Airboy - Moonstone

[Knightt]

Hey anybody seen this yet ?

All new story by Chuck Dixon...

I'm gonna hunt one down.

http://www.midtowncomics.com/Neshop/Pro ... ID=1017544

[Draco]

Hey anybody seen this yet ?

All new story by Chuck Dixon...

I'm gonna hunt one down.

http://www.midtowncomics.com/Neshop/Pro ... ID=1017544

Nice to see IDW and Dynamite dont have all the old properties wrapped up yet, so there is still hope.

[Chiclo]

Nice to see IDW and Dynamite dont have all the old properties wrapped up yet, so there is still hope.

They don't really have them wrapped up, not even the ones they are using.

The Golden Age Daredevil recently joined the cast of the Savage Dragon.

[Draco]

Nice to see IDW and Dynamite dont have all the old properties wrapped up yet, so there is still hope.

They don't really have them wrapped up, not even the ones they are using.

The Golden Age Daredevil recently joined the cast of the Savage Dragon.

It is indeed madness with the older characters.

[Knightt]

Nice to see IDW and Dynamite dont have all the old properties wrapped up yet, so there is still hope.

They don't really have them wrapped up, not even the ones they are using.

The Golden Age Daredevil recently joined the cast of the Savage Dragon.

It is indeed madness with the older characters.

I agree, this fad is getting out of hand... but then again, the bringing back of DU characters, eh... is that a good thing, is the DU getting smaller ? Just makes ya think. I think we can keep it going even though DU characters are being brought back as we can stick with that certain 'book set or sets' that we have already established. I'm holding onto it as best I can.

But what a huge rush of old characters, eh ? I wonder why ? Is it that there are REALLY more DU fans out there than we think and it is not really being recognized as the way we see these characters in the DU ?

[Cyberstrike]

I thought Todd McFarlane owned Air Boy.

[Draco]

I thought Todd McFarlane owned Air Boy.

Maybe he thinks he does.

[Cyberstrike]

I thought Todd McFarlane owned Air Boy.

Maybe he thinks he does.

I thought he bought the rights to all the Eclipse comics.

[Draco]

I thought Todd McFarlane owned Air Boy.

Maybe he thinks he does.

I thought he bought the rights to all the Eclipse comics.

yeah, so did he.

[Cyberstrike]

I thought Todd McFarlane owned Air Boy.

Maybe he thinks he does.

I thought he bought the rights to all the Eclipse comics.

yeah, so did he.

Great point!

[Draco]

I thought Todd McFarlane owned Air Boy.

Maybe he thinks he does.

I thought he bought the rights to all the Eclipse comics.

yeah, so did he.

Great point!

Seriously though, i wander how much thats cost him so far in legal fees?

I know i read a massive thread about this last year, but im pretty sure Gaiman won the MIracle man argument?

[Knightt]

Here, I swiped this:

Todd McFarlane vs. Neil Gaiman
In 1996, Todd McFarlane purchased Eclipse's creative assets for a total of $40,000. It has been suggested that McFarlane was mainly interested in the Miracleman rights; the rest of Eclipse's characters and properties were incidental, though he did not expect to keep them idle. McFarlane's plan was to reintroduce Eclipse's characters through two new Image Comics anthology titles, Todd McFarlane's Twisted Tales and Todd McFarlane's Alien Worlds. However, these were never printed and to date, the only Eclipse character to appear again has been The Heap in McFarlane's Spawn title.

McFarlane clearly had plans for Miracleman, but had neglected to consult Neil Gaiman, the last person to have held part of the rights. In 1993, Gaiman had created the characters Angela and Medieval Spawn for McFarlane. Gaiman claimed that he had created them with the understanding that he would retain creative ownership of them, an ownership which McFarlane now disputed. His plans stymied, in 1997 McFarlane reached a supposed verbal agreement (and according to Gaiman, a written one as well) with Gaiman in which Gaiman would cede his half-ownership of Cogliostro and Medieval Spawn in exchange for which McFarlane would trade his rights to Miracleman. A subsequent letter from McFarlane to Gaiman would void this deal, if it ever legally existed, as McFarlane claimed that he already owned the two characters and pointed to a copyright notice on Spawn #7 and cited them as the product of work-for-hire. He also stopped paying Gaiman royalties around this time for the action-figures and other items featuring the characters that were still in print. This was another of the direct causes for the legal action. At the time, no one was aware that the rights for Miracleman were not included in the purchase of most of Eclipse Comics' assets and both men believed that McFarlane held a large stake in Miracleman. That was a fact that would not become clear until after the lawsuit concluded. It turned out that McFarlane did, however, own two trademarks for Miracleman logos. Gaiman and Marvels and Miracles, LLC would take action to try to block him from being able to reregister these trademarks.

