Trouble is brewing at the Sonic comic publisher
Over at CBR they have an article on the latest lawsuit in what seems to be an ongoing battle for control at Archie Comics between co-CEOs Jonathan Goldwater and Nancy Silberkleit.
To sum up what’s going on: Nancy Silberkleit, once a third grade art teacher, inherited a 50% stake in Archie Comics back in 2008 from her deceased husband (Michael Silberkleit), one of the original founders of Archie Comics. Since then, Nancy Silberkleit has been allegedly causing nothing but problems for the company; in July of last year, Jonathan Goldwater sought to curb what he felt was offensive, destructive, and abusive behavior from Silberkleit towards Archie Comics employees.
Goldwater won his injunction against Silberkleit, as in the Judge’s own words “if, in fact, Ms. Silberkleit stays, the company will probably be destroyed, which she doesn’t seem to care.” Despite this motion to limit how much jurisdiction she has over the future of Archie Comics, Goldwater’s latest lawsuit alleges that Silberkleit has ignored the original court order and continues her abusive relationship with the company. If something is not done soon, the lawsuit states “the company will suffer irreparable damage and may indeed face dissolution.”
The ramifications are obvious: all of Archie’s 19 comic books would all be immediately dissolved and cease publication, including their Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man series.
Though Nancy Silberkleit has not commented on this latest lawsuit against her, she went on record last year to state that Jonathan Goldwater was a chauvinist who was merely trying to push her out in order to “gain complete corporate control of the company.” That being said, according to the NY Daily News, even Silberkleit’s own step-children are seeking to find ways to strip her of the power she’s inherited.
More as it happens.
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What a bitch.
geez, Archie just can’t seem to stay out of legal troubles, lol. Oh well, as long as they have enough lawyer power to kicks Penders ass in court at least….
Oh well, as long as they have enough lawyer power to kicks Penders ass in court at least….
Yes. Because that is so much more important than, you know, keeping the company afloat.
Lol I was joking… And looking at the article the case and situation is pretty funny too
ooops sorry officer I didn’t see her crossing the street LMAO.
Cripes, this year has a bit of a rough start for Archie, doesn’t it? I think if even this woman’s step-kids want her to step down and a judge previously ruled against her, I can’t imagine things will end with her on top. One can hope so, anyway.
I do have to wonder though… say she somehow did win (and let’s hope this doesn’t happen!), what are the odds of SEGA continuing and publishing the Sonic comic in-house? Would that even be possible?
Meh, doesn’t bother me, the Sonic comics were a complete train wreck anyways. People complain how Sega makes a bunch of useless and unnecessary characters to the games, yet no one complains about the overhaul of made up characters for this comic? Also the comic is eventually repetitive and nothing in the plot goes forward, it’s just nothing but back and forth, like the Pokemon anime.
@Clint
Well, at least in the comics the characters actually have some important role to the plot.
@Clint: Which can be said of any serial ever created.
Hell, we can say the same thing about each Sonic game.
@Solar
The odds are a little under 1%. I can say with almost absolute certainty Sega wouldn’t bother to continue the comic if Archie fell to pieces.
Oh. This… is terrible! For lack of a better (or worse, as the case may be) word. Also, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more cries of joy from the Archie-Haters that run rampant in this fanbase.
@Clint
heh, people complain about the abundance of characters in the games because for the most part SEGA gives them lame and usually not-as-fun-as-Sonic’s gameplay styles. For a long-running comic book however (lasting 20 years) characters are needed to flesh out the universe. And the back and forth part, well that’s just every series (at least popular and long-running anyway. Solar said it before i did) ever.
Even her own step-children wants her gone. Must not be a good family.
@ The Shadow Emperor:
I guess it really wouldn’t affect SEGA very much, but if it’s successful and is making them money, I would think SEGA would have some kind of back up plan, lest we have another Fleetway on our hands.
Hope they get her out of there, it would be a shame to see Archie fold under those circumstances.
By the way, love the ‘penis’ tag on the article haha.
I don’t really like the comics, but I know a huge piece of the fanbase loves them, and they’d be upset if they were discontinued, so I hope this works out.
Although, with Sally being pretty much dead (no matter how painfully obvious it is she’s coming back in no time), I’m enjoying it a lot more, as more “real” Sonic characters are getting more spotlight. Hell, Sonic isn’t even BAWing over Sally as much anymore.
…Why IS ‘penis’ in the tags…? O.o
@Clint: Aren’t all of the Sonic characters made up, including Sonic himself?
Like I’ve said before, it’s hard to come up with new plotlines with the same 20 characters, thus the need for the Archie cast.
I doubt this chick will gain control, but I fear if she shows enough money she will. Such is the way of the world…
~Jennie
Penis is in the tags because she allegidally barged into a meeting shouting that at everyone in the room.
@Clint
Have you read any recent issues? Also how nice of you “I hate it so screwthe people who like it if this crazy woman win’s” You are truely a class act.
@Jennie
You can say that, but the only thing keeping me back from investing a bit into these comic is the seemingly 400~ characters Archie came up with that aren’t in the official Sonic/SEGA canon.
I couldn’t care less about those guys. Archie, how about a spin-off series only detailing each of the games as faithful as possible, like the Mega Man comics? If you check the manual for those games, the story was pretty abundant even in Sonic 1-3&K.
@HeatPhoenix
The thing is can a fully SegaSonic book even last. The characters in the games are pretty 2-dimensional and SEGA would still have restrictions on the characters. As a mini-series every blue moon I can see a fully sega sonic book working but not a monthly… (hopefully megaman can prove me wrong on that)
@Heatphoenix, try creating a long running comic with just Sega’s original characters.
In a limited game story, small character amounts are reasonable. For long running TV series… or comic books, to continue a long story, many characters are needed… for almost any long running comic.
What do you suggest, hundreds of comics where Sonic and Tails fight Robotnik alone? Like that’d work… the most that would do is make the 2-dimensional nature obvious.