IDW’s most recent publisher has been placed on administrative leave after a tenure of a mere five days, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jud Meyers was named publisher just last week, following the departure of previous publisher Chris Ryall. Meyers had previously served as IDW’s global sales director, following a stint at Humanoids and a career in comics retail.
Jerry Bennington, who was named president in the c-suite changes last week, will add the duties of publisher to his portfolio. Bennington was formerly IDW’s EVP of product management, and was previously the president of 3 Point Entertainment, where he helped develop specialty licensed merchandise.
Although no reason was given for Meyers’ removal, since the announcement of his promotion, word of a lawsuit against him by former business partner Carr D’Angelo had been circulating among journalists and retailers. You can read the complaint here.
The suit was filed in 2012. D’Angelo and Meyers were partners in the popular LA comics shop Earth-2 until late in 2011, when Meyers left to open Blastoff Comics with a new partner, writer Scott Tipton. The suit alleges breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Among the charges in the suit, it is alleged that Meyers took stock from Earth-2 and sold it to Lone Star Comics under his wife’s name, in essence setting up his own competing business. In addition, he hired Earth-2 employees to work on his parallel business, while telling them not to report on his activities. When one employee showed D’Angelo an invoice to Lone Star, Meyers fired that employee. The suit also alleges that “Meyers mismanaged the business of Earth-2 by doing such acts as authorizing the return of old product for credits, harassing and intimidating employees and withholding inventory from one of the stores to depress sales.” Damages were claimed in excess of $120,000. According to the suit, Meyers also took Earth-2’s proprietary customer list and used it to set up Blastoff Comics.
Meyer countersued for defamation, fraud, and emotional distress, among other charges. The case was settled out of court in 2013.
There are many hundreds of pages of depositions in the case, which would be quite interesting to read under the circumstances; however, LA Superior Court charges 50¢ a page to download them, so maybe later.
Blastoff Comics closed last year, its space taken over by Collector’s Paradise. The shop specialized in consignment sales of large collections.
Whatever the cause of the change, it represents yet more upheaval for IDW, which has had a eventful 18 months or so, with various financial difficulties, the departure of previous president Greg Goldstein, the return of Ryall, and the second departure of Ryall.
The suit was not “settled out of court,” Heidi. According to public records, the suit was out-and-out dismissed. There’s a huge difference. I’m emailing you some publicly available court data so you can update your story, thanks.
It was settled out of court via mediation. Waid is either accepting the lies he was told or purposefully distorting the facts.
Oh wow. Thus article just got way juicier. Then who won the settlement? ( he types vigorously in the comments as he reaches for his popcorn)
Looking at the court docket, I see a Notice of Settlement filed by the defendant (Meyers) and a Request for Dismissal from the plaintiff (D’Angelo.) Both filings are consistent with an out of court settlement. I stand by my reporting.
I saw this reported on last when Meyers joined Humanoids. This has been public info for years. IDW HAD to know of this lawsuit in his background, but if they knew why they would name him Publisher knowing current Diamond staff won’t work with him? So strange.
The short answer, Denis, is that no one seems to checks references in huge swaths of the comic industry. The longer answer, the “why”, could be due to the power of a charismatic individual to convey inspirational messages that obscure their contrary actions. It can be very hard to admit that you were conned.
Another way of asking the question, Denis, might be “why would Humanoids and IDW hire him if all these accusations are true?” Neither company is run by stupid people. Both companies vet their hires thoroughly.
Mark, you’ve been proven wrong regarding the court case. Quit defending Judnin this losing battle and kindly fuck off.
Oh, I’m sorry Bill Bartley but WTF do you know about this issue. Please, we are all ears if you have something you want to contribute…
Billy Bartley,
Cancel culture is one thing however it seems a personal lawsuit between ex business partners that was dismissed (and from what I read, jud was the one paid out in that lawsuit) and is now affecting someone’s personal career is petty, childish and absolutely nonsensical.
From what I see jud worked for IDW for 14 months prior to getting promoted. There never seemed to be an issue prior, otherwise why the promotion? In the quintessential words of Quentin Tarantino/ Mia Wallace “when you scamps get together, you’re worst than a sewing circle.”
It appears you are someone who jumps on a bandwagon and spits venom at something you know nothing about.
Everything seems to be hearsay and speculation but I hope you feel like a big man telling Mark Waid to fuck off.
Toodles for now sweetie
I ask that everyone speak civilly here to other posters. This is not a dog fighting arena. No name calling no personal attacks.
Taylor, the court case is available with info here and on Bleeding Cool. Chris Powell from Diamond was working for Lone Star when Jud was selling Earth-2 items in his wife’s name and pocketing the money. Chris testifies against Jud and apparently doesn’t want to work with him. When Blastoff closed recently, Diamond was also screwed out of over 30K. So Diamond has a lot of reasons to be unhappy with Jud being made publisher. Certain retailers too from what went down.
I also see this tweet