A Legal History of Marvelman
The Complicated Case of One of Comic Books' Greatest Heroes
The cloudy status of Marvelman’s copyright began with Warrior publisher Dez Skinn, who came to Moore and Leach having already secured the rights to the character, and giving each a share of the property. The problem was, nobody knew how Skinn obtained the rights, or if he did at all.
Marvelman's Copyright: The Legal Battle
Skinn never bought the rights from Anglo, who at least claimed to own them. That’s murky too – L. Miller and Sons Ltd. sold their properties to Alan Ladd, Ltd. in 1966, although whether or not Marvelman was included is unclear. Some 1950s-60s era Marvelman stories were printed with a “Copyright Marc Anglo” logo, but the relative non-existence of creator writes in 1950s Great Britain brings that claim into question.
In any case, when Skinn began publishing the stories that are important to the fabric of modern comic books, his ownership of the character was limited at best. Thus, when Eclipse bought the rights from Skinn, Moore, and Leach, they may have been buying nothing at all. When Moore left the book with issue #16, he gave his 30% share to incoming writer Neil Gaiman turned around and split the rights with incoming artist Mark Buckingham.
Still here? Because it’s about to get complicated.
Todd McFarlane vs. Neil Gaiman
When Eclipse Comics folded, they left Neil Gaiman's Miracleman story unfinished. At this point, the rights were now divided between two parties: Eclipse Comics and Neil Gaiman. In early 1996, Todd McFarlane swept in and bought the Eclipse catalogue, ostensibly to print new Miracleman stories under the Image Comics banner.
He failed to take Neil Gaiman’s share into account, however. With Gaiman’s share (that may not actually exist, remember – the original Miller/Anglo rights being unresolved) not included in the original sale to McFarlane, a second deal had to be reached.
One more time into the wayback machine: in 1993, prior to McFarlane’s purchase of Eclipse, he had contracted Gaiman to write a few issues of the popular Spawn comic. In those issues, Gaiman created two characters who would become both incredibly popular with readers and important to the overall mythology of the Spawn character: Spawn’s mentor Cogliostro and warrior angel Angela. Gaiman believed he was to retain ownership of these two characters, even if no contract was ever signed.
With the only reason he bought the Eclipse characters now a moot point, McFarlane was in a bind. So he made a fairly drastic decision. At this point, Angela and Cogliostrio were proven commercial properties, while Miracleman was still a cult figure and unproven in terms of current market value. Seeking to secure complete rights to the two Spawn characters, McFarlane agreed (whether or not a contract was signed is disputed) to “trade” his Miracleman rights to Gaiman for Gaiman’s ownership of Angel and Cogliostro.
Even with the validity of the deal uncertain from the beginning, McFarlane still went on to void it, through a letter claiming that the legal text within the published Spawn issues gave McFarlane complete ownership of the characters appearing within.
Feeling as if the matter was settled to his satisfaction, McFarlane began taking steps to introduce Miracleman into his Spawn line of titles, introducing “Mike Moran” in Hellspawn #6, with plans to fully debut Miracleman in Hellspawn #13.
Marvels and Miracles, LLC
Gaiman sued McFarlane for unauthorized use of the Miracleman character, after forming a company known as Marvels and Miracles LLC to research the ownership of the Marvelman and Miracleman stories and characters.
Gaiman won his original suit, and the subsequent appeal. However, the case resolved nothing in terms of the Miracleman rights, only Gaiman’s stake in the Angela and Cogliostro characters.
McFarlane went on to abandon the idea of the already introduced Mike Moran as Miracleman, recasting him as the androgynous shape shifter known as the Man of Miracles. He went on to play a major role in the Spawn mythology, factoring into the battle between Heaven and Hell in Spawn #150.
Marvel Comics Buys Marvelman
The only thing the protracted legal battle really settled was the ownership of the Spawn characters. Really, the Marvelman bit only provided a springboard into a watershed case in creator rights, which the creators won.
It was later revealed, by Alan Moore himself, that the rights had always been with Marc Anglo. Dez Skinn never received any legal transfer of the character, so the rights passed around between himself, Moore, Leech, Gaiman, Davis, Buckingham, Eclipse, and finally McFarlane, never existed.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada announced that the company had just purchased the Marvelman character from Anglo (some stories place the finalization of the sale actually happening during the Con itself). That, however, is not even the end of the fight.
Marvel Comics owns the original Anglo stories, and the rights to publish original Marvelman (no longer Miracleman, as Marvel has no reason to object to the name) stories in either his own series or as a member of the wider, proprietary, Marvel Universe.
What they don’t own, is the stuff that actually matters: the Moore/Gaiman stories.
The Future of Marvelman
The reason any of this matters really comes down to getting the Alan Moore stories reprinted and finishing Neil Gaiman’s aborted epic, and that’s not 100% happening yet.
Marvel Comics blew into San Diego to give that impression, then made a huge splash and left the Con before anyone asked any questions. They even trotted out Mark Buckingham for the announcement, to give it that hint of respectability.
Marvel has stated they’re “currently in negotiations” for the Moore/Gaiman material… but just who they’re negotiating with is unclear.
Read about The publishing History and Importance of Marvelman.
Marvelman has a Complicated Legal History
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