Marvel Comics Obtains the Publishing Rights to Miracleman/Marvelman

[TheMojoPin]

Consider me stunned: (http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.8869.Marvelman_Now_A_Part_of_Marvel_C omics~excl~)

The biggest news of Comic Con International in San Diego was revealed moments ago and jaws are still on the floor-the world-renowned super hero MARVELMAN is now part of the Marvel Comics family! Marvel Comics has purchased the rights to MARVELMAN from creator Mick Anglo and his representatives, finding a home for one of the most sought after heroes in graphic fiction!

"It is an honor to work with Mick Anglo to bring his creation to a larger audience than ever before," said Dan Buckley, CEO & Publisher, Print, Animation & Digital Media, Marvel Entertainment Inc. "Fans are in for something special as they discover just what makes Marvelman such an important character in comic book history."

This is huge. The character was assumed to be locked up in legal limbo for the forseeable future but I guess Neil Gaiman's efforts to win control of the character and the back catalog with the help Marvel worked. Take THAT, McFarlane, you sonuvabitch.

For anyone unclear as to what this is all about, check out the Marvelman Wiki. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=98047#Miracleman:_The_Neil_Gaiman _years)

The long and short of it is that Alan Moore's run with the character in the 1980's is considered one of the greatest comic book stories of all time. It's been uncollected for decades due to the original publishing companies going bankrupt and multiple people claiming the right to the character and his back catalog (he's a British superhero created 55 years ago). Moore's run is just brilliant and one of the best deconstruction of the superhero genre to this day, and Neil Gaiman actually took over for Moore after he left the title and had a fantastic run himself that was never finished due to the publishing company going out of business. Gaiman has had the completed scripts all these years and has been waiting for this to be sorted out so he could finish his run on the character.

Oh, man, this is so great. I can't wait for these to be collected as the hardcovers they deserve to be in.

[instrument]

If this is the same miracleman I rwally enjoyed it up to about issue 11....then it started taking itself way too serious.

I never made it through the rest of the issues.

[Hottub]

I have no idea what you are talking about.
But that has never stopped me before.
Here I am to drop 'em and take a steaming dump on your thread.:devil2:



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[EliSnow]

This is awesome news, but where does this leave Gaiman and Moore? Don't they own rights? I really wouldn't like to see Marvel get this and lose the goodwill they have with Gaiman.

[EliSnow]

Okay, after thinking about this more, I'm not sure this settles all of the legal matters to the character.

They said they bought the rights to the character from its creator, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have the rights to all stories by the character. It's like buying the rights to Superman from Siegal and Schuster, but DC still has a portion of rights to the stories told under their umbrella.

So, Marvel may be able to tell new Marvelman stories, but not re-print the stories done by Moore, Gaiman, etc.

[TheMojoPin]

Okay, after thinking about this more, I'm not sure this settles all of the legal matters to the character.

They said they bought the rights to the character from its creator, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have the rights to all stories by the character. It's like buying the rights to Superman from Siegal and Schuster, but DC still has a portion of rights to the stories told under their umbrella.

So, Marvel may be able to tell new Marvelman stories, but not re-print the stories done by Moore, Gaiman, etc.

True, though the statements made so far by marvel and Quesada seem to be implying they have the ability to republish older Miracleman material.

Moore basically has nothing to do with this. He's essnetially said that whoever ends up legally able to publish the character is something that he doesn't want to be involved with and doesn't see a need to be involved with.

I don't think this is any kind of dealbreaker between Marvel and Gaiman since Marval had been effectively working with Gaiman to help support and fund his push to obtain the rights. Gaiman doing 1602 for Marvel was a big part of that. It seems that Gaiman has been working with Marvel to get the character and not they swooped in and stole it away from him.

[EliSnow]

Okay, some more thoughts. I just read this at Newsarama:

Marvel has reportedly purchased all publishing rights to the character.

Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley had this to say about the character's future, "We are talking to all the people involved in the '80s/'90s material. Alan (Moore), Neil (Gaiman), Mark Buckingham."

Reading this excerpt, it suggests to me that as of now, Marvel doesn't necessarily own all rights to all of the stories featuring Marvelman (hence the present tense of "are talking" as opposed to "we have purchased rights from everyone claiming t have a right." However, it looks like they have purchased the initial rights to the character (as opposed to subsequent derivative rights) but intend upon purchasing such derivative rights.

[EliSnow]

True, though the statements made so far by marvel and Quesada seem to be implying they have the ability to republish older Miracleman material.

In looking at the couple of things I've seen so far, I only seen references to owning the character, not all stories involving the character. You may be right, but so far, it's not clear.

Moore basically has nothing to do with this. He's essnetially said that whoever ends up legally able to publish the character is something that he doesn't want to be involved with and doesn't see a need to be involved with.

I don't think this is any kind of dealbreaker between Marvel and Gaiman since Marval had been effectively working with Gaiman to help support and fund his push to obtain the rights. Gaiman doing 1602 for Marvel was a big part of that. It seems that Gaiman has been working with Marvel to get the character and not they swooped in and stole it away from him.

Hopefully, this is true. I just thought with how Marvel had previously touted their collaboration with Gaiman to assist him on this project, his name would have come up more with the purchase.

