'Walking Dead' Creator Hit With New Lawsuit Over Co-Authorship

Photo credit: Daniel Tanner/WENN

Robert Kirkman has been hit with a second lawsuit filed by his childhood friend and former illustrator, Tony Moore. After suing the comic book writer over the payment of "The Walking Dead" royalty, he now files a new lawsuit to seek a declaratory judgment that he is a joint author of "Walking Dead" and other works.

"Kirkman is a proud liar," Moore says in a complaint filed on Tuesday, August 7 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, "and fraudster who freely admits that he has no qualm about misrepresenting material facts in order to consummate business transactions, and it is precisely that illicit conduct which led to the present lawsuit (and to Kirkman's business 'success' generally)."

The other works Moore is seeking the co-authorship of are "Battle Pope", "Brit", "Dead Planet" and "My Name Is Abraham". He adds that once the judge grants him the co-authorship, he will then "pursue his rights as a co-owner to proceeds generated from the Works."

Though so, Kirkman's attorney Allen Grodzky believes the new lawsuit won't prevail in court. "His lawyer finally realized, 'Oh crap, we filed in the wrong place,' " Grodsky states. "Our position is that it is never going to get to that issue because he is never going to be able to show fraud, plus the statute of limitations on co-ownership has passed. Also, he's not a co-owner."

Previously, Kirkman claimed Moore was "violating" their existing contract by suing him over the proceeds of "Walking Dead". "Tony regularly receives payment for the work he did as penciler, inker and for gray tones on the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic series and he receives royalties for the TV show, to assert otherwise is simply incorrect," he insisted.

Kirkman also filed a countersuit against Moore, claiming that he had actually overpaid Moore for his work and was entitled to money back.

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