According to
Robot 6/CBR, the Jack Kirby estate said they saw the Marvel counter-action walking up Yancey Street. (Although, they used much different language.)
Last year, the Kirby family
sued Marvel Comics for the rights to the characters the late artist created for the House of Ideas. At stake are Kirby-influenced creations such as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, The Avengers, the X-Men and Spider-Man.
They said that Marvel's claim that Kirby's work was "for hire" is "a standard claim predictably made by comic book companies to deprive artists, writers and other talent of all rights in their work."
"For hire" work -- also known as working under an "All-rights contract" means that the artist relinquishes all rights to the company which buys the artist's work. The company becomes the sole holder of the copyright.
The family counters that "the truth is that Jack Kirby was his own man... Like so many artists in the fledgling comic book industry of the late 1950's/early 1960's, Kirby worked with Marvel out of his own house as a free-lancer with no employment contract, no financial or other security, nor any other indicia of employment. ... Kirby's wonderful creations, which leapt from the page, were not Marvel's 'assignments,' but were instead authored by Kirby under his own steam and then published by Marvel. It was not until 1972 that Kirby by contract granted Marvel the copyrights to his works. It is to this grant that the Kirby family's statutory notices of termination apply."
Adventure Comics #6 [DC]
