Main Menu

Reprint This:- UK Comics I'd Like To See Collected Editions Of

Started by seanharry, 03 March, 2019, 11:36:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

The Monarch

it'll never ever happen but i would love reprints of the old sonic the comic stuff i have wonderful memories of that comic



seanharry

IDW currently have the licence for Sonic The Hedgehog.

When they got the Star Trek licence, they reprinted all the old British stuff from the 1960's.

So if enough people contacted IDW and asked them to put out a collection of the UK Sonic comic (which I believe Mike McMahon worked on), I'm sure that they would consider it.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 04 March, 2019, 09:25:04 AM
I'd love to see complete reprints of The Spider and Rat Trap. Obviously, the Most Desired would be Doomlord- but I understand that's still under the control of the Dan Bloody Dare Corporation and unlikely to see print this side of the apocalypse (or Brexit, whichever comes first). A vote for The Driver here too.
Before all of that though, Sinister Dexter from the top, and complete.

SBT

Doomlord would be absolute tipperty top of my pile too. The stuff that's been collected by Hibernia is soooo good.

Now we will have nice hardcover collection of Dante start to finish I can only dream of the same for Sinister Dexter too.

Small Blue Thing is just so right!

hippynumber1

In spite of the fact that I have a full run of the individual issues I would love collections of strips from DCT's 'Bullet' - stuff like "Smasher" and "The Mice Of Tobruk" would be smashing.

Buttonman

I'd buy a complete Computer warrior up to the point Bobby became the Warlord and invited readers to play the games. I liked it when it was dark and lots of missing children were enslaved as mechanics on 'The Great American Road Race'. Lots of cracking art too - Ian Kennedy and Robin Smith from this parish amongst others.

Tjm86

Regrettably that is one of the strips that Dan Dare Corporation are sitting on.  Someone from this parish was putting together an article for a retro game mag that they nixed for some bizarre reason.  Some classic games of the time and some outstanding artwork, as you say.  Would make for an interesting piece of work mixed in with articles about the original games as well.

The Amstor Computer

I don't think it's talking out of school to say that Hibernia have looked at the possibility of more Doomlord/other DDC reprints, but for a couple of reasons it's just not been possible. We managed to snag a fantastic short Doomlord tale (art by the late, great Jim Baikie) for the Eagle Adventure Special but other further reprints just haven't come together. I'd love to have a crack at repro and design on a collection of the photo-stories (I've got the whole lot scanned already!) as they're amazing stuff, so maybe one day...

re: Computer Warrior. AFAIK, it's another DDC-owned strip, but the big issue here isn't so much licensing costs etc. with DDC but with the complexity of figuring out whether it's even possible to reprint it without agreement/further licensing costs from the companies who now own the various real-world games referenced. I think I've gone over this here before, but as a for-example here's what you might run into just collecting the first 5 or 6 stories:

The Ultimate Warrior - Zyklon Attack (clear as far as rights-holders apart from DDC, if I remember correctly)

Computer Warrior - Wizard of Wor (developed by Dave Nutting Associates and published by Midway, Midway folded in 2010 and a substantial chunk of their catalogue was purchased by Warner Bros. Unknown if Wizard of Wor was included in that purchase)

Computer Warrior - Pastfinder (published by Activision and now presumably owned by Activision-Blizzard, but it would depend on the publishing contract between Activision and the original developer, Dave Lubar)

Computer Warrior - Rescue on Fractalus (developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Activision. Unclear whether rights reverted to Lucasfilm Games - in which case it may now be owned by Disney - or Activision, in which case it would be ActiBlizz again)

Computer Warrior - The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (Activision-Blizzard, as far as I know but again, original publishing contracts may mean rights reverted to the designer)

Computer Warrior - Ghostbusters (the real doozy - I believe the game was developed by David Crane and published by Activision, so you'd expect this to be ActiBlizz again, but I *think* that Ghostbusters and associated merchandising etc. also involves Sony Pictures, Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis' estate, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. It's unclear exactly who would need to be involved, but even finding out could be enormously time-consuming and prohibitively expensive)

I love Computer Warrior and would dearly like to see it reprinted, but it seems like such a rights nightmare that I can't ever see it happening outside of fanscans etc.

IndigoPrime

I was the one putting together the article. First time around, they denied permission, demanding money. Perhaps they didn't understand what I was after. They did later provide permission if a single copyright line was included. I got an interview with Aan Grant, and my plan was to then add an overview of the strip, and a comparison of some story arcs with the original games. The problem is Eagle scans were at the time quite low-res and scattergun. I've no idea if that situation has since improved. (If anyone has high-quality and fairly complete CW scans, let me know and I'll apporach the mag again.)

janus stark

i want my Christmas annual back.how about collecting all the seasonal Dredd stories into one hardback. It would make my Christmas morning.

Trout

While I dislike threads that say "reprint this" because I'm far from convinced they translate into actual sales when things are reprinted...


I'd buy the living shit out of a reprint of The Computer Warrior. I agree it would be an IP nightmare but the nostalgia factor on that would be off the charts.

Buttonman

I'm not a legal expert <pause for gasps> but would the same laws that allowed the banned bits of the Cursed Earth to be reprinted not apply here? You'd hope that a reprint clause would have been included in the original agreement - the stories were effectively free publicity for the games.

IndigoPrime

Nope. The Cursed Earth stuff gets away with reprint on the basis of being satire. Satire laws in the UK are... problematic (to say the least), but that's the legal justification. The games in Computer Warrior were subject to licensing agreements that would almost certainly have applied for a fixed term and/or specific editions. (Note how Rebellion recently said The Stainless Steel Rat may not appear again, because they'd have to go through the motions again with the Harrison estate.) Even if not, would those agreements still exist, allowing for reprint? And would the agreements still be valid, in the event of games that had multiple parties of interest (for example, arcade conversions)?

If Computer Warrior was a major title, and owned by people who wanted it out there in the wider world, someone might make the effort. But it isn't on all counts. As I noted, securing the rights to the games is enough of a PITA right now, and I have plenty of stories I can't tell (for legal reasons—I don't want to be sued) about retro games being available for sale right now, by corporations that don't have the rights (or full rights) to the property, and yet blaze ahead anyway, under threat of litigation. Comics based on old games merely adds further layers of complication. In short: it's just not worth the hassle.

Professor Bear

My idea - and hear me out here - is to draw cocks and rude words on all the pages and then claim it's technically a satire of the mid-1980s comics form.  I come from a large family so this is pretty much how I remember the material.

IndigoPrime

Is this where you end up in the world's most stupid lawsuit against the combined might of Eidos, Activision, and, um, DDC?

Pyroxian

IIRC, a lot of the artwork wasn't that specific to the game, so just changing the lettering to refer to something else would probably get around it. The only major problem would be the 'Ghostbusters' episodes...