Disclaimer - this is a "Fan Work" and I have ZERO connection to those that wrote, drew or produced/own the property. I cite "Fair use and Parody" as my proposal is a parody of it really but "Loving tribute". It's an experimental idea for a show I'd be lined up to watch and yes I'd subscribe/pay for cable/buy the physical media and pass around the info. IF it's made I'll probably try to get books/toys based on my fictions into one of the stores (even renting space to sell some merch?) to promote it!
==Bring Back American Flagg!==
--as a TV series!--
Anyone remember American Flagg! ?
It was a long running title of the independent comic company "First! Comics" in the 1980s. This is early direct market boom era title in the Copper/Mylar age - not to be confused with the Boom/Collector's age of the early 1990s.
The plot was a Cyberpunk silly/serious setting of an Actor being hired to play security chief in a city size mall but it's a reality show that happens with real people. America has fractured and is dominated by a few mega-corporations.
Looking back on it this "Cyberpunk" future has largely come true and I could waste pages going through all the details.
However the one big change different from reality is that malls are in decline and we X-ers look back on them with vaporwave nostalgia goggles watching videos of "Urban Explorers" going through empty and sometimes derelict sometimes still clean with neon glows. The "Backrooms" modern indie horror phenomena makes us nostalgic - "I'd just clobber or kill that monster and have fun!" especially in the "Mall" levels. We Xers aren't whiny cry-bully weaklings, we LONG for cases where we can commit violence without drastic legal punishment!
An empty mall in a basement universe created by our despair would be a mild form of happy limbo for us to find ourselves in. Y-ers too - and I LOATHE these letter neologisms...!
Thus American Flagg of all the classic 80s would probably have the best adaptation potential:
1 - There are tons of "Liminal Space" empty malls that could probably be bought within the budget of a major TV studio cheaply and/or rented with fixed options to buy.
2 - It would be a setting that would pay for itself shortly; The production studio could put REAL stores in there. How? Well I find it interesting that all these "Halp us! Internet is ruining us!" tended to also CHARGE enough RENT that a 90s Crack Dealer would sweat to pay it along with begging local City/State governments for grotesque tax breaks. The threat of exposing this would make #1 VERY easy to negotiate, especially as they'd do a tax break on the way out. So just let stores come in for low rent and or a % of sales - They sign liability waivers and save special agreements the mutant punk bikers don't smash merchandise and all the employees wear 80s padded cyberpunk outfits!
2a - if they take this idea I'd work my A--- off to try to get in contact with a store there and get something like my character's books printed and on the wall and or toys based on another project of mine... Just the attention I'd get sales to match and tons of calls for possible next steps. I'm just saying this since it's the sort of thing we need to boost real capitalism in the real world vs all the upper corporate acts of today just outputting product without fear of competition and getting our tax $ to bail them out when it flops.
3 - There is a huge nostalgia for shopping malls vs some worrying about them being oppressive and bad for the economy. "Save our downtown!" etc. Big Box stores did the RL damage expected way before any online issue came up. Even with big malls (my experience) most people in town and travelling to towns/cities shopped both for blissful days of consumerism to benefit for WHY they worked and got college.
4 - Like the comic itself it could give a great actor who had a problem/failing a second chance to make it right again. Flagg is a Martian actually so it's a reverse of the John Carter sword and planet thing in a creative way. Also tons of extras, cute models and normal people. Serious, there are tons of former action stars, actors etc. who have ...issues... but we'd LOVE to see them in a role somewhere. Imagine Steven Segall teaching Akido in a dojo and part of the act he comes out, knocks down a punk (stunt man) with a single blow - "Don't forget your classes are at 2PM, Mr Flagg..." and bows and lets Reuben continue the Ultraviolence?
5 - Models and T&A. We need to bring back 80s beauty! From power suits with shoulder pads, Aqua-net sold by the warehouse pallet daily and yes lace and ruffles and garters from Playboy Magazine! A good number of staff would be hot models wearing pretty and sexy but respectful "Power" outfits and then being in lace, garters, maid suits in private. It was a different world of the 1980s and this future imagined by it - bring it back! Female beauty and heterosexual appeal (plus lipstick lesbian imagery to appeal to hetero) is what was used to SELL and it needs to be that way. The ladies aren't sex puppets and damsels in distress. Well they ARE but SMART ladies using brains and assets to get ahead or out of trouble...!
5A - employment for sexy model ladies - again I've seen tons of ladies strut their stuff on "OnlyFans" etc. and thought "Sad, if the girl was of age in the 1980s or 1990s she'd have made a mint dancing, acting in B-movies and/or just doing Adult entertainment." So the show while not X rated has plenty of adult content as the background and lots of ladies strutting their stuff. It'd be a neat education - they'd be taught to turn themselves into "Future 1980s chicks" with shoulder pads, space age suits and lace lingerie but the positive attitude vs fake empowered mixed with victimhood today. I seriously think American Flagg would be a good jumping off point as "Ok... You worked for AF - and they crunched you through Acting classes, 80s aesthetics, mild martial arts, walking in heels, fashion and functional diet tips, dancing to music, modelling...?" -and the ladies quickly do various things - shy innocent to wicked sexy woman instantly... "You're HIRED!" and it's not for porn though perhaps some porn stars could escape or expand from said roles also.
