Tag: Todd McFarlane

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:

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:

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.