The Miracleman Copyright Saga (Updated And Complete)

Thanks a LOT for this video essay!!! 🙂👍💛

Plot twist: DC swoops in at the end claiming Marvel/Miracleman has been a blatant ripoff of Shazam since the beginning starting the legal shenanigans all over again.

Seriously though, do any of these comic book writers and artists have any idea what a contract even is? Specifically how to read and sign them?

Eight minutes into the past....after that, my future will one day become better.
This lecture is physically PAINFUL...I have to experience memories long forgot and new flavors of info/history a first time.
Some of the paper trail of Miracleman had been purchased from Bud Plant, in Grass Valley, CA., some from a store named
Dolly's, in Chico, CA. The earlier, crumbling and torn mags from England, only a few were available.

Life has a way of making all that just disappear.
I reeely tried to watch without feeling the loss.
Playing Catch Up, with the half memories and truths, from decades past and the gossip paths of the last few years...
I DO KNOW, the experience and truth, the addition to my Miracleman experience, will (eventually) be found, here.

Beautiful editing. Loved the video

Love to see M&M get a Right proper intro miniseries integrating him into marvels world and having him interact with all of marvels great Cosmic heavy hitters boy that would be boss ! 💥⭐⭐

You should do one on ROM the Spaceknight and the Micronauts.

my brain aches.

I think mcfarlane was being kinda brazen with his "acquisition" of marvelman but judging from revent events, I don't trust neil gaiman with copyright law enough to take his side
I also think he shoulda just given his characters back to mcfarlane, from what I've seen from angela's tenure at marvel it looks very bad

What a mess - as is usually the case when the lawyers get involved.

dez skinn, holding onto those 10% for dear life is strangely funny to me.

Does this mean Todd McFarlane owns several characters published by Eclipse and doesn't even republish those materials? Does he own the rights to "Zot!"?!?!

I need a drink.

I am a HUGE Marvelman Fan sure was printed before my time but owning the Hardcovers of the older works of Mick Anglo's era and reading what interviews he did for them and him not knowing thie rights were in limbo was a fun time doing research and still to this day some New Marvelman/Miracleman stuff is beimng printed long after the Late Anglo's death. By the Atomic word that gives him his powers KIMOTA!!

So, Marvel now owns Miracle man which in turn means Disney now owns Miracle man! UH OH!😰

Marvel would definitely move forward with Miracleman without knowing for sure they own the rights.

Great video on what has been such a congealed mess for so many years. Thanks!

Love that audio in the beginning 💛

Are you reading the new issues of Miracleman: Silver Age? I’m in love with what Gaiman & Buckingham have been able to do with the Miracleman world. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

It's curious that throughout the convoluted history of Miracleman that DC never got involved. National/DC went after Fawcett for Captain Marvel, so why didn't they pursue Marvelman too?

Todd McFarlane: I OWN ANGELA!
Neil Gaiman: OH REALLY? YOINK HERE YOU GO, MARVEL!

Todd McFarlance: I OWN MIRACLEMAN!
Neil Gaiman: OH REALLY? YOINK HERE YOU GO, MARVEL!

Time is a flat circle.

Hopefully, Marvelman/Miracleman would get a chance in the MCU

Ive seen the unprinted Miracleman Issue written by Neil Gaiman and Mike Deodato Jr and it was incredible and its a real shame it will never see the light of day

Love what you do SBP, comic book history presented with class and dulcet tones

Yaay copyright law!!!

Both Poisoned Chalice and Kimota are amazing. I have Poisoned Chalice signed by Paidrag, and Kimota signed by Mark Buckingham. I've forwarded your video to Paidrag.

Honestly, I find the background information more interesting than the actual work. Marvelman is really a dry read. Lots of ideas and concepts to engage with, but not much to simply "enjoy".

Alan Davis is the most underrated artist and writers of all time.

the legal side of Miracle-Man is certainly more interesting than Marvels comic run on Miracleman

Great summing up of the tortured history of the legal tangle that is Marvel/Miracleman... But wait! I think it's even more complicated than that. You mention the character of Big Ben in your documentary and that got me thinking. Mick Anglo may (or may not) have owned Marvelman, Young Marvelman, Kid Marvelman and everything that appeared in the 1953 - 1963 strips, but he didn't own characters like Big Ben, the Warpsmiths and Miraclewoman. Big Ben would almost certainly have belonged (at least partly) to Dez Skinn... The Warpsmiths were owned by Alan Moore and Garry Leach. Both these properties featured in strips of their own outside the Marvelman strips in Warrior Magazine and A1. Miraclewoman - who knows what the copyright situation was by the time she was created at Eclipse? All these things would have been needed to be settled by Marvel Comics' lawyers before the reprint of stories featuring those characters were reprinted... Or at least we might hope they were. Under UK and European copyright law any creator owns their work UNLESS they choose to sign it away. Garry Leach passed away not too long ago and his rights would have passed onto relatives.

I also remember hearing at one point somebody tried to sell rights to DC and they went "Lol no."
Which hilariously makes them the most sensible side in the whole mess.

I'll be here no matter what when it comes to Miracleman

Mcfarlane owned nothing? Lmao, fuck man, he's as skilled in legal stuff as he's a skilled writer.

Love hearing about the legal history of Miracleman.

Whenever this story comes up I always imagine a bunch of very serious minded lawyers and business professionals listening to artists talk about handshake deals they made about who really created Medieval Spawn and Zool the World Ender or whatever. It makes me happy.

Oh man respect, I saw a video based on him a while back, he is and could be the biggest British based character ever

Complete
For NOW

The Poisoned Chalice is totally new info to me...may need to chase that down. Superlative work, as usual.

Great video. I always love to see videos on Miracle man. Especially from you since your first video on it is the reason why i got into miracle man in the first place. Thanks.

Sounds like if I want to get into the comics industry I should find a way to buy into Miracleman. Seems like all the greats are attached. I don't even care about Miracleman.

Thanks for the update. As far as I'm concerned, the Miracle Man saga ended when Moore left the series. I never cared for the Neil Gaiman material. Despite the changes that Marvel made to the material I purchased the omnibus to go along with the Eclipse singles & Marvel hardbacks. Losing Warrior magazine in the 80's was sudden. Even without Marvel Man I enjoyed the other series in it.

The Silver Age 4 was the first new issue without (unused) prior art from the 90s making it the first "truly new" material and it only lists Gaiman as co-writer so I am becoming a bit worried for the rest of the Silver Age and beyond so I am starting to worry how involved Gaiman is.

I initially believed that the creation of the Sentry was going to be Marvels reintroduction of the character with a changed historical narrative. I don't know like maybe miracleman exists in various iterations throughout the omniverse and Marvels Sentry was one of them.

The behind the scenes shenanigans make for a story almost as engaging as the one on the comic's pages.

I wonder why DC never asserted any claim to the rights for Marvelman/Maracleman. I would think they could dig up the old Captain Marvel lawsuit victory and use that to battle Marvel for the rights.

your last video on Miracle man made me go pick up the hardback trade. It was a really good read, so thank you for that!

Well, I can already see that random guy working in Disney’s legal office opening and envelope and wondering “WTF is this Miracleman thing? And who wants what of it?”

Excellent video. One detail not mentioned tho. In Poisoned Chalice there's speculation on why Marvel stopped printing new material in 2015. According to the book, the silver age storyline would feature the Warpsmith characters, and I think the rights for them were not yet secured by Marvel.
In the new 2023 issues of MM Warpsmiths do feature so that might give some credence to that theory