UPDATE Robert Kirkman Responds to Tony Moore’s THE WALKING DEAD Lawsuit

Tony Moore and Robert Kirkman were friends as teenagers, and both launched their comic book careers together. In the intervening time, they’ve had some disagreements, some public, about the ownership of the runaway success of The Walking Dead. They co-created the series in 2003, and Moore did the artwork for the first six issues. But now, Moore is suing Kirkman over the revenues of The Walking Dead.

You can read the details, as they are known at The Hollywood Reporter. The basic gist is that Moore alleges he hasn’t received any revenue or financial statements regarding The Walking Dead since they came to an agreement on the property in 2005.

I spoke to Moore in 2010, after the TV series premiered on AMC, and we touched on the issue as it was at the time. He said there was a disagreement over ownership, and they had since come to terms with one another. You’ll see Tony Moore’s name in the credits for the show, and he flew out to LA for the premiere. Last we heard, all was well.

The thing is, no matter who is right and who is wrong, this is ugly, and could have shockwaves throughout the comic industry. The fact is, The Walking Dead is the prime example of success in indie comics. There’s nothing out there that even touches it in terms of sales that isn’t from Marvel and DC. It’s a small industry, and you just don’t want to see things like this happen in today’s comic market. We’ve supposedly learned so many lessons from the past regarding rights, ownership, and copyright, but when you work with friends by the skin of your teeth, you rarely think this is going to be an issue. Then, a decade later, something like this can happen.

I just hope this can somehow be settled amicably, and both of these creators can get back to making comics.

UPDATE:02/10/2012 – Robert Kirkman has issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter in response to the lawsuit:

“The lawsuit is ridiculous, we each had legal representation seven years ago and now he is violating the same contract he initiated and approved and he wants to misrepresent the fees he was paid and continues to be paid for the work he was hired to do. Tony regularly receives payment for the work he did as penciler, inker and for gray tones on the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic series and he receives royalties for the TV show, to assert otherwise is simply incorrect.”

The statement is paired with scans from the title page from early issues of The Walking Dead comic, which credit Moore as “Penciller, Inker, Gray tones.”

via UPDATE Robert Kirkman Responds to Tony Moore’s THE WALKING DEAD Lawsuit.