The Estate of Jack Kirby sues over rights to Marvel Charecters

The comic book world and Hollywood seem to keep getting messier and messier. Its amazing how over the last 80 years these things have yet to fully be settled. Along with the (Completely Incomprehensibly complicated) Warner Bros. vs. Jerry Seigel est. over Superman I have a feeling the comic book era in this country might be winding down.


Too many legal issues and too many characters/properties will probably lead to horrible mismanagement. Marvel can’t really afford to keep putting out bad products, but I guess that’s Disney’s problem now, but if they can’t turn a profit for their already super pissed off shareholders then I would think Marvel may just fade away, or maybe just for awhile.

By the way this isn’t the first huge legal battle Jack Kirby (himself at the time) had had over rights to his work. In the 80’s he successfully got co-ownership of his original artwork from Marvel, so I’m thinking his family may have a good shot with the case. And the timing couldn’t be better because there’s never been a bigger target to sue.


From DarkHorizons.com reported by Garth Franklin

The estate of Jack Kirby, co-creator of Marvel comic book heroes like Captain America, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, The Silver Surfer and Thor, has sent notices terminating copyright to publishers Marvel and Disney as well as film studios that have made movies and TV shows based on characters he created or co-created including Sony, Universal, Fox and Paramount says Bleeding Cool via Deadline Hollywood Daily.


Notable is that the estate has hired Marc Toberoff to litigate, the man who not that long ago helped "Superman" creator Jerry Seigel regain his share of copyright in the characters and their use in comics and other media from DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures. He also successfully won copyright cases for properties like "Get Smart," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Wild Wild West".

If successful, the rights reversion wouldn't come into effect until 2014. However Marvel/Disney would still own the trademarks meaning a negotiation will quite likely be made well before the deadline for Marvel to continue publishing comics based on his work

Jack Kirby Comic Book Cover Gallery from Marvel.com

For my money I think Kirby was the greatest comic book artist of all time. Many will disagree but that’s just my opinion. I think our media and art lovers community have done a cultural disservice to him by not putting him and his art in higher recognition with the likes of other notable Pop Artist such as Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein