The Tuesday Comics & Comic-Related TV/Movies News

[Guest starvenger]

Congratulations to Neil Gaiman for winning his case against Todd McFarlane. In a purely coincidental move, Mike Grier was traded by the Edmonton Oliers (of which McFarlane is a minority owner) for draft picks...

 

WTF?! of the week: Girls Gone Wild: The Movie. 'nuff said.

 

Song of the Week: Ideal Waste of Time by treble charger, since it describes what doing this report at work is.

 

Having said that, it's a bloody slow week. Let's get started...

 

Comics

DC/Wildstorm/Vertigo

- Catwoman and Detective Comics writer Ed Brubaker extended his exclusive agreement with DC. (Newsarama)

 

Marvel

- Ethan Van Sciver and Marvel have apparently "severed" their working relationship. Based on the article and Van Sciver's comments, it would appear that he was fired for being unable to draw 6 books a year as the New X-Men "fill-in" artist. Keron Grant is the new fill-in artist for New X-Men, which means that if they get rid of Frank Quitely, they'll actually have some decent artists all around on the title. (Newsarama)

 

Others

- Free Comic Book Day 2 will take place on May 3, 2003, which is one day after the release of X2. (Comics Continuum)

 

Television

- DVDs and VHS versions of X-Men: Evolution will hit stores next spring. (Comics Continuum)

 

- J. Michael Straczynski's series Jeremiah has been renewed for a second season. Joining the cast is Sean Astin, who was Mikey in the Goonies and was in some fantasy movie last December. (Comics Continuum)

 

- Some people just don't know when their 15 minutes are done. Kel Gleason from Survivor 2 has a role in Mutant X. (Reality News Online)

 

Movies

- Marvel has made a deal with Universal to develop films based on the characters Sub Mariner and Prime. Yes, Prime. I'm sure Sassquatch can fill you in on this guy if you'd like. Anyways, he's pretty lame, but I could see him going over with the kids. (CHUD/Comics Continuum)

 

Places I normally get this shit from: C.H.U.D., Comics Continuum, Dark Horizons, IGN Filmforce, Movie Poop Shoot, Newsarama, Pulse, theForce.net

 

Recommended review sites

Movie Poop Shoot's Title Bout appears every Wednesday.

CHUD hosts Sean Fahey's Weekly Comics Transmission

[Guest Sassquatch]

Neil did it~!

 

w00t~!

 

This is a nice way to start off the week with news of Toad's ass kicking in court. I haven't read any of the details on the case but I will later.

 

Congratulations to Neil!

 

Now you might alll hopefully be able to enjoy the experience that is Miracleman.

[Guest starvenger]

Newsarama has stuff with all the details, if you're interested. You may also want to check out www.neilgaiman.com for commentary from the man himself

[Guest Sassquatch]

I went to Newsarama and I didn't see an article on Neil's court win against Toad.

 

I also went to Neil's site but I couldn't find the damn link to him talking about his court win over Toad.

 

Any help?

[Guest starvenger]

It was on the sidebar.

 

Here's the link to the wrap-up (which also has links to the case).

 

Here's the release from the publicist:

 

A federal jury has returned a liability verdict in favor of writer Neil Gaiman on all nine of his claims against the creator of the SPAWN comic character franchise, Todd McFarlane and McFarlane’s companies TMP International, Inc., McFarlane Worldwide, Inc., and Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc. Mr. Gaiman also prevailed on each of the counterclaims and affirmative defenses asserted against him. The verdict is seen as a substantial victory for comic creators rights, and may also substantially benefit a number of not-for-profit charitable organizations. Mr. Gaiman has been on record since the inception of the case that any monies remaining from those he receives from the suit after his attorneys’ fees are paid, will all be donated to comics-related charities, including in particular the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (www.cbldf.com).

 

The case centered on Mr. Gaiman’s conception in 1993 of three characters and their back-stories that became central to the SPAWN comic book series: ANGELA, COGLIOSTRO, and MEDEIVAL SPAWN. As originally presented by Mr. McFarlane, when government secret agent Al Simmons was killed, he made a pact with the devil to become an immediate warrior in hell’s army after a return to earth so he could see his wife one more time. He returned to Earth with superpowers.

 

In addition to the new characters, Gaiman conceived that Mr. McFarlane’s original “Al Simmons” character was not the first “SPAWN” in history, but rather was one of many. By developing ANGELA, Mr. Gaiman also created beings known as “warrior angels” who hunt the “Hellspawn.” Furthermore, Mr. Gaiman came up with the concept that at least one Hellspawn, COGLIOSTRO, had devised a way to avoid being sent back to hell to join hell’s army, the fate that until then had always been inevitable for Mr. McFarlane’s Al Simmons/SPAWN lead character.

 

At trial, Mr. McFarlane acknowledged that he had brought in Mr. Gaiman and three of the industry’s other elite superstar writers to aid his then-new SPAWN series because of criticism that his art was not sufficient to overcome writing and story shortfalls. The plan worked, as each of the star writer’s issues sold hundreds of thousands more copies than the McFarlane-written issue just prior to theirs. Of the guest writers, however, only Mr. Gaiman, had added any new characters or concepts to the series. Indeed, shortly after the characters Mr. Gaiman conceived of were drawn and published by Mr. McFarlane through Image Comics, Mr. McFarlane wrote to his readers that Mr. Gaiman’s characters and concepts had given Mr. McFarlane enough story material to last him for a year. But they have lasted nine years, and they continue to find new life. For examples, the ANGELA character was spun off into her own mini-series, while a number of dark-ages SPAWNS have been featured in McFarlane comic books since Mr. Gaiman first conceived the concept in 1993. In addition to the COGLIOSTRO character’s on-going presence in the comic book series, he was the central narrator in the two seasons of the HBO animated series based on the SPAWN comic books, and also appeared in the New Line Cinema film “SPAWN.”

 

It was undisputed that none of the work or characters of Mr. Gaiman's had been done on a “work-for-hire” basis for Mr. McFarlane. Mr. McFarlane also testified at trial that he conceded he had promised that Mr. Gaiman would never have to sign any of Mr. Gaiman’s rights away when Mr. McFarlane induced him to write for the series in the first place.

 

The bases of the lawsuit included Mr. McFarlane’s alleged repeated failure to pay Mr. Gaiman for multiple uses of Mr. Gaiman’s characters and reprintings of Mr. Gaiman’s material, despite alleged agreements in 1992 and 1997 to do so. Mr. McFarlane denied that the alleged agreements rose to the level of contractual obligations. The case also focused upon admittedly false U.S. Copyright Office filings made on Mr. McFarlane’s behalf which wrongfully claimed that Mr. McFarlane had written the comic book in which the three characters first appeared, and had written the subsequent ANGELA issues, all of which had been solely written by Mr. Gaiman. Also put into evidence were copyright notices which appeared on several of the McFarlane publishing company’s reprint volumes which replicated the comic book stories Mr. Gaiman had written, but which had the original copyright notices changed to now assert sole copyright ownership by one of Mr. McFarlane’s companies.

 

The case was heard in two stages. After the close of the liability phase of the case and arguments to the jury by the attorneys, presiding District Court Judge John Shabaz instructed the jury to deliberate and answer questions provided by the parties’ attorneys. Sixteen of the questions related to Mr. Gaiman’s claims, and the jury answered all sixteen questions relating to Mr. Gaiman’s claims in Mr. Gaiman’s favor. On the seventeenth and final question, the jury expressly rejected Mr. McFarlane’s counterclaim that Mr. Gaiman had made misrepresentation of material fact during Mr. Gaiman and Mr. McFarlane’s 1997 negotiations. Mr. Gaiman’s across-the-board win also included on Mr. Gaiman’s claims that the parties’ 1992 and 1997 dealings both resulted in enforceable promises by Mr. McFarlane constituting contractual obligations, and that the McFarlane defendants breached both of those contracts.

 

The jury was then sent out to determine damages on only one of Mr. Gaiman’s claims: the unauthorized use of Mr. Gaiman’s name and biography to market Image Comics’ 2001 trade paperback book, ANGELA’S HUNT, a book which reprinted Mr. Gaiman’s material but that Mr. Gaiman had never seen or approved and had not been paid for.

 

At 7:01 p.m., the jury returned a monetary judgment on that single claim in Mr. Gaiman’s favor and against Mr. McFarlane, his companies, and the California comic book publisher of which Mr. McFarlane is President: Image Comics, Inc. The verdict was for forty-five thousand ($45,000) dollars, the exact amount requested by Mr. Gaiman’s attorneys for creating a book endorsement by Mr. Gaiman without permission.