6 - Real people also! There will be crowds even when Reuben Flagg is fighting Punk bikers. They will be SHOPPERS in the Plexx Mall! To get in people need to sign/acknowledge a basic waiver though there are staffers and hospital teams ready and some insurance for real injuries without insane payouts. You get an arm broken if a biker hits too hard and the foam in his stick doesn't shield it - well you get a cast and some $ to compensate your employer for time off (or a few weeks min pay if unemployed) and a "I got my arm broken on American Flagg!" t-shirt! But no you do NOT get millions of dollars for a simple injury and the staff are trained pros who minimize it. Mostly there will be things like 80s "Cyberpunk" style goggles and face shields everyone wears to put off the biggest threat - black eyes from foam balls shot that then by computer editing turns into laser/energy "pew pew pew boom chakka boom!" weapon fire between Flagg and enemies.
Use Airsoft balls of compressed foam painted with neon colors and computers will animate them for comic effects and lines so it's like it's a drawn comic book mixed with live action!
7 - "Bob Violence" He's the sub-character in the AF comic - a fiction inside a fiction and corporate mascot for the Plex Mall etc. He's deliberately a simple cartoon and I think a computer AI persona who lives in a fantasy fictional world that is broadcast to make the company money and promote products... IRL we'd just do cheap animation to make him vs hopefully forcing an AI to be a deliberately silly disposable character... AND I don't think I'd want a "Bob Violence" AI in my computer systems...!
Note that normally I hate "Calarts" stuff in modern animation but hey I'd LOVE it if they brought back Bob Violence toons as shorts between scenes, some art in the background, toys, pics on TV screens... He'd be perfect for the scene and cheap to animate with today's computers which is why "Calarts" is used versus serious $ to make incredible cartoons and indies in their basements do better. But Bob Violence isn't about wowing anyone with animation - he's about the Plexx Mall and associated companies and crude sex and violence animation along with his Android sex doll Mavis!
7a - (First Comics Cameos) I can imagine a visitor in a trench coat with a scar on his face who comes from a very strange VERY vast city going "Aaaaugh! Bob Violence... I HATE that show. Can't they show Whacky Swacky!?" - anyone know who I'm talking about? Well maybe he looks like a lady with a scar on her face or a cyborg...depends on what life he's in... Now THAT comic I'd want made for real into a movie/animation but it'd be a lot more expensive. American Flagg is more feasible if you wanted it to make money legit and help turn American media back to a right direction... Also an Ape-Like alien warrior or a Celt with a cybernetic eye and a pretty raven haired companion... A crazy martial artist in a red suit with a paw that isn't a wolverine paw on his chest. A bar with weird motley inhabitants and a singing lizard and signs "No tourbots", "Absolutely NO Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters!", "Health waiver required for Olde Minke Liquor..." LOTS of neat cameos could be made, issues with rights and copyright abuse a consideration...
Also testing the waters...(other classics) Imagine if some things like a few minutes of a live action Warriors/Adventurers or Ninja Elite by Aircel comics was made? Merlin Realm? Miami Mice by Bode? And they are in the background and media feed - then the feedback given by viewers might help the studio execs, promoters, finaciers and crowdfunding groups to see if other options might work. I came this close to suggesting Adventurers/Warriors be turned into a live action series during today's Games of Rings of Empowerment fantasy glut... Just I think American Flagg would work better for the future and during a change of styles.
7b - remember "Maxx Headroom"? That's what Bob Violence would be - the mascot and shill for stuff. "Hey, Kids? Your parents might tell you not to smoke Zuper Vapes but ain't no machine yet can tell you you ain't old emough..." Mavis slaps him "Just joking, the Vapes are for consenting adults and in the vending machine by the Bar and Pole Dance place!" So he'd put ads in the show and in the mall via wall screens. And yeah he'd joke about it "Well what DO we have here? Someone bought the rights for Screaming Yellow Zonkers? Makes me want to be a couch potato and stuff these in my face in a dark room vs some ultraviolence!" but even the jokes would help far more than hurt as they'd stick in the mind and if anyone had an interest in the product now or later... The "Cyberpunk" world is full of immersive media and ads so slipping ads into the show is just part of it. Today's tech we could even modify the ads so if a soda pop paid this year the next year it could be a pop band Bob Violence is shilling/joking about... I'd hope the DVD would allow ALL versions to be seen... Ideal vs real things.
8 - Another world, the 'future' but echoing the times... Serious - remember the 1980s and read First comics (and other indie titles) as a kid with the same enthusiasm later people, you as an adult and newer teens/kids had during the 90s boom? Remember the issues of the 1980s and how the comics sometimes were complete escape but also somehow reflected the times? I'd not want a slavish 1:1 adaptation - but rather a new one that uses some elements and gives mostly a "Future of the 1980s" appeal though yes its a different world. Re-reading this it's scary how easy it would be to adapt it to today's world...
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So, disclaimer -this is just a mental/typing exercise - I have zero connection to whoever owns the 'rights' to all this stuff. Most of people's comments are stuff they hate in modern media about shows re-re-re-remade to increasing diminishment. I'd first want NEW things, at least things not yet adapted to the medium. But if we HAVE to adapt something say mining the 1980s well tons of other awesome comic books, indie comics, toy franchise pets as super heroes wanna be and TONS of Cyberpunk stuff.
American Flagg is a neat Scifi with strong Cyberpunk and allegorical but not direct political/social commentary. And it's got guns, heroes, sexy women and slapstick to carry it!
