[...] is reporting that the Ellison/Fantagraphics suit has been resolved, with no further word available as the parties involved aren’t discussing [...]

[...] Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has turned down their request for assistance. Fantagraphics has been sued by Harlan Ellison over their book The Comics Journal Library: The [...]

[...] Via Journalista, Fantagraphics’ response (.doc file) to Harlan Ellison’s lawsuit against them. [...]

I am not a lawyer but if the court orders you to pay something and you refuse to pay, you can be arrested for contempt of court. If you can’t afford to pay, that’s a defense but that wasn’t the issue (according to Groth, obviously).

In fairness to Ellison, I’d assume it was written by his lawyer, who’s named on the first page.

Ellis would shout at the gol-durn kids to get off his lawn, chase them off if necessary, then blog about it.

Ellison would not only chase them off, he’d pursue them until he reached the city limits, then file for a restraining order to prevent them from coming within two blocks of his lawn ever again. He would then periodically bring up the restraining order at conventions for the next 10 years.

http://www.whyilovecomics.com/2006/09/19/28/

add this to the “no, look over here” nature of trying to distract fandom from the Willis incident, plus his notorious hair-trigger temper and grudge-bearing nature, and while it may be simplistic, it’s the explanation that makes the most sense to me.

Having said that, I’d have to go back to my old TCJ copies, but when Ellison grants interviews, etc., there’s usually a claim that the interview is copyright and/or run with permission of Ellison’s corporation. If there is such a claim on that original interview, and Fantagraphics didn’t get his permission to reprint, there’s a legitimate claim here. Given the history and Ellison’s known litigious nature, I can’t imagine Fantagraphics would make that mistake. But then again, Groth has held on to this grudge just as long and just as viciously.

No, this type of thing really doesn’t happen in America. As someone who is a fan of both Ellison and Fantagraphics, (the work, not the behaviour) I’ve been following this whole Hatfields vs. McCoys thing between them since the beginning. It’s distracting and annoying, yet strangely entertaining, in a Jerry Springer sort of way. There’s a lot of exaggeration and fabrication on both sides of this whole thing.

Here’s what strikes me as odd. It’s probably the wanna be spin doctor in me (ever since Wag The Dog) but, several points about this are bugging me.

1. Ellison just publicly embarassed himself with an incident that got even his staunchest supporters to recognize that he was way out of line. While he has publicly apologized for it, and Ms. Willis has been waaaaay too gracious about it, the damage to his percieved reputation has been done.

2. Ellison knows that his ongoing feud with Groth and Fantagraphics is fairly sensational, even though it’s been pretty much a cold war for a while, everybody just loves to write about it. If he ramps it up a notch by filing a very public lawsuit, he might just distract everybody long enough that they forget the whole Connie Willis incident.

3. Maybe I’m just being paranoid here, but you have to wonder about the timing. After all, Fantagraphics published “The Book on the Edge of Forever” by Christopher Priest, which is far more defamatory towards Ellison’s work ethic and reputation than anything I’ve seen from “Comics As Art”. He never bothered with legal action there.

4. Of course, this tactic didn’t work for President Clinton, but you never know.

Having said that, I’m confused by the second passage Ellison complains about. Groth appears to be alleging that Ellison was nearly arrested for non-payment of an award of judicial expenses. This sounds awfully unlikely to me. We abolished imprisonment for civil debts about a century ago. Does this sort of thing REALLY still happen in America? I suppose it’s possible, but my alarm bells are ringing.

I’d say the suit is him trying to bully people into settling, but he’s been so vocal about loving to sue people in the past that it seems a little unlikely.

Tangent: Ellison did design on of the best graphic adventure games in adapting “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”.