In 2001, McFarlane had introduced Mike Moran (Miracleman's alter ego) in Hellspawn #6, with the alleged intention of returning Miracleman himself in Hellspawn #13. This never came to pass as the lawsuit was filed before the book was ready for print. McFarlane also had included Miracleman in his section of what was then the long-delayed Image 10th Anniversary Book, known today as the Image Hardcover. He also released a Miracleman cold-cast statue as well as a 4" scale action figure that was partnered with Spawn in a San Diego Comicon exclusive two-pack. It had been McFarlane's intention to use the character in his core title. Since the Hardcover story became a direct tie-in to the events of Spawn #150 and beyond, Miracleman was changed into a mysterious new character known as the Man of Miracles. His appearance as Miracleman is explained by Man of Miracles ability to shape-shift and the fact that people see him as they wish to see him at the time.

Man of Miracles was released in action-figure form in Spawn Series 29, wearing a modified Miracleman costume and bearing one of McFarlane's two trademarked logos. This has created many fan-fueled rumors.


Marvels and Miracles LLC
To aid him with the legal battle against McFarlane, Gaiman formed Marvels and Miracles LLC, a company whose goal was to clear up the ownership of Miracleman once and for all. In 2002 Gaiman sued McFarlane over his unauthorized use of Miracleman, prompting McFarlane to countersue in turn. McFarlane lost the suit, and the following appeal. The case was seen as one of the single most important events in the comic industry on the issue of creator's rights. Unfortunately, it only cleared up the confusion over the characters Gaiman had created for McFarlane. The issue of Miracleman was thrown out in both the initial lawsuit and the appeal before the 7th District Court and there have been no further legal papers filed on the subject.

Gaiman had been dropping hints that should he successfully win full ownership of Miracleman from McFarlane that the name would revert back to Marvelman, the character would see a return to publication through Marvel Comics, and that Marvel would also reprint all past material. In 2002, Gaiman wrote the 1602 series for Marvel. Gaiman's profits from this series went to Marvels and Miracles LLC to aid his legal fight over Miracleman. Gaiman's dedication in the collected editions of 1602 reads "For Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, with infinite admiration. For Jonathan and Lenny, comics fiends. And, of course, to Todd, for making it necessary." Below, letterer Todd Klein thanks Gaiman for keeping him in mind, presumably to suggest that he, not McFarlane, is the beneficiary of Gaiman's remark, marking perhaps the only time a comic book letterer has submitted a dedication.

In late 2004 the A1 Sketchbook was released by Atomeka Press, in part including art from original Miracleman artist Garry Leach. It contained four Miracleman-related pin-ups (although the pin-ups were not labelled as Miracleman, likely to avoid further legal entanglements). A variant of the sketchbook was also produced, with a "Miracleman" front cover and "Kid Miracleman" back cover by Leach.


The future
The character's future remains uncertain as of 2009, due to further complications which have come to light since the end of Gaiman's case against McFarlane:

Mick Anglo has claimed that the rights never left him and he has always owned the character, and L. Miller & Son never did.
Even assuming that L. Miller & Son did own the character, it is now unclear exactly what happened to all of their assets when they ceased publishing in 1966, possibly calling into question the claims of everyone subsequently involved in the fight for the rights to Marvelman. Although subject to rumor and speculation, the nature and details of any transfer of property between Len Miller and Alan Class are unknown.
Even assuming that Eclipse Comics did acquire rights to the character, Dez Skinn has claimed to possess written evidence that all shares of the character which Eclipse Comics purchased reverted back to their original creators after Miracleman had not been published for a number of years.
Further, any reprint would have to involve Garry Leach, as his Warpsmith characters, which appear in the stories, were only "loaned" to Eclipse for their Miracleman run. Warpsmith solo stories have featured in A1, published by Atomeka Press.

Beyond this, it is not in general disputed that all the writers and artists involved in the series retain copyrights over their specific work.

