Creating Your Own Story

Question

Hello, my name is Chris. I'm an author and illustrator. I want to do my own fan art comic book, based off Ghostbusters. This would be for social media and not for profit. Do I still need permission to use anything relating to Ghostbusters?

Answer 1

Hi Christopher,

My name is Tom Fox, and I am successful author & illustrator who teaches creative writing and students, as first time authors, often ask similar questions. Here's the deal:

You can satirize anything; make fun of the original story and characters. That is fair game. But you can't simply base your story as an "extension" or continuation of the original, using same characters and such. Doing this most likely would get you into legal trouble. by the way, it matters not if you have "good intentions" as to who (what organization) would stand to benefit financially.

I hope this is helpful.

Tom

Answer 2

The question is, are you going to make any money off of the work at all? That will usually open you up to scrutiny and legal issues. If you can articulate it is a parody of some sort, then you are fine. I love the story of the Starbucks parody coffee shop. AO3 has a robust fanfiction community that has gone through many iterations of legal troubles to pave the way for their writers to write work without pay, and spread it online.

My personal thoughts, most comics nowadays are fan work of some sort. If you write down a proposal for the idea, or write the thing or even create the comic from start to finish, there is a chance the comic book company that owns the rights to Ghostbusters buys your proposal or comic and publishes it themself. Create, never let that stop you. Share your creations, fanfic works on the internet are plentiful. But if you want to make any sort of money, try the original creators first then the comic company that owns the rights and see where you can go with it.