TEXARKANA, Texas - A New Boston, Texas, illustrator and comic book author claims the villain portrayed in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy is based on his work, in a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement filed in a Texarkana federal court last week.
Kevin Bennett Atkinson, doing business as Rogue Satellite Comics, filed suit last week in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas against Netflix, Dark Horse Comics, Universal Content Productions and Gerard Way. At issue in the suit is Atkinson's claim that he created a character as early as 1996 called Kingfish which is characterized by a "highly unique and unusual physical appearance."
"Kingfish is a fish with long, flowing fins; he sits inside a glass, bell-jar-shaped container atop a humanoid body with a speaker near the front base of the jar," the complaint states. "The fish swims in clear fluid and is not physically connected to anything inside the container."
Atkinson claims that he distributed copies of his comics featuring "Kingfish" to "various persons within the comic book industry" and posted photos of the character on his Facebook page in 2009. The complaint alleges that the Netflix series Umbrella Academy and a comic series of the same name created by Way and published by Dark Horse include a character, A.J. Carmichael, which is "strikingly similar" to the Kingfish character created by Atkinson and protected by copyright.
"On information and belief, all defendants worked together to convert the comic book series to a video series, and defendants Netflix and Universal Content jointly carried out the work necessary to create the video streaming series titled 'The Umbrella Academy,'" the complaint states.
The complaint filed on Atkinson's behalf by Longview, Texas, lawyer Derek Gilliland, seeks "any and all income, gains, profits and advantages obtained by defendants."
Also requested are statutory damages at $30,000 per instance of infringement and/or $150,000 per instance of "willful infringement." The complaint also asks the court to award Atkinson court costs and attorney fees.
None of the defendants has filed a response. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III.