Outworlder Open Source Comic

I had intended this since I declared my characters free to use, but I have realized I never really declared it outright. I am declaring my comic to be open source. All characters and events may be used and referenced in works of other creators. Others may adapt the story into their own works. All I ask is to retain the rights to print my work, marking the difference from public domain. I know there's a specific creative commons license for this, so I'll have to look it up later. The comic can be found at http://outworlder.comicdish.com

I think what you're saying is, the story is PD, but not the images themselves, right? Because you want to retain exclusive rights to your images?

Basically, yes. Anyone can use the story and characters, even producing their own version retelling the same story, but I would like to retain ownership of my artwork.

Yeah, that's totally understandable. That's what I'm doing with my revamps on the Free Universe site.

I looked into the creative commons license stuff, but at the time I don't think there was an option for "create derivative works, but don't reprint." I believe because they weren't taking comics into consideration. They used a photo as an example, and you can't create a derivative image without reprinting some portion of the original image. So, if you ask them about the comic (story/image) situation, let me know so I can use the same identifiers.

Not sure how much effort you'ld want to put into it, but you could write-out a script of your story and declare that script "Open Source Material/Public Domain", which would leave your specific artwork off-limits.

I was looking at the various CC licenses, but most things similar to what I want to say specify non-commercial derivitive works. I don't care if people want to make derivitives and sell them. I'll look deeper into it later, but I might have to come up with my own wording.

Maybe we should email their administrators or something and let them know about our situation, because others might be discouraged from sharing in the same way, if there are no creative commons options. Like your avatar by the way!

Thanks. That's just about my favorite piece of my own work ever. I'd still like to see it on a comic book cover someday.

I have not found anything that really communicates my intentions. This is my variation on the standard open source license I put on my comic for now. If something better comes along, I'll update it, but I think this sums it up pretty well.

"Copyright © 2008-2010 Michael Dean. This is an open-source comic. All characters and events contained in this comic are available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving these characters, in order that others may use these properties as they wish. All rights reversed. The artwork is copyright of Michael Dean, all rights reserved."

I Like your comic book. The Outworlder is a great character!

Well, I started reading. Seems good to me, although I didn't get really far.

Also, it made me want to use some of your characters for the open source story I'm working on. The thing is that I can't write the script right now as I don't have an artist yet - I asked one but he has no time at the moment.

is the comic available anywhere else on the web?