DiscussMormonism.com

Some of you might know that I've been working on a webcomic that satirizes LGT vis-a-vis traditional understandings of Book of Mormon. The point is certainly not to make fun of Latter-day Saints, or even the Book of Mormon itself, but to poke fun at what appears sometimes to be tortuous apologetic endeavors to reconcile perceived anachronisms in Book of Mormon while holding to the limited geography theory (especially Sorenson's model).

Last night I had an idea. Why not self-publish the comic through Lulu.com. It's pretty cheap to do so and I think it would be even cooler to have a printed version.

Problem: Lulu.com doesn't accept "fanfic" (fan fiction). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction

While the 1830 Book of Mormon is not, I don't think, still "owned" by the LDS Church, they certainly hold the copyright on newer editions.

If I use Book of Mormon "characters" in my comic, am I producing fanfic? Does the LDS Church "own" the rights to Book of Mormon characters?

Ironically, if I think of the characters as historical people (rather than fictional characters) and I employ those historical folks in fictional form, the whole issue of fanfic is avoided. It would be no different than creating a comic about Abraham Lincoln, for example.

Can anyone add any insights on this matter?

Best.

CKS

cksalmon wrote:Some of you might know that I've been working on a webcomic that satirizes LGT vis-a-vis traditional understandings of Book of Mormon. The point is certainly not to make fun of Latter-day Saints, or even the Book of Mormon itself, but to poke fun at what appears sometimes to be tortuous apologetic endeavors to reconcile perceived anachronisms in Book of Mormon while holding to the limited geography theory (especially Sorenson's model).

Last night I had an idea. Why not self-publish the comic through Lulu.com. It's pretty cheap to do so and I think it would be even cooler to have a printed version.

Problem: Lulu.com doesn't accept "fanfic" (fan fiction). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction

While the 1830 Book of Mormon is not, I don't think, still "owned" by the LDS Church, they certainly hold the copyright on newer editions.

If I use Book of Mormon "characters" in my comic, am I producing fanfic? Does the LDS Church "own" the rights to Book of Mormon characters?

Ironically, if I think of the characters as historical people (rather than fictional characters) and I employ those historical folks in fictional form, the whole issue of fanfic is avoided. It would be no different than creating a comic about Abraham Lincoln, for example.

Can anyone add any insights on this matter?

Best.

CKS

The Book of Zelph is published through Lulu. Not sure how he did it. It blatantly rips off ideas from the Book of Mormon, spoofs it, uses its characters, slanders its characters, and even copies the look and feel of the cover. Here's the website http://www.bookofzelph.com. I'm sure there's contact information somewhere. I would shoot him an email and find out how he got past the Lulu screeners.

SatanWasSetUp wrote:

cksalmon wrote:Some of you might know that I've been working on a webcomic that satirizes LGT vis-a-vis traditional understandings of Book of Mormon. The point is certainly not to make fun of Latter-day Saints, or even the Book of Mormon itself, but to poke fun at what appears sometimes to be tortuous apologetic endeavors to reconcile perceived anachronisms in Book of Mormon while holding to the limited geography theory (especially Sorenson's model).

Last night I had an idea. Why not self-publish the comic through Lulu.com. It's pretty cheap to do so and I think it would be even cooler to have a printed version.

Problem: Lulu.com doesn't accept "fanfic" (fan fiction). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction

While the 1830 Book of Mormon is not, I don't think, still "owned" by the LDS Church, they certainly hold the copyright on newer editions.

If I use Book of Mormon "characters" in my comic, am I producing fanfic? Does the LDS Church "own" the rights to Book of Mormon characters?

Ironically, if I think of the characters as historical people (rather than fictional characters) and I employ those historical folks in fictional form, the whole issue of fanfic is avoided. It would be no different than creating a comic about Abraham Lincoln, for example.

Can anyone add any insights on this matter?

Best.

CKS

The Book of Zelph is published through Lulu. Not sure how he did it. It blatantly rips off ideas from the Book of Mormon, spoofs it, uses its characters, slanders its characters, and even copies the look and feel of the cover. Here's the website http://www.bookofzelph.com. I'm sure there's contact information somewhere. I would shoot him an email and find out how he got past the Lulu screeners.

Great tip. Thanks!

Don't forget when writing about the Jaredites that they had the pure adamic language - don't put english where adamic should be.

also, I don't think there is a copy right on the characters because it's true history right? You could make a comic book about the revolutionary war and I don't think you need to get a clearance from the United States Government.

Versions of the Book of Mormon that were published right up to 1923 or so are all in the public domain, so if you derive stories based on Book of Mormon characters, you can claim that these characters are in the public domain, and you'd be correct. Only the specific editions that come later are copyrighted, and it's the specific wording and typesetting and whatnot of those editions that is copyrighted, not the ideas or general storylines. I don't see why this should be a problem.

The text of the Book of Mormon is in the public domain, and anyone can do anything they want with it. All the stuff that is unique to the 1981 LDS edition (intro, footnotes, chapter headings, index, maps) is copyrighted by the LDS Church. Also, any unique changes to the text can be copyrighted.

So just download a copy of a public domain version of the Book of Mormon and go to town.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/Mormon/browse.html

Believers would say that this would be writing based not on fictional book but on real people and real events. LDS author Orson Scott Card talked about thisbecause his Homecoming Series is based on the Book of Mormon.

So I'd argue it's "historical fiction" to some, and satire to others.


Phaedrus

If characters are held to be historical, can any ownership be asserted?

I'm excited about your project whether or not you have a printed version, CKS, but if you do end up with a printed version, I want one! I think that would be very cool.

Good luck!

Kimberly Ann

Do you have any comics that we can see now?