For those of you who (or used to) collect comics, a fun thing recently happened. Way back when, when Image was just getting started, and Spawn was only a few issues old, Todd McFarlane asked 4 fellow ‘indie’ writers to penn issues 7–10 of Spawn, including such bigwigs as Frank Miller, Dave Sim & Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman penned issue #9, wherein we were introduced to Cogliostro, Angela and Medieval Spawn, who have since become rather major players in the world of Spawn. Apparently, there’s been a big legal battle over ownership of those characters, and royalties involved in their subsequent popularity. You can read the details of the trial here, and the outcome of the trial here.
In something that seems appropriately comic-like, Gaiman & McFarlane signed a comic and then posed together for a photo along with a fan after the court case.
What’s really fun about this is, if you recall, Image was all about getting control of your creations, and supporting and promoting the owner-creator of comics, etc. McFarlane was perhaps the most hardcore of all of the originals in voicing this. That McFarlane would now be accused of exploiting someone else’s creations, much like he accused Marvel back then is quite funny.
10,000,000 shares of Tannock.Net Enterprises to Brishen for alerting me to this story.
Wow, that’s a very interesting article — I wonder how often those sorts of trials end up with smiling & handshaking participants. It sounds like a sporting event: “Good game!” “Good game.”
Wow, that’s a very interesting article — I wonder how often those sorts of trials end up with smiling & handshaking participants. It sounds like a sporting event: “Good game!” “Good game.”