The months long legal battle between The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and his former collaborator has finally come to an end.
While no details were released, Kirkman and former Walking Dead artist Tony Moore released a joint statement saying:
“Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore are pleased to jointly announce that they have reached an amicable agreement in their respective lawsuits and all parties have settled the entire matter to everyone’s mutual satisfaction. Neither side will be discussing any details but will instead happily and productively spend their time focused on their own work and move on in their lives.”
Moore, who is credited with the first six issues of the comics series that would eventually spawn the hit AMC series, initiated the first lawsuit back in February of this year, arguing that Kirkman “swindled” him out of television royalties by having him sign over his share of the rights because studios who were interested in the property did not want to work out deals with two separate creators.
In March, Kirkman then countersued, saying that Moore was paid too much and that he had violated their confidentiality agreement. The legal mess continued last month with Moore filing yet another lawsuit, this time asking for a jury trial to make a judgement that would award him joint authorship of the comic series.
The dispute had its fair share of charged words between the two creators, with Moore calling Kirkman “a proud liar and fraudster” and Kirkman and his lawyer responding to the lawsuit calling it “frivolous”, and “ridiculous.” So it’s safe to say that these two will not be working together again anytime soon.
However, without any delay The Walking Dead season three premieres on AMC on October 14th.
