Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore settle their lawsuit concerning the original artwork of The Walking Dead graphic novels. These lifelong friends have decided to handle the matter amicably.

Author and creator of the zombie apocalypse series, Kirkman allegedly swindled Moore into giving up the rights for some of his original artwork in the comics. Moore filed the lawsuit against Kirkman in February, suing him over apparent missing payments.

In an almost comedic twist, Kirkman fired back and sued Moore, deeming his claims, “ridiculous.” According to TheWrap.com (via The Chicago Tribune), “In an interview for the Nerdist podcast, Kirkman was asked by an aspiring comic writer how to find an illustrator, and recommended, with tongue-in-cheek, ‘trickery and deceit.’”

This joke, which happened before the lawsuit was issued, seems to be in bad taste, and as it turns out, it also helped to bring the issue to the attention of Moore’s lawyer, Devin McRae. Cue the above-mentioned back-and-forth suing.

Kirkman and Moore collaborated as an author-artist team, respectively, to bring The Walking Dead into the entertainment world in its original graphic novel form. Since its wild success in book form, the series was brought to life on the small screen in AMC’s horror/drama of the same title.

It seems that all of these lawsuit shenanigans are now behind the two old friends:

“Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore are pleased to jointly announce that they have reached an amicable agreement in their respective lawsuits and all parties have settled the entire matter to everyone’s mutual satisfaction,” they said in a joint statement. “Neither side will be discussing any details but will instead happily and productively spend their time focused on their own work and move on in their lives.”

We’ll keep an eye out to see if this issue really has been settled.

Have you read the graphic novels?