Post by thwak is T.hawk on Aug 3, 2010 19:13:58 GMT -5
www.comicsalliance.com/2010/08/02/neil-gaiman-spawn-lawsuit-todd-mcfarlane/
For those of you that don't know, todd mcfarlane and neil gaiman are in the midst of constantly suing each other over the rights to "medieval spawn".
After gaiman won the previous case mcfarlane then made a new character called "dark ages spawn" which gaiman considered a complete copy of his creation. So he sued, and now the ruling is in.
What makes the ruling so great however, is that the judge used todd mcfarlanes own comic book cannon to explain how the character ripped off gaiman's work.
In fact, the basic concept of the Spawn series raises questions about the individuality
of Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn. In Spawn No. 9, plaintiff conceived of a new direction in
the story line, introducing a courtly Hellspawn of the middle ages, the twelfth century, to be
exact, who stopped to help a damsel in distress and who spoke “medieval.” According to the
rules of the Spawn universe, only one Hellspawn could be on Earth at the same time and the
Al Simmons Hellspawn was already around. Plaintiff suggested the idea of a middle ages
Hellspawn in the form of a knight who existed on earth 800 years before the Al Simmons
Hellspawn. After this knight made an appearance in Spawn No. 9, Tr. exh. 1, (and in issues
Nos. 14 and 15, tr. exhs. 2 & 3, and the Spawn Bible, tr. exh. 16), a second knight from the
same century and with many of the same characteristics then appeared in subsequent issues,
albeit with more of a history. This new knight was referred to as a “Dark Ages medieval
spawn” in a Spawn publication created to be sold with a toy, tr. exh. 28, inside front cover.
In both cases, the characters were knights who had committed acts in the past of which they
were ashamed and took actions to help the defenseless in an apparent desire for absolution.
The two characters are similar enough to suggest that either Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn
is derivative of Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn or it is the same character to which plaintiff owns
the copyright.
Much as defendant tries to distinguish the two knight Hellspawn, he never explains
why, of all the universe of possible Hellspawn incarnations, he introduced two knights from
the same century. Not only does this break the Hellspawn “rule” that Malebolgia never
returns a Hellspawns to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years,
as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4), it suggests that what defendant really wanted to
do was exploit the possibilities of the knight introduced in issue no. 9. (This possibility is
supported by the odd timing of defendant’s letter to plaintiff on February 14, 1999, just
before publication of the first issue of Spawn The Dark Ages, to the effect that defendant was
rescinding their previous agreements and retaining all rights to Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.)
If defendant really wanted to differentiate the new Hellspawn, why not make him a
Portuguese explorer in the 16th century; an officer of the Royal Navy in the 18th century, an
idealistic recruit of Simon Bolivar in the 19th century, a companion of Odysseus on his
voyages, a Roman gladiator, a younger brother of Emperor Nakamikado in the early 18th
century, a Spanish conquistador, an aristocrat in the Qing dynasty, an American Indian
warrior or a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I? It seems far more than coincidence that Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is a knight from the same century as Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.
For those of you that don't know, todd mcfarlane and neil gaiman are in the midst of constantly suing each other over the rights to "medieval spawn".
After gaiman won the previous case mcfarlane then made a new character called "dark ages spawn" which gaiman considered a complete copy of his creation. So he sued, and now the ruling is in.
What makes the ruling so great however, is that the judge used todd mcfarlanes own comic book cannon to explain how the character ripped off gaiman's work.
In fact, the basic concept of the Spawn series raises questions about the individuality
of Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn. In Spawn No. 9, plaintiff conceived of a new direction in
the story line, introducing a courtly Hellspawn of the middle ages, the twelfth century, to be
exact, who stopped to help a damsel in distress and who spoke “medieval.” According to the
rules of the Spawn universe, only one Hellspawn could be on Earth at the same time and the
Al Simmons Hellspawn was already around. Plaintiff suggested the idea of a middle ages
Hellspawn in the form of a knight who existed on earth 800 years before the Al Simmons
Hellspawn. After this knight made an appearance in Spawn No. 9, Tr. exh. 1, (and in issues
Nos. 14 and 15, tr. exhs. 2 & 3, and the Spawn Bible, tr. exh. 16), a second knight from the
same century and with many of the same characteristics then appeared in subsequent issues,
albeit with more of a history. This new knight was referred to as a “Dark Ages medieval
spawn” in a Spawn publication created to be sold with a toy, tr. exh. 28, inside front cover.
In both cases, the characters were knights who had committed acts in the past of which they
were ashamed and took actions to help the defenseless in an apparent desire for absolution.
The two characters are similar enough to suggest that either Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn
is derivative of Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn or it is the same character to which plaintiff owns
the copyright.
Much as defendant tries to distinguish the two knight Hellspawn, he never explains
why, of all the universe of possible Hellspawn incarnations, he introduced two knights from
the same century. Not only does this break the Hellspawn “rule” that Malebolgia never
returns a Hellspawns to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years,
as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4), it suggests that what defendant really wanted to
do was exploit the possibilities of the knight introduced in issue no. 9. (This possibility is
supported by the odd timing of defendant’s letter to plaintiff on February 14, 1999, just
before publication of the first issue of Spawn The Dark Ages, to the effect that defendant was
rescinding their previous agreements and retaining all rights to Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.)
If defendant really wanted to differentiate the new Hellspawn, why not make him a
Portuguese explorer in the 16th century; an officer of the Royal Navy in the 18th century, an
idealistic recruit of Simon Bolivar in the 19th century, a companion of Odysseus on his
voyages, a Roman gladiator, a younger brother of Emperor Nakamikado in the early 18th
century, a Spanish conquistador, an aristocrat in the Qing dynasty, an American Indian
warrior or a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I? It seems far more than coincidence that Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is a knight from the same century as Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.
