20.7.06

Holy copyright violation!

I have some cartoons for sale on the Cartoonstock website. They recently removed a handful because of a new policy of not featuring trademarked characters from films etc. Now, it's not necessarily copyright violation to feature such characters in cartoons, but the problem Cartoonstock run into is that they sell their cartoons to be used on mugs, mousemats etc. So then you could be seen to be exploiting the character. I think, actually, it's more of a problem overseas than in the UK, but I suppose it's all part of being a global business. Anyway, to be honest I wasn't that bothered as it was just a few gags and most of them were from very early on in my cartooning career.

There is one I'm fond of though. It was one of the first gags I had published. It was in The Times's Saturday supplement Metro (now defunct) circa 1998. Of course I'd draw it completely differently now (hopefully a lot better!) but it's still an OK gag I think. Note to DC Comics: please don't sue. I'm not planning on putting it on a T-shirt.