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blazehedgehog · 4 years

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What are your thoughts about the seemingly recent trend of fandoms trying to claim ownership of a franchise they're into? Like the feeling that fans would be better at managing a specific franchise rather than the people who work on these things for a living. (Examples of this include the backlash and petitions against Star Wars and Game of Thrones, along with the "Sega should hire you, this is so much better than Forces!" comments you see regarding Sonic fan-projects)

It’s not a recent trend at all. Nerds today are the same as nerds back in 1993. What’s changed is the fact that the internet makes it easier to find these people than ever before. And I have to wonder… what is ownership? Who says who’s ideas are the right ideas?

A point I’ve hammered in over and over and over is how the whole comics industry operates. The guys who created Superman aren’t alive anymore. But Superman the character is still around. If you’re smart, and you’re in control of the Superman brand, you hire people who are fans of the character to keep writing new Superman content. That was true in 1985, in 1995, in 2005, and in 2015.

The only thing separating modern Superman comics from fanfiction is the stamp of approval from a bunch of people in business suits who inherited ownership when the real creators of Superman died. Because they say “this is official,” that makes it official. But you could write a totally normal, on-brand Superman fanfiction and there would be no difference between official and unofficial besides that stamp of approval. It would be the same story regardless.

(Yes, I know, it also means the difference between getting paid and being “part of the cannon” but that last point doesn’t matter as much as anyone thinks it does)

And the people who are writing Superman fanfiction today could be the same people writing official Superman comics tomorrow.

Back in 1995, you might have a friend or a bystander see your fanart and say, “You’re really good, you should work for Marvel Comics.” That would be one person, maybe two. Ever. In your whole life.

How do you do that in 1995? The internet is still in the infancy of mainstream adoption, and there aren’t really any websites or people you can ask about this topic. Do you just, like, send artwork in to their mailbag address? If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll probably get rejected. I sent design documents in to Sega in 1995, and I got rejected.

Maybe you go to a convention. You bring some sample artwork with you, you corner a guy from Marvel and show him your work. How often were comic conventions back then? Once a year? How far would you have to travel? Multiple cities? Multiple states? For a potential rejection? Back in 1995, this was a big, difficult headache.

But this is how much the internet has transformed our lives. Any artist can reach an audience of hundreds, thousands, millions of people. Anyone can just start a comic about anything they want to make, bypass the whole system, and turn that in to a solo career easier than ever before. If you’re determined instead to work with someone else’s IP, like you really love Spider-man and want to make Spider-man stories specifically, there are endless resources on how to build a portfolio.

That one or two people that urge you to strive for bigger and better things now probably do so through social media, an international forum where their one post could snowball in to a much greater campaign. That “one shot a year” window is now easier than making a phone call.

I use comics as an example here because that’s an established industry where this kind of thing is normalized. So you have Christopher Hastings, he starts Dr. McNinja in 2004, and by 2011 he’s just writing for Marvel Comics. First for Deadpool, then Longshot Saves the Universe, and eventually he created Gwenpool.

A lot of this can be applicable to any fandom. If you’re good enough and the property is around long enough there is a non-zero chance you might get to work with it in an official capacity.

But you have to be realistic, because it’s not actually going to be that easy. It’s never, ever going to be easy. And everyone forgets that. Everyone gets star struck by the glitz and glamor and never stops to think about the cold, hard, business machine that chews people up every single day. If you can do it, anyone can do it, which means a much larger pool of competition and sometimes the job goes to the guy who was 0.2% luckier than you. It still ultimately comes down to who you know and being in the right place at the right time.

The issue here is that the peanut gallery will never understand that. When that one guy encourages you to “do it for real,” he has no concept of what the professional side of that industry even looks like. He’s just paying you a compliment. Unfortunately the pessimism actually required for something like that isn’t fun or uplifting or complimentary. So that part never gets said, and it never gets thought about, which is part of the reason why it can get so out of control when it gains popularity with a larger crowd. Think of it like the opposite of a pity party.

Point is, these are old sentiments that have been around forever, it’s just the internet empowers people more than ever before, amplifying these ideas significantly. But there always were, and always will be people that are ignorant to the reality of this situation. My advice would be to not pay attention to them. Reality will find them eventually.

#questions #fandom #fan ownership #deadpool #comics #superman #marvel #portfolio #Anonymous #fanfiction #fan art #fan comics #dc comics #ownership

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