# Gaiman wins lawsuit vs. McFarlane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 4, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781 "2002-10-04T03:22:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/1 "2002-10-04T03:22:17Z")
šŸ˜ƒ [Gaiman wins on all counts](http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/1883.html) in his lawsuit vs. Todd McFarlane for breach of contract regarding copyrights to several characters Gaiman created. Just by coincidence I was checking out Neil Gaimanā€™s website today, and after following a couple of links found that just today a verdict was returned. I donā€™t have time to go into the details of the case, but I know there are quite a few Gaiman and comics fans here, so I just wanted to spread the news. Damages portion of trial was being held tonight, and probably will wrap up tomorrow. Way to go Neil!!! ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/2 "2002-10-04T05:06:18Z")
Iā€™m so glad to hear this, thanks for the news! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/3 "2002-10-04T05:15:21Z")
Gaiman didnā€™t create Miracleman (and even if you consider it a distinct and separate character from the 1950s Marvelman, creator credits for MM are a real ratā€™s nest) or most of its related characters, and Iā€™m not sure Medieval Spawn makes a lot of sense out of context of regular Spawn. I respect Gaiman immensely more as a creator than I do McFarlane, but Iā€™m not sure this decision is going to hold up to close scrutiny. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/4 "2002-10-04T10:40:17Z")
Gaiman didnā€™t create Miracleman. If you read closely, he and McFarlane at one point had an agreement to transfer _McFarlaneā€™s_ interest in Miracleman (note: Todd McFarlane really, really didnā€™t create Miracleman) which he acquired somewhere in the past, for concessions from Gaiman on royalties for his creations. This would tend to acknowledge that he did in fact have rights to those characters, which in turn establishes that McFarlaneā€™s previous use of the characters was problematic if he didnā€™t compensate Gaiman for them. Itā€™s the right decision. > [@](#): > > Iā€™m not sure Medieval Spawn makes a lot of sense out of context of regular Spawn. But this has no particular bearing on Gaimanā€™s creative interest in a character that he created in a story that he wrote. ---
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/5 "2002-10-04T10:58:41Z")
Who created Miracleman is not one of the relevant questions in this lawsuit. Who has rights to the Miracleman character and series _may_ be decided (in part) in the damages phase. But who created the character has nothing to do with it. (Think about who created Superman vs. who has rights to the character.) As for whether medieval spawn makes sense or not, the jury found that McFarlane agreed contractually to allow Gaiman to retain rights to any character he created for the issues of Spawn which he wrote. Whether the characters make sense or are otherwise of any use outside the context of the series is immaterial. (Also, I donā€™t think it was the medieval Spawn that was at issue, but rather other secondary character(s).) ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/6 "2002-10-04T13:15:03Z")
Since when did comics have to make sense? Guys flying around in spandex shooting beams out of their eyes-- _that_ makes sense? Legally, this appears to be a contractual spat- nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/7 "2002-10-04T19:50:32Z")
As I live in Madison, this has been in local papers. Iā€™m not up on comics at all, so can someone tell me why this was tried in Madison? Is Gaiman a local ā€œcelebrityā€ that I didnā€™t even know about. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/8 "2002-10-04T20:12:16Z")
Apparently Gaiman does live in Madison. I am unclear why the trial was there as he is the Plaintiff and the contract was negotiated in Missouri (maybe PART of it was hammered out in Wisconsinā€¦)??? ---
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/9 "2002-10-04T20:37:47Z")
Gaiman currently lives in or near Madison. He is a fairly well known author of fantasy novels and comic books. ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/10 "2002-10-05T01:52:52Z")
I thought Gaiman lived in Minnesota. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaiman-wins-lawsuit-vs-mcfarlane/130781/11 "2002-10-05T05:56:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WSLer \* > \*\*I thought Gaiman lived in Minnesota. \*\* Ditto that. IIRC, a lot of the fuss is over the Spawn character Angela, who was created by Gaiman and had, I believe, her own (mini?) series and at least one TPB.