know that Marvel/ DC have policies in place where they don't accept ANY unsolicited work. (They don't want to be accused of stealing someone's stuff) But now I'm afraid that since these characters have been "released into the wild" I may lose them forever. (Though the speedster is pretty generic, my character, the android, and the demon are each pretty unique, and I'd hate to lose them.)
Do I have any course of action at this point for holding on to them? (I'm looking forward to copyright and trademark lawyers chiming in.)

Thanks folks!

[aceplace57]

You still have the yellowed, paper originals from 20 years ago? People you knew in high school might remember you drawing them?

If so, then you should have proof it's your original work.

I recall from writing classes that early drafts were helpful in proving the creative process from start to finished work. Are there any early versions of your characters in a box somewhere? Maybe a sketch pad?

[Ibanez]

Get them trademarked ASAP.

[Marley23]

Moving this thread to General Questions so the OP can get some factual answers about how to handle this situation.

[Omar Little]

Considering stuff in Facebook is archived forever. You would have a pretty strong evidence trail if all of the sudden your characters showed up in the next issue of Avengers.

[Mann Slaughter]

Originally Posted by aceplace57

You still have the yellowed, paper originals from 20 years ago? People you knew in high school might remember you drawing them?

If so, then you should have proof it's your original work.

I recall from writing classes that early drafts were helpful in proving the creative process from start to finished work. Are there any early versions of your characters in a box somewhere? Maybe a sketch pad?

Unfortunately, (due to a mom who never really appreciated my art) all of the stuff I'd originally drawn in high school found its way into the landfill shortly after I joined the Army, as well as nearly everything I did from 1983 to 1989 which was lost when I moved. I do have a few scattered sketches from the late 80's, but most of what I have are some development sketches and "colored finishes" from 1990 to 1994.

[Mann Slaughter]

Originally Posted by Omar Little

Considering stuff in Facebook is archived forever. You would have a pretty strong evidence trail if all of the sudden your characters showed up in the next issue of Avengers.

I hadn't considered this.

Thank you.

[Mann Slaughter]

Originally Posted by Ibanez

Get them trademarked ASAP.

Current Fee Schedule
JEEZUS KRYST! Who knew trademarks and patents were so expensive???

[Exapno Mapcase]

From the Copyright Office:

Works Created on or after January 1, 1978
The law automatically protects a work that is created and fixed in a tangible
medium of expression on or after January 1, 1978, from the moment of its
creation and gives it a term lasting for the author’s life plus an additional 70
years.

Your works are automatically copyrighted in your name. Period.

That gives you protection against unauthorized use, which is good because you can issue takedown orders and prevent any other publication, but not much more. The real protection in copyright comes from registration. This gives you the ability to sue and recover punitive damages, which are punishment and can be any amount. Without registration you can only get actual damages, and those are essentially nil for non-published work, since your work has no established value. Realistically, no one ever goes to court because the costs are too high, but any lawyer can take a proof of registered copyright and get a settlement because of this.

Trademark is the wrong route. You can still register your copyright and that will affect any future use. Electronic copyright (HIGHLY recommended) can be found here. The fee is $65 but I'm pretty sure that you can include every drawing and paper you have in one registration filing.

If you do additional work in the future, you can do this bulk registration once every quarter for the basic fee.

[blasto9000]

You can also register your work with the Writer's Guild:
http://www.wgawregistry.org/webrss/

This provides a legally-defensible date of creation.

[Czarcasm]

Originally Posted by Mann Slaughter

I hadn't considered this.

Thank you.

I sent you a PM.

[gytalf2000]

This is useful information for me, as well. I have quite a number of sexy superheroines (Panther Girl, the Polecat, "Occulta, Witch of the Silvery Star", Sparrowhawk, and others), plus many supervillains (like the "Dastardly Disruptor", who is basically an evil "cartoonified" version of myself, with extra-long pinky fingernails) -- I publish their adventures at my "Deviant Art" site. I never really gave "protection" of my characters much thought, but perhaps I should.

My oldest character is Panther Girl, who I thought up in the Fall of 1972, after I had purchased the first issue of Marvel's "Shanna the She-Devil" (Marvel, December 1972) -- I actually sent a letter to Marvel detailing a fairly good (in my opinion, anyway) origin story for the character, Monica Denise Campbell, aka Panther Girl.
I never got any type of reply or acknowledgement that they even received the letter, so it might have been lost in the mail.

She would have been the first black female superhero at Marvel, had they gone ahead with the character. My creation of her predated "Storm" of the X-Men by several years! Oh, well...

[Czarcasm]

Originally Posted by gytalf2000

This is useful information for me, as well. I have quite a number of sexy superheroines (Panther Girl, the Polecat, "Occulta, Witch of the Silvery Star", Sparrowhawk, and others), plus many supervillains (like the "Dastardly Disruptor", who is basically an evil "cartoonified" version of myself, with extra-long pinky fingernails) -- I publish their adventures at my "Deviant Art" site. I never really gave "protection" of my characters much thought, but perhaps I should.