-note - this page will be under construction for a while - by its very nature-
𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅱🎵🎵𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮
Neon nights and city lights, we're living in a dream,
Palm trees swaying in the breeze, it’s more than it may seem,
𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅱🎵🎵𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮
-From MY song "Neon Knights racing by" - soon to be uploaded!
Ever wonder why Star Trek, especially Next Generation referenced Shakespeare so much? Well first they needed people we could understand at some level making pop culture references but making up new pop culture for centuries from now would be another layer of alienation, Me Droogies... ALSO they could be SUED even back then for making references to other shows... Wouldn't it have been neat if they had been able to say "This is like the Paleo show X-files..." when extra dimensional aliens borrowed Riker's Arm then attached it back on? Nope would have been rooms full of lawyers for that remark and taken years even IF everything went well.
This blog post is about my disappointment with modern CopyWRONG -aka abuse of copyright to silence criticism and into absurdity reactionary protection. Modern big companies do little other than absorbing copyrights others made and they chew up and excrete these properties only taking from them. I won't bore with exhaustive history - you can look it up if you don't know, perhaps starting with Disney going after an underground comic "Air Pirates Funnies". That's really when Copyright/Trademark started getting abused for its own sake though Mad Magazine and others (Flynt Publications, National Lampoon) fought back hard keeping free speech pretty open for fair use/parody.
I'm writing a series of fictions set in the 1980s but there's one tiny detail chained that had a changing effect so its "A better 1980s" though still has problems and issues of course. No fairyland just a decade that appreciates itself while its in it a bit better. Nostalgia but meant to be OK for younger readers who weren't born yet to enter.
The problem was that the 1980s WAS its pop culture to a large extent. The mass media, the music the movies. "I pity the FOOL!" etc.
So, writing about the 1980s in fiction set in it you run through a minefield of bear traps with some reference somewhere someone will sue you over. Not just a DMCA and forced changes and re-writes they might legit drag you to court to take everything or extort that threat for tens of thousands of dollars to avoid a trial. This is not piracy I'm talking about here it's a reference that in a fair world the original producer almost should need to pay for since its free advertising. "fair use and parody" you'd WIN 99.9% of the time taking it to court but would lose the $ spent unless you could get the judge to pass "Motion to dismiss" adding "With prejudice" THEN still likely have to sue them for the $ they owe you. And Mad Magazine alone along with National Lampoon and Hustler have made PILES of legal precedent any Lawyer can use and any Judge should reference.
However - this blog isn't about skating around fair use and parody.
Already tons of books, videos on that and it'll make you sick how it's abused and really disgust you in the law and society. This isn't an advice on fair use/parody and how to make it slightly less likely you'd be sued. It's about getting AROUND the issue big time.
It's about ALTERNATIVE SUBSTITUTIONS to tell them off!
I decided on this path making two sub fictions to handle the major fictions and working around a third and got so sick I wanted to puke. Holeee FRUIT of the Gawdz - Steven King in "The Stand" mentioned the arcade game "Death Race" early on and wasn't sued...even though they could have used the $ being grilled by the Senate over the first "Video game violence" issue. They knew it kind of immortalized a video game that would be forgotten by now save very devout Arcade historians without the controversy. Wouldn't be surprised if the novel wasn't responsible for a few of them being still maintained as much as the Corman movie inspired by it and the history of controversy for a very simple little game.
So - this page is about a list of alternatives I'm using in fiction to avoid CopyWRONG issues of pop culture, focusing on the 1980s era which pulls from the 1970s and goes a bit into the 1990s. It is not meant to be a comprehensive alternative and I do retain FULL copyRIGHT on my IPs but allow openly a "Fair use and parody" without extensive legal and paperwork issues. Save a copy of this page when using them in case I die and someone 'inherits' the rights to my stuff. Oh, I'll let someone feed off my coffin but sanely. What I'm mentioning here would please me because it's free advertising and true flattery and appreciation!
First - "TenTari computers vs ATARI"
Didn't we 80s people LOVE the Atari 2600 console even out of the many alternatives from the Channel F to the Intellivision to the Odyssey 2 to the Coleco vision? And yes the Nintendo NES came out a while after the game crash though it's seen more as a 90s thing in the USA. Only until the PS2 were the sales beaten but the cultural impact...IMO still Atari 2600 and yes the games that came after were much better I don't enshrine the past.
In MY "A better 1980s" the video game crash didn't happen!
Almost but you know what company merged with others creating TenTari! They are now an emerging MegaCorp out of a Cyberpunk novel and right now are positive and energetic and kids dream of being a Tentari engineer when they grow up!
There's rumored to be a hidden meaning in their name - but most people even the "nerds" are burnt out on that since Atari supposedly had a hidden name but it was just "Check" in the game of "Go" and the previous company Syzgy also meant opposition/challenge in essence. So yeah "They merged with TEN or so other companies. I do NOT care..."
Atari in the background - kids playing Atari games, references to "I scored --- in ----" and tribute games... Well guess what, people have been sued, DMCA'd, legally extorted. Right now there's a new console release so they'll be extra lawyer attack happy. I even heard a rumor Blader Runner 2049 had to pay them a ton of money just to have that "Atari" logo on the side of the building when in a sane world they should have thanked them for free advertising! GAG me with a SPOON...
So - NOPE.