 

In addition to awarding Mr. Gaiman $45,000 and his costs of the suit, the jury’s findings resulted in the District Court’s final judgment including an award to Mr. Gaiman of a joint copyright interest in the three comic book characters: MEDIEVAL SPAWN, COGLIOSTRO, and ANGELA. The Court judgment also awarded Mr. Gaiman a joint copyright interest in SPAWN comic book issues #9 and #26, and in ANGELA comic book issues #1, #2 and #3. Pursuant to an earlier stipulation by the attorneys, a subsequent arbitration proceeding has been ordered to determine all of the McFarlane defendants’ profits to date from each of those characters and publications since their inception, half of which profits will be awarded to Mr. Gaiman.

 

The future copyright damage award may be substantial, as the eleven-year-old SPAWN franchise was extremely successful, with the MEDIEVAL SPAWN and ANGELA characters appearing frequently as international toys, while the COGLIOSTRO character was prominently featured in the “SPAWN” animated series broadcast for two seasons on HBO television, and in the theatrical feature film “SPAWN.”

 

After the verdict Mr. Gaiman only stated “I am hugely appreciative of the jury’s decision, and of the efforts of the entire legal team. But I regret that bringing the matter to Court was made necessary.” Mr. Gaiman’s counsel in the matter, Ken F. Levin of Chicago, a nationally known trial lawyer and a long-time legal champion of comic-creators’ rights, added: “Neil and I are enormously grateful for the substantial time and attention which the jury gave to both sides, and we are particularly appreciative of the extraordinary efforts of our side’s Madison trial attorneys in the case, Allen A. Arntsen, Joan L. Eads, and Jeffrey A. Simmons.”

 

Following the verdict, Mr. McFarlane was quoted as saying, “I can’t seem to get around that it is a very complicated case that jurors didn’t get the full grasp of. We’ll see what time tells.” Mr. McFarlane’s attorneys have promised an appeal.

 

A final irony of the case is that the rights to the comic book character MIRACLEMAN, whose last comic books were written by Mr. Gaiman, and which Mr. McFarlane also asserted some claim to through a purchase he made from a defunct publisher’s earlier bankruptcy proceeding, were not resolved.

 

Neil Gaiman is a best-selling novelist, film and television writer who first achieved acclaim in the comic book field. His award-winning SANDMAN series was praised by Norman Mailer and described in the LA Times as “the best monthly comic in the world.” His recent adult novel, the New York Times bestseller AMERICAN GODS, was awarded the prestigious Hugo Award in August this year. His latest work is the internationally best-selling children’s book, CORALINE.

 

Todd McFarlane did work-for-hire at both DC Comics and Marvel Comics in the late 1980’s, achieving significant success on a Marvel title featuring Spider-Man. In 1991, Mr. McFarlane and several other artists left Marvel Comics to form the Image publishing imprint with Mr. McFarlane as its President. The success of Mr. McFarlane’s comic book title SPAWN led him to start a toy company, which had rapid and international success with action figures, including over twenty SPAWN series alone.

 

In 1997, the theatrical feature “SPAWN” was released by New Line Cinema, and continues to enjoy success in video and DVD rentals. Shortly after the film’s release, “Todd McFarlane’s SPAWN” began a two-year run on HBO as a late night animated series. Mr. McFarlane received substantial attention after the 1998 baseball season when he was the high bidder, at $3 million, for Mark McGuire’s 70th home run baseball, a record, along with paying hundreds of thousand of dollars for several Sammy Sosa baseballs hit that same year. Mr. McGuire’s home run record was broken by Barry Bonds in 2001.

 

Hope this helps...

[Guest gthureson]

'Following the verdict, Mr. McFarlane was quoted as saying, “I can’t seem to get around that it is a very complicated case that jurors didn’t get the full grasp of. We’ll see what time tells.” Mr. McFarlane’s attorneys have promised an appeal.'

 

Complicated? Lemme see if I get this straight:

 

You hire Neil Gaiman to write some issues of Spawn because your readership has correctly figured out that you can't write worth shit. Part of this agreement with Gaiman is that Gaiman does *not* have to sign any rights away with regards to ownership of characters or creator copyrights. This you admitted yourself.

 

Then, you don't pay him, even though you said you would. Then, you try and file copyright on characters and ideas that you had agreed were Neil's.

 

Then you reprint issues that Neil wrote, using Gaiman's name to advertise them, without asking anything first (he owns part of the copyright, remember?), and don't pay anything.

 

How is this complicated? Seems pretty straightforward to me. You tried to fuck Neil Gaiman, Gaiman sued you and won.

