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Gaiman v. McFarlane Decision Handed Down
aronc writes "In a case of speedy justice a jury today ruled that Neil Gaiman was in the right on all 9 counts in the case he brought against Todd McFarlane. More details at ComiCon Pulse and ICv2. This case revolved around ownership stakes for Medieval Spawn, Angela, Cagliostro, and further contracts involving the rights to Miracle Man."
True - I'm also told that there may be other issues affecting reprints of the earlier (Alan Moore) works. Still, any result that gives Gaiman the right to continue the Miracleman story is good for me, whether it's an enforcement of the '97 contract or something more punitive.
Yes, there are still some other legal hassels involved. It seems there is some question as to whether the person who sold the MM rights to Eclipse back in the day actually had them to sell. If he didn't that would of course void all the Elipse owndership and all the subsequent transfers from there on.
jello.
aka aron.
I don't suppose any legal eagle sites out there have a more in-depth look at this one? Legal and/or copyright sluts (myself included) want to know if this decision means anything other than a bunch of fanboys (myself towards the front of the line) finally get to buy the Miracleman trade paperbacks we've been coveting.
Honestly, this isn't a copyright issue. Copyrights are at stake, but the judicial decisions are all contract law. The two big points were basically if McF & Gaiman had 'contracts' based on agreements they made when Neil originaly wrote the Spawn issue and in 1997 when they supposedly settled this issue (which Todd later reneged on).
jello.
aka aron.
From http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/miscfaq7.htm
r ch-mark.ht ml), are still pending.
The rights to MIRACLEMAN are a tangled mess.
The story begins with CAPTAIN MARVEL. In 1953, DC managed to finally stop
Fawcett from publishing CAPTAIN MARVEL. After a drawn-out legal battle, the
courts held CAPTAIN MARVEL to violate DC's SUPERMAN copyright. At this
point, Fawcett decided that continuing the appeals process was not
worthwhile and settled with DC (see section 5-25).
British publisher L. Miller & Sons had been publishing black and white
reprints of CAPTAIN MARVEL. With Fawcett out of the CAPTAIN MARVEL
business, L. Miller & Sons was left without anything to reprint. So they
decided to make their own hero, and approached artist Mick Anglo to create
one. What Anglo came up with was MARVELMAN. Anglo's CAPTAIN MARVEL "clone"
was quite successful; MARVELMAN ran until 1963.
When MARVELMAN was revived and revamped in the 1982 (by Alan Moore and Gary
Leach), as a feature in Dez Skinn's WARRIOR, the rights to the character
apparently came to be held jointly by Skinn, Moore, and Leach (each holding
a third). When Alan Davis took over from Gary Leach, Leach's share of the
rights was apparently transferred to Davis.
However, there is a complication. Depending upon who is telling the story,
Dez Skinn either:
(a) believed that MARVELMAN was in public domain when WARRIOR revived the
character,
(b) bought the rights to MARVELMAN from Mick Anglo (and shared them with
Moore and Leach), or
(c) promised to buy the rights from Anglo, but never paid him for them.
If (a) or (b) is correct-and MARVELMAN was in the public domain when it was
revived for WARRIOR-then the rights were shared equally by Skinn, Moore,
and Davis. However, if (c) is correct, then Anglo may have a claim on
some-if not all-of the MARVELMAN/MIRACLEMAN rights. catherine yronwode
(former editor-in-chief of Eclipse) has said that Dez Skinn represented (b)
being true when Eclipse was negotiating the purchase of Skinn's portion of
the rights.
Assuming that MARVELMAN/MIRCALEMAN rights really were held jointly by
Moore, Davis, and Skinn (which most of the principles involved apparently
believed), then here's what happened:
Moore's MARVELMAN story was never completed in WARRIOR. In 1985, Eclipse
and Alan Moore, revived the WARRIOR revival as MIRACLEMAN. The change from
MARVELMAN to MIRACLEMAN was made in deference to Marvel Comics, because
both publishers involved felt that a superhero named "MARVELMAN" might
infringe on Marvel's US trademark.
Marvel had first objected to the use of "MARVELMAN" as a comic book title
back when Skinn had published "MARVELMAN SPECIAL" in 1983.
Eclipse Comics bought Dez Skinn's 1/3 share of the MARVELMAN rights. Then,
some time later, Eclipse bought Alan Davis' 1/3 share (at the time, Davis
and Moore were embroiled in a dispute over whether to allow Marvel to
reprint Moore and Davis' run on CAPTAIN BRITAN, and Davis wanted as little
to do with Moore as possible). This left Eclipse with 2/3 of the rights,
and Moore with 1/3.
When Moore finished his MIRACLEMAN story (at issue 16), and chose Neil
Gaiman to replace him, he transferred his part ownership of the characters
to Gaiman (or to Gaiman and his collaborator, Mark Buckingham). When
Eclipse went bankrupt in 1994, the series ended in mid-story with issue 24.
