Thread by @KurtBusiek

@xtop It depends on what you like about the concept; sometimes the “serial numbers” are the appeal.

For instance, I like Swamp Thing a lot, but not just the muck-monster part. I like the Arcanes and the Parliament of Trees and Chester and the legacy aspect.

@xtop So it’s easy to create a Plant Guy (Astro City has the Green Man), but not so easy to re-create what I like about SWAMP THING.

@xtop Similarly, it’s not hard to create an Amazon-warrior superhero, but WONDER WOMAN has a lot of lore I’d like to explore, and finding ways to replace that while staying on the right side of the line from infringement is hard.

And don’t get me started on the Legion!

@xtop I like to think about characters or groups or whatever that I like, and boil them down to the stuff I like about them, then throw away the rest of it and build something new out of those bits that resonate with me.

@xtop In the last few years, I got kind of focused on the 1970s GHOST RIDER, and what I didn’t like about the book and what could have “fixed” it, and I came up with a lot of stuff that I’d have wanted to do if I was writing it, and eventually I realized that all the new stuff was...

@xtop …actually new stuff that Marvel didn’t own, and if I threw out the Ghost Rider and replaced him with someone else with magical abilities who rode a motorcycle, I’d have a whole new series.

And now I’ve figured that character out and want to do that series.

@xtop It’s true that you can file the serial numbers off anything, but it’s better when you dig for the bones and then build something new on those bones. Particularly if the bones you like best are, like, the arm-bones and pelvis, and you can make up different bones for the rest.

@xtop Prose fiction is full of this — people liked Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, so they created their own hard-bitten private eyes in that mold to write about, and the characters took on a life of their own and bam, there you go.

@xtop In comics, people get obsessed with “rip-offs,” but in other media, being strongly inspired by something you love is just a completely normal approach to creation.

Even in comics, Superman is built on really obvious antecedents, as is Batman. Wonder Woman’s antecedents are...

@xtop …less well-known, but they’re still there. Early 20th century feminist utopian writing has most of it, and Marston just lifted it and repurposed it.

@xtop Recently, there’s been a meme on Twitter of “what obscure IP would you like someone to pay you to write on a work for hire basis,” and my consistent reaction to it was “Why do you even need that IP? Just do it, and change the names, and you’ll end up with your own thing."

@xtop S.E. Hinton wrote a DARK SHADOWS novel (yeah, that S.E. Hinton) and when it was rejected by the DS licensors, she changes all the names (well, she missed a couple) and published it as HAWKES HARBOR.

@xtop STAR WARS happened because George Lucas wanted to do FLASH GORDON and couldn’t get the rights, so he(and friends) made something Flash-Gordon-y.

@xtop Max Allan Collins like Donald Westlake’s Parker so much he created his own, Nolan, and wrote very Parker-esque novels that grew into their own thing.

@xtop Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole started out feeling a whole lot like Robert B. Parker’s Senser, translated to Los Angeles, and grew into something very different.

@xtop So what I’d say is: If you like something, dig in. Find what you like about it, make it your own.

Your own creative voice and instincts will naturally take it in your own direction anyway.