Introducing: Invisible Comics

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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Okay, here we go. The whole story from start to finish.

We want there to be more comics on the front page. I entertained some ideas and one leaped out at me.

Invisible Comics.

Trouble is, I want to write them. The person who came up with the idea originally had made 5 of them and copyrighted them. He wants to write them. So I made an offer to purchase the copyright. He's agreeable, but I have NO clue as to what an equitable price is.

So I'm asking you. I'm putting the first one I made below. Take a look at it and tell me if you think the idea has merit. If it does not, I probably won't buy it. If it might be worth it, I'd be paying some cash and an agreement of 50% of any merchandising profit - if any.

Here's what I will NOT do.


  1. I will not make minor changes in font or name to get around the copyright.
  2. [STRIKE]I will not make or post any more of these until we get this resolved.[/STRIKE]
  3. I will not allow insults against the person I'm talking to. It is his idea and he deserves the recognition.
The reason I'm asking you all anything is because I'd have to break down and ask for donations to pay him. Only a few of you know this but I got into a row with the IRS recently....they won. SO if I agree to this it would either be donations to get it going or I'd wait a couple of months until I got him paid off.

So what do YOU think would be an equitable amount? Please give reasons. Again, no name calling, please!

And now...Invisible Comics.

 
Hylian

Hylian

I thought it was alright but I feel that it could swing heavily between boring and funny depending on how the dialogue is handled.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Okay how's about this? The comic would be totally meta. It would acknowledge that it was a webcomic and each "character" would be nothing more than their own style of speech bubble. So my voice would always be the red/pink square and the other character (as yet unnamed) would always be green circle. So we could have several characters each with their own personalities. So if someone wanted to write one all they'd have to do is put the character names in and I'd be able to build the comic. In addition, we can use ANY format, not just the 3/4 panel comic.
 
Baerdog

Baerdog

I guess I've got two big problems with it.

1. It's not funny.

2. It's just text boxes and dialogue. You can't copyright text boxes and it sounds like you wouldn't be using this guy's dialogue anyway. Giving him money would just be letting yourself get ripped off.
 
P

Philosopher B.

That's not an invisible comic. This is an invisible comic:





























:awesome:
 
drifter

drifter

Mildly interesting concept that doesn't seem like it would have legs, not to mention the amount of writing chops you would need to pull something like this off. Also, to reinforce what Baerdog said, paying for this seems dumb. You're paying for the name, but who the fuck has heard of Invisible Comics? I'm almost certain I've seen webcomics use this particular conceit before. Doesn't seem like it's worth the money, or the time, to be honest.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
drifter said:
Mildly interesting concept that doesn't seem like it would have legs, not to mention the amount of writing chops you would need to pull something like this off. Also, to reinforce what Baerdog said, paying for this seems dumb. You're paying for the name, but who the fuck has heard of Invisible Comics? I'm almost certain I've seen webcomics use this particular conceit before. Doesn't seem like it's worth the money, or the time, to be honest.
Click to expand...

  1. I'm sure people said the same thing about Dinosaur Comics.
  2. I looked and looked for a similar concept online. I could find nothing. This may well be an original idea. They do happen you know.
:)
 
M

makare

It isn't creative enough to be unique. It's just text boxes talking to each other


Hey call it The Adventure of Purple and Green Textbox.


Whole new concept.
 
Allen who is Quiet

Allen who is Quiet

Dave;446318][QUOTE=drifter said:
Mildly interesting concept that doesn't seem like it would have legs, not to mention the amount of writing chops you would need to pull something like this off. Also, to reinforce what Baerdog said, paying for this seems dumb. You're paying for the name, but who the fuck has heard of Invisible Comics? I'm almost certain I've seen webcomics use this particular conceit before. Doesn't seem like it's worth the money, or the time, to be honest.
Click to expand...

  1. I'm sure people said the same thing about Dinosaur Comics.
  2. I looked and looked for a similar concept online. I could find nothing. This may well be an original idea. They do happen you know.
:)[/QUOTE]

Panel One | TwentySevenLetters
 
drifter

drifter

Dave;446318][QUOTE=drifter said:
Mildly interesting concept that doesn't seem like it would have legs, not to mention the amount of writing chops you would need to pull something like this off. Also, to reinforce what Baerdog said, paying for this seems dumb. You're paying for the name, but who the fuck has heard of Invisible Comics? I'm almost certain I've seen webcomics use this particular conceit before. Doesn't seem like it's worth the money, or the time, to be honest.
Click to expand...


  1. I'm sure people said the same thing about Dinosaur Comics.
  2. I looked and looked for a similar concept online. I could find nothing. This may well be an original idea. They do happen you know.

:)[/QUOTE]

1. I would argue Dinosaur Comics is more the exception, not the rule. Pointing to something and saying "Hey, that worked, kinda, that one time" does not seem to be a promising basis of support.
2. To be fair, the instances I recall were most likely fillers for regular webcomics, so perhaps this would indeed be the very first standalone "invisible" webcomic. Or perhaps you could find none such comics because they just tend to suck that hard ;)

-edit-
Allen's google-fu is strong.
 
LittleSin

LittleSin

I don't like it.

The concept is...ok? It's just that comics are a visual medium. You need something other than text boxes. Dinosaur comics works because of smart writing and the fact that it does have absurd characters: Dinosaur discussing science/philosophy/etc.

As it is, this is just you or someone else writing dialog and that is not something you can base a comic around. You're supposed to SHOW not TELL in a comic.

