Creator of The Wolf Among Us' noir fantasy universe declares it's now in the public domain
Well this doesn't happen very often. Bill Willingham, creator of the Fablesuniverse which serves as the setting for Telltale's fondly remembered adventure game The Wolf Among Us, has placed the property in the public domain.
The announcement was made in an extensive post on Willingham's Substack, which opens «As of now, 15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain. It's done, and as most experts will tell you, once done it cannot be undone.»
Willingham's reasons for this unusual move are myriad. He explains that his «thoughts on how to reform the trademark and copyright laws» in the United States «have undergone something of a radical transformation» and says the current system is «a mishmash of unethical backroom deals to keep trademarks and copyrights in the hands of large corporations.»
The primary reason, however, seems to be a longstanding dissatisfaction in his relationship with DC Comic, both in how the company has handled the Fables property, and how it has interpreted Willingham's own contract. «When I first signed my creator-owned publishing contract with DC Comics, the company was run by honest men and women of integrity,» he writes. According to Willigham, these people have since «left or been fired» and replaced by «strangers, of no measurable integrity, who now choose to interpret every facet of our contract in ways that only benefit DC Comics.»
Wilingham goes on to list numerous more specific grievances with DC, several of which relate to Telltale's adaptation of his universe. He writes that DC officers admitted «their interpretation» of the publishing agreement between DC and Willingham enabled them to «do
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