My oldest character is Panther Girl, who I thought up in the Fall of 1972, after I had purchased the first issue of Marvel's "Shanna the She-Devil" (Marvel, December 1972) -- I actually sent a letter to Marvel detailing a fairly good (in my opinion, anyway) origin story for the character, Monica Denise Campbell, aka Panther Girl.
I never got any type of reply or acknowledgement that they even received the letter, so it might have been lost in the mail.

She would have been the first black female superhero at Marvel, had they gone ahead with the character. My creation of her predated "Storm" of the X-Men by several years! Oh, well...

The major comic companies will not accept, nor even acknowledge, unsolicited submissions for fear of being sued for stealing ideas at a later date.

[gytalf2000]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

The major comic companies will not accept, nor even acknowledge, unsolicited submissions for fear of being sued for stealing ideas at a later date.

Good to know!

[Exapno Mapcase]

Originally Posted by blasto9000

You can also register your work with the Writer's Guild:
http://www.wgawregistry.org/webrss/

This provides a legally-defensible date of creation.

Do NOT do this.

The WGA does very good work for its members, but this is basically a scam. The only real protection you get from this is the ability to claim a date if challenged in a WGA arbitration. It does not substitute for a registered copyright in court. It is cheaper for one item, but for more expensive for a group of items. It has no purpose except to be a source of funds for the WGA.

I would never advise anyone who isn't in the business to spend their money this way. If you register your copyright you get all the protection you need. If you don't you're SOL even if you do register with the WGA.

Here's an industry lawyer saying these things. I did the search after writing the first two paragraphs, BTW. This is the second hit on Google after the WGA Registry itself.

[Mann Slaughter]

Originally Posted by gytalf2000

This is useful information for me, as well. I have quite a number of sexy superheroines (Panther Girl, the Polecat, "Occulta, Witch of the Silvery Star", Sparrowhawk, and others), plus many supervillains (like the "Dastardly Disruptor", who is basically an evil "cartoonified" version of myself, with extra-long pinky fingernails) -- I publish their adventures at my "Deviant Art" site. I never really gave "protection" of my characters much thought, but perhaps I should.

My oldest character is Panther Girl, who I thought up in the Fall of 1972, after I had purchased the first issue of Marvel's "Shanna the She-Devil" (Marvel, December 1972) -- I actually sent a letter to Marvel detailing a fairly good (in my opinion, anyway) origin story for the character, Monica Denise Campbell, aka Panther Girl.
I never got any type of reply or acknowledgement that they even received the letter, so it might have been lost in the mail.

She would have been the first black female superhero at Marvel, had they gone ahead with the character. My creation of her predated "Storm" of the X-Men by several years! Oh, well...

This was my niche as well.
All of my characters are based on people I know IRL, (Using their real names, personalities, and physical appearance) and most of them are minorities. As a Black teen reading comics in the 70's and early 80's I didn't see a lot of characters who looked like me or my friends, so I sought to correct that. (I'd originally included this bit of info in my OP but took it out because I felt it irrelevant to my question.)

[Mann Slaughter]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

From the Copyright Office:
Your works are automatically copyrighted in your name. Period.

That gives you protection against unauthorized use, which is good because you can issue takedown orders and prevent any other publication, but not much more. The real protection in copyright comes from registration. This gives you the ability to sue and recover punitive damages, which are punishment and can be any amount. Without registration you can only get actual damages, and those are essentially nil for non-published work, since your work has no established value. Realistically, no one ever goes to court because the costs are too high, but any lawyer can take a proof of registered copyright and get a settlement because of this.

Trademark is the wrong route. You can still register your copyright and that will affect any future use. Electronic copyright (HIGHLY recommended) can be found here. The fee is $65 but I'm pretty sure that you can include every drawing and paper you have in one registration filing.

If you do additional work in the future, you can do this bulk registration once every quarter for the basic fee.

Thank you for the information and the link!

[gytalf2000]

Originally Posted by Mann Slaughter

This was my niche as well.
All of my characters are based on people I know IRL, (Using their real names, personalities, and physical appearance) and most of them are minorities. As a Black teen reading comics in the 70's and early 80's I didn't see a lot of characters who looked like me or my friends, so I sought to correct that. (I'd originally included this bit of info in my OP but took it out because I felt it irrelevant to my question.)

I'm not Black, but I found it annoying that there had never been a Black "jungle girl" type character. "Jungle Girl" are almost always not members of the native tribe, but function as outsiders, so I had my character be an African-American Archaeology graduate student from Columbia University. She saves a lost temple from looters, and is given "Panther powers" by a grateful "Kaanga the Panther God".

[OldGuy]

Originally Posted by gytalf2000

I'm not Black, but I found it annoying that there had never been a Black "jungle girl" type character. "Jungle Girl" are almost always not members of the native tribe, but function as outsiders, so I had my character be an African-American Archaeology graduate student from Columbia University. She saves a lost temple from looters, and is given "Panther powers" by a grateful "Kaanga the Panther God".

