Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 28, 2014 in
Comic Books 
Here’s some fairly big news: the Jack Kirby estate and Marvel have reached a settlement. Jack Kirby, despite creating some of the most famous super heroes ever, was under a work-for-hire contract and thus never received copyright ownership of his work. His estate has been engaged in a lawsuit with Marvel for a very long time, and were about to have a legal showdown in the Supreme Court. However, days before it was about to occur, the settlement was announced. As you might guess, we’re not privy to the details, but it’s not like we’re going to stop getting Captain America movies. That’d be bad for both parties involved. Marvel might have thought they couldn’t take the risk of losing in the Supreme Court and just decided to settle. Fun! Read more…
Tags: Jack Kirby, Marvel
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jul 31, 2011 in
Comic Books 
Jack Kirby was responsible for the creation of dozens of characters in the Marvel universe, from the Fantastic Four to Thor to Spider-Man. While his style and creations are as close to immortal as you can get in comic books, the sadly-mortal Kirby died in 1996. His heirs, though, are very much alive, and have been attempting to wrestle the rights to his characters back from Marvel. Marvel claims that any of Kirby’s work was done as “work for hire,” meaning that the company owns whatever he created during his tenure. And a judge agrees — the case was decided in Marvel’s favor. Kirby’s heirs have vowed to fight the ruling, but the judge implied that there was no real evidence in their favor, so their chances of success are pretty dubious at this point.
Read more…
Tags: Jack Kirby
