An Arnold resident has a multi-million-dollar message for Marvel Comics: He’s no ghostwriter
By Bryan A. Hollerbach
Photograph courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Sony
Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, Gary Friedrich wrote stories for Marvel, the world’s biggest comic-book publisher. One such script introduced a motorcyclist who made a deal with the devil. The deal soured—big surprise, no?—and Satan changed the biker into the flame-skulled Ghost Rider, as recounted in the fifth Marvel Spotlight, dated August 1972.
Fast-forward to last February 16, when megaplexes everywhere premiered Ghost Rider. That flick, which grossed $223.8 million worldwide, appeared without the involvement or consent of the author listed on Copyright No. RE-929-199 for Marvel Spotlight Vol. 1, No. 5: Friedrich. Marvel failed to register the work in ’72, according to the U.S. Copyright Office, and after the original 28-year “grace” copyright term expired, Friedrich claimed renewal rights—on February 26 of this year.
In April, as he’d publicly threatened to do as early as 2001 if the publisher were to “make a movie or make a lot of money off of [the Ghost Rider],” Friedrich also directed the law firm Riezman Berger to sue Marvel Enterprises and 12 other defendants in U.S. District Court, alleging copyright and trademark infringement. A call to Marvel about the lawsuit had elicited no response at deadline.
During a recent chat in Riezman Berger’s Clayton offices, one of Friedrich’s attorneys similarly counseled him to decline comment on the suit. (Understandable; it may involve damages in excess of $100 million, the attorney noted.) Still, Friedrich, now 63, reminisced fondly about the nascent days of the comics giant.
On joining Marvel in ’66, he first served as proofreader, but the powers that be soon tested his writing talent. “They said, ‘OK, here’s Millie the Model,’” Friedrich recalls with a laugh, “and I felt like, ‘If I can write that, I can write anything.’”
He subsequently served an award-winning stint on the war series Sgt. Fury and wrote for many other titles. His fave? Frankenstein, on which he worked with Mike Ploog, the first Ghost Rider artist.
Lately Friedrich has been brainstorming about comics projects with former collaborators Dick Ayers and Herb Trimpe, but his voice is often inflected with sadness as he discusses his former employer: “Marvel just got big and crazy. That was long after I was gone—thank God I wasn’t around. It got big enough and crazy enough for me by the time I got out.”
Last year, incidentally, Marvel reported net income of $58.7 million; Friedrich, in contrast, now makes his living as a courier. As a writer, though, he apparently longs to retell one last tale for the company: that of David and Goliath.
