The long-running legal battle between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane is finally over, with a settlement that apparently closes the door on a case that had already seen Gaiman awarded co-ownership of Medieval Spawn, Angela and Cagliostro way back in 2002, and now co-ownership in Spawn #9 – the first appearance of those characters – as well as Spawn #26 (featuring the return of the Cagliostro character) and the three-issue Angela spin-off miniseries.

Talking to the Washington Post, Gaiman said that he was “delighted with the case… I’m delighted with the decisions. … And I’m delighted to put it behind me.” He went on to say that he thought that “an awful lot of good things have come out of it. I think the various decisions, particularly the [2002 Judge] Posner decision, were huge in terms of what the nature of dual copyright in comics is. What is copyrightable in comics is now something that there is a definite legal precedent for. There were a lot of things that were … misty in copyright [law] that are now much clearer, and it’s of benefit to the creator.”

McFarlane has so far not released any comment.

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