Paging Detective John Munch
The more you think about it, the more remarkable the shift of Kestrel from Queen of Wands into a recurring character at Something Positive is. This isn’t a case of an open source character that anybody can play with; it’s not a studio player doing roles in various strips; it’s not a cameo, crossover, or spin-off of one strip into another. This is a creator giving up control of a creation and allowing somebody else to take control of their baby. It’s remarkable because people feel proprietary about stuff that they create, and to give it to somebody else just feels wrong.
Weirdly, this has been done once before, and in a creative realm at the very top of the uptight-about-IP scale: television. Even more weirdly, webcomics might be exactly the medium for this kind of experimentation with characters. Webcomics creators (as a rule) own their characters outright; there’s no publisher, production company, or multinational asserting rights or wanting sign-off. When you’ve done everything you wanted to do with a character, you have the option to let somebody else (somebody whose work and vision you respect) see where something can be added. That’s got to be a terrifying leap of faith, watching your creation leave the … aerie.
While not exactly the same, No 4th Wall acquired one of The R of Dangerous Things’ characers – “movie quotes guy”. So it’s been done before, on a lower scale, in webcomics.
By Peter C. Hayward on 12.22.05 8:53 am
I was unaware, and will have to look for that. If anything, this may promote my wild, half-baked theory to a wild, half-baked potential trend.
By Gary on 12.22.05 11:55 am
Ever read Framed! by Damonk? The “rights” to JoBeth (http://www.jobeth.net) were essentially transferred over to him during the course of the infamous “Great Escape” (starting at http://framed.keenspace.com/d/20010801.html) even if it didn’t become apparent until much later (http://www.damonk.com/d/20040719.html). Still, at its core this is still essentially the same thing as with Kestrel.
By Tropylium on 01.11.06 8:58 am
[…] Item! Another view on the topic of giving up control of a character, this one from Lore Sjoberg. Okay, it’s mostly to do with his upcoming flash animation project (link not yet live), but it does relate to his existing character (and star of Lore Brand Comics), Lore. Here at Fleen, we like just saying Lore! Lore, Lore, Lore, Lore, Lore, Lore! Item! Jeph Jacques linked to us. Prepare for Fleen to be slower for a few days, as we undergo the emo-equivalent of getting wanged. […]
By Fleen: Written by bitter, haggard wordbeasts » Linkapalooza! on 08.06.06 2:07 pm
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