In the December 5th 2005 edition of Rich Johnston's column, it was revealed that a character called The Man Of Miracles would feature in Spawn #150. The character was errantly rumored to be a retcon of Cogliostro, a character Neil Gaiman originally created for McFarlane's Spawn series. Johnston's assertion was rebuffed on the Alan Moore Fansite:

David Hine, the current Spawn writer, told me that he doesn't intend to have any character in Spawn whose ownership is currently contested and that as far as he is concerned, the character Man Of Miracles is not Miracleman and bears no resemblance to the character. He has a clear idea of who the character is, which will be made clear as the book progresses. And I know both he and his friend Mark Buckingham had discussed this amicably

An action figure of Man of Miracles was produced by McFarlane in Spawn Series 29.

Eventually the new Miracleman was revealed as the Man of Miracles, also known as MoM, also known as the Mother of Creation, an ageless and androgynous being of immense power, creator of worlds and gods, who, displeased about his/her sons, God and the Devil, sided with their common creation (as the Mother believes that God may have created mankind, but it was Satan's doing in granting them free will) and stalked the Earth in several forms, perceived differently by different people. The Miracleman form is just how Al Simmons comes to perceive it for a while: other forms in which he/she is known are Jesus Christ, Maya, Shiva and an unknown anime-inspired hero, a younger Moran with platinum-light blonde hair as Kaworu Nagisa and an unbuttoned blue jacket.

[Chiclo]

Was Air Boy in the public domain when Eclipse started printing him?

If the character was, anybody could write him into any of their books at any time even to the point of appearing in multiple titles by multiple publishers and there would be nothing anyone could do about it other than file frivolous lawsuits. An excellent example would be the Golden Age Daredevil, who appears in Dynamite's Project Superpowers, Image's Savage Dragon and AC(?)'s Femforce.

If it wasn't, then it's a regular intellectual property asset and the answer would be dependent on the manner in which Eclipse had garnered the rights, be it a lease or an outright purchase.

[Knightt]

I'm not really clear on that... many of those characters existed back during WWII and through out the years have shown up here and there with apparent disregard to whomever owned the rights. Maybe they just called them up and said, 'hey mind if I put 'Liberty Shield Girl' in my current book ?'. If it were me though, I would want a little piece of the pie for using 'my' character.

[Brother J]

Was Air Boy in the public domain when Eclipse started printing him?

If the character was, anybody could write him into any of their books at any time even to the point of appearing in multiple titles by multiple publishers and there would be nothing anyone could do about it other than file frivolous lawsuits. An excellent example would be the Golden Age Daredevil, who appears in Dynamite's Project Superpowers, Image's Savage Dragon and AC(?)'s Femforce.

If it wasn't, then it's a regular intellectual property asset and the answer would be dependent on the manner in which Eclipse had garnered the rights, be it a lease or an outright purchase.

According to the copyright notice in an Eclipse issue of Airboy, Eclipse Enterprises owned the trademark to Airboy and all the related characters. Not sure how they acquired them, it could be the original publisher let the trademark lapse and Eclipse snagged it.

[Knightt]

I just ordered the last common run Airboy books from mycomicshop.com that I will need to get started reading as well as the 'Sky Wolf' mini series. So, that should get me started on READING these books and I can't wait.

I totally screwed the pooch on Scout, first off I do not have issue #1 nor do I have any issues after #12. I've got some hunting to do !!!

[Brother J]

Was Air Boy in the public domain when Eclipse started printing him?

If the character was, anybody could write him into any of their books at any time even to the point of appearing in multiple titles by multiple publishers and there would be nothing anyone could do about it other than file frivolous lawsuits. An excellent example would be the Golden Age Daredevil, who appears in Dynamite's Project Superpowers, Image's Savage Dragon and AC(?)'s Femforce.

If it wasn't, then it's a regular intellectual property asset and the answer would be dependent on the manner in which Eclipse had garnered the rights, be it a lease or an outright purchase.

According to the copyright notice in an Eclipse issue of Airboy, Eclipse Enterprises owned the trademark to Airboy and all the related characters. Not sure how they acquired them, it could be the original publisher let the trademark lapse and Eclipse snagged it.

Also, according to this page:

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/a/airboy.htm

They claim that McFarlane owns the version of the character that Eclipse published, but that the original (Hillman) version is in the public domain.