Can comic authors use any character created by another?

[Orora]

I noticed that comic authors rarely use another character created by another author, apart from the main recurring cast, of course.

There are some exceptions, but they are much rarer than you'd expect. You'd think they'd be reused more often to create a sense of cohesion and continuity... or simply take advantage of unused potential!

When an author creates an element or character for a story, does it automatically become the property of Disney and any Disney author can use it as they feel?
Does it mostly just apply to Carl Barks, since he installed the "bases"?

Do you think there are some directives? Create newbie-friendly content as much as possible?

Do many authors just not want others to use their creations? Do new ones simply prefer/have to ask permission of these original creators and rarely get a positive answer?

Or do the authors just happen to prefer to use their whole original creations?


For example, let's say I manage to get hired by Disney to draw a Donald comic (lucky me!).
Could I just include Olga from "Uma Patinha na Patada"as a side character?
Would I need to contact Gérson L. B. Teixeira and Irineu Soares Rodrigues?

[Mesterius]

Any character created in and for Disney comics are owned by Disney, not by the creators. So, yes, you could most definitely use Olga from "Uma Patinha na Patada" (whoever that is) if your editor and publishing company greenlights the idea. That's who you have to get permission from, not the writer and/or artist who originated the character.

[The KKM]

Yeah, legally you could, it's my understanding that most editors just discourage you from doing so

[Spectrus]

If I were writer, I'd revive a lot of one-shot characters... for example, I have a script for a comic that will probably never get made. This requires Mickey to go back to journalism. Yeah, it's been done before, but I inserted a rather obscure reference to an old Scarpa story by having a colleague of Mickey, who had a rather large role in that story, now being his editor. Essentially, I find it harmless, because it doesn't make the story hard to understand or anything.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

What I'm wondering is how the rights work out for authors who put a preexisting character of theirs in a licensed Disney story. Does Don Rosa, for example, still own the copyright to ideas like the Black Knight, from their pre-Duck appearances in Lance Pertwillaby comics?

[Orora]

May 6, 2020 12:19:54 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

What I'm wondering is how the rights work out for authors who put a preexisting character of theirs in a licensed Disney story. Does Don Rosa, for example, still own the copyright to ideas like the Black Knight, from their pre-Duck appearances in Lance Pertwillaby comics?

Didn't Don Rosa say he didn't get any royalties from anything he created for Disney, and he could only copyright his own name?

And that the Disney comic system was one of the reasons for his retirement?

[RobbK1]

May 6, 2020 19:46:02 GMT Orora said:

May 6, 2020 12:19:54 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

What I'm wondering is how the rights work out for authors who put a preexisting character of theirs in a licensed Disney story. Does Don Rosa, for example, still own the copyright to ideas like the Black Knight, from their pre-Duck appearances in Lance Pertwillaby comics?

Didn't Don Rosa say he didn't get any royalties from anything he created for Disney, and he could only copyright his own name?

And that the Disney comic system was one of the reasons for his retirement?

It is stated in our contracts that anything we create while working on a job for Disney automatically becomes their property.  They get full rights to it, and we creators get none.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Definitely, definitely. I'm not entertaining the notion that he'd any royalties from the Disney stories themselves.

What I mean is, does Disney "own" the Black Knight now? (Or the Temple plotline from "The Son of the Sun", or any other one of the ideas he lifted from his earlier non-Disney Lance Pertwillaby stories.) Rosa chose to include preexisting characters & concepts, whose copyright he owned, in his later Disney comics. Does that allow later Disney creators to also use those concepts and characters, without asking him?

[RobbK1]

May 6, 2020 22:04:40 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Definitely, definitely. I'm not entertaining the notion that he'd any royalties from the Disney stories themselves.

What I mean is, does Disney "own" the Black Knight now? (Or the Temple plotline from "The Son of the Sun", or any other one of the ideas he lifted from his earlier non-Disney Lance Pertwillaby stories.) Rosa chose to include preexisting characters & concepts, whose copyright he owned, in his later Disney comics. Does that allow later Disney creators to also use those concepts and characters, without asking him?

Technically,probably not, but sucha situation might be very tricky, and might require a lawsuit and a judge's ruling.  I would steer clear of trying to use any of Rosa's story elements because he may have used them in self-copyrighted literature before his start with Disney,  There are lots of Disney characters and settings from which to choose before risking problems.  But, I'd rather just invent my own new ones, and maybe re-introduce a few favourites from Barks.

[Mesterius]

May 6, 2020 22:04:40 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Definitely, definitely. I'm not entertaining the notion that he'd any royalties from the Disney stories themselves.

