Fan Works Submission Guidelines
Please read these DC Fan Works Activation Submission Guidelines (“Guidelines”) carefully because they affect your legal rights and obligations. Your submission of Fan Works (defined below) to DC Comics (“DC”) means that you fully understand and accept these Guidelines and Warner Bros.’ Terms of Use as a legally binding agreement governing your submission. We may revise these Guidelines by updating this posting from time to time. You should visit this page regularly to review the current Guidelines. Your continued submission of Fan Works will be deemed as your acceptance of any revisions.
DISCLAIMER: DC and its partners, affiliates, licensees, writers, and artists are constantly coming up with new adaptations and versions of DC’s characters and related elements, so, if some day, you see something in a DC comic book or on merchandise or in any film, television, or other production that reminds you of something that you included in your Fan Works, please understand that such similarity, in all likelihood, is coincidental, and, in any case, DC and its affiliates are not agreeing to credit or pay you for the use of any element or ideas similar to those in your artwork submission.
All original illustrations or artwork you create and submit to DC or, at DC’s request, publicly share/tweet/post to any social media platform will be collectively referenced hereunder as the “Fan Works”. Fan Works meeting these Guidelines may be selected and shared by DC on any of DC’s social media pages, websites, email newsletters, or on the DC Universe Infinite subscription service or any other platform or service owned or controlled by DC, and may be removed by DC at any time, at DC’s sole and absolute discretion. Fan Works shared, tweeted, or posted to any social media platform must be accompanied by the hashtag #DCFANART, and DC may add, remove, or edit the hashtags for any Fan Works at DC’s sole and absolute discretion. You acknowledge and agree that there is no obligation to compensate or provide credit to you in any way for any use of the Fan Works by DC.
- From time to time via DC’s official channels, DC will post calls to action (“CTA”) for fan submissions of specific DC characters, comics, or series (“DC Content”). Your Fan Works must follow the theme of the then-current CTA. For example, if the CTA asks for a drawing of your favorite member of the DC Original’s Titans series, stick with the characters from the DC Originals Titans series. Do not create new characters and personas, or take a character from related DC comics that has not been introduced on the TV series yet.
- Do NOT create any new characters, or design new costumes or logos for existing characters, or combine existing characters (e.g., no mashups or crossovers).
- Do NOT create new story lines or comics panels.
- Fan Works must comply with the terms of the applicable social media platform (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and must not infringe upon or violate the trademark, copyright, or common law rights, or violate the rights of privacy or publicity of, or constitute a defamation against, any person (living or deceased), or violate any other rights of any person or entity.
- Fan Works must not contain any third party owned or protected content (e.g., titles or images from movies and television shows, artwork, photos) except for the DC Content specified in the applicable CTA. All elements of the Fan Works must be 100% originally drawn or illustrated by you. No repurposing, editing, or altering existing artwork.
- Fan Works may not be subject to, or be within the parameters of, any performing arts union or guild. Under no circumstances will any compensation, such as payment, residual, royalty, reuse, or similar payments, be payable to anyone by DC, regardless of the manner and the extent to which DC elects to exploit the Fan Works or any portion of the Fan Works.
- Fan Works, including any use of DC Content, must not include anything that is: (a) sexually explicit, indecent, obscene, violent, hateful, or tortuous; (b) derogatory or promotes bigotry, racism, hatred, or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; (c) unlawful; and/or (d) disparaging to DC or is inconsistent with the positive images and/or goodwill to which DC wishes to associate (at DC’s sole and absolute discretion).
- If any person, or the name/likeness/image of any person, other than yourself appears in the Fan Works, you acknowledge and agree that you have obtained, prior to uploading the Fan Works, any and all releases and/or consents necessary to permit the display, exhibition, and other use of the Fan Works or any portion as set forth in these Guidelines. Any person appearing in the Fan Works must be at least 18 years of age, or the age of majority in the respective state of residence, at the time the Fan Works is created.
- Fan Works must not include any personally identifiable information about third parties (e.g., name, address, email address, phone number, etc.).
- Fan Works must not contain any commercial or corporate advertising (e.g., corporate logos, brand names, slogans), recognizable branded products, or commercial artwork other than as the same may appear in DC Content.
- Fan Works must not be offensive, sexually suggestive, violent, racial, profane, nor slanderous.
- Fan Works must be based exclusively on storytelling from DC’s canon and must not include any popular culture references or elements that are from other intellectual properties.
- Fan Works must not include any religious or political references.
- Fan Works must not include any song lyrics.
- Fan Works must be suitable for presentation in a public forum.
- Fan Works may not be submitted by anyone making unauthorized commercial use of DC characters or properties.
- Fan Works must not include any AI generated or augmented images.