Kaanga may not be a name to use (unless it actually is an African language word) since Kaanga or actually Ka'a'nga (I think those ' were likely originally a diaeresis over the second a) was the name of a jungle hero from Fiction House in the 40s and 50s.

[gytalf2000]

Originally Posted by OldGuy

Kaanga may not be a name to use (unless it actually is an African language word) since Kaanga or actually Ka'a'nga (I think those ' were likely originally a diaeresis over the second a) was the name of a jungle hero from Fiction House in the 40s and 50s.

Oh yeah, that's right. I do like the sound of it, though -- perhaps I will change it to "Ka Wangah" instead.

I seriously doubt that it is an African language word, but I might be mistaken.

[Chastain86]

Freelance comic book writer here, working in the industry since 2005.

I think you're somewhat putting the cart before the horse here. Yes, you can register your characters -- yes, you can prove you created them. However, your friend's intent in showing the work to people at Marvel is not customarily so you can sell them characters, part and parcel, for future use in their books. If you are VERY lucky you might get an email from an editor at Marvel or another publisher to tell you how much they enjoyed your work, and perhaps to ask how you'd feel about submitting something their way. As you said in your OP, the financial risk that Marvel Comics runs in stealing a work like yours FAR, FAR outweighs the possible advantages of adding a new character to their already-bulging stables. So do yourself a favor -- take a deep breath and relax.

If something comes of all of this, I can guarantee it won't be that you'll suddenly notice your character designs in print. As you said, this is why larger publishers do not accept blind submissions. Generally speaking, my best advice to people that are looking to protect their characters from the influence of others is to DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR CHARACTERS. Write and self-publish a comic featuring said characters, publish them on the web with your name on the site, and generally speaking ensure that your name is synonymous with your work. That way, if something were to happen like the scenarios you pose, you will have legal recourse.

I'm not saying you should simply do nothing, but I think you're overthinking a situation to the point of worry. If you're not doing anything with the characters right now, sit back and see what happens. If you were going to go down the self-publishing route, then my advice might be a little different, but relax and enjoy seeing where this particular rollercoaster takes you.

[gytalf2000]

Originally Posted by Chastain86

Freelance comic book writer here, working in the industry since 2005.

I think you're somewhat putting the cart before the horse here. Yes, you can register your characters -- yes, you can prove you created them. However, your friend's intent in showing the work to people at Marvel is not customarily so you can sell them characters, part and parcel, for future use in their books. If you are VERY lucky you might get an email from an editor at Marvel or another publisher to tell you how much they enjoyed your work, and perhaps to ask how you'd feel about submitting something their way. As you said in your OP, the financial risk that Marvel Comics runs in stealing a work like yours FAR, FAR outweighs the possible advantages of adding a new character to their already-bulging stables. So do yourself a favor -- take a deep breath and relax.

If something comes of all of this, I can guarantee it won't be that you'll suddenly notice your character designs in print. As you said, this is why larger publishers do not accept blind submissions. Generally speaking, my best advice to people that are looking to protect their characters from the influence of others is to DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR CHARACTERS. Write and self-publish a comic featuring said characters, publish them on the web with your name on the site, and generally speaking ensure that your name is synonymous with your work. That way, if something were to happen like the scenarios you pose, you will have legal recourse.

I'm not saying you should simply do nothing, but I think you're overthinking a situation to the point of worry. If you're not doing anything with the characters right now, sit back and see what happens. If you were going to go down the self-publishing route, then my advice might be a little different, but relax and enjoy seeing where this particular rollercoaster takes you.

Well, my stuff already is intimately connected with my name. I publish at the"Deviant Art" website daily, sometimes uploading multiple pics per day.
I have created dozens of characters in my weird little "Gytalf-verse". I have a lot of fun with my hobby, as disturbing as it may be to some people (most decent, god-fearing people would be quite aghast at my subject material) -- Ha!

It was just something to think about briefly, after I read the OP's original message. I do appreciate the information, though. Thanks!

[Mann Slaughter]

Originally Posted by Chastain86

Freelance comic book writer here, working in the industry since 2005.

[snip]
Generally speaking, my best advice to people that are looking to protect their characters from the influence of others is to DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR CHARACTERS. Write and self-publish a comic featuring said characters, publish them on the web with your name on the site, and generally speaking ensure that your name is synonymous with your work. That way, if something were to happen like the scenarios you pose, you will have legal recourse.

Thank you, Chastain for the input, and now one question:
When you say to DO SOMETHING WITH [MY] CHARACTERS do you mean a regularly-published, full-blown online comic, complete with ongoing stories, etc? Because several years ago I had considered posting several of my characters' "colored finishes" along with their dossiers, which give full details on the WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN, WHERE. (An idea I'd originally gotten in 1984 from Vol. 1 of "The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe")
Would JUST my character portraits and dossiers be enough or do I need to go all out with a webcomic?