#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

[NasserRabadi13]

That's completely irrelevant to Zack's claim against Waid and quite naive. It can just as easily be argued that travelling to that con or doing con's period wouldn't have been necessary if Waid hadn't sabotaged his career path. Nobody knows what opportunities were derailed by Waid's interference. Your scenario won't even be mentioned.

Traveling to the con was a stretch goal for his campaign. He was able to travel--post phone call--to a campaign, have a booth, and have no problem with anyone else. He wasn't stopped from doing business.

You're going to need to point out what "opportunities were derailed by Waid's interference" because I see Zack doing business perfectly fine.

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

They haven't even argued the case yet. The court has had to rule three separate times on jurisdiction. The merits haven't even been reached.



Which is literally what the entire suit is about and hasn't even been ruled on in any way at all.

Welcome to the court system.
If any of you were expecting a quick and decisive process, you were sadly mistaken.
This isn't social media.
Civil lawsuits drag on and die miserable deaths.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

He wasn't stopped from doing business.

He was prevented from engaging in business that he was offered and wished to accept. He was stopped from doing a specific piece of business and that's all it takes. No one knows what other opportunities were derailed, thus it is actionable interference.

You're going to need to point out what "opportunities were derailed by Waid's interference" because I see Zack doing business perfectly fine.

No I don't, besides the initial opportunity that Waid proudly bragged about derailing. That's the point, we won't ever know what could've come from that if it hadn't been interfered with. That question will only matter in the damages phase when they determine how much - if any - money Waid owes Zack. "Potential lost earnings" is an arbitrary thing.

Nobody would've probably ever known who Zack is if Waid hadn't done what he did, now Zack is famous. That isn't a defense for Waid's alleged illegal act.

 

[AnOminous]

The case is not just "there was a phone call", it is about that phone call causing damages, which there were none.

Zack could have still gotten into stores--even if he wants to say in every video stores are dying and make no money, he had/has connections that could get him in there.

That's a fact question to be determined at trial, not something to be made up by people completely speculating.

 

[anionfarflung]

The case is not just "there was a phone call", it is about that phone call causing damages, which there were none.

Meyer wanted his comic sold by Antarctic Press in stores. Because of Waid's illegal interference in an already done deal, that didn't happen. That's the damage.

That someone is successful despite someone illegally trying to sabotage him doesn't erase the tort. You don't get to say "well he made enough money, anyway."

 

[NasserRabadi13]

Meyer wanted his comic sold in stores. Because of Waid's illegal interference, that didn't happen. That's the damage.

That someone is successful despite someone illegally trying to sabotage him doesn't erase the tort. You don't get to say "well he made enough money, anyway."

Other companies wanted to publish him

 

[anionfarflung]

Other companies wanted to publish him

OK. Great. That still doesn't erase Waid's tort in destroying that specific deal with Antarctic Press.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Other companies wanted to publish him

So what? Waid doesn't get to dictate which companies publish Zack any more than Frog's crew deciding you can only sell ebooks on Amazon.

 

[NasserRabadi13]

So what? Waid doesn't get to dictate which companies publish Zack any more than Frog's crew deciding you can only sell ebooks on Amazon.

What Waid did was wrong, but where are the damages?

If you compare me, I can at least show a comparison of $16k, $23k, $39k on 3 campaigns (if we count brutas) vs $3k on SCP.

Zack, on the other hand, has had nothing but success and top tier talent wanting to work with him. I don't have people rallying around me dying to support me.

 

[AnOminous]

So what? Waid doesn't get to dictate which companies publish Zack any more than Frog's crew deciding you can only sell ebooks on Amazon.

It also doesn't matter whether he had other publishers, whether they were better, or whether he even ended up doing better despite Waid's illegal attacks. The basic damages are that he had a contract, he had a right to that contract, his right was interfered with (and outright destroyed), the means Waid used to do that were illegal, and he had to expend money to seek out alternate means of doing what he had already legally obtained the means to do.

