Legal Matters

Disney has issued a memo supporting Marvel in the rights dispute with the heirs of Jack Kirby. THe document is included in the post;...

It's been seven (!) years since Neil Gaiman prevailed in a lawsuit against Todd McFarlane over the rights to characters he created in Spawn, but this is one of those undead cases that still rises from the grave. According to a story in the Wisconsin State Journal, Gaiman has asked for another trial to settle the issue of how much money he's owed for these characters. But Round Two isn't is go yet, as the judge has merely called for a evidentiary hearing on June 14.

A lot more information is coming out regarding the presumed murder of former comics and animation writer Stephen Perry. And it is sad and disturbing. Tampa Bay has a jailhouse interview with Perry's ex-roomie, a confirmed OxyContin addict, and the unflattering picture he paints of Perry is unconvincing.

It's been quite a long time since we checked in on Michael George, comic shop owner, convention runner and accused murderer. Convicted once of killing his wife Barbara in 1990 years ago, a judge has upheld the defense's request for a new trial and George's bond has just been reduced from from $2.5 million to $500K. With bond approved, instead of rotting in jail while waiting for a new trial, George would be forced to wear a tether and confined to specific, court-mandated areas.

It would probably be fair to say that a lot of people were snickering a bit when it was announced that Jazan Wild (real name Jason Barnes) was suing Heroes for similarities between his carnival plot and theirs:

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, lists similarities including a carnival that can magically appear and disappear to collect protagonists, a young boy who develops special abilities, a carney or hero running through the woods chased by a mob, a circle of mirrors tied to the key plot, similarities in dialogue, and more.

As anyone who has been reading comics or watching tv for more than, oh, five minutes can attest, none of those elements are particularly novel or special. Fact: we edited a carnival story once ourselves and at least one of those elements was in it.

Heroes is cancelled, a surprise twist in the Siegel vs Warners legal battle and video from the Doug Wright Awards.

Via Colleen Doran comes word that htmlcomics.com has been shut down by the FBI. The site was a very popular online library of unauthorized comics scans, with hundreds of thousands of issues available at the click of a mouse:

The Comics Journal has run a statement from Eric A Chase, attorney for Christopher Handley, the Iowa man who pled guilty to "possessing drawings...

Over at Blog@ Jeff Trexler decodes some court filings which suggest that DC/Warners MAY expect the Superman case to go to trial. ...

Whatever you do today, read these essays by Charles Brownstein, Jason Thompson, and Carl Horn on the Christopher Handley case. Searching high and low,...

In yet ANOTHER case of stealing, artist Vera Brosgol noted via Twitter that Hot Topic had totally ripped off her T-shirt design. Brosgol's drawing...

Last week, we reported on some legal troubles for Diamond Distribution owner Steve Geppi, including what appeared to be a $500 million lawsuit filed...