Gaiman v. McFarlane 2010: The New Spawn Case

Part Two [This is part of my running report on the 2010 hearing in the Neil Gaiman v. Todd McFarlane case. To see coverage from the beginning, click here.] Judge Crabb is a Senior U.S. District Judge for the 7th Circuit Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. The 2002 case had been a jury trial presided over by Senior Judge John C. Shabaz, who has since retired. It had determined that Neil Gaiman had been co-creator with Todd McFarlane of Spawn #9 and, with that issue, the characters of Count Cogliostro, Medieval Spawn, and warrior angel Angela. The case had been appealed in 2004 and its decision upheld February 24, 2004, by Circuit Judges Richard A. Posner, Michael S. Kanne, and Ilana Diamond Rovner. Gaiman's lead attorney this time, as in 2002, was Allen Arntsen. McFarlane's lead attorney was J. Alex Grimsley. And the current suit involved the ownership of characters that had appeared over the years in McFarlane's "Spawn" titles, specifically "Dark Ages Spawn" and warrior angels "Tiffany" and "Domina." Gaiman (on the left) was the only witness for the plaintiff (Gaiman); writer Brian Holguin and McFarlane (left and right on the right) were the two witnesses for the defendent (McFarlane).

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