However, issue 25 of MIRACLEMAN existed in nearly complete form. As Eclipse
was going under, yronwode mailed the finished art for MIRACLEMAN #25 to
Gaiman. Presumably, he still has it.
According to catherine yronwode, Gaiman had approved a spin-off series
called MIRACLEMAN TRIUMPHANT that took place in the time period between the
end of Gaiman's first storyline and the beginning of his second. MIRACLEMAN
TRIUMPHANT was written by Fred Burke and illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.
(who shared the rights to this project with Eclipse and Gaiman). Two issues
were scripted, and one issue was finished, but never released. The artwork
is still in possession of yronwode, and she has stated that she intends to
mail it to Fred Burke whenever someone finally untangles the MIRACLEMAN
copyright problems, and agrees to publish MIRACLEMAN TRIUMPHANT.
At the time of the Eclipse bankruptcy, Eclipse held with two-thirds of the
rights to MIRACLEMAN, and Gaiman held one-third of the rights (either on
his own, or jointly with Buckingham). Then in 1996, Todd McFarlane
Productions purchased all of Eclipse's assets at a bankruptcy auction for
$40,000. These assets included whatever share of MIRACLEMAN that Eclipse
owned, along with other Eclipse-owned characters like as Airboy, the Heap,
Valkyrie, Sky Wolf, etc.
Rumor has it that McFarlane thought he was getting all rights to MIRACLEMAN
(other than those rights held by Gaiman--or Gaiman and Buckingham).
However, since then, Dez Skinn has reportedly claimed that some or all of
the MIRACLEMAN rights have reverted to him. To further complicate matters,
Anglo has claimed that he owns ALL rights to MARVELMAN/MIRACLEMAN. Finally,
McFarlane and Gaiman are involved in a dispute over Gaiman's rights to
Angela (which he co-created in SPAWN #9 on a handshake deal), and are not
currently on very friendly terms.
Although there have been numerous second-hand reports that McFarlane has
offered to trade whatever rights he holds to MARVELMAN/MIRACLEMAN to Gaiman
in return for Gaiman dropping any claims on Angela, the rights to the two
characters are in no way linked.
Interestingly enough, in October 1997, Todd McFarlane Productions filed for
a US registered trademark on "MIRACLEMAN" under classes 016 (printed
matter, namely, comic books and posters), 025 (clothing, namely, shirts,
athletic shirts, T-shirts, caps and jackets), and 028 (toys, namely, action
figures and accessories therefore). The proposed trademarks were published
for opposition on 06/02/1998, and according to the US PTO's online database
(http://trademarks.uspto.gov/access/sea
So who owns MIRACLEMAN? Nobody knows...
My Journal
I could care less who wins this...just a two huge egos fighting over something any two normal people would have fixed with a 20 min conversation...anyway I own issue #9 of spawn...the issue that caused all this...is it worth anything?..I got laid off from my dotcom job like 2 years ago and in desperate need of cash.
If you would actually read the links you would understand why this happened. One reasonable man (Gaiman) and one huge ego (McFarlane) did work this out in a meeting in 1997. Then last year McFarlane decided he didn't like that deal anymore and started acting as if it never happened. Thus, he got taken to court.
jello.
aka aron.
I noticed in one of the links that the jury was made up of all women. Now I know it's a stereotype that girls don't like comics as much as boys but Mcfarlane's lawyer couldn't have been happy about that.
:)
Then they are quoting comic books during the trial
In his closing statement, Gaimans' attorney said the case was about "keeping promises, being fair... and telling the truth."
McFarlane's lawyer's closing argument referred again to Gaiman's statement in the script to SPAWN #9: "It's your playground; I'm in for an afternoon on the swings."
Seemed funny to me.
The long MiracleMan faq posted below is good for the miracle man side of things. Here's a link to a fairly short summery of what lead to the case itself. I apologize for not putting one in the initial submission.. I could have sworn /. had posted some news about this when the case was first filed.
jello.
aka aron.
The most likely guess is that when Dez Skinn revived Marvelman/Miracleman in 1981, the rights had lapsed into the public domain. However, after having published the character for a while, he had then created interest in it. And, name and costume aside, the Alan Moore Marvelman/Miracleman was quite different to the Mick Anglo Marvelman.
Kimota! gives the impression that Gaiman would like the series to continue. Moore wouldn't mind seeing it in print again either. Gaiman could FINISH THE DAMN STORY ...
(I just bought Kimota! last Saturday, and was despairing of ever getting hold of the originals again ...)
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Thats nothing... I know several people in the Comic/Anime/Etc community here in Mexico and when a local Comic Convention wanted to have McFarlane come here to sign autographs and do a conference, the guy demanded (aside from his pay) that he and his family be "awarded" a one week vacation in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, with all expenses paid.
The Convention guys agreed, bought them the air tickets, booked the hotel... everything. So McFarlane comes to the opening of the Convention, signs 2 hours of autographs, and then leaves the friggin place!
