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.

Over the past week, creators have been going back and forth about what the judgment means to Artists’ Alley, and those opinions have run the gamut from “Nothing” to “OH MY GOD GET LAWYERS WITH GUNS AND TEETH AND MORE GUNS AND YIFF HERPES!!!1!!1!!” And regardless of where they landed on that continnum, the one near-constant suffix has been: “Oh yeah; and Marvel’s a bunch of dicks for doing this.”

Look! Up in the sky! It’s the Quesada signal!

Let me put this as simply as I can: Marvel is not looking to make any new policy announcements through this lawsuit — a lawsuit that began five years ago.

As a case in point, the Internet and the creative community became incredibly concerned when Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, thinking that Marvel now wouldn’t return original art to its artists, even despite my publicly stating the contrary. As you can see, that was unfounded.

And check it out! The Big Q has his sidekick: Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley!

We in no way want to interfere with creators at conventions who are providing a positive Marvel experience for our fans. We want fans to speak and interact with the creators who wrote, penciled, inked, lettered, colored or edited their favorite stories. Part of that positive interaction is that a fan can walk away with a signed memento or personalized sketch from an artist.

All this sounds somewhat positive for our continuing convention experience, and for the ability of creators to make a decent dollar at conventions… and, of course, it ultimately means nothing. After all, as the owners of these intellectual properties (Which is how I’ve always referred to them: “Dad? I did all my chores… Can we go to the store and buy some intellectual properties?”), comics publishers have always had the right to swoop in and turn Artists’ Alley into the legal OK Corral.

But it does serve as a reminder that the Gary Friedrich matter is an individual court issue. I can only say from a long-abandoned career at the edges of the courts that, if a company is sued for almost any reason, even if that reason is utterly justified, their lawyers will respond with every counter-allegation they can possibly think of. It is standard procedure in the cases in which I was familiar: if someone claims they slipped and fell on your floor? You reply by saying not only did it not happen, but the guy faked it, and if he didn’t fake it it’s because he was an idiot, and if he wasn’t an idiot it’s because he was drunk, and if he wasn’t drunk he was pushed by aliens.

So to my admittedly untrained and ignorant eye, this is just an individual case where Marvel did what companies do and came out somewhat on top… and I can also say that, to my limited experience, the reason almost every lawsuit settles is because every decent lawyer knows that a judge or a jury is likely to do absolutely anything. Friedrich could have come out on top because some jurors thought he was a nice old guy who created their grandson’s favorite superhero… or he could have gotten a hanging judge who ordered him to pay all Marvel’s attorneys’ fees for exposing the court to Yiff Herpes.

Bottom line? I don’t know shit… and neither do any of the rest of us. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out.