Legal Matters

This story has it all, but it's all horrible. 57-year-old Kenneth McClure, owner of Legends Comics & Cards in St Louis, MO was found shot dead in a field yesterday. However, that's just the centerpiece of a circle of lurid crime that is TRU ready. McClure had recently been charged with the statutory rape of a 13 year old girl (which took place in the shop, where he lived in the basement), and had held police in a stand-off at the store when they came to arrest him -- holding a gun to his head for three hours.

After a delay due to a procedural matter, the Superman lawsuit is back on. This case is more complicated than a DC crossover event, but the bottom line is that depositions by the heirs of Siegel and Shuster -- Joanne Siegel, Laura Siegel Larson, Jean Peavy and Mark Peavy -- are now taking place.

There seems to have been a recent rash of comics show crimes, what with a daring theft at NYCC. Alvin Buenaventura reports that two copies of the rare and valuable KRAMERS ERGOT were stolen from his booth at APE. Let's call this one a brazen heist.

Did Zack Snyder get the Superman gig because he's the only director in town who could get the baggage-heavy franchise back in production before 2011? That's what Claude Brodesser-Akner is reporting over at Vulture. And why 2011? It's not because of the Mayan calendar, but rather a deadline of another sort. Based on their filings for copyright reversion (which Warner Bros. has pulled out every trick in the book to stop) the Siegel family will regain control of their half of Superman in 2013, with the Joe Shuster heirs expected to get theirs back soon after. So a movie has to get made before then.

You cannot say that indicted former Illinois governor Rod Bagojevich is not a smart and pragmatic man. Although recently convicted on a single count of federal corruption, Blago, as he is known to fans, had a mistrial on 23 others, so he's still out and about. And what does a pol do while out on bail to feed the family? He takes it to the people, and makes a little spending money by signing autographs at Wizard World Chicago/Chicago Comic-Con. Blago is well aware that cashing in on celebrity is the best follow up to a political fall, and while thwarted in his attempt to appear on 'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!, has been a contestant on The Apprentice. So he's gone where all reality stars go.

If the long, long battle over the rights to Superman were a DC "event" comic, we would be into the colon-bedecked spin-offs by now. On Friday, legal hotshot Marc Toberoff -- who,...

Judge Barbara Crabb has made a decision following the June court appearance by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane over profits for the characters Dark Ages Spawn, Tiffany and Domina. Gaiman held that these cast-members of the Spawn-i-verse were derivative of Medieval Spawn and Angela (characters that he co-owns, as ruled after the epic 2002 court battle), thus he was entitled to half the profits from these characters. McFarlane held the opposite and had refused to provide information on the profits. Judge Crabb sided with Gaiman, citing the similarity of the characters in a decision (readable here) which shows she spent a lot of time reading up on Spawn:

Ken Quattro uncovers the transcript of testimony in the 1939 lawsuit DC vs Victor Fox. The suit involved C suing the other publisher for a Superman knock-off which has been producer by the Eisner./Iger shop and then 22/year/old Eisner was called on to testify, an event covered in both the Andelman/Eisner biography and The Dreamer.

The week saw a scaled down direct-to-video sequel to 2002's "epic battle' between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman for copyrighs to characters Gaiman created in an issue of Spawn. Out of all the press reports we've seen, Gaiman's own account, blogged today, is by far the most clear and accurate -- well, he is a beloved author after all:

Disney has issued a memo supporting Marvel in the rights dispute with the heirs of Jack Kirby. THe document is included in the post; we don't have time to read it now, but we'll...

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.