Comic book artist William Crabtree brought profit-swindling accusations against Invincible creator Robert Kirkman, claiming Kirkman convinced him to forgo his copyright.

According to THR, Crabtree's lawsuit blames his surrendered Invincible ownership stake on Kirkman's misleading persuasion. Crabtree further affirms that he co-created the Invincible comic book series due to his role as a colorist for the first 50 issues, meaning he should see profits from Prime Video's popular Invincible television adaption. "Fraud and deceit has become a standard business practice for Kirkman and is apparently where his true creative aptitude lies," attorney Devin McRae said.

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Crabtree's supposed ownership stems from a purported oral agreement between himself and Kirkman. If he sold Invincible to a studio, Kirkman apparently promised Crabtree 20% of the single-sale proceeds and a 10% cut of all generated revenue from "commercial exploitation," "derivative projects" and "any allied or ancillary rights." However, when it came time to put their spoken deal into writing, Crabtree's lawsuit maintains that Kirkman and his agents coerced him into signing a "Certificate of Authorship," which unwittingly handed all of his Invincible copyrights to Kirkman's production company.

At 2005's Comic-Con International in San Diego, Kirkman presented the "Certificate of Authorship" and allegedly convinced Crabtree to label his Invincible contributions as "work-for-hire," claiming a single-creator-show would supposedly be more commercially viable to studios. "Kirkman falsely told Crabtree that Crabtree's rights and financial interest in the Work would remain unchanged if he signed the Certificate of Authorship and that the document would simply allow Kirkman to market the licensure of the Work more easily, resulting in greater profits for both of them," McRae wrote.

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Over the following years, Kirkman paid Crabtree comic sales and licensures proceeds for a television-based motion comic with MTV and a television and film option with Paramount Pictures. As the lawsuit explained, "When Crabtree questioned Kirkman about why Kirkman continued to pay Crabtree royalties on the Work for years after the Certificate of Authorship, Kirkman stated that those royalty payments were actually just 'bonuses,' that he paid at his discretion." However, after locking an Amazon Studios deal, Kirkman notified Crabtree that his 2005 contract did not entitle him to the animated series' proceeds since he had no official Invincible ownership.

Crabtree's lawsuit is not the first such allegation against the Invincible creator. In 2012, artist Tony Moore sued Kirkman over allegedly tricking him out of his Walking Dead ownership interest. The suit was settled privately on undisclosed terms.

Invincible Season 1 is streaming now on Prime Video.

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Source: The Hollywood Reporter