Final Rest: Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore Settle Walking Dead Lawsuit

There is nothing more heartwarming in this world than seeing a childhood friendship grow into adulthood, turn into a productive working relationship, lead to an amicable parting of the ways as one friend pursues his dreams of producing professional comics work for page rates while the other turns their mutual prior work into a license to print money, then meet again in a Federal courtroom with mutual exclamations of affection like “[You are] a proud liar and fraudster,” and “[Your] lawsuit is ridiculous,” all before concluding in that most beautiful of Hollywood of endings: with one friend writing a check so the other can feel free to fuck off and die.

Or, in other words: Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore have settled their lawsuit over profits from and ownership over The Walking Dead.

As you might remember, Moore, the artist on the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic book, sued Kirkman back in February claiming first that Kirkman and the TV show’s producers had promised Moore 60 percent of net profits on the comics series and 20 percent of the net on the TV show, and hadn’t paid him or even provided profit statements on the properties to show whether he was owed any money or not. Moore’s allegations then expanded to claim that he was due half the properties’ rights due to that nonpayment. Kirkman, via his attorneys, replied to the allegations with hundreds of pages of legal documents which can safely be summarized as, “nuh-uh!”

At the time the lawsuit was filed, I pointed out that making any deal for a net portion of profits on any major entertainment project was roughly akin to saying, “I’ll work for free;” any line in any contract stating, “You will receive a percentage of the net” should be immediately followed with, “and I won’t come in your mouth.” Part of me is convinced that the reason George Lucas keeps digitally screwing with his movies is so when Mark Hamill comes sniffing around for cab fare, George can say, “Fuck you. This is a different movie than the one you signed a contract for. It’s a ‘special’ edition… the special part is that I get all the money.”

So I figured Moore was tilting at windmills with this lawsuit, but it seems he came away with something:

Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore are pleased to jointly announce that they have reached an amicable agreement in their respective lawsuits and all parties have settled the entire matter to everyone’s mutual satisfaction. Neither side will be discussing any details but will instead happily and productively spend their time focused on their own work and move on in their lives.

So it looks like Kirkman can focus on his work of producing comics and working the writers’ room of The Walking Dead TV show, while Tony Moore can focus on his new vocation: masturbating furiously onto a pile of money.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)