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deadbeat76er
06-29-2005, 05:24 AM
HG WELLS

IDW's "War Of The Worlds" project takes prose sections from the original HG Wells and illustrates them. The Wells estate receive nothing from this, as the book is out of copyright.

However, after the book was announced, IDW received a challenge from an individual claiming to control the rights to "War Of The Worlds" outside the US.

While this stance is debatable, IDW erred on the site of caution to avoid nuisance suits and have restricted sales to the USA only.

Ironic, considering it's one of the few versions of "War Of The Worlds" this summer that retains the fact that the book originally took place in Britain

Is it the Little book of horrors issue? And does this mean I won't be getting my pre-ordered copy from Forbidden Planet. Its still advertised on the FP website but I've not heard back from them yet...
Bright-Raven
06-30-2005, 04:26 PM
Whomever IDW heard from, I'd be very interested in knowing more, seeing as my associates at Arrow Books published a WOTW mini years ago by a German(?) artist and a German publisher reprinted it in German some 2-3 years ago and never heard jack squat from anyone.
deadbeat76er
07-01-2005, 03:50 AM
I got this reply from FP: "I'm afraid it has been made unavailable to the Uk due to licensing issues, we are hoping to secure some copies from another supplier though".

Just going to have to try and pick one up direct from the states.

Would also be interested to know if this sort of thing happens much with properties like War of the Worlds... League of Extraordinary Gentlemen got published fine and that 'borrowed' extensively from WOTW's.
Ivan Isaacs
07-01-2005, 05:42 AM
Whomever IDW heard from, I'd be very interested in knowing more, seeing as my associates at Arrow Books published a WOTW mini years ago by a German(?) artist and a German publisher reprinted it in German some 2-3 years ago and never heard jack squat from anyone.

Ah! I remember. Horus is indeed German.

http://www.comic-i.com/aaa-icom/presse/img/titel_horus.jpg

It's very strange though.
NatGertler
07-01-2005, 07:25 AM
Whomever IDW heard from, I'd be very interested in knowing more
You can see more on the topic of the HG Wells copyright here (http://hgwellsusa.50megs.com/UK/hgwcopy.html).
Bright-Raven
07-02-2005, 01:29 AM
*read the page*

Well, I'm not an expert on the subject. I would guess that the story Arrow did, an original story that takes places decades after Wells' tale that has the Martians returning for a second invasion in America instead of England, is either original enough or that it just was too far under the radar for the Wells estate to tackle. (More likely so the latter.)