I'd love to write in an alternative universe Atari that grew and became an awesome company and Cheezus Kwist they should THANK me for free advertising and if my "A better 1980s" got big and there was a TV show send a note "Please have the kids playing Atari 2600 games or better in the background, we are re-releasing .... want some samples!?" knowing it was free advertising. Nope. More likely lawsuits derail it by last minute changes and legal fees scrambling everything.
An analogy though YES a Judge WOULD go "Motion to dismiss with prejudice accepted." and I'd then sue back if it got that far and just might wreck the copyright/trademark. Ye be warned. I love the product and all those games and such but I'm sick of abuse where it is NOT deserved. The lawsuit is for someone making or selling someone else's games without protection not for literary tribute when its clearly a secondary fictional product.
So it's "Tentari" no disrespect but legal CMA.
Next - my "Omega Crusade" vs ".... of the Universe...!
As a background to replace "Masters..." etc. the crowning of 1980s Saturday Morning Cartoon toy commercials I'm making my own concept of such a franchise, toy line, etc. YES I'm making some comics, simple toys, etc. I might sell some physical media and make a few seconds of animation.
In my "Pulp" universe, Omega Crusade is both the far far far far future, the "Entropic" end of the universe. AND it exists as a Saturday Morning Cartoon from the 1980s. MY 1980s, a better 1980s!
However - YOU may use it in your fictions to a sane limit - no hassles save obvious. I certainly DO retain copyright, etc. What I allow is "Fair use and parody" of a 1970s level.
Suggested examples:
Vietch put the pizza in the new Microwave. He hoped he'd not have either a frozen plate or blister his lip again. In the living room the TV had been left on all night and catching the rays of dawn Omega Crusade played, entertaining kids across the nation and selling those toys. Though Vietch was tempted to join the blue nosed moralists whining violence and corruption of youth he watched the show when alone and wished he was a kid again to buy those toys...the Brothers of the Sun toys he'd been tempted to get the last decade but he'd already been 17 when they came out and preparing for college. He had had to argue with his Father for permission to watch the latter.
--Oh, yeah - "Brothers of the Sun" - not exactly Star Trek - it's another storyline I'm working on with a similar theme both a tribute with bits of parody but also its own thing as Trek is a consolidation of many science fictions before it like Star Wars the Scifi adventure genre.
And yes, if you illustrate it (artist, AI, 3d) you can put limited backgrounds. If you make a TV show yes you can put a few seconds of it on the TV in the background! -some credit / link would be nice but not demanding.
What you can't do -> Copy the figures and sell them. Reproduce the media be it fictions, comics, games, animations in large part or full especially to sell. If you "Vietch the Detective" isn't 1 minute of V and then just cut/paste full Omega Crusade episodes you SELL.... In short obvious where the re-delivery of my IP is the motive and any 3rd party you do the shell. That's what they accused Mad, National Lampoon, etc. of but wanted to silence critics and they LOST in court. So unless you are a bootlegger or pirate of media for profit nothing to really worry about. Simple mentions, again as Steven King talked about the video game "Death Race" in the background of early in "The Stand" is in no way hurtful to the IP and it'd be petty and insane to sue over it so let's keep reasonable and I'll be generous to free advertisement.
Note I LOVE "...of the universe" so much - but the last few years it's been BUTCHERED. My "Omega Crusade" while I'd have done it with / without this sooner or later is accelerated due to it. Serious, I even liked the 00s reboot attempt.
COOL thing - you yourself can make a "TV Cartoon toy commercial fantasy / scifi / military franchise" and not worry about some major company harassing you legally. Well they could but even Disney would be stopped at "Motion to Dismiss". How do I dare say that? DC Comics Vs Mattel. They made some of their products as action figures of the 5.5" scale to be playable with Mattel's franchise. Mattel sued them, DC comics marched right into court and Mattel LOST.
The judge for the sake of his and the fragile senior citizen hearts and brain blood vessels of all other judges declared it to be "Too Generic" to be broadly protected by copyright/trademark. Exact things are still protect-able - various names and you can't (if not in China somewhere) copy the existing action figures by casting them, you need to make your own by hand or 3D... (not direct scanning obv.)
BUT - the judge didn't want him and his peers to hear 1000 legal battles over action figures and fictional worlds and toys...the airwaves and especially toy shelves were groaning with the weight of tons of MOTU/StarWars/Trek wanna-be toys! "Krothar of the Dark Wurld is TOO CLOSE to Worriors of Torrrg!" and do a Judge Ito facepalm again and again and again... So to avoid toy hell he declared it "Too Generic" as long as no direct lifting of names/copying figures. You can make your own "Barbarian warlord scifi fantasy military figure who looks like he's about to burst his colon squatting per a rotten dot com classic - Hrrrgggg!!!!" etc. no broad copyright/trademark if your own creation/your company's creation.
There was a FLOOD of "Generic 5.5 inch" and 3.5 inch (Star Wars/GI Joe) "Compatible" action figures right after. Some were from fly by night Chinese/foreign ones that DID copy the torsos, probably from the same outsourced makers...got an extra few thousand of that torso in a different color, added a different head from another toy... Most were just wanna-be's catching some of the wind from MOTU's and Star Wars's sails...
Tons of knock-offs - they even included "Sun-Man" as a cheapoid way to be diverse in "...of the universe" and they are made today. Got Pig-Head recently, might get the 3 pack!
