Well, maybe not. Turns out Jack Kirby, the
legendary comic book artist who co-created such Marvel heroes as Iron Man and the X-Men, drew this muscle-bound Mickey Mouse for a coffee table tribute to Mickey in the early 1990s, according to a Web site called the
Jack Kirby museum.
Still, it's not a bad rendering of one of the key reasons for Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE:DIS) pending acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:MVL) for $4 billion: a desire to add some testosterone to a character inventory that skews toward princesses and mermaids.
It may also portend that Monday's news about Kirby's heirs (he died in 1994)
taking legal action to try to regain copyright control of certain characters he helped develop doesn't pose a great threat to the deal. "The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10
years from now," a spokesman told the Los Angeles Times, "and involve claims
that were fully considered in the acquisition." Indeed, as we noted before, this deal is
distinguished by a huge array of licensing and rights issues. No way Disney's famously sharp-eyed licensing folks would have missed this one.
Kirby would understand. He was a major figure not just in comic art but also in the industry's rich tradition of argument and litigation over rights to characters. The wrangles have involved heroes from Superman to Kirby's own Captain America, and it all has to do with the evolution of the comics business from a distinctly down-market dodge in the 1930s -- fast, loose, often exploitive and usually highly collaborative -- to the supplier of branded content for giant media conglomerates that it is today.
Kirby's heirs are using Los Angeles law firm Toberoff & Associates PC, which represented the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel in a similar claim against Warner Bros. -
Kenneth Klee
Join Corporate Dealmaker's LinkedIn forum
Juergen Lasowski
And the winners are...