That being said...I just had an idea.
 
phil

phil

Don't pay anything. Just use whatever images you can for the characters. Sprites, stick figures, clip art, images with no copyright holders etc.


My suggestion would be old/famous paintings.
 
Espy

Espy

I actually laughed at the last picture... I think it has potential, but it needed that picture at the end to work IMO.
 
J

Joe Johnson

I could see this being funny. I'm not sure if it's worth much money though.
Also, I SWEAR I've seen something like this before. TO THE INTERNETS!
 
Rovewin

Rovewin

I had never seen that done in a stand alone comic but I have seen that in regular comics especially if the lights are suppose to be out or one where it was suppose to be specters. I agree with espy that it definitely needs that picture at the end. Comics just seem to work so much better if there is at least some visual representation. Maybe you could just have a picture at the end revealing the situation or showing a reaction, that might work. Id actually love to see a comic about conversations that cause people to make the durr face.
 
M

makare

I like the idea and Im fine with no images. I just don't think it is something that should be paid for.
 
phil

phil

phil said:
Don't pay anything. Just use whatever images you can for the characters. Sprites, stick figures, clip art, images with no copyright holders etc.


My suggestion would be old/famous paintings.
Click to expand...
Here's an example of what I mean. It's just a painting, with different focuses making up the panels. Eventually they start throwing around different paintings instead of just using this one template over and over again. I think it's a pretty clever way to make a comic without actually making a comic.

WarGames - #7
 
M

Matt²

Espy said:
I actually laughed at the last picture... I think it has potential, but it needed that picture at the end to work IMO.
Click to expand...
I think the humor is subjective, and it depends on the story, what's being said.. as far as who's saying it, well that remains quite the mystery, which would only come out either in the story (if there is one) or a continuation (again if there is one or it's a one-off).

I think it has potential.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
doomdragon6 said:
I see very little potential. You must convince me. :|
Click to expand...


They are getting less invisible and more "Dave's World".

---------- Post added at 09:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

If you can't see the potential in that...I don't know what to tell you.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

There's two issues here.

1) The concept itself: You're relying entirely on the dialogue to be funny, unless you intend to point out how you decided to not show the speakers in every single comic. Dinosaur Comics is able to reinforce their schtick every single comic without having to waste any time on it. I think you'd be better off switching to IM chatboxes or something, reinforcing the idea that you (since you used your images) are having this conversation at work. This might have been done before, but I think your reaction shots/pictures make it different if that's the schtick. You could also ask for picture submissions from the Halfies, and write a new comic based on that picture each time, as if it were an IM conversation.

2) The legal issue: If you're really interested, ask a lawyer. No foolin' here. What two non-legally-savvy people believe is fair value for an IP transfer is not necessarily fair value. That said, what the others have said is probably correct; while you can trademark/copyright a name in use, you can't copyright as broad a visual concept as text-bubbles, and you shouldn't pay someone for that.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
SpecialKO said:
There's two issues here.

1) The concept itself: You're relying entirely on the dialogue to be funny, unless you intend to point out how you decided to not show the speakers in every single comic. Dinosaur Comics is able to reinforce their schtick every single comic without having to waste any time on it. I think you'd be better off switching to IM chatboxes or something, reinforcing the idea that you (since you used your images) are having this conversation at work. This might have been done before, but I think your reaction shots/pictures make it different if that's the schtick. You could also ask for picture submissions from the Halfies, and write a new comic based on that picture each time, as if it were an IM conversation.

2) The legal issue: If you're really interested, ask a lawyer. No foolin' here. What two non-legally-savvy people believe is fair value for an IP transfer is not necessarily fair value. That said, what the others have said is probably correct; while you can trademark/copyright a name in use, you can't copyright as broad a visual concept as text-bubbles, and you shouldn't pay someone for that.
Click to expand...
1) That's pretty much exactly what I was looking to do. With other people's pictures, that is. They could submit pictures to me that are legal and free of use and they would be the last "reveal" panel.
2) I ran it past some legal eagles at my work. I won't say what they said at this time.
 
M

Matt²

So question then.. how does something like KCWM stick figure comics get copyrighted?
 
M

makare

The stick figure concept isn't copyrighted but the writing and art used in each individual panel is copyrighted under the name.
 
Gusto

Gusto

Anyone can make a stick figure comic a la XKCD but they'll have to fight through the stigmas that their comic is an XKCD ripoff.
 
doomdragon6

doomdragon6

Staff member
+1 to IM Chatboxes.

Not claiming to be a master lawsman here, but I am in a Communications and Law class right now and we're covering Trademark and Copyright.

Can be copyrighted:
Invisible Comics [Name]
Each individual comic, panel, etc

Cannot Be Copyrighted:
Speech Bubbles as a medium

----------------------------------------

Why I fully endorse IM Chatboxes and not speech bubbles:

1) IM Chatboxes suddenly took me from "This is stupid," (Sorry Dave) to "That would be interesting."
2) It avoids this whole issue entirely
3) You don't have to @#$%in' pay for it
4) The picture at the end actually makes sense, and doesn't destroy the entire point of Invisible Comics
5) It opens up a FLOODGATE of puns for a comic title, and I. Love. Puns. (Examples: "IM Legend" "IM Comical" etc.)

Cons:
1) The comic you just posted had an interruption in it. You can't do that with IM chatboxes like with speech bubbles. At best, you can type, "But I..."

That's about it. XD

:thumbsup: Go on the IM boxes.
 
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