What I mean is, does Disney "own" the Black Knight now? (Or the Temple plotline from "The Son of the Sun", or any other one of the ideas he lifted from his earlier non-Disney Lance Pertwillaby stories.) Rosa chose to include preexisting characters & concepts, whose copyright he owned, in his later Disney comics. Does that allow later Disney creators to also use those concepts and characters, without asking him?

I suspect the specific version of the Black Knight that's depicted in Rosa's Disney comics is still 100% a Disney property, and theirs to use as they see fit. This is Disney comics, after all. I can't quite imagine that Rosa managed to work out a deal stating that he owns all rights to the Black Knight character and that no other Disney comics creators can use him (or at least not without Rosa's permission). I just don't see Disney allowing such a thing.

The only thing I feel uncertain about is whether Rosa could use his original Black Knight from the Pertvillaby stories in new material independently of Disney. I would guess he could, and that the Black Knight as seen in those early college/underground comics is considered a separate character legally speaking.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

From a formal point of view, Disney has the rights, so as a writer all you need is the ok from your editor to use any character ever appeared in any Disney comics story.

From a more practical perspective, the situation is a bit more subtle. If the character you wish to exploit was always used exclusively by their creator, and the latter is still active, it would be nice/appropriate to ask 'em for they approval. If not directly, through your editor. Two relevant cases: Rock Sassi (Brick Boulder) and Eurasia Tost (Eurasia Toft) are practically considered characters belonging to Faraci and Casty respectively. It took years before someone else was allowed to use them, and at the beginning only under the supervision/approval of the original authors.

Maybe for characters appeared only once and then never reused by their creator it is easier.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

May 7, 2020 16:55:35 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

From a more practical perspective, the situation is a bit more subtle. If the character you wish to exploit was always used exclusively by their creator, and the latter is still active, it would be nice/appropriate to ask 'em for they approval. If not directly, through your editor. Two relevant cases: Rock Sassi (Brick Boulder) and Eurasia Tost (Eurasia Toft) are practically considered characters belonging to Faraci and Casty respectively. It took years before someone else was allowed to use them, and at the beginning only under the supervision/approval of the original authors.

I wonder if that's why Rumpus McFowl has never been used by anyone other than William Van Horn? I always assumed it was because no other writer was interested in him, but now I'm wondering if was out of respect for his creator.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

With regard to my post above, I vaguely recall we had discussed this before, and indeed, Ramapith had stated this on another thread:

In my experience, Van Horn's editors within Egmont actively discouraged other creators from using Rumpus, in part due to the belief that only Van Horn could get him just right.

Admittedly, I speak only of the period when I was an Egmont editor (1997-2005), so things may have changed since then. Still, the idea that no one else wanted to use Rumpus is a bit inaccurate, so I felt I should clarify.

But this would be another example in the Brick Boulder/Eurasia Toft mold, I suppose.

[Mesterius]

May 7, 2020 16:55:35 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

From a formal point of view, Disney has the rights, so as a writer all you need is the ok from your editor to use any character ever appeared in any Disney comics story.

From a more practical perspective, the situation is a bit more subtle. If the character you wish to exploit was always used exclusively by their creator, and the latter is still active, it would be nice/appropriate to ask 'em for they approval. If not directly, through your editor. Two relevant cases: Rock Sassi (Brick Boulder) and Eurasia Tost (Eurasia Toft) are practically considered characters belonging to Faraci and Casty respectively. It took years before someone else was allowed to use them, and at the beginning only under the supervision/approval of the original authors.

Maybe for characters appeared only once and then never reused by their creator it is easier.

Was Casty actually asked by the other creators writing Eurasia Tost? I thought the French did a conclusion to his Atlantis storyline without his blessing.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

May 8, 2020 9:15:32 GMT Mesterius said:

May 7, 2020 16:55:35 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

From a formal point of view, Disney has the rights, so as a writer all you need is the ok from your editor to use any character ever appeared in any Disney comics story.

From a more practical perspective, the situation is a bit more subtle. If the character you wish to exploit was always used exclusively by their creator, and the latter is still active, it would be nice/appropriate to ask 'em for they approval. If not directly, through your editor. Two relevant cases: Rock Sassi (Brick Boulder) and Eurasia Tost (Eurasia Toft) are practically considered characters belonging to Faraci and Casty respectively. It took years before someone else was allowed to use them, and at the beginning only under the supervision/approval of the original authors.

Maybe for characters appeared only once and then never reused by their creator it is easier.

Was Casty actually asked by the other creators writing Eurasia Tost? I thought the French did a conclusion to his Atlantis storyline without his blessing.

She appeared in a crossover story with Arizona Goof, and from what I see on the inducks she is also credited to appear in a story written by Stabile.

What is this French thing you ar talking about?