Gaiman/Larsen Post-Lawsuit Tweets Get Nasty
If you’re into comics, or even only writer Neil Gaiman’s brilliant series Sandman, you may be aware that Gaiman just came out of a legal battle with Image Comics and Todd McFarlane over what royalties he’s owed from sales based on characters derived from Spawn, which Gaiman originally co-created. The jury ruled in Gaiman’s favor, and while McFarlane took the classy way out by not saying anything mean about anyone, Larsen has managed to spread some vitriol via Twitter.
Larsen had already caused some fan rage with his comments that Gaiman only won the ruling because the jury was all-female and was “charmed” by his “English accent and sad story,” which is pretty impressive sour grapes no matter how you feel about the legal matter itself. It’s not the first time Larsen has blamed a womanly jury for, as he sees it, swooning and bending to Gaiman’s will.
But what came on Twitter may have been worse, depending on how you look at it: in response to one Twitterer’s comment that a jury as well as public opinion found in favor of Gaiman, Larsen responded that “a jury decided OJ Simpson didn’t kill his wife. What’s your point?” Ouch. Neil himself, also known as @neilhimself, responded:
“I see from http://bit.ly/aQl8VC that you compared me to OJ Simpson. I don’t have anything to say to you.”
Larsen later clarified that he was not comparing this case with Simpson’s so much as pointing out the fallability of juries, but after some more tweet-warring he seemed to give up:
“All right–I can’t do this all night. I cave[sic] contracts to go over. Todd’s an idiot and Neil’s a jerk and I’m no better. Everybody happy?”
Not really, Mr. Larsen. Not really.
Gia Manry is a professional writer specializing in geek culture. She currently writes primarily for Anime News Network, but also likes being followed on Twitter. She can be contacted via her website.