Posted in: Comics | Tagged: archie comics, comic harassment, Comics, entertainment, john goldwater, nancy silberkleit

Three Lawsuits From Female Ex-Employees Against Archie Comics

It can't be a bad life for an Archie Comics lawyer. Lots of work. Lots and lots and lots.

In recent years, there has been considerable legal back and forth in the courts with Archie Comics. Whether it was the copyright battle with Ken Penders (settled), or co-CEO, Jonathan Goldwater filing suit against his other co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit (settled, with an agreement to limit communication), Samuel Levitin filing suit against Silberkleit and getting a counter suit from her, and then Archie employees suing Silberkleit for gender discrimination for, allegedly, referring to every man in the building as "penis" (case dismissed, currently on appeal), there's been a lot of legal action from the men against one woman. During which time she also stood for mayor of Rye, gaining 1.9%, or 32 votes.

Well now it's time for the other women to join in. The New York Daily News reports that three female former employees, Caroline Ohmer, Shirlene Jackson and Catherine Garcia-Bou have filed their own suit against Archie Comics, saying that they were "subjected to gender discrimination and sexual harassment", that "Archie Comics is a male dominated and male run workplace that disrespects females" and that they were "targeted and retaliated against" for working for Silberkleit.

The suit says the execs "routinely demeaned" Silberkleit, making comments such as, "Nancy should be spending her time shopping," or "Nancy should be out buying shoes."

Garcia-Bou said the male execs, some of whom sued Silberkleit for harassment last year, "refused to directly communicate with Ms. Silberkleit."

They made "Garcia-Bou, while standing right next to Ms. Silberkleit, repeat everything the male executives would say, and then, after Ms. Silberkelit would respond, Ms. Garcia-Bou would then need to repeat her comments to the male executives, despite the fact that all parties were in the same room standing right next to each other," the suit says.

Garcia-Bou says she left after about six months because she couldn't take the uncomfortable weirdness anymore.

Her successors, Jackson and Ohmer, said they were ostracized in the office, and forced to sign in and out, even though other employees weren't. Both were fired for insubordination, the suit says.

Of late, Archie Comics has been making headlines for all the right reasons. Is this the start of a return to all the wrong reasons again?

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