Wood at most only worked on 30 Marvel/Timely/Atlas books, according to Wikipedia, and a lot of that was as inker only. I hope a settlement comes out of this that leaves both parties in good shape, but who knows.Īlso- that’s a LOT of artwork. But this is about the physical artwork that was given to Tatjana, even erroneously. If this was about any intellectual property that Wood created at Marvel, the estate would (IMHO) be 100% in the right. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the court ends up ruling on this. It’s very curious that they made an effort to return it in 2005, decades after Wood’s death, with no known legal action pending from Wood’s estate against Marvel. Only later was it realized that Marvel only owned publication rights, and not the physical artwork itself. As such, at the time of sale, it was assumed Marvel owned the physical artwork. This would be very different if this was creator-owned artwork. Marvel’s intent might have been to give it to Tatjana because she was believed (erroneously) to be in charge of the estate, but if they gave it to her- if the package has her name on it and not the Wally Wood estate, and Wood never had a legal claim to it while he was alive, is it now really part of the estate? Marvel may have erred in giving Tatjana the artwork, but once it did, I don’t know if that retroactively becomes part of the Wally Wood estate, rather than a gift to Tatjana herself. And while the will called for everything that wasn’t related to WW’s finances to go to John Robinson, the wording specifically mentions royalties, not the physical art that he created and then sold. The artwork probably wasn’t covered in the original estate calculations because it was done as work-for-hire. I am not interested in taking sides.īut having read the suit, I’m not 100% sure that the estate can win this suit. And then a little more Wally Wood art to remind you why he’s so revered.Ĭlick to access Wallace-Wood-Properties-LLC-v-.pdf I’m no expert in Wally Wood, but I’m sure some of you comics historians out there will have some ideas about all of this. It was always a pleasure to talk to her and learn a bit of comics history. She continued to work in comics as a colorist for years, however, and back when I worked for Vertigo she would still come into the office. Wally Wood was married three times, and he and Tatjana divorced in the 60s. The court documents, shown below with addresses redacted, lays out a paper trail suggesting that remaining Wood artwork should go Robinson/WWP. In court documents, Spurlock says he and his lawyers made many attempts in person and by letter to get Tatjana Wood to give them the artwork, which court documents say was erroneously returned to Tatjana’s home by Marvel, who thought her address was the proper one for returns. In 2012 Robinson assigned all his interest in Wood’s estate to Wallace Wood Properties, LLC, a company run by by Spurlock, whose interest in Wood includes co-authoring the book Wally’s World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World’s 2nd Best Comic Book Artist. Wood left a will leaving his money to Tatjana, but his possessions-including artwork and publishing interests-to his friend John H. He’s also the creator of the”22 Panels that Always Work” piece which is widely copies and referred to. Despite that his imaginative and finely rendered art continues to be among the most iconic (overused word I know but it really fits) in the comic book world. He took his own life in 1981, embittered by failing health and career setbacks. Wood is of course the much beloved artist of many EC, MAD and Marvel comics, including Daredevil, and then Witzend Cannon, Sally Forth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |