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Bah, I need to vent a bit. Hopefully you guys could provide some feedback to something I'm having some moral issues with.

Essentially, I was referred to a webcomic called Dominic Deegan. I figured it was worth a look, read a little bit into it, and I had to stop. Not because the storyline was poor or the artwork was off - neither is the case, as far as I've read.

My problem is that Deegan is more or less identical to a novel series I read in my spare time called The Dresden Files. Maybe some of you nerd out on this stuff like me, but for those who don't and are giving me the evil eyebrow, let me explain.

The Dresden Files features a main character who is, of all things, a wizard living in modern Chicago. He hires himself out as a private investigator to those desperate few who might use his services at risk of their self-image. In any case, he goes by the advertisement "Harry Dresden: Wizard for Hire." He has an arsenal of weapons to hone his powers, namely his divination rod, staff, the ability to use Second Sight (somewhat like a third eye that views the world like a sort of energy-based architecture).

http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/

This Dominic webcomic features a main character named Dominic Deegan, obviously, yet he's an oracle living in an unnamed (that I know of) metropolis. He advertises his powers same as Dresden, but under "Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire." Main difference, he has a crystal ball. Yet he also has a divination rod, staff, and bloody Second Sight same as Jim Butcher's novel series. He sells out his powers to those who need help, and essentially has taken Harry Dresden and renamed him with a title of Oracle rather than Wizard.

I hope I'm making sense.

Am I getting too wrapped up in this or do I have a legit concern? I read as far as twenty or so strips before I had to stop and cool down. The fact that the creator makes no mention of Butcher bugs me, since one would think if they take so many ideas from one source they could at least give credit where credit is due.

<_<

Your thoughts? Any avid readers of the strip mind throwing out their's?

It's a legit concern in my opinion. You should really give some credit where credit is due..... you don't want to just blindly copy someone else's idea. Yet, sadly, in these days, no really gives a nut about plagiarism. If they wrote it, then it's theirs. :?

Their forums seem to agree, thus far.

A little of colum A, a little of Colum B really.

Dominic Deegan is not really the pillar of literary origionality by any means, but I don't think plagarisim is on Mookies mind. After all, there are enough differences in the stories I believe to keep it from beign Plagarisim.

You need to keep in mind that there are only so many Ideas out there when it comes to magic. They're all coming from the same places (The old world traditions) and Oracles are some of the oldest in the book.

Now I'm not exactly qualified to analyze this properly, as I have never actually read any Dresden files books (Though I have seen the TV series, which has made me want to pick up the book series. I'm a fan of magic beign used in modern settings, and I'm especially fond of it being treated like a science. Also, Harry is freaking Badass) But I don't think it's plagarisim.

Dominic Deegan is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It's fun, but not the best fantasy story out there. And after listening to the forum thread about it over at the Giant in the playground website, I sort of feel bad about even taking that pleasure in it.[/quote]

I guarantee if you read book one, maybe a chapter in, you'll start seeing identical details. Not similarities, but word-for-word details.

I'm trolling a bit more forward through the strips looking for more details and honestly, can't find much more than what got things rolling. That character setups are the same -- Dresden and his window character, Bob vs. Doogle & this cat that follows him.

Other than that, it's getting a bit too blah to read.

I suppose people need a place to start, but man that's just not the way to go. You don't start a webcomic with a hobbit named Freddo who has a quest to return the golden amulet of power to Mount Holycrap, even if that quest lasts 20 pages and new things happen later on.

Rahr, I'm stubborn.

I'd stay away from that mountain if I were you.



I guess I have another reason to pick up the books then. I take it you're a fan?

I'm reading Book Nine right now, "White Knight." I haven't seen the series though I hear for a Sci-Fi Channel bit, its pretty decent. That and the actor on the cover (I work in a video store, ugh) looks almost identical to what I pictured Dresden to be. Maybe I'll pick up the series and you pick up the book, :)

But yeah, the books are my little dirty secret. They're not groundbreaking in a literary sense, but come on, its entertainment and Butcher's good enough at it to have sold nine novels so far and about six or seven pure fantasy bits for this other series he has.

Good writer, risk the five bucks and pick it up. Then you can be angry like me!
:P


The Deegan Forums are eating me up, lol. I figure I shouldn't walk into a church and say their god ripped off my god, proof or no.

(Made me feel better, though!)

I've read all of the Dresden Files (as you could guess from my sig) and I've read most on Dominic Deegan and I don't really see that many similarities.

Also I would like to point out that while both have "second sight" it does diferent things in the two stroies. In dresden it lets you see things as they really are like see through illutions and stuff. In Dominic Deegan it is a way to see the furture.

Maybe they are similar and I just didn't notice but i don't so much alike other than some of the basic premous(I think I spelled that totally wrong ><)

-EDIT-
Also I don't remember a divination rod in ether stroy. There's a blasting rod in Dresden but thats all a can think of. Maybe my memory is just bad.

Maybe I'm overreacting a bit? I dunno, I guess I can't shake those all off as coincidence.

Also, I'd stick a HD quote in my sig but I took up all the room with the sexy vacuum-spider. :)

You really are an idiot. I know how Mookie came up with Dominic Deegan - ive talked to him before at conventions, his character is from a DnD Second Ed game - a diviner- originally called Dominic The Diviner. He hadnt read the Dresden Files - he didnt even know they existed (and the time period between the book being first released- and it wasnt a big book, and the "Wizard For Hire" came out AFTER Dominic Deegan has been out for 3 years. I have a story about a guy who wakes up in a grassy field and cant remember his past or how he got there- and meets and falls in love with a catgirl - sounds like something ya know right? But it was written nearly 13 years ago and after that - the similarities end, much like DD and the Dresden Files.

Hey, Sage, what story is that? The one with the guy in the grass and the catgirl? Now you have my curiosity up...
:3

Spiffman and Sage are right. There are only so many ideas out there. Just because two are similar doesn't mean that one copied the other.

And now I am interested in this book series. I'll have to find a copy at my library now.

It depends on how similar the two are two each other. If it really is word for word like Fastchapter said, than something fishy's going on.

I think Fastchapter is right to blow his whistle. Lots of people blasted Eragon for being too similar to Star Wars and LOTR. For all you know, Mookie could have found out about the book later and used it to jump start himself. Or the writer could have stolen from Mookie instead...

[edit] According to wikipedia, The Dresden Files predates Dominic Deegan by two years. Either wikipedia is lying, or Sage hasn't told us everything yet.

Yes, it is possible for wikipedia to lie.

Well, I too am a fan of The Dresden Files, and am currently reading Proven Guilty. I see some similarities between Dominic Deegan and The Dresden Files, but not all that much.
I will probly start reading Dominic Deegan now anyway. If it *had* been a word-for-word translation of Dominic Deegan, I would read it all the more, as The Dresden Files were so cool.
I also watched episode #8 of the TV show(Storm Front). I was sorely disappointed - The book was *so* freaking awesome, but the TV show... meh.

As a note, I grabbed my paperback copy of #1, Storm Front, and according to it, the first printing was in 2000. Dominic Deegan started in 2002. So Wikipedia is correct in this case.


-RobbieThe1st

Well, it's entirely possible that Dominic Deegan is loosely based off of that book. If Sage is to be believed, then it is nothing more than mere coincidence. But even if the start was based off The Dresden Files, the characters now have taken on a life of their own and developed their unique personalities -- far from those (I assume) of those in the book. Whatever similarities there were to begin with have since disappeared in favor of a character driven story.

Also, I feel it's worth noting that I'm a fan of this webcomic, but have never read The Dresden Files, so maybe I'm just full of it.