Quelle: Newsarama

by Matt Brady, posted December 18, 2002 07:18 PM
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In the latest update pertaining to news of the Chaos Comics bankruptcy, the Trustee of the estate has stated that rather than selling the characters and properties off piecemeal, the Trustee will sell the entire package of former Chaos Comics characters as one item to the highest bidder. Additionally, the Trustee may seek, in the coming weeks, to bring Lady Death back into the Chaos estate, effectively voiding the sale of the character to CrossGen two weeks before Chaos declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
According to a statement released by Steve Brown, legal counsel for the Chaos Trustee, Diane Mann, because of the complexities of the copyright and trademark issues surrounding the characters of the now-defunct comic book publisher, the Trustee is of the opinion that the most proper way to auction the characters off is to sell them as a lot, the sale of which would include the characters, as well as whatever rights Chaos had in its characters and other intellectual property. As Brown stated, “I know there were individual fans, employees and other players who were hoping to buy one or two characters either for business or personal reasons, but the nature of these assets simply does not lend itself to a character by character sale.”

Originally, a sale of Evil Ernie was scheduled for October 25th, but cancelled due to questions over rights and trademarks.

The sale date will tentatively be at the end of January, and the Trustee has not decided upon a minimum bid for the entire package.

As for Lady Death, Brown stated: “It is the Trustee's belief that that transfer may be avoidable under the bankruptcy laws. It is possible that the Trustee, prior to the auction, may commence an ‘avoidance’ action to seek to bring Lady Death back into the bankruptcy estate. In the alternative, the Trustee could also include as part of the auctioned assets whatever rights she has to seek avoidance of the Lady Death transfer and recover rights to that character and/or damages for the loss of the character and its licensing revenues. The buyer [CrossGen] would then have standing to seek recovery of Lady Death for the buyer's own benefit. No representation or warranty is made as to the viability of that avoidance claim.”

The characters of Jade and Bad Kitty may be pulled from the sale if the Trustee learns of a movie or television development project being green-lit prior to the sale, which would, in theory, maximize financial recovery for Chaos’ creditors.

Brown said that the Trustee will be contacting parties which have previously expressed interest in the characters, as well as major comic book publishers in regards to the auction of all of Chaos’ characters. Opening bids for the entire package are being taken at this time, and can be altered to reflect the subtraction of Jade and Bad Kitty (if such deals occur), or presumably, the addition of Lady Death, if the Trustee commences and is successful in her avoidance action regarding the sale of Lady Death to CrossGen.

When Newsarama asked CrossGen publisher Mark Alessi about a possible voiding of the sale of Lady Death shortly after it was revealed that a sale was made prior to Chaos filing for bankruptcy, Alessi expressed confidence in the transaction.

"I know exactly what we did; I know exactly why we did it. I believe that the bankruptcy court will clearly uphold this transaction...Bankruptcy Trustees can attempt to do lots of things," Alessi told Newsarama. "Sometimes they can actually get away with it. I supposed LPC would be a good example of that. I think that if you look at the valuation that an outside organization did for Brian of his company, back out the valuation that they did for his physical inventory and valued it, the other assets of Chaos, including the 60 or so odd characters that Brian and Chaos owned, you’ll find that this price was probably more than equitable in light of the valuation. I don’t envision any problems."