Well, Erik Larsen has a lot to say on the subject of Neil Gaiman’s legal win over Todd McFarlane over Spawn. And he pulls no punches on the subject. Apparently Neil Gaiman is unethical and lacks creativity as it relates to his Spawn work.
Truthfully, I hadn’t looked at the issue in this way before. I have a better understanding of Todd’s side of things as well as Neil’s. Sad situation.
Check out the below Larsen tweets:
the Neil Gaiman thing perplexes me because it seems so unfair. The characters he created were clearly derivative of the ones Todd created.
How anybody can look at Medieval Spawn and side with Neil just shows their bias against Todd. It’s Spawn on a horse, for cryin’ out loud!
Everything Neil created was derived from Todd’s creations and all of it was designed by Todd. Claiming ownership just seems really unfair.
Now Todd is forced to have people sign work-for-hire contracts. It’s sad–but that’s the price we all have to pay.
There’s obviously much more to it than any of us can sum up in 140 characters.
If Gaiman wrote Savage Dragon he’d create a villain called the White Knight. I don’t need HIM to do the bloody obvious. I can do that alone.
Ultimately, it’s not my fight–but when it comes to working with others–I DO lay down the ground rules to avoid any potential conflict.
–and that includes saying upfront that any derivative characters belong to me. It’s not okay for somebody else to own Dragon’s dog.
And–ultimately–there’s a reason Todd got sued and I didn’t. It has something to do with WHO I do business with–and HOW I do business.
Source: Erik Larsen’s twitter account. There may be more at his twitter page by the time you read this. He is a prolific tweeter! :)
