But when Crabtree learned in 2020 that Amazon Studios was proceeding on a plan to launch a show, Kirkman informed him that he was not entitled to any monetary proceeds because he had no ownership interest in the series.
“Kirkman falsely told Crabtree that Crabtree’s rights and financial interest in the Work would remain unchanged if he signed the Certificate of Authorship and that the document would simply allow Kirkman to market the licensure of the Work more easily, resulting in greater profits for both of them,” the lawsuit reads.Īfter the document was signed, the suit says, Kirkman continued to pay Crabtree for comic sales and in connection with licensure of the series by MTV for a television-based motion comic and by Paramount Pictures for a television and film option. He says Kirkman approached him at the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con and presented him with a “Certificate of Authorship,” which purported to characterize all of his contributions as a “work-for-hire.” He said that he was in the final stages of licensing Invincible for television production and that having it represented by a single creator would increase its commercial viability. McRae previously represented artist Tony Moore in a 2012 suit alleging Kirkman tricked him out of his interest in The Walking Dead, which amicably settled on undisclosed terms in less than two months.Ĭrabtree says he and Kirkman had an oral agreement that granted him 20 percent of single sale proceeds of Invincible and 10 percent of any revenue generated from “other film or television commercial exploitation of the Work together with any derivative projects based on the Work and any allied or ancillary rights in the Work.”īut, when it came to memorializing the deal in writing, Crabtree alleges a scheme by Kirkman and his agents to fraudulently induce him to assign his copyright interest over to Kirkman’s company. “Fraud and deceit has become a standard business practice for Kirkman and is apparently where his true creative aptitude lies,” claims attorney Devin McRae in the complaint, which is embedded below.
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