Turns out that once he had the tickets, he called the airline and the hotel and changed the dates on his reservation! The guy just ignored his contract (Which required him to stay 3 days at the convention and do a conference) and took the vacation and the money! The Convention organizers tried to sue, but of course, this involves international law and treaties and it would have been far too expensive... So they decided to just drop matters...
Of course, the year after that, they invited Will Eisner, and he was absolutely great... He spent more than 3 hours talking about his work and answering questions... he even showcased work by local aspiring artists and gave them some good natured advice, and pointed out to the audience what he liked and disliked about the pieces.
No sig for the moment.
Remember that Gaiman is now doing the mysterious "1602" series for Marvel. The $ from this are meant to pay Gaiman's legal expenses in the case, and many assume that this means that once Gaiman clears the rights to Miracleman, it will be published by Marvel (which could also mean a return to the original "Marvelman").
If you recall, pre-Spawn Todd M. was working for Marvel. Believe me, nobody could touch his artwork in The Amazing Spider-Man (I believe there were other titles that came before). Before long, Todd was pencilling and inking, and understandably grew tired of his "new 9-to-5 box" (suggesting not his hours so much as the stagnation of his job).
Btw, and totally off-topic, even here Todd had webs flying like crazy around Spidey, especially when he was hanging upside-down, etc. The precursor to the chains...
His art was popular enough Marvel did their best to keep him, and gave him his own mag, "Spider-Man", sans prefix. I believe Todd got to write a few of these as well. But he didn't like the fact that his creative whims with Spidey were still kept in check by Marvel, and, iirc, Marvel was having a hard time paying him what he was worth.
*POOF* Todd goes solo and creates Spawn. What artist doesn't dream of a title where they have complete control, cradle to grave? It was several issues before Todd even let someone else do some artwork in the mag. I remember being surprised the first time I saw two names signed to a cover -- How could Todd let someone else control his "baby"?
Anyhow, heck, who in any field doesn't dream of being able to have final say-so on what happens at their job? If you want it done right [and have nobody to blame but you], do it yourself.
I would agree that Spawn's plot was often fairly juvenille (I haven't read in years, I'm afraid), but that's hardly the point. Todd can draw and dream up some pretty cool looking beasts, Spawn and Spidey being his two most popular. And this ability is so strong his success has bled right into other markets.
McFarlane is the Michael Jordan (or insert ball player of your generation) of comics, and what roundball player doesn't have a few inspirational pics of [a younger] Jordan tacked up on the wall?
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
Here we go-- this is as I understand it, and trimmed down considerably.
The background:
-Todd McFarlane is a comic writer and artist. He and six others left Marvel Comics in 1992 and cofounded a company called Image Comics, based on creative rights and ownership and whatnot. (He's the creator of "Spawn," if you're familiar with the comic, movie, or cartoon.)
-Neil Gaiman is a writer. He's worked mostly for DC Comics, and created the wildly popular "Sandman" series. He's since left comics, mostly, and these days writes novels that win lots of awards.
-Miracleman is an old character published by some of the big companies. In the 80s two writers took a swing at him-- Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman-- and created some very, very good work out of it, stories whose reputations have only grown in time. It was work for hire, though, and so reprint rights remained with DC Comics. Reprint rights since then have been shuffled about here and there for whatever reasons, and eventually landed in Todd McFarlane's lap.
The History:
-In 1992 Gaiman wrote an issue of "Spawn" for McFarlane. In doing this, he created several characters for the series that grew very popular. The characters continued to appear in "Spawn" and were even given their own series. McFarlane promised Gaiman a cut of the profits, but never wrote the check.
-In 1995 McFarlane and Gaiman reached an agreement (the "Oakland agreement"). Gaiman would give up most of his interests in the "Spawn" characters he created (except for a small percentage of profit), and in exchange, McFarlane would hand over his rights to Miracleman (which Gaiman wanted so that he could allow somebody to reprint the old stories). Again, McFarlane never bothered to cut a check, and apparently denies the agreement was made altogether.
-And so Gaiman filed suit. And he won yesterday. Apparently the punishment will be handed down next. From the sound of things, he's going to be basically asking that the terms of the Oakland agreement are held up. What Gaiman has wanted from the beginning has been reprint rights to some of his old stories.
So there you have it, basically. You can follow the links in the original story for updates. If you're interested, Gaiman keeps a very pleasant online journal.
If I may throw in my two cents-- McFarlane here has been greedy and hypocritical. He co-founded Image Comics as a creator's haven, and then proceeded to do to exactly what he'd always complained about during his time at Marvel. At least Marvel is up-front about their contracts.
It's not like McFarlane doesn't have the money. He dropped something like two million bucks for Mark McGwire's historic home run ball way back when. He runs a little publishing mini-empire, fueled by "Spawn's" success.
To the poster that called Gaiman the "little guy," that's a little distorted. Gaiman is about as big a name is comics as they come-- but he's also a reasonable fellow, and wished it wouldn't have come to this.
So that's that. Most of the comics industry these days thinks of McFarlane as a bloated, success-spoiled asshole, because of things like this. Yesterday, he got what's coming to him.