He doesn't need to prove incidental or consequential damages. He just needs to prove direct damages, and the receipts for what he had to pay to self-publish instead of using Antarctic are enough to prove that if he can prove that Waid tortiously interfered with his contract. Since it was obvious Waid was just going to continue to sabotage any contracts he entered into it was entirely reasonable to self-publish instead of taking the futile approach of seeking other publishers.

 

[KingofNothing]

Other companies wanted to publish him

They would have just chased him to the next guy and you know it. It's 2020, YaBoi has dialed it way down and these people are still seething about the guy saying their books were shit.

What Waid did was wrong, but where are the damages?

If you compare me, I can at least show a comparison of $16k, $23k, $39k on 3 campaigns (if we count brutas) vs $3k on SCP.

Zack, on the other hand, has had nothing but success and top tier talent wanting to work with him. I don't have people rallying around me dying to support me.

Considering Antarctic was going to handle the printing and distribution beforehand, everything YaBoi had to do to ship the books out himself would count as damages for example since that was now stuff he had to pay for. The fact that he made money down the line doesn't negate all the shit he had to do get Jawbreakers out before that happened.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

What Waid did was wrong, but where are the damages?

The initial damages are whatever Zack's contract with Antarctic was, for starters. Then add future work with them. Then potential derivative work that may have come from that relationship. Determining those numbers are how lawyers make big bucks. [EDIT: plus everything AnOminus mentions above]

That doesn't matter in the guilt phase. Determining damages is separate. His lawyers wouldn't have taken the case if they didn't think that number would be substantial - or at the least Waid would settle for a decent sum before it got that far.

If you compare me, I can at least show a comparison of $16k, $23k, $39k on 3 campaigns (if we count brutas) vs $3k on SCP.

But you would have a harder time proving the interference. Waid made that part easy for Zack.

 

[Least Concern]

I wasn't awake to see it, but no doubt it must've felt a lìttle euphoric.

Just like when I lost my virginity.

As much as I don't like that Mark Waid called Antarctic Press, hasn't Zack proved Mark Waid right by now?

Zack and Malin have been to at least one con together since the book was canceled, when they went to Bell County Comic Con. Zack worked with Stallone, Chuck Dixon, Mike Baron, Ethan Van Sciver--all pretty popular names, and continues to make tens of thousands per book.

Why, yes, Your Honor, I did shoot that man in the kneecaps, but it turns out he's a hell of a wheelchair basketball player! How would anyone have found out if I didn't kneecap him? He should be thanking me, really.

 

[anionfarflung]

What Waid did was wrong, but where are the damages?

If you compare me, I can at least show a comparison of $16k, $23k, $39k on 3 campaigns (if we count brutas) vs $3k on SCP.

Zack, on the other hand, has had nothing but success and top tier talent wanting to work with him. I don't have people rallying around me dying to support me.

It's as if you didn't read our posts.


The damages are not a monetary amount.

Because courts can't wave magic wands and change the events of the past, they will award damages that have been translated to a monetary amount.

Zack had a deal with Antarctic. Waid interfered and caused that deal to be lost. THAT, and that alone, is the damage.


The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage, not the money per se.

Spoiler: The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage. The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage. The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.

The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.
The loss of the deal with Antarctic Press was the damage.

Again, just because YOU think $X was enough money that "no damage" was done is not the proper way to look at it.

Just because Zack is smarter, better educated, has more talent, and is more affable than you and therefore more successful despite of the damage Waid did to him by sabotaging his deal with Antarctic Press doesn't mean that Waid didn't commit a tort.

Your bitterness and envy don't erase Waid's tort.

 

[AnOminous]

The initial damages are whatever Zack's contract with Antarctic was, for starters. Then add future work with them. Then potential derivative work that may have come from that relationship. Determining those numbers are how lawyers make big bucks. [EDIT: plus everything AnOminus mentions above]

The direct damages are what's necessary to win the case and actually get anything out of it. Those are very easy to establish.

The other things would be incidental or consequential damages, and he doesn't have to prove those. They're at least partly speculative. Presumably, he'd argue that he'd lost future work, the opportunity to be in stores, and all that other stuff, and Waid would argue that he can't claim damages because he actually ended up in a better position than he would have if Waid had not interfered. Waid can't basically take advantage of his own wrongdoing in that way.

However, that might eliminate incidental or consequential damages that aren't directly related to the contract violation itself, if Meyer didn't suffer those damages.

However, he clearly suffered the direct damages of having to self-publish, and the right to contract with a party of his choosing who had already chosen to contract with him as well.

The damages are not a monetary amount.

They are if you want to collect them, or more than $1 nominal damages. But the direct damages here are pretty easy to establish if you can establish there was actual illegal tortious interference. Proving that is the most difficult part. Waid could and certainly will argue he was entitled under his First Amendment rights to call up Antarctic and tell them to cancel their contract with Meyer, or just in general to badmouth him. His status as an actual market participant weakens that. He wasn't just criticizing someone he didn't like, he was engaging in commercial speech to knock off a direct competitor who would otherwise have had his books on the same shelves as Waid's own. He didn't want to inform them of something for their own benefit. He wanted them to illegally cancel a contract they had already made, that he knew they had already made, and he didn't give a fuck if it was illegal for them to do that. In fact, if they didn't do that, there would be a price to pay. He made that very clear.

 

[WhimsicalTrolli]

Sadly vic and zack will lose their lawsuits...mofos talking about Cecil suing dynamite like the first 2 lawsuits worked out lmfao.

I'm not wrong tho, downvote away.

 

[anionfarflung]

Sadly vic and zack will lose their lawsuits...mofos talking about Cecil suing dynamite like the first 2 lawsuits worked out lmfao.

I'm not super optimistic about their winning, either.

It's a good thing that they had people to help defray the costs, because win or lose, worthless overrated SJW trash like Waid, Rial, Toye, Funimation, et al. need to be made to think twice before they ruin lives.

I know that's too quixotic for a lot of the unaccomplished nihilists on KF who are "just here for the lolz," so MOTI and autistic rate away, losers.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm not super optimistic about their winning, either.

I'm more concerned that Meyer's case will continue to be bogged down in frivolous motion practice before it gets to trial. I don't expect absolute incompetence like we got in Tarrant County. However getting worked up that a federal case has spent a couple years in procedural bullshit as if that has anything to do with its merits is silly. That's just how federal courts are.

 

[Twinkletard]

What Waid did was wrong, but where are the damages?

Zack can argue that it impaired the retail distribution of his book. He also had to delay work because he had to find another way to publish. What are the damages? Could be anything. He can point to how much money his campaign raised and say it would be double that if Mark hadn't interfered. That'll be up to the judge, though.

Zack's law firm is legit and well known here in Austin. They wouldn't be pursuing this if they think he couldn't win.

Zack, on the other hand, has had nothing but success and top tier talent wanting to work with him. I don't have people rallying around me dying to support me.

I reread stardust a couple weeks ago, and you really should have at least that, my man. You're a better writer than most of these 'pros' if you ask me.

 

[NasserRabadi13]

Zack can argue that it impaired the retail distribution of his book. He also had to delay work because he had to find another way to publish. What are the damages? Could be anything. He can point to how much money his campaign raised and say it would be double that if Mark hadn't interfered. That'll be up to the judge, though.

Zack's law firm is legit and well known here in Austin. They wouldn't be pursuing this if they think he couldn't win.





I reread stardust a couple weeks ago, and you really should have at least that, my man. You're a better writer than most of these 'pros' if you ask me.

Thanks dude. If you need a copy of my comic Trixie Cain: Blood Reaper, or any of my other books, let me know and i'll send one your way.