Todd McFarlane Productions has posted pictures of a 12-inch resin sculpture of Miracleman on its spawn.com website.  The text that accompanies the pictures states that the statue will be reproduced in 'incredibly limited quantities' as a 'specialty store exclusive.'  According to spawn.com website, 'No firm prices have been set at this time, but the retail figure of around $100 isn't unusual for products of this nature.' 

 

So far no one has publicly threatened to sue McFarlane over the question of whether or not he actually has the rights to create a Miracleman statue.  McFarlane acquired some of the rights the Miracleman character when he purchased the assets of Eclipse Comics, which published Miracleman trade paperback collections.  Neil Gaiman, who worked on the Miracleman series (along with Alan Moore, Alan Davis, Gary Leach, John Totleben and others), has expressed an interest in regaining the rights to the character, although in his lawsuit against McFarlane Gaiman opted to secure the rights for characters that he created for McFarlane (Angela, Medieval Spawn) rather than to pry the rights for Miracleman from McFarlane's grasp (see 'Gaiman Keeps Share of Spawn Characters'). 

 

Suffice it to say that the rights to the Miracleman property are a tangled mess with lots of players including McFarlane, the series' creators, and even Dez Skinn, who was one of several publishers who had a hand in Miracleman's checkered publishing career.  Is McFarlane's plan to produce a Miracleman statue a ploy to get other interested parties to negotiate?  Will this 12-inch resin figure inspire additional lawsuits and legal strife?   Will a McFarlane Miracleman comic be next? Stay tuned, this little drama looks like it is heating up.