A circle around Pat Mills' characters

Wake · 22 January, 2003, 09:19:38 PM

Continuing from Thread 3871.

Since Pat Mills has expressed his displeasure about a Slaine story appearing in Zarjaz 1, I have decided to add a note to the character profiles index that his characters should not be used in fan fiction.

All this means for this website is that I shall not accept new fan stories and strips for these characters, and would reccommend that fanzines do the same. Fan art for Pat Mills characters is no problem.

If you wish to read the original letter from Pat Mills, you will have to join the Zarjaz Yahoo group and search the archives.

Wake

Wake

Link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zarjaz/message/180" target="_blank">Zarjaz Message 180

Devons Daddy · 22 January, 2003, 09:33:08 PM

we are the officail site, so on balance this is the best policy.
if he chooses to distance himself from his audience ok.
leave it at that.
plenty of creators with a differnt approach here. must have his reasons i geuss.

Matt Timson · 22 January, 2003, 10:11:54 PM

Having read the letter (which I thought to be more than a little harsh), I can understand Mills' fears- even if I think they're a little pathetic in the great scheme of things.

That said, the words "git" and "miserable" still spring to mind...

Oh and good luck to anybody who actually makes it past the "pending member" stage at Zarjaz- I've been in pending member limbo for yonks!

Wake · 23 January, 2003, 01:07:53 AM

I've just been given official wording from Rebellion on this.

"Pat Mills has requested that none of the characters he created (including Slaine, Nemesis the Warlock and the A.B.C. Warriors) should
be used as the subject of fan fiction. As a courtesy to Pat, www.2000adonline.com will not publish any fan fiction or fan-created
strips based on his characters, so please do not submit any to the webmaster."

I've therefore delete the link to the online version of Bernie's Big Chance, which appeared in Zarjaz 1.

Wake

seeneester · 23 January, 2003, 02:01:16 AM

I can't actually understand why he would get so defensive about what is after all harmless fan tributes. Perhaps he is afraid that someone might upstage him by writing a story that isn't as dull and cliched as most of his have become.

paulvonscott · 23 January, 2003, 02:15:10 AM

Hmmm.. I can see this all turning very sour.

Cut to a red-headed man flicking through the yellow pages...

PUBLIC BATHS...

PUBLIC HOUSES...

PUBLIC RELATIONS.

(Just joking, I'm of a sensitive disposition and have a fragile brain, if you letter me, it will be murder)

John Caliber · 23 January, 2003, 02:15:26 AM

Pat doesn't own those characters - Rebellion does. They must have big plans for Pat if they are willing to enforce such a draconian rule to keep on his good side?

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Wake · 23 January, 2003, 02:35:27 AM

It doesn't cost Rebellion anything to ask fans not to use Pat Mills' characters, especially since this pretty much started with Pat asking Zarjaz not to use his characters again, so the relevant fans already know. I would consider Pat being a current 2000AD established writer being sufficient grounds for Rebellion to want to 'keep on his good side'.

Wake

Queen Firey-Bou · 23 January, 2003, 03:58:27 AM

I would say that no matter what fans/ boarders (& me) etc are grumbling & muttering about. It is worth while the friends of Tharg staying on the good side of big creators & droids, & making allowances for Droidish whims (within reason). It is saddening, reading TPO , to hear just how much backstabbing & bad blood there has been over the years. (Its also a cracking good read). I would rather everyone had a group hug & was nice to each other. FUn chaps, its supposed to be FUN.

Wood · 23 January, 2003, 06:03:11 AM

Any chance of those of us who are permanently going to be pending on Zarjaz seeing it posted here or on Scriptdroids?

John Caliber · 23 January, 2003, 02:41:49 PM

We were going to develop an (unofficial), non-profit making ABC Warriors RPG sourcebook; does this ean we can no longer do this?

- JC

paulvonscott · 23 January, 2003, 02:45:51 PM

You could always ask the chap, he isn't the devil you know. As Rebellion hasn't objected to other fan RPG's and Mills has a history of being sort of involved with what most people would consider RPG, then you never know. I heard him say some very nice things about the Slaine one.

Art · 23 January, 2003, 02:50:51 PM

The whole thing does rather leaving me hoping that Rebellion produce a series of highly successful and profitable games based on the Mills created characters which they own.

(Personally I'm hoping for a tactical squad based ABC Warriros game with FPS and strategic elemeents where you get to switch between characters at will. I've been waiting for one of them since I was 15 dammit)

John Caliber · 23 January, 2003, 02:51:02 PM

Pat doesn't exactly live next door to me, you know :)

The Slaine RPG is official and so feeds back to promote Pat's Slaine comics; our proposed ABC Warriors book is merely a response to RPG player demand.

- JC