: Re: Can I retell a popular manga series as a novel and query it to an agent? I’m working on my first draft of a retelling of a popular manga series from the 90s. It has been adapted and

@Pope4766717

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Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, but spotting media law problems is a big chunk of my work.

What you are proposing is definitely a breach of copyright laws, and could get you sued if your work was published.

The creator (whether an individual or a company) of the original manga owns that work.

The creator grants a publisher a licence - ie permission - to print and distribute the manga for a period of time (eg a year), or for a number of print runs (eg the first print run - anecdote follows).

The creator also holds derivative rights: these refer to adaptations of the manga in other media - such as TV. These can be kept, sold on entirely (ie creator has no say in adaptations) or licensed (ie creator gives permission for a company to adapt their work).

So TV production companies would likely have paid the creator for the right to make TV shows based on their manga.

What you are proposing is adapting the manga into a prose novel. To do that you would need a derivative rights licence from whoever owns the right to prose adaptations. (This is where lawyers come in.)

An agent will check if you have the adaptation rights and will want proof. As you don’t, any reputable agent will take a very hard pass at your offer.

However, if that manga was released into the public domain - ie the creator as surrendered all rights, other than “moral rights” - anyone could adapt the work.

Anecdote - when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons made Watchmen, they gave DC Comics the right to publish the first run of the Watchmen graphic novel, after which rights would return to them. Watchmen is still on its first print run, and Moore and Gibbons get very little in royalties.

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