What a way to start the new year!
This is possibly a result of the lawsuit the heirs of Kirby's estate had filed late last year claiming the copyrights on the projects that the late artist had worked on between the years 1958 and 1963 should revert back to the Kirby Estate. Marvel claims the work was "for-hire." By filing the suit, Marvel Entertainment, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co., is trying to prevent the Kirby notices from having any real effect.The federal lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan by Marvel Worldwide Inc. asks a judge to invalidate 45 notices sent by the heirs of artist Jack Kirby to try to terminate Marvel's copyrights, effective on dates ranging from 2014 through 2019.
According to the report, Marvel could potentially lose out on " Amazing Adventures," " Amazing Fantasy," " Amazing Spider-Man," " The Avengers," the " Fantastic Four," " Fantastic Four Annual," " The Incredible Hulk," " Journey into Mystery," " Rawhide Kid," " Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos," " Strange Tales," " Tales to Astonish," " Tales of Suspense" and " The X-Men."
Do you think the Kirby Estate should gain the rights to these concepts and characters?
Update:
The Kirby heirs reply:
Is this saying that since he was his "own man," it doesn't matter if he was doing "work-for-hire"?"The truth is that Jack Kirby was his own man," the release states. "Like so many artists in the fledgling comic book industry of the late 1950's/early 1960's, Kirby worked with Marvel out of his own house as a free-lancer with no employment contract, no financial or other security, nor any other indicia of employment. ... Kirby's wonderful creations, which leapt from the page, were not Marvel's 'assignments,' but were instead authored by Kirby under his own steam and then published by Marvel. It was not until 1972 that Kirby by contract granted Marvel the copyrights to his works. It is to this grant that the Kirby family's statutory notices of termination apply."
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