Comics Rumormonger-In-Chief, Rich Johnston reports that holders of Jack Kirby’s Estate are preparing to sue Disney in reaction to the Mouse House’s acquisition of Marvel.
The legal action Kirby’s Estate has taken is serving notice that the blockbuster deal terminates copyright of all of Kirby’s creations with Marvel. Those creations being pretty obvious: the Fantastic Four, Captain America, The X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and, well, you get the idea.
The Estate is using the same group of lawyers as the Siegels, Toberoff & Associates, who I would say has been fairly successful. Though Johnston, theorizes that if the lawsuit goes the family’s way the effects of it won’t be felt until 2014, when the Kirby’s could enter in negotiations to discuss the further use of the characters Jack worked on. Including all movie properties involving them. Which always struck me whenever Stan Lee would get an executive producer credit for his movies and Kirby did not.
Kirby has fought for years over the rights for his original creations, which he signed away when he was younger. One of those battles, was co-creating a series with Steve Gerber called Destroyer Duck to benefit Gerber’s legal fight with Marvel with regards to Howard the Duck.
Currently, Dynamite is preparing to publish a series of “Kirbyverse” books that the Estate has okay’d, featuring characters that Mr. Kirby worked on independently from Marvel and DC.
