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You can’t legally own the exclusive right to produce a cowboy movie.  And you can’t legally own the right to produce an alien movie.  But a comic book writer claims he does own the combo and that’s why he’s suing the producers of “Cowboys & Aliens.”

Steven Busti claims he created the concept for “Cowboys & Aliens” way back in 1994 — 17 years before the movie was produced.

Busti wrote a comic called “Cowboys and Aliens” that was published in a comic book called, “Bizarre Fantasy.”  Busti’s story line goes like this … aliens landed on planet Earth and invaded the Old West.  That’s pretty much the same concept for the 2011 movie and the graphic novel published by the film’s producers 5 years earlier.  Busti alleges many other similarities as well.

So the question — Did the producers know about Busti before they penned the graphic novel and the movie?  Well, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court in Texas, Busti notes back in 1994, his “Cowboys and Aliens” was featured in Comic Shop News on the same page that also featured a story about Scott Mitchell Rosenberg — who produced the 2011 film.  So there!

Busti is suing for copyright infringement and is seeking unspecified damages. Worth noting … as poorly as it was reviewed, the movie made over $ 100 million.

So far, no word back from any of the producers.