Tony Moore Suing Robert Kirkman Over The Walking Dead
Don't forget to watch The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 9: Triggerfinger online free! It is being reported that Tony Moore (artist for the first 6 issues of The Walking Dead) is suing Robert Kirkman because Moore says that he was “duped” into assigning his interest in the material over to Kirkman, who has since gone on to fame and fortune. Moore, on the other hand, has received very little compensation and has not be able to access profit statements from properties including Walking Dead. The Hollywood reporter attained a copy of the suit and the complaint states that:
“Each of these works was prepared by [Moore] and Kirkman with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or independent parts of a unitary whole,” the complaint states. “[Moore] and Kirkman were thus joint authors and co-owners of the copyrights in these works.”
In response to the accusations from Moore, Robert Kirkman’s attorney Allen Grodzky told The Hollywood Reporter that:
“totally frivolous. Mr. Moore is owed no money at all. And Mr. Moore’s contract has an attorneys’ fees clause in it so we will be going after him to collect attorneys’ fees. We are taking this matter very seriously.”
Kirkman and Moore apparently were childhood friends who frequently collaborated with one another on various projects before Kirkman hit it big with The Walking Dead TV show. And now, Moore is saying that in 2005 Kirkman and his agents devised a scheme to fraudulently induce him to assign his copyright interests over to Kirkman’s company. Moore also claims that he signed a deal granting him 60 percent of “Comic Publishing Net Proceeds” in connection with Walking Dead and another project called Brit; 20 percent of “motion picture net proceeds” in connection with Walking Dead and Brit; and 50 percent of “motion picture net proceeds” from another project called Battle Pope but Moore says that he hasn’t received much revenue or profit statements from Kirkman or his company.
“Indeed, they have not issued a single statement or allowed access to their books and records in accordance with the reporting obligations of the agreement,”
Moore goes on to say that a big tv deal was on the table back in 2005 but “Kirkman would not be able to complete the deal unless [Moore] assigned all of his interest in The Walking Dead and other works to Kirkman.” So, thinking that the deal would fall apart Moore signed all of his aforementioned interest in The Walking Dead over to Kirkman which he says allowed Kirkman to “swindle” him out of his 50% interest in the copyright, intending to never compensate Moore.
