Please Help Gary Friedrich Out If You Can

There's been a spate of depressing news coming out of Comic Book Land recently, the Watchmen prequels (and its attendant entitled  fan riot), the artist Al Rio's suicide, the Walking Dead lawsuit, the war of words between various creators on several editorially-mandated comics, Sergio Aragones' health issues, several indy creators on the skids, and, last but hardly least, Gary Friedrich needing to come up with $17,000 as Marvel makes an example of him for bringing a lawsuit against them regarding the Ghost Rider copyright. Obviously folks will make up their own mind on the matter, some of them to my utter bewilderment for the vociferousness of their position and the near-glee in The Man (and no, I don't mean Stan) sticking it to the little guy above and beyond call, me, I'm in agreement with Tom Spurgeon on the situation. As Tom notes, Marvel is within its legal rights. As any decent human being might note, that doesn't mean it has to go down this way. Sarah and I donated some money to the benefit Steve Niles has set up for him today. Even a small amount can do a lot to help Friedrich and his wife out during a tough time in a tough economy dealing with a very, very tough corporation.

Just another revoltin' development in the weird wonderful world of comics.