Miracleman Redux: the penultimate chapter

I've been following the Miracleman saga for some time now, both with posts in appreciation of the work that was done on the character, and interesting tidbits of news that have popped up over the years regarding the ongoing rights battle (and this one has a badass Totleben sketchbook piece with it), so here, in the interests of completeness, is one more bit, from the UK's Forbidden Planet website interview of Mr. Moore:

I mean, other than the fact that I was happy to do everything that I could to help Mick Anglo, who is the person who has always owned all of the rights to Marvelman, as far as I now understand it, that we never had the rights to do those stories, even though Mick really liked the stories that we did. We didn’t understand at the time that Mick Anglo was the sole owner of the rights. We were misled. So I’ve done everything that I can to clear all that up. I’ve said that, they talked about the possibility – what they want is money quickly, because Mick’s a very old man, he’s got a sick wife to look after, and they could use some dosh quite quickly.

I mean, I believe that the Todd McFarlane thing, his ridiculous claims to the character have now been dropped, so it can move on. I believe that they’re going to be reprinting some of my stuff, but I’m not sure of all the details, I’ve just said, “Yeah, go ahead,” and all the money from the first book, from the first printing of the book, should go to Mick Anglo. They’ve also said that what if there’s a possibility of some animated Marvelman cartoons, and I’ve said, again, “Don’t put me name on them, and give all the money to Mick Anglo.” So I hope that some of it turns up in time to do Mick some good, because he’s a great artist, you know, the British comics scene would be poorer without him, and I’m making great use of Captain Universe – oh, I’ve given it away!

Yes, Mr. Moore has created a Miracleman stand-in in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which, no doubt, will be created and handled with the same verve and delightful lack of respect that he has accorded to many of the other figures that have popped up in the League books. (Edit on 20 May 2009: I have been corrected by the interviewer below in the comments section about this, so my apologies for misreading and misreporting this.)

But what is great is that Mick Angelo being alive and being, hopefully without dispute, the sole owner of the rights is literally the only possible solution to the Gordonian Knot (howabout that for a Watchmen reference?) that the Miracleman rights had become.

Here it is: its all his. Every creator out there that worked on the series: you got your page rate, and you get no reprint rates out of the goodness of your heart and it all goes to Mick and his heirs in perpetuity. Give the man something. I want my hardcover edition of the Miracleman saga and I'll pay for it up front to give Angelo the money. Get it reprinted and out there. And if it sells well enough, see if Gaiman and Buckingham want to finish their run on the title.

This is likely the best ending to this that i could have imagined. Lets hope that it sticks. Any lawsuits by Dez Skinn and I'm going to go punch someone out.