In addition, it sent him a check for $1,406.25 in 1998 without any explanation.

It paid DeCarlo $23 per page for his work on the Josie comic books and, according to the complaint, paid him a 5 percent royalty on revenues earned therefrom from June 1966 through October 1969. Following an unsuccessful effort to syndicate the proposed strip, ACP itself decided to publish it and brought out the first She's Josie comic book in 1963. He contends that he showed a Josie comic strip, including the Melody and Pepper characters, which he claims also to have created, to ACP in or about 1961. He claims to have begun developing the character Josie in the mid 1950's at about which time he began working full time as a freelancer for a number of enterprises, including ACP for which he continues to work.

The matter now is before the Court on DeCarlo's motions to remand the case to the state court from which it was removed and to disqualify ACP's attorneys and ACP's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and granting their counterclaim, as well as DeCarlo's cross motion for summary judgment striking ACP's affirmative defenses and dismissing its counterclaim.ĭeCarlo has been a comic book artist since the 1950's. Now that ACP is embarked on much more extensive and lucrative commercialization of these characters, including a motion picture, DeCarlo claims that he owns the characters and that ACP's commercialization exceeds the rights he granted to it. ('ACP') and been compensated on a flat per-page rate and by certain royalties. DeCarlo long has drawn the She's Josie comic strip, including the characters Josie, Melody and Pepper, for defendant Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Ferdinand, III, Grimes & Battersby, for Defendant.

*498 Whitney North Seymour, Jr., Sharron Ash, Landy & Seymour, New York City, for Plaintiff. ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS, INC., Defendant.

Archie comic book dan