NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal appeals court in New York has reinstated a lawsuit against comic book publisher Marvel Entertainment by a man who claims he owns the rights to the "Ghost Rider" character.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a 2011 lower court decision that dismissed a lawsuit brought by Gary Friedrich.
The comic features a motorcycle-riding character with a flaming skull. The cover of its 1972 debut says it was conceived and written by Friedrich.
He sued in 2007, claiming he was owed of cut of the box office proceeds from the film version starring Nicolas Cage.
The lower court found that he relinquished his rights in a 1979 agreement with Marvel. But the appeals court found that the contract language was open to dispute.
With those words a comic book industry jaded over recent defeats to the Siegel and Kirby families learnt that Gary Friedrich has had a win over Marvel Comics. This now means that the case goes to trial, with a date yet to be determined and this is possibly the best outcome that Friedrich could have hoped for - it puts the case back onto Marvel's agenda. However the brand has been diluted somewhat with the failure of the second Ghost Rider movie, so it's possible that Marvel might want to settle and let it all go away.
Nope, that won't happen. This is Nu-Marvel, the Disney era, and Disney are nothing if not fierce when it comes to protecting what they believe is theirs. They own Ghost Rider, and even if the movie costs money to make and release, which, in the case of Ghost Rider II it did (it grossed just over $51,000,000 at the box office against a $57,000,000 budget) then they'll do it.
To hand over one character will lead to more and more creators coming after them for their own creations, and that could make for some tricky times for Marvel/Disney. And something to consider, Thanos was published, as an illustration, before he appeared in a Marvel Comic, so perhaps Jim Starlin should start talking to people...and, somewhere, Steve Gerber is grinning.
Wanting an update on the Newton Comics book? Then you're in the right place. We're almost halfway towards achiving full funding via Pozible,
but there's still a long way to go yet. If you can't donate then that's
fine, just spread the word as far and as wide as possible. The URL
for the book funding is here: http://www.pozible.com/project/23150/120085
In the meantime I've added a lot more incentives. There's original art from the likes of Norm Breyfogle, Michael Golden, Herb Trimpe, Fred Hembeck, Tom Grindberg, Dave Simons, Ron Frenz, Tom Smith, Alex Saviuk, Ron Wilson, Mike McKone, Mark Bagley, Alan Weiss, Steve Rude, plus signed comics from John Romita Sr, Walter Simonson and Jerry Ordway, and some rare comics such as the first four issues of Hellblazer, the first five issues of Alan Moore's Miracleman and more. There's 25 days to go, so pop over, be part of history and make a pledge.
Melbourne
and Australian based folk might want to see if you can get your PR
people interested - this was a Melbourne based company after all and has
all the right ingredients for a juicy story - sex, drugs, rock and
roll, comic books, crime, brothels, politics - you name, Newton did more
than dabble in it. Americans with an interest in comic book history?
Well this is the FIRST full length book about an Australian
publisher and, don't forget, they managed to take Marvel Comics for over
$30,000 in 1975. That wasn't chump change. Comic books were never
like this before, or since.
Get in there and share the love.
