Your Rights Lawsuit of the Week: Dynamite Vs. Tarzan

As you may know, Dynamite has been publishing “John Carter” and “Tarzan” comic books that aren’t quite called “John Carter” and “Tarzan”. It’s one of the weird results of copyright law: the actual stories these characters are first featured in are public domain in the US (but not the UK, where the suit originates).

Well, the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate is just a wee bit upset, so they’re suing.

The funny part is when they whine about Dynamite’s covers as “pornographic”. We have our problems with some of Dynamite’s publishing, although “Lord of the Jungle” is pretty great, and the “risque nude” covers, which are just the same covers without the pasties, are kind of ridiculous and awful.

That said, though, it’s not like running around nearly naked isn’t a staple of fantasy art, especially the art used to illustrate Burroughs’ work. It’s not like nobody looked up Tarzan’s loincloth. So we’ll be interested to see how this suit proceeds.

[ via the rulers of the jungle at Comics Alliance ]

image courtesy Dynamite Entertainment

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