Kimota! (Don’t Sue Me!): Gaiman / McFarlane Lawsuit Reportedly Settled

It is (almost) official: the long-running lawsuit between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane over the rights to Spawn characters Angela, Medieval Spawn, and Cogliostro that Gaiman wrote into Spawn back in the early 90s is over. I don’t know what’s harder to believe: that this mess has been going on for just about ten years… or that there was once a time when someone thought that Spawn characters had value.

The long, twisted and complete tale is available elsewhere at more reputable Web sites, but in a very incomplete, semi-biased and opinion-laden nutshell written mostly from booze-addled memory: in the early 90s, McFarlane was probably the hottest artist in comics, so he decided that he would take a shot at doing the stories as well. But there was a problem: at the time, he shouldn’t have been allowed to write anything longer than his own name. Seriously: have you read Spider-Man #1? Constant drum sound effects of DOOM, DOOM, DOOM; it reads like it’s being told from the point of view of a twitching boner.

Things weren’t much better for his writing by the time he started Spawn for Image Comics, but McFarlane had one advantage most comic writers don’t have: he was filthy, stinking rich (Seriously: he’s the only person who got a three-million dollar ball other than Kobe Bryant’s ex-wife). So early in the run, McFarlane brought in Gaiman, Alan Moore and Frank Miller to do a few issues to punch up the plots and scripts… and then allegedly claimed that regardless of the contracts, all that work was for hire, and therefore he owned it, and all the subsidiary rights.

Gaiman disagreed, so at some point McFarlane allegedly tried to settle with Gaiman with the rights to the Miracleman character that Todd (thought he) bought from Eclipse Comics at auction after Eclipse folded. But then Todd supposedly backed out of the deal, so a lawsuit started, and Marvel Comics inserted themselves into the whole mess, and, well, here we are today.

So now every comics fan in the modern world can breathe a sigh of relief and finally say: “Fuck Spawn. How does this affect our ability to get new Miracleman / Marvelman reprints of the Moore and Gaiman runs, and how does it affect Gaiman and Mark Buckingham’s ability to finish their planned run on the book that was aborted midstream when Eclipse went under?”

The answer is: how the fuck should I know?

Look: Marvel Comics acquired original Marvelman creator Mick Anglo’s share of the rights back in 2009. However, the 80s run was published by Dez Skinn, who gave some ownership to Alan Moore and original artist Garry Leach. When artist Alan Davis got involved, supposedly he got a slice, too. Moore claims he gave his share of the book to Gaiman and Buckingham, and Eclipse had a share that went to McFarlane, and there’s no official word I’m aware of if those rights are even a part of this or any other official, on-the-books deal.

And when you chuck in that the entire Miracleman / Marvelman character was a cheap and unauthorized knockoff of Captain Marvel, who’s owned now by DC Comics? My guess is that if you want to read Moore’s and Gaiman’s Marvelman books? I’ll sell you my original Eclipse issues for an even thousand American.