Ghost Riders In Artists’ Alley

We haven’t written almost anything about the Gary Friedrich / Marvel lawsuit because we are not lawyers, other comics news outlets have covered it better than we could have, and frankly, a major comic publisher winning a lawsuit against a destitute former creator isn’t, unfortunately, what you’d call isolated, groundbreaking news,

In a nutshell: the first guy who wrote the Ghost Rider character for Marvel sued Marvel claiming that they hadn’t properly registered a copyright to the character and that therefore ownership of the character had returned to him. It’s a lawsuit that’s been going on for some time, and about a week ago a judge issued a document saying that both parties agreed that Marvel owned the character, and that Friedrich actually owed Marvel $17,000 for selling Ghost Rider stuff at conventions. Which to the non-legally trained mind – like, for example, ours – seemed like getting hit in a crosswalk by a Ferarri and having a judge tell you to pay the rich guy for damage to his headlight.

So most of the comics Internet blew up, partially because of the 17 grand, but also because at face value, it looked like Marvel was going after creators for selling unlicensed materials at conventions. Which, frankly, would be bad; my walls are personally loaded with unlicensed drawings and paintings purchased at various conventions, and half of why I go to conventions is the opportunity to shake a creator’s hand and come home with an awesome convention souvenir… or at least a better convention souvenir than Yiff Herpes.