Gaiman v. McFarlane 2010: Similar Angels

Part Eight [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.] Arntsen turned to a comparison of the angels Gaiman had co-created with the angels involved in the Spawn storyline in #97 (July 2000) through #100 (November 2000). He quoted dialogue from a page in #99 (September 2000), which read, "By Elysium! The heavenly hosts!" and asked Gaiman, "What is that a reference to?" Gaiman responded, "Elysium was the place that they lived, and the heavenly hosts were the 333,000 kick-ass lady warrior angels." Asked, "Were those elements that you created?" Gaiman replied, "Yes." Going on to #100 and displaying one of the last pages, Arntsen asked, "Can you recognize what's being shown there?" "Spawn holding Angela's dead body while all of the other heavenly hosts of kick-ass lady warrior angels who look a bit like her stand around in the air." Arntsen then referred to images of other angels and asked Gaiman to describe similarities between Angela and Domina. "They are dressed incredibly similarly and they have the same facial stuff, very similar hair. Slightly different headpieces. I don't know, I would have assumed that this was one of the variant Angelas. ... Todd did a lot of Angelas in different costumes ... and changed the way she looked as a toy. I would have thought it was one of those." Gaiman was asked to describe another Domina picture that was in evidence, and he answered, "Same loincloth, things wrapped around the leg, weaponry, slightly different upper-body straps, but very similar costume."

Arntsen showed an image of Tiffany from Spawn Bible (August 1996). [It's shown here along with the entry for Angela in the same comic book.] Gaiman said, "That's a page of Tiffany, who's another one of the warrior angels: sharp shoulder points and blonder and sort of hair that goes up and explodes, rather than goes down, but there's sort of long hair around the back. Same knee things, same loincloth and thong and big belt and heavy shoulderpiece. And also the weaponry." Asked to compare that drawing of Tiffany to the drawing of Angela for Spawn #9, Gaiman said, "Similar pose, very similar character. Again, the hair color is very different, and Angela has sort of the Viking wings as a headpiece, which Tiffany doesn't. But they're obviously very similar characters. The facial thing - the sort of masky face thing - is the same, and the style is the same."

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