Well, hey, G-man, you're the lawyer, so you'd know better than me.
The irony is, Ellison was praising Michael Fleischer, saying "He's crazy as a bedbug!", for his twisted stories in the Spectre series (ADVENTURE 430-440) and WEIRD WESTERN, and JONAH HEX. Ellison was saying he's crazy in the way Robert E. Howard was crazy, with a maniacally detailed violent imagination that made his stories good.
But as it turned out, Fleischer was seeing a psychiatrist 3 days a week and arguably was truly crazy, or at least mentally unstable. Fleischer sued, saying the interview hurt his professional reputation and had hurt his income. But in the years of the lawsuit, Fleischer's income actually doubled! So the interview obviously didn't hurt his professional writing career.
The Fleischer suit lasted from 1980-1987, before finally coming to trial. The COMICS JOURNAL cover-featured it in issue 115, and transcribed much of the testimony in that issue. With a really nice wraparound cover by Don Simpson.
Groth/Fantagraphics published a six-issue benefit book titled
ANYTHING GOES in 1986-1987 to raise money for their legal fees. In the span of the series, they published some remarkably good material, particularly "Pictopia" by Alan Moore and Don Simpson, as well as Journey/Wolverine McCallister story, and a Flaming Carrot story, among other fun pieces by Crumb, Spiegelman, Howard Cruse, Mike Hoffman and others.
