Back in May, Bleeding Cool ran an article pointing out that a bar in New York had registered the trademark for Dead Rabbit – the name of the bar and also the character who appears in the comic books they use as menus and promotional items.

We pointed out that as Image Comics was to publish a new comic book series called Dead Rabbit, created and owned by Gerry Duggan and John McCrea that this might lead to a trademark battle.

Today, that article is getting a lot of traffic, As Image Comics has issued what may be a first for them, a Mandatory Product Recall to all comic book stores to recall any existing copies of Dead Rabbit #1 and #2.

The first issue was already published as returnable for a small fee, that fee has now been waived. And an additional credit will be granted to retailers for the freight cost of receiving and returning the comic books.

It's a quite remarkable move and I am told it is all down to that trademark.

Diamond Comic Distributors has scorch-earthed its website of any listings for any issues of Dead Rabbit, publisher or not, though you can still find listings on Google Cache, say.

Image Comics have also performed a rabbitectomy to their own website.

You know what happens as a result of course. No one returns any copies, mandatory or not. And all the retailers just put them on eBay. 63 copies of Dead Rabbit have just sold on eBay in the last couple of hours, since the message went out to retailers. Copies are being listed for $20-$50 as a result.

As the for the ashcans that were issued as promotional items, everyone seems to be playing wait and see on those… they were going for around $7-$10 back in September but no one seems to have been selling them of late/. I bet they will now though.

The name Dead Rabbit comes from an Irish street gang in the Five Points. Infamous proto-supervillain, the Catwoman-like Hell-Cat Maggie was an early member Dead Rabbit in the 1840s. Indeed, lots of superheroic and villainous iconic imagery comes from that time.

And now the fight looks like it may be breaking out on the streets of New York again.

Image Comics, Gerry Duggan and John McCrea have not yet responded to messages sent, before publication. We will update if that changes.

Here's a preview of the first issue…

DEAD RABBIT #1 CVR A MCCREA (MR)

(W) Gerry Duggan (A/CA) John McCrea

Back in the '90s, DEAD RABBIT was a prolific Boston stick-up man and hoodlum, until he took down one last big score and disappeared. Nobody ever discovered the truth: he retired to be with the love of his life. Now he's back in the mask to save her, but no one-not his wife, the mafia, or the cops-is happy that he's out of retirement. From JOHN McCREA, the artist and co-creator of MYTHIC and Hitman, and GERRY DUGGAN, the writer of ANALOG and Deadpool, comes the action-comedy-drama tale of Martin Dobbs, a.k.a. DEAD RABBIT, the man who says he's descended from one of the original gangs of New York City. Get on board with the oversized first issue of an all-new ONGOING SERIES for mature readers.In Shops: Oct 03, 2018

SRP: $3.99