User blog:ARTaylor/Marvel Beats Ghost Rider Creator

The Hollywood Reporter reports that last Wednesday Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that Gary Friedrich, the creator of Ghost Rider, handed over the rights to the character when he created the character in the 1970s.

Over thirty-five years ago, Friedrich created the visually distinct superhero then disappeared from comics as he struggled with alcoholism. Then in 2004 he heard about the Ghost Rider film and claimed that Marvel Entertainment and the movie studios did not have rights to the character. Friedrich have been pursuing legal action. However, a New York federal judge ruled that the flame-head character belonged to Marvel.

After examining two separate contracts that Friedrich entered, the judge ruled that as a freelancer he worked under the "Marvel Method" and thus did not have the rights. Under the "Marvel Method" Friedrich created a synopsis but a separate artist illustrated the work, a letterer wrote the final text, and an inker colored. The "Marvel Method" has generated numerous other disputes, such as the one from the Jack Kirby estate, over who owns the copyright. Marvel always argues that the works were made for hire and theirs to control.

Judge Forrest stated that it was unnecessary to "travel down the rabbit hole of whether the Character and Work were in fact originally created separate and apart from Marvel, whether they are a 'work for hire,' or whether during an initial conversation in which Friedrich obtained consent to proceed with the project that eventually became the Work, he had thoughts about what rights he might want to retain." She ruled that Friedrich clearly gave away the rights after reviewing the two contracts. "Either of those contractual transfers would be sufficient to resolve the question of ownership,” Forrest wrote. “Together, they provide redundancy to the answer that leaves no doubt as to its correctness."