Rosa-Grandey Suit: It's over!

[JALustig@aol.com]

Anyone who has been on this mailing list for more than three or four months
is probably aware that Don Rosa has been suing Bill Grandey of the Carl Barks
Studio for libel. What most of you don't know is that shortly after that suit
was launched Grandey launched a countersuit for libel against Rosa.

I am happy to report that both suits were settled out of court on July 6,
1995.

I waited nearly two weeks to say anything because I had been hoping that Rosa
would be posting this news and the text of the settlement "statement"
himself. My understanding is that there was an agreement between Rosa and
Grandey that this information be posted here. Since Grandey is not yet on the
mailing list himself he has asked me to post it for him. Despite some
trepidations, I've agreed.

I've placed the actual text of the settlement statement in a file that I'm
posting separately to this list.

And now for a few personal observations:

I have--in a way--been drawn into these lawsuits from the very beginning.
Indeed, the events leading up to those lawsuits began when Rosa and I had an
argument more than two years ago at a convention. That argument was briefly
described--with some inaccuracies--in a fax that Grandey sent to a third
party. Rosa then sent Grandey a fax of his own in which he objected to a
number of things Grandey had written and described our confrontation very
differently. This--in my opinion--also contained inaccuracies.

My disagreement with Rosa was only one of many topics that were brought up in
the two faxes. Indeed, it was a fairly minor subject in both communications.
But these were the faxes that launched the two suits and so I've been
involved--whether I wanted to be or not--from the start.

After joining this mailing list, I started poking around the list's archives.
I discovered that not only had my disagreement with Rosa been described in
detail--with even more inaccuracies--a letter I had written to a comic fan
publication was being mischaracterized as an attack on Rosa. 

It was not--although I can see how Don and his fans might perceive it as an
attack. Indeed, I'm sure that some people are going to misconstrue much of
what I'm writing here as an attack on Rosa. It is not. In fact, I'm trying
very hard for this whole communication to be non inflammatory.

I won't deny that I was very angry about some of the things I read in the
archives. I was angry about the things written about me. And I was especially
angry about the things written about people who are my friends and whom I
respect--among them Bill Grandey, William Van Horn and Carl Barks.

The things that were said about Barks particularly horrified me. Most of the
members of this list have never met Barks--and yet various people expressed
very forceful and elaborate opinions about what kind of person Barks is and
came up with some very sinister and far-fetched theories about his behavior.

To some extent I can understand this. For the most part, you folks have only
heard one side of this entire controversy. What else were you to think?

So, I thought about writing into the list and giving the other side. The
problem, though, was that many of the most inflammatory statements were made
almost two years before I joined the list. To object now and deal with them
in detail would only stir things up again and bring more attention to them.
So I decided to say nothing--for the time at least.

And I think it's probably best not to get into the specifics of those past
missives now.

I guess the point of this letter--besides getting a certain amount of anguish
off my chest--is to ask people to remember that there are two sides to every
disagreement. Often the two sides--as has happened here--have two very
different versions of the facts.

The other thing to remember is that this is essentially a public forum. The
archives are available--through an FTP site and apparently now the Web--to
everyone. Even nonmembers of this list. For all I know they'll be there
forever. People from a thousand years from now will be able to read your
opinions of Barks, Rosa, Grandey, Van Horn, myself and others. Whether
they're true or not--the statements will be there.

Saying that you dislike someone's story is fine. But to say horrible things
about someone--purely on the basis of hearsay--that is unfair. Attacking
someone who is not on this list to defend himself is even worse.

I find it particularly contemptible to go after Barks. This man who has given
us decades of wonderful characters and comics surely deserves an honored
place here. From all accounts--except the ones posted on this list--Barks has
gone out of his way over the years not to unnecessarily offend people. He is
reclusive, but whenever he's been prodded out of his shell he's usually been
gracious to fans and both helpful and encouraging to other professionals.

The fact that Barks and one other professional do not like each other and are
feuding should not be the concern of fans. And even if it is there's no
reason that you have to take sides.

The lawsuits and the controversies that surround them have already caused
Barks and others a great deal of anxiety and pain. I think it's a damn shame
that a man in his 90's has to spend his last years dealing with something
like this.

I apologize for going on at such length. I have strong feelings about these
matters and I've been keeping these feelings bottled up for a long time. It's
doubly frustrating not to be able to get into the specifics of this
controversy. My hope, though, is that we can all get beyond this and that in
the future any controversies on this list will be about the comics--instead
of the creators.

That is all I have to say about this subject.

---John Lustig