DeCarlo and Archie Comics - Part 1

            I never read Archie Comics when I was younger. My gateway into comic books was through Superman, the X-Men, and the launch of Image Comics. Recently, partly owing to my family’s obsession with Riverdale, I’ve started reading Archie comics—both new and old. As such, I was unaware of much of the history and circumstances concerning the creation of Archie characters and had overlooked the litigation between Dan DeCarlo and Archie Comics in the early 2000s.

            DeCarlo worked for 40 years as an artist at Archie Comics, helped create and define the classic, iconic look of many of the characters, and helped create the characters Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Cheryl Blossom.[1] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, as Archie exploited some of these properties in TV and movies, DeCarlo filed a lawsuit asserting his right to ownership.

            The first lawsuit, DeCarlo v. Archie Comic Publications, Inc.,[2] sought to assert DeCarlo’s rights to Josie and the Pussycats. In this suit, DeCarlo claimed that he was solely responsible for creating the characters, and he granted Archie Comics the right to use the characters in comic books and strips, which they subsequently breached by licensing the characters outside of comic books and comic strips and asserting ownership. His attorneys initially filed the lawsuit in state court alleging various breach of contract claims and other contract and state-based claims, but it was transferred to federal court because the main elements of the lawsuit arose under copyright law.

The court found that DeCarlo had waited too long to pursue some of the claims, i.e., the statute of limitations had run out, and his failure to do so in a timely manner had caused harm to Archie Comics because it relied upon his lack of ownership claims to its detriment, which is known as equitable estoppel. DeCarlo had actual knowledge of Archie licensing the works outside of comics and asserting ownership claims in the ’60s and ’70s. Additionally, DeCarlo signed agreements in 1988 and 1996 that seemingly assigned all rights he may have had in his previous works to Archie Comics. As such, the lawsuit was dismissed.

The second lawsuit, Archie Comic Publications, Inc. v. DeCarlo, 141 F.Supp.2d 428 (SDNY 2001), dealt primarily with DeCarlo’s claims to creating Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In this case, it was Archie Comics filling a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment against DeCarlo and his claims to ownership regarding Sabrina. Similar to the case involving Josie and the Pussycats, DeCarlo’s attorneys attempted to assert many state law claims and added a trademark claim against Archie Comics. The court found the Copyright Act pre-empted the state law claims. DeCarlo’s counterclaim of false designation of origin and reverse passing off arose because Archie Comics did not credit him as a creator on the TV and cartoon show and instead used the phrase “Based on Characters Appearing in Archie Comics.” The court ruled there was no confusion, and the statements at issue were not misleading.     

Next time: Part 2 discussing the final case involving Archie Comics and Dan DeCarlo.  

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[1] http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/25/local/me-17888

[2] 127 F.Supp.2d 497 (SDNY 2001).