So - while even with this having your 1980s character even MENTION "...of the universe" is risky you can use (sanely) Omega Crusade. Hopefully check this space in a year then a few there will be more to it, way more. One of the things that gets me mad is we should have dozens more like I'm doing. I shouldn't have to do this unless I was passionate about such a thing solely. There should be DOZENS of new cartoons and toy lines, video games inspired by but their own new thing... For instance, how about the Venture Brothers level tribute/merciless parody Kaptara!?
Serious - pic cited for fair use/parody - non-commercial - but really they needed to make that into a cartoon and make the toys. Today's tech they could 3D model and CNC the tools so making the toys with China so much more accessible... and there should be dozens like this and my "Omega Crusade" just a lark with a few images, no need for more.
The reason is that we have a few companies dominating the media that cooperate vs competing.
I'll blog over that later...how we need to go antitrust for politics vs rioting for 'gender neutral remakes'...
Then for "Heavy Metal" we'll enter the "WILD ZONE!"
It's taken me a while typing on this article. First HM was "Dead, Jim" for about 3 or 5 years depending... I thought it was gone and might come back in another 10 years or NOT at all, think "First Comics!" that gets stuck in multiple property holdings and any attempt is caught between "I want milleyuns and milleyuns!" one person demanding more $ than it'd ever be worth and "You OWE me Milleyuns and Milleyuns!" one other thinking they are OWED huge $ so will come out to sue whoever buys it and do that damage in court costs even if he loses. Our legal system will punish neither.
ALSO - someone claiming to own HM a few years back harassed Crian Soft over their "Metal Fury" project - which was a tribute to the Julie Strain Fakk2 era of HM. So stuff that should have been out a year or so ago is in DevHell for a Looong time to re-tool it. Not sure or CARE if it was the current Owner(s)... That was years back and just dead air - plenty of Zombie Copyright/Trademark trolls where things are in limbo, it's near impossible to find the owner and they charge 10x what any sane person would pay for even obscure things - but slither out of the gutter and SUE. And only mmmaybe legit own it...
Thought it was "Dead, Jim..." in CopyWRONG hell like First Comics...
So I was surprised to find out it was coming back.
Then it became obvious they are owned, ran etc. by the same people who RUINED the magazines. Same types the "Panderverse" and "Modern Audience" types who cater to everyone BUT who'd buy the thing. I'll say "One Man's Opinion" for legal CMA but when you experience online forums where cry bullies get you banned for 'misgendering' them and that wasn't even a discussion you had with them, just you wanted old HM.
So while I'll be THRILLED if I'm wrong, I think it's a Cash Grab. Just more $ but panderverse and will die again and probably stay in limbo. Thus avoid crediting it and using "fair use and parody" the NAME in any fiction you write, from a free webcomic to a story you publish you'll be victimized by lawsuit parasites and DMCA harassment. The corporate world is what created this Copyright Trolling/Trademark Squatting, etc. in its modern form. They have sent everything to China so all they have left is their names...and these are bought and sold casually.
SO - welcome to the WILD ZONE!
Part of a delay in making this - I went nuts making the premise for what MIGHT be a legit magazine. IF it is I'll work out a "Shares" thing so artists contribute and get a % of residuals (sales) and a few top guys get big $ and maybe paid ahead (bonus, not advance) and lesser ones get a smaller %. Hey, if I find anyone who can give Serpieri, Azipiri, Corben a run for their $ I'll pay them more than ME even if I'm risking $ and spending time I don't have to make it - life ain't fair and we don't have to be but I'll spread it around legit to show I do stand by my friends and associates.
Anyways, I'm working out the basics and animatics for videos but it's simple - Imagine if in another universe just like our own but a few things happened differently...
Instead of some people importing European comics and translating some others decided to take the sci-fi and fantasy of the current age the 1970s and combine it with awesome artists who'd wanted to be "Underground Cartoonists" of the 1960s and were struggling to find a place in the early direct market that wouldn't explode big until the 1980s and publish a magazine format fantasy comic anthology...? Then they got successful and maybe pulled over some European comics, got a movie that was really awesome but the music rights got it tangled on HBO late night showings as the ONLY way to watch it... (Versus Cinemax)
SO - for the same effect in YOUR stories and comics YES you can use "Wild Zone" in them...! Instead of having a person reading a Heavy Metal, a HM on the shelves, the show on TV in the background or mention in the stories - you can have and use "Wild Zone"...! When I upload some songs (I got really overboard) you can include them in videos!
I still retain the rights to it and any illustrators or writers who contribute do theirs per our charter IF I make a .pdf or print run for legit sale. BUT we allow "1970s fair use, parody, reference, reasonable use" so anything save blatant piracy you are OK. If you mention us we'll link and be flattered most likely. But no permission, contracts, etc.
Instead of "Star Wars" user Samurai Gunslinger...!
Serious - in my alternative universe Jodorowsky's Dune got made - and it RUINED the science fiction and to a lesser extent fantasy for a decade so Lucas never got to make his Star Wars. But HOW is it recognizable for a person who sees a 1980s? Well there are some ultra popular fictions. He wasn't able to make Star Wars in my alt universe and nearly SHOT Jodorowsky when he was forced to hire him as a consultant but Jodo kept insisting the "Chosen one" archeteype had to do his mother or sister for symbolism...