[TheMojoPin]

Reading this excerpt, it suggests to me that as of now, Marvel doesn't necessarily own all rights to all of the stories featuring Marvelman (hence the present tense of "are talking" as opposed to "we have purchased rights from everyone claiming t have a right." However, it looks like they have purchased the initial rights to the character (as opposed to subsequent derivative rights) but intend upon purchasing such derivative rights.

Hopefully that's Marvel covering all the bases and being diplomatic to the people involved in the face of Todd McFarlane's raging dickdom in his quest to shanghai the character.

[EliSnow]

Hopefully that's Marvel covering all the bases and being diplomatic to the people involved in the face of Todd McFarlane's raging dickdom in his quest to shanghai the character.

Well, that's another thing. McFarlane claims he owns rights to the Marvelman/Miracleman stories. Unless Marvel pays McFarlane for such rights or gets a court order saying McFarlane has no rights, the matter isn't completely resolved.

And yet, you don't see his name anywhere.

[TheMojoPin]

Well, that's another thing. McFarlane claims he owns rights to the Marvelman/Miracleman stories. Unless Marvel pays McFarlane for such rights or gets a court order saying McFarlane has no rights, the matter isn't completely resolved.

And yet, you don't see his name anywhere.

Ugh, all I really want are the old stories collected and Gaiman's run finished. I really could not give a shit about anything new involving the character unless Gaiman is writing him or someone like Morrison or Warren Ellis is taking the reigns.

[Aqualad]

Well, that's another thing. McFarlane claims he owns rights to the Marvelman/Miracleman stories. Unless Marvel pays McFarlane for such rights or gets a court order saying McFarlane has no rights, the matter isn't completely resolved.

And yet, you don't see his name anywhere.

Todd tried to use Miracleman in Hellspawn and was shut down. Hopefully he'll do the right thing and not cause any further snags.

[Aqualad]

Ugh, all I really want are the old stories collected and Gaiman's run finished. I really could not give a shit about anything new involving the character unless Gaiman is writing him or someone like Morrison or Warren Ellis is taking the reigns.

Yeah. The published stuff is readily available on the Internet...I just want to see Gaiman and Buckingham finish the thing. Although it would be sweet to have a nice big Marvel hardcover of all the Moore/ Gaiman stuff.

[JustJon]

I'm hoping for an Omnibus covering the 25 issues of the Moore/Gaiman run, but we'll see what happens.

[TheMojoPin]

Yeah. The published stuff is readily available on the Internet...I just want to see Gaiman and Buckingham finish the thing. Although it would be sweet to have a nice big Marvel hardcover of all the Moore/ Gaiman stuff.

Oh, I've already read it. I just want to own it.

[Tall_James]

They're already selling Marvelman t-shirts online at Marvel.com (http://shop.marvel.com/cat/Marvelman-Exclusive-Adult-T-Shirt.html?referral_id=EM090730)

[EliSnow]

They're already selling Marvelman t-shirts online at Marvel.com (http://shop.marvel.com/cat/Marvelman-Exclusive-Adult-T-Shirt.html?referral_id=EM090730)

Quick work, but I guess they were able to prepare for it for awhile.

BTW, one of the best things about this development is that the character is Marvelman again.

[JustJon]

They're already selling Marvelman t-shirts online at Marvel.com (http://shop.marvel.com/cat/Marvelman-Exclusive-Adult-T-Shirt.html?referral_id=EM090730)

They were on sale at Comic Con.

[lleeder]

Consider me stunned: (http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.8869.Marvelman_Now_A_Part_of_Marvel_C omics~excl~)



This is huge. The character was assumed to be locked up in legal limbo for the forseeable future but I guess Neil Gaiman's efforts to win control of the character and the back catalog with the help Marvel worked. Take THAT, McFarlane, you sonuvabitch.

For anyone unclear as to what this is all about, check out the Marvelman Wiki. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=98047#Miracleman:_The_Neil_Gaiman _years)

The long and short of it is that Alan Moore's run with the character in the 1980's is considered one of the greatest comic book stories of all time. It's been uncollected for decades due to the original publishing companies going bankrupt and multiple people claiming the right to the character and his back catalog (he's a British superhero created 55 years ago). Moore's run is just brilliant and one of the best deconstruction of the superhero genre to this day, and Neil Gaiman actually took over for Moore after he left the title and had a fantastic run himself that was never finished due to the publishing company going out of business. Gaiman has had the completed scripts all these years and has been waiting for this to be sorted out so he could finish his run on the character.

Oh, man, this is so great. I can't wait for these to be collected as the hardcovers they deserve to be in.

how is this news? gbaby knew this a long long time ago. you guys are so done.

[lleeder]

They were on sale at Comic Con.

Who told you? gbaby?

[EliSnow]

how is this news? gbaby knew this a long long time ago. you guys are so done.

Mojo posted this piece soon after it was reported at Comic-Con. So Gbaby couldn't have known this a long tmie ago.

[lleeder]

Mojo posted this piece soon after it was reported at Comic-Con. So Gbaby couldn't have known this a long tmie ago.

He's an insider he was front row that shit came out. He knew a long tmie. A very long tmie. He knew the first tmie that people found out. When people knew, it was the first tmie he knew.

[JustJon]

He's an insider he was front row that shit came out. He knew a long tmie. A very long tmie. He knew the first tmie that people found out. When people knew, it was the first tmie he knew.

GBaby spent three days in Hall H. He only covered movies, not comic books.