I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that if they drew a comic that depicted American McGee looking like Strawberry Shortcake, that would fall under fair use/protected speech as a satire/parody. IMHO, if it had gone to court, Tycho and Gabe probably would have won. They probably didn't want to fight due to the expense involved. Thousands of dollars mean little to a company the size of American Greetings; it means much more to a couple web comic artists.