Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, steve bissette

Steve Bissette Working On A Book About Alan Moore, Asks People To Publish His 1963 Stories Online For Free

Published Thu, 20 Jun 2013 09:00:05 -0500

Last updated Mon, 01 Jul 2013 05:40:16 -0500

Steve Bissette has posted a small call to arms. He writes;

Since they will never, ever be reprinted in an authorized edition in my lifetime, I hearby note that if anyone out there wants to post (with proper copyright and trademark citation) the stories that were in part my work on 1963 (except for Johnny Beyond™, which is not mine to do any more with than cite), they may—but be SURE you've properly cited the work, and update the trademarks accordingly:

NO ONE ESCAPES… THE FURY™ and TALES OF THE UNCANNY™ are trademarks of Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. The Fury, Hypernaut, Sky Solo, and N-Man are © and ™ Stephen R. Bissette, by contractual arrangement with the original co-creator, all rights reserved.

There, now. Cut and paste that into place, and be sure the shared copyright on those three stories with Alan and our collaborative partners are in place, too.

Okay Steve, we'll see what we can do. He also tells us;

And as of January 2012, Alan made it abundantly clear nothing will ever be done with them, either, on his watch—so, party's over on that trio of works.

It sucks for our creative partners—Dave Gibbons, John Totleben, Chester Brown, and the colorists (Anthony Tollin) and respective letterers—and I'd be gobsmacked if Rick and Alan ever did anything with their part of it all, but that's their business, no longer any of mine (except where my clutch of properties come into play, which ipso facto defuses anything happening). If they ever do, nobody will be happier than me about it; no sour grapes there.

You see, I can't even really "license" those stories, much less issue a Creative Commons license—hence, my decision to announce anyone interested in doing so now has my blessings, as long as my © and ™ is applied, per our 1998 contractual agreement regarding the respective characters and two titles I do fully own.

FYI, This emerges from my work on my own forthcoming Alan Moore book; since I own my pencils, and articles on any of our work is fair game for any party out there, I'm running a few articles (by others) in my book, and illustrating them with my sketches and pencils, which is fair enough under the terms of our agreements, I reckon. If not, I'll hear about it soon enough.