The power struggle for the control of Archie Comics is the gift that keeps on giving for journalists covering the normally staid world of comic book publishing.  Having earned a mild injunction from a previous lawsuit that prohibited his Co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit from “harassing, yelling, or abusing people” (see “Archie Gets Injunction”), Jonathan Goldwater, the grandson of one of the founders of Archie Comics, has decided to escalate the conflict in a new lawsuit that seeks the ouster of Silberkleit from the company.  Adding a delicious layer of irony to the proceedings was the almost simultaneous announcement from Silberkleit, who had been accused in the first Archie lawsuit of bullying and sexually harassing employees (see “Archie Files Suit Against Co-CEO”), of a new anti-bullying essay contest for school children sponsored by Silberkleit, a former third grade teacher, under the auspices of the International Bullying Prevention Association.

 

According to The New York Daily News, Goldwater’s contends “Unless Silberkleit is removed as a director and officer, the company, an iconic American company, is in serious danger of failing and being liquidated.”  The key charge in this new lawsuit is that in her negotiations with the producers of a prospective Archie-themed Broadway musical, Silberkleit ceded editorial control, something that Archie Comics, forever cognizant of its squeaky clean image, has traditionally resisted.  The Goldwater filing mocks Silberkleit’s supposed inability to grasp the “relationship between the various forms of media.”