But he ended up making a Samurai film set in a post Nuclear war world as a compromise he could get funded and have a chance of showing up in theaters. A timeless tale of the hero who is chosen and is trained from humble beginnings to be a Gun Samurai like his father before him - then he faces the desert Empire and their mobile fortress with cannons able to take out an entire city and lay waste to a province! He meets the princess, the bandit and smuggler who is inspired to become a hero, a Bigfoot beast-man who insists he's from a race of similar types from the stars, some constructs from the last era... And it's both an exciting otherworldly adventure and a timeless mythic journey that resonates in every right Man, Woman and especially children.
If I carry it into the 90s of this world I'd talk about towards the end of it George Lucas making a science fiction film since they come back into fashion such as the "Ace Double" film empire and Lucas makes his "Science Fiction Epic" since by then (mid 90s) science fiction has made a comeback having CGI close to today and it's like EVERY "Ace Double" has been turned into a movie...! So he decides "I have a F---load of money and I can make 9 flops in a row and still have enough $ to retire stinking rich...!"
Thus he makes his movie just starting at the FIRST part of the grand 9 part of 3 trilogies! Upon release, "The Star Warriors: The Shadow Menace" is a horrible, horrible FLOP. And the collective "Aaaaaugh!" coming from the theaters... This includes disgust from the audience having to wait to part 3 for the "Bigfoot from Samurai Gunslinger" to make his first appearance though he has no major role until parts 4 to 6.... Yeah sure they are in for 1/4 a second the "Galactic Council" right.... So he stops because he'll be spending blockbuster $ to get "Direct to Video" and the hot stars and halfway good child actors keep away from it.
But he has tons of ground breaking, awesome movies under his belt and his die hard fans defend him!
Oh yeah - Ace Doubles continue in this world along with most literary science fiction and fantasy... Due to how lousy the publishers were IRL I'll put in various stand ins soon. (I do NOT want to get started there...) Not because of Ace Double - if they still existed for real they'd have likely published some of my stories and let me reference them 70s style as free advertising. But I don't know what or who might claim (including pure lies) to own the property now so it'll be "One of those Double book novels...?" for a respective but clear reference.
Sad - if I could blatantly have Sam (one of my characters) reading some 3rd party works since he's a nerd for classic science fiction and fantasy it'd be to put an Ace Double in his hands, pocket, mantle, backseat of car every scene he's in even though he's the "Cool dude that wears sunglasses even at night and can kick ass and he's COOL!" etc. otherwise. I'd put in ones I've read and ones I like the covers for - and if my work gets popular the reprints would justify Ace Double reprints!
See the left image?
Only SOME of my "Ace Double" collection. I LOVE them! Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.? It's a TRIBUTE to this era. Lucas and Roddenberry were amazed there wasn't a lineup of lawyers from ancient writers and coffin feeders, excuse me "Estates" slithering over to SUE - a few with legit good reason. Most notably the E.E. "Doc" Smith estate aka "Lensman" series. But most of them knew a rising tide lifted all boats and even though the realistic "Campbell Era" to "New Wave" scifi era of the times hated Star Wars/Trek they knew it got them $ and public acceptance at last.
Part 3 - "Men's Magazines"
The 1980s had a lot of pornography, especially magazine pornography as part of popular culture. The dirty magazines with very pretty ladies were on the "Rise" so to speak and everywhere. Regular bookstores had them, so did every gas station, drug store, supermarket. They were breaking through the taboos at the time so it could be embarrassing to buy them and of course not for sale to minors so none of us kids had them... Place sarcastic mischievous laughter here...!
Most 1980s kids that is Xers who were born in the 70s but very young then and were schoolkids to teens in the 1980s have a "Goddess" fixation with some adult magazine model even if and sometimes especially if they ONLY saw her seeing that cover. The tiny forbidden hint of her in a sexually inviting pose, sometimes the edge of a tit just showing through a carefully made bra... It's something kids today don't have with our near puritanical society from helicopter parents to moralist "Woke" a-holes - so they probably beat off to people being butchered on the Dark Web for first sexual image exposure...
Pic left is "Newlook" where Penthouse tried to expand but it was debatable if they were going after Chiq or Playboy's territory. Note also the classic OMNI (getting to them) was published by Bob Guccioni who owned Penthouse. Magazine flopped in the USA after a few years but continues in France to this day - full of National Geographic level photograpy and not just nekkid wimmen but plenty of them also.
For all the smut my naughty younger self managed to get this picture is what sticks most in my mind - some artsy "New Wave" use of blacklight photography for again "Art". That particular session just had sexy adult models posing in painted neon lingerie in a dark room with blacklights though the rest of the magazine had plenty of boobs and more!
One of the shaky definitions of pure Porn (usually illegal) vs the Magazines was having "Social, Artistic or Literary" value. So the magazines published fiction including by big names, news articles the other news agencies didn't touch and lots of "Artsy" stuff from comics to expression. This kept "Obscenity" blue noses from being able to ban them.
Silly but it had quite an impact - the late Larry Flynt spent a few million and a year ish in jail refusing to reveal the source for the DeLorean frameup tape. This kept it so that any attempt to jail a journalist to extort him to reveal his source was an area LEOs thought ten times before trying.
Anyways a 1980s fiction is going to have to have porn as an issue in some way - even relatively G-rated ones. The kids will try to sneak a peek at the magazine covers, sometimes blocked off with cardboard or even custom pressboards with logos. Or they'll try to STEAL them or buy them with false ID and/or have some adult or teen adult buy them for them. Such a treasure to a young lad to see some buxom beauty posing and spreading her...
