The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman being sued by original illustrator and former best friend

Last week was an unusually contentious one in the world of comics (even for the normally contentious world of comics), and Friday evening brought news of one more legal battle that we saw but were like, “Damn, not another one. Let’s just talk about it on Monday.” And that’s today, so: The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman is being sued by original series illustrator Tony Moore, who claims that he has not received his appropriate share of royalties, thanks to being duped by Kirkman into signing away his rights to the now very lucrative franchise. Compared to the recent arguments over Watchmen and Ghost Rider, this is an unusually personal battle, considering that Kirkman and Moore were best friends when they first began collaborating in high school, long before money, fame, and groupies (maybe) got in the way.

Today it seems they’re communicating primarily through their attorneys and press statements such as this one from Kirkman: “[Moore] is violating the same contract he initiated and approved, and he wants to misrepresent the fees he was paid and continues to be paid for the work he was hired to do. Tony regularly receives payment for the work he did as penciler, inker and for gray tones on the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic series, and he receives royalties for the TV show. To assert otherwise is simply incorrect.” Also, sad. Let this be a warning to every other pair of high school boys who are currently excitedly passing drawings back and forth to maybe go ahead and get a lawyer right now.