[Guest pochorenella]

Marvel

- Ethan Van Sciver and Marvel have apparently "severed" their working relationship. Based on the article and Van Sciver's comments, it would appear that he was fired for being unable to draw 6 books a year as the New X-Men "fill-in" artist. Keron Grant is the new fill-in artist for New X-Men, which means that if they get rid of Frank Quitely, they'll actually have some decent artists all around on the title. (Newsarama)

 

If this is the same Keron Grant that had that god-awful manga-on-crack run in Iron Man recently, then I don't find anything decent about him. If he somehow improved with the Mangaverse X-Men or anything else then I'm willing to cut him some slack, if not, then I say he absolutely sucks.

 

And way to go, Neil Gaiman. Maybe that means Marvelman will have a comeback in TPB mode, maybe from Marvel Comics, even!

[Guest starvenger]

Actually, now that I read that, you're right. I was thinking of veteran artist Kerian(sp) Dwyer when I wrote that. My bad. (plays mp3 of fans singing along with Kurt Angle's entrance music)

[Guest Sassquatch]

I'm happy for Neil and all but what is the status of the ownership as it pertains to Miracleman?

 

I still haven't found anything that has explained in-depth what is the status of Neil/Toad's ownership of Miracleman.

 

Thanks for posting the piece starvenger.

[Guest EL BRUJ0]

I'm happy for Neil and all but what is the status of the ownership as it pertains to Miracleman?

 

I still haven't found anything that has explained in-depth what is the status of Neil/Toad's ownership of Miracleman

 

This is from the link that starvenger provided in his third post in this thread.

 

The damages portion of the Gaiman vs. McFarlane trial ended quickly Thursday evening with a short hearing and jury decision on a relatively minor aspect of the case. That's because after a short recess, Gaiman decided to keep his copyright interest in characters he created for Todd McFarlane's Spawn comic--Medieval Spawn, and Cagliostro--rather than seeking breach of contract damages from McFarlane.  Prior to the trial, Gaiman and McFarlane had stipulated that if it were determined that Gaiman had copyright interest in the three characters that one of his options would be to keep his interest and determine how much he was owed by McFarlane's companies by an audit of all uses of the creations in which Gaiman has a share.  His other option would have been to seek breach of contract damages from McFarlane for failure to live up to the terms of the contract in which Gaiman gave up rights to Medieval Spawn and Cagliostro.  Under the option Gaiman chose, the rights for Miracleman that McFarlane purchased from Eclipse remain in McFarlane's hands.

 

So McFarlane appears to still own Miracleman, however...

 

Why did Gaiman choose to keep the character rights instead of seeking breach of contract damages (in addition to royalties due)?  Although the amount of money he left on the table was large, it may pale next to what McFarlane is willing to give to get back unencumbered rights to a portion of his Spawn creation.  One of the most emotional points in the trial was when McFarlane described discovering that he was no longer sole owner of all versions of Spawn, a character he'd created over twenty years ago in high school, and on which he'd built his comic, toy, and media empire.  Threatened with forever sharing the rights to Medieval Spawn, Cagliostro, and Angela, characters that have taken on significant roles in the Spawn universe, McFarlane may be willing to cut a deal better than the one Gaiman could have enforced, and without all of the accounting issues that will otherwise have to be resolved.

 

So Neil now has some leverage in attempting to...

 

What will Gaiman ask for in a deal?  He's still likely to ask for the rights to Miracleman as part of any settlement.  He's made it clear that he wants to acquire unencumbered rights to the property, reprint the old issues, and create new materials (see "Marvel Snags Neil Gaiman").  Gaiman created Marvels and Miracles LLC, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, to own and manage the rights to Miracleman, and has promised that after creators are compensated, proceeds will go to benefit two favorite industry charities -- the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and ACTOR.  It seems unlikely that he would not pursue that goal now.

 

Neil has Todd by the balls (Medieval Spawn, Cagliostro, and Angela), and if Todd wishes to gain complete ownership he'll more that likely have to give up the rights to Miracleman.

 

 

Now this is just what I infered from the article, so if I'm mistaken don't hesitate to correct me fellows.

[Guest Sassquatch]

So I finally got around to reading a couple articles on the trial and the ramifications of it along with talking to several of my buddy's who know what's up. If things work out for Neil and Toad doesn't put up a fight, Marvel/Gaiman could secure the rights to Miracleman by the end of the year and it's a given that Marvel will most likely incorporate MM into the Marvel Universe.

 

Again, congratulations to Neil on his victory.