Nowadays our puritanical fascism mixed with insane fake left garbage it'd be criminal. But us Xers and the Boomer/Greatest before us had this to a point and you do not if late Y or younger. Sorry. Nowadays if you had an adult hand you his smut magazine or paid a bum to buy booze and XXX mags for you the poor fella could get "Offender" status. But then again we weren't able to use the internet to find high quality porn, much less the darknet torture snuff and animal porn I presume the kids leer about in grade school... I'd rather some hot Penthouse Pets of the 80s and 90s, grade A meat, silicone string enhancement, low body fat and athletic VS some skanky piercing factory in the modern shadow of these magazines or some poor SOB being sliced apart in some Red Room like again I presume the kids jerk off to today... But that's my preference the classic 80s, 90s models. I don't treat women IRL as less if they don't match some beauty standard, just wish whatever latest wave feminism hadn't turned many of them ugly to the core regardless of looks and hostile to most men but receptive to the last men they should be with...
So - it will be mentioned somehow - say a kid getting a deserved paddling for having one! Trying to peek at one and his Mom hooks his ear and drags him away. Some memorable magazine poster that is technically not porn but sexy to the Nth power like that NewLook magazine cover... Worth a paddlin' to risk a look at!
And yes corporal punishment was 100% ok as long as not enough to seriously injure a kid or an excuse for molestation. Da Fuzz usually got beaten with belts that cut their young asses, including with the buckle! Imagine a cop hearing a kid crying his Dad belted him over having a Playboy - more because his Mom found it and yelled he be punished... "Yeah, kid, I like lookin' at Playboy but you gotta take yer hits. If your Dad and Mom whopped you, they have your best interests at heart so get outta here...! Take it like a Man!"
SO - here are some idea example Porn magazines. I'll put in some mockup covers and yes you can use if you dare - figure a good set of analogs that sound like the old ones as a tribute to them. I won't get gross or graphic much to the disappointment of my buddy O'MaXXXimVs...but I thank him greatly...
Rabbit Hutch by Eugene Heffer vs Playboy - elite big $ hedonist - nice guy but tons of ex squeeze toys always saying stuff
Cunthouse vs Penthouse - or to be less vulgar Photohouse with Robert Vassilie as editor/publisher - a brilliant photographer but a bit of playboy and womanizer.
NewWave (generic name) versus NewLook - again published by Vassilie
Rostler vs Hustler - there was IRL a short lived men's magazine called Rustler, fyi. Publisher is Leroy Flynn a real lowbrow dude who also has pushed for free speech and won some important verdicts by publishing things the big alphabet soup and top newspapers refused then defending his source.
These may be used - I'll use them/references to them in MY fictions. While thanks is appreciated this is open source so we can use a similar sounding cultural reference that will resonate with even modern readers not born yet and be obvious to those that lived then - but be outside the ability to easily harass legally especially vultures who just want $ and only maybe are associated.
Again your 1980s story doesn't have to be about porn, pornography, etc. But for the culture Porn was in the background as a strong force. Kids DID get porn magazines and only got paddled when they got found with them - no taking them to a counselor (who turns them gay/trans) and million dollar police investigation to find the adult who gave it to them be it some clerk or teen/adult friend. Furthermore they were popular with adults "Uh, I only read Rabbit Hutch for the ARTICLES..." - "Wait! I saw that actress in the scifi movie, she posed in..." and in popular culture like it or not.
It really decayed with the internet allowing a flood of porn but also by competition and free distribution of materials lowered the $ it could get. 00s onwards strippers started striking for wages vs having so much in their garters they didn't notice the technical minimum wage they got, the magazines declined and the "Models" were the last any top magazine would take, some got bought out and turned experimental, etc. Anyways it's powerful - I'm mostly "R-Rated" at worst in my fictions but have a friend who does X stuff and he could really tell tales. However anyone doing a period piece might want to study this aspect even if their work is NOT adult - not to throw in vulgar stuff but if they truly want a cultural mirror.
For the record I've never got into "Stranger Things" but IF it doesn't have the kids talking about/hiding a Playboy somewhere it is NOT 1980s... Don't care to search - hint "kids + adult material + Pornography " - Gawd knows what that'd do to whatever secret profile I have on the Fed Fuzz lists for my occasional political rant and loose connection to people who were radical in the 1960s... (Parental figures and friends of theirs)
Part 4 - Miscelleneous cultural references onwards
I can't re-create the ENTIRE cultural landscape of the 1980s - but here's a catch all for
Mark Mallerus and other catch-alls for phrases
Imagine a big man in a Noir background - "U Vill Trust me, I am capable of vhat I ham doink..!" and somebody is smashed through the window...! This is a tribute to Sledgehammer of course! And the characters could go "So then he smashed him through the window like Mark Mallerus! Don is a great cop! Too bad internal affairs rides him. Didn't Papto Bees Oil pay them $ to have internal affairs always drinking the stuff like soda pop due to his behavior?"
Here will be a bunch of quick uses - no long descriptions
Mark Mallerus -> Sledgehammer "U Vill Trust me, I ham capable of vhat I ham doink...!" - sudden brutal act of violence - done Noir style vs Dirty Harry if drawn so Mallerus is a parody of Cop Noir vs Grindhouse Films
A.C.T.I.O.N. team (toys, cartoons) vs N.A.G.A. - Elite military professionals fighting some ancient entrenched terrorist organization with connections to reptilians and elite families."Action Go!" - "Serpent Strike!" for chants. 3.5" action figures, playsets, some controversy over playing Patriot or Terrorist and language implying kids are wimps if they don't buy them.
Marble Comics - Crusader America, Metal Titan, Chango the Black God of Thunder, the marvelous Arachnid. Direct Comics (DiCo vs DC) and Overman, Amazon Suprema, Speedster, Martian Observer...
Zowie Starboy - played by Peter Goliath a musician, actor man of mystery
Patty Parton - big enhanced starlet
Part 5 - reasonable fair use
Note I still have Ronald Regan, George Lucas, etc. mentioned no worries about Copyright Abuse, right? Well here's why, they are REAL people, its REAL history and they are Celebrities who have less personal rights to privacy...
About the worst example is that Jackie ONassis and Princess Fergie got photographed topless by scummy paparazzi and the porn mags, tabloids were able to publish their photographs since they were celebrities, public figures...
If you did a voyeur act on a non celebrity/public figure lady and via hidden camera, hiding in the bushes, tiny camera hidden in shoe etc. got a picture of their privates/naked you'd get sued big time. And Jailed. Absolutely if you brought them to a magazine and they printed them without checking a model's release. Note there was some drama about this in 1980s fiction - such as WKRP in Cincinatti that had a photographer get nude photos of a lady who'd posed in a bikini and had signed a model release. Or Marvel had a She-Hulk episode in the Fantastic Four where she was topless in "Tar Beach" (rooftop sunbathing) and they photographed her and since she was a public figure (Superhero, with Fantastic Four) couldn't prevent the photos save a lucky twist ending. IMO that she-hulk should have been on TV, not the cruddy one some modern audience ones made up, would have been Ally McBeal 10 years ahead of time with superhero world crossover.
So you can use a celebrity or historical figure - in my alternative world I'll have a standard fictional disclaimer of it's all a fiction based on the real world turned different so any actions real persons had were a fiction not meant to be them. Even today's world an attempt to sue would be laughed to "Motion to dismiss" and yes I'd pay $ to a lawyer to do that not cuck out in fear of it - since it'd be "Streisand Effect" and make the thing SELL so much I could pay a dream team and get big $ off of them if they somehow got it to court. AND it's flattery, I'm not insulting them - even Reagan whom I hated as a bad guy in the 1980s due to Hippie parents. He's seen as an icon now but would get "Cancelled" by the modern Republican party and he paved the way for them.
George Lucas? Hey - if you see it and want to do "Samurai Gunslinger" I'll be lined up to watch the film and buy the toys not sue or anything...! I'll even give you what I've written about it, just wanting some "Partial inspirational" credits in the rolling!
Comments - Feel free to discuss and add ideas. I'm "Wild West Internet" so if you insult another and they insult back I don't care. I reserve the right to edit or delete/block for any or no reason but let's keep it civil.
Note - if you suggest something for this - another idea for a cultural reference - it is still YOUR idea but I have the right to use it also, open source. Now say - using one of my analogs - I was a 3rd person writing "Mark Mallerus" as a Sledgehammer tribute I'd not forfiet my novels/short stories and ideas for a comic series... I'd just let others make sane references to him but that'd include printing/showing for profit. It is how F*cked up things are now this is necessary; Imagine if there's a tv show and one of the kids is reading a chewed up "Pulp" novel but its a lulu printing of "Mark Mallerus: Versus the 4th Reich and their Cyborg Gorilla!" one of the existing novels...
A sane world the creator and any associates would jump for joy at the free advertising and do their best for search results and brace for new printings/pdf sales and maybe a phone call from a studio...right? Nope - you play roulette with getting papers from a lawyer and they are willing to bring you to court just wanting to extort $ not thinking for a second you did any real damage to them. We need this to END. It's day and night vs true plagiarism or piracy and cultural references, fair use and parody.
Append - for "Copyright owners"
- this page is to avoid copyright abuse but to also plead for SANITY.
Only a FEW existing other IPs have been cited carefully and "Fair use and Parody" cited. If harassed legally I WILL take you to court where it'll be dismissed in "Motion to dismiss" then I'll take YOU to court for time+$ + punitive, crowdfunding from my fans to pay for lawyers (whom I KNOW) to help and possibly you'll lose the copyright/trademark and weaken it for decades. (think DC comics vs Mattel as I cited above) If you aren't a true copyright holder but sent me paperwork to extort me I'll be merciless - indeed I predict you'll be exposed and never have a second of privacy much less money. I've done SO much research and am in contact with legal professionals.
Having said that I'd LOVE to work with real owners of classic 1980s properties.
This is NOT a plea to release your works for public domain - it's to make a statement that you allow the cross-cultural exchange we had in the 1970s and 1980s where we could even reference each other's work and as long as it doesn't go into true plagiarism or other theft it's allowed. Today some retro fiction that adds to it cultural examples is a godsend to those holding onto ancient copyright - it means the movies get played again, the toys go up in value, chance of a new release. So if you send me some kind of official statement I'll append it and post it so people can use or reference things with sane use and not worry. They'd keep these in their creative folders so if a decade or whatever from now some 3rd party claims ownership there's proof of permission and they'll run. It won't hurt your IP - tons of use, careful imitation, reference means it's still relative and topical even decades or longer after its time in the Sun and so anyone purchasing is more likely to take it into account and send this site and other users notice of a new product for hopeful free advertising and to grow the customer base.
