From TMZ:
Stephen King stole the idea for his main man in “The Dark Tower” series from a famous comic book character also known as a gunslinger … according to a new suit.
The creator of “The Rook” comics claims King’s protagonist, Roland Deschain, is based on his main character, Restin Dane. He says Deschain has striking similarities to Dane other than just their initials — both are “time-traveling, monster-fighting, quasi-immortal, romantic adventure heroes.”
“The Rook” creator also points out King’s Deschain dresses like a cowboy despite not being from the Old West — just like Restin Dane — and the towers in both books look the same.
. . . .
According to the docs … the Restin Dane character was in more than 5 million comic magazines from 1977-1983 and King admits he read those stories. The first book in King’s ‘Dark Tower’ series was released in 1982.
Link to the rest at TMZ and thanks to Michael for the tip.
PG says TMZ doesn’t do a very good job of covering legal matters.
I loved the Rook, I used to lurk around the drug store reading it (high school student with no job). By the time I had a comics budget he’d wound it up… 🙁
My science fiction blatantly rips Firefly. Which rips off Star Wars. Which rips off Hidden Fortress by Kurosawa.
I don’t deny my inspiration. I hope I get sued. That book isn’t selling worth a damn and I could use the publicity.
🙂
Firefly rips off Star Wars? Huh. I’m not sure I see it. I suppose some people might compare Mal and Han Solo, but I really don’t see them as being at all alike.
I looked at your book, Jo. (Cause I’m a big Firefly fan.) But, for what it’s worth, the cover literally hurts my eyes. I normally don’t like judging books by the cover, but I admit in this case I did.
Firefly is basically Tales of the Millennium Falcon. Joss Whedon says as much in interviews. Probably the term ‘rips off’ is overstating it.
As for that cover, I was actually cleaning up the text in another window while reading your comment. It needs more than a little clean up though. When I put out the sequel I’ll redo it and brand them together.
Check it now. Definitely cleaner. You can see the original cover on Amazon still, it’s updating. The updated cover is on my site. Still not what I want but at least it’s not so blurry.
Wouldn’t even be a question or care if copyright wasn’t life plus 70. Too bad they didn’t grandfather the dang thing to get Disney to pay for all the ‘out of copyright’ stories he ‘borrowed’ …
I was actually a big fan of The Rook when I was a kid. I have most or all of the original issues in my collection (which is sitting in cardboard boxes in our second bedroom and which my wife really wishes would go away). Years ago, when I was trying to break into screenwriting, I even talked to my manager about seeing if we could wrangle the rights to the character and pitch it around town.
I’ve also read all the Dark Tower books. And the similarities between the two properties never jumped out at me at all. The two characters kind of look the same, I guess. They’re cowboy-based. So they wear vests, hats, and guns. There’s time travel and robots. But not much magic in The Rook, as I recall, and plenty of it in the DT books. The characters aren’t anything alike, one a scientist and the other a samurai/knight who uses a pistol rather than a sword.
They mention that King admits he read The Rook way back when, but if there’s anything of it in his work, it’s as little an influence as any other genre piece might have been. Warren Publishing (the company behind The Rook) came up with a lot of great stuff (I kept all my old issues of Eerie and Creepy), but it’s as derivative and original as many other genre creations.
Anyway, Weird Western goes all the way back to Gene Autry and The Phantom Empire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Empire) and may be older than that, for all I know.
I agree: I think it’s just a shot at grabbing on to the upcoming movie for whatever notice it gets them. Which is a shame because, as I say, Warren has plenty of great ideas in their closet. Hell, if the DT movies do well, The Rook could easily work on TV or in the movies on its own. Which is probably the point.
So, if I understand,the artist who claims his idea was stolen has waited at least a decade to file a claim. IANAL, but won’t that hurt his chance of success with the suit? Or have changes made for the movie made the character more like Restin Dane and so more open to the claim?
Grr. Thanks for not providing more info, TMZ.
Just as a reminder, ideas can’t be copyrighted. Only the expression of ideas can be protected.
Guy meets girl. Girl dates guy. Guy and girl experience a crisis and break up. Girl and guy get back together and live happily ever after.
That’s not copyrightable, even if you were the very first person to ever write a story with those elements.
Back in 2007, I thought I had an awesome story/series idea and couldn’t find any others quite like it. Finished 7 or so titles for it, have another 5-6 waiting to be finished.
Fast forward to 2011, when I stumbled over a series by someone else that’s very similar.
Color me deflated, and yet, I didn’t get all sue-happy because I knew that ideas can’t be copyrighted.
It took the creator and his publisher 35 years to notice the similarity? Slow to protect their intellectual property, eh?
I would almost suspect a publicity stunt, since the Dark Tower movie is coming out, but I can be so cynical at times.