Gaiman over McFarlane

By: Rob Allstetter
Date: Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Source: Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman said that he was "hugely appreciative" of the jury's decision in last weekend's victory over Spawn creator Todd McFarlane in federal court in Wisconsin.

Gaiman won his federal court suit against McFarlane and his companies. The case centered on Gaiman's creation of three characters that became central to the franchise and McFarlane's alleged failures to pay Gaiman for use of the characters, his reprintings of Gaiman's material without attribution and McFarlane's falsely claiming copyright of materials written solely by Gaiman.

The District Court's final judgment awarded Gaiman a joint copyright interest in the three characters he created, Medieval Spawn, Cogliostro, and Angela, and in the SPAWN and ANGELA comic book issues he wrote.

A forthcoming arbitration will award to Gaiman half the profits to date from each of those characters and publications since their inception. Gaiman was also awarded $45,000 for the unauthorized use of his name and biography to market Image Comics' 2001 trade paperback, ANGELA'S HUNT.

"I am hugely appreciative of the jury's decision, and of the efforts of the entire legal team," Gaiman said. "But I regret that bringing the matter to Court was made necessary."

Ken F. Levin, Gaiman's counsel, said that the future copyright damage award may be substantial, as the characters Gaiman conceived of appeared frequently as international toys and were featured in the SPAWN animated series broadcast for two seasons on HBO, and in the feature film SPAWN.


Gaiman has been on record since the beginning of the suit that any monies remaining from those he receives from the suit after his attorneys' fees are paid, will be donated to comics-related charities, including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

McFarlane's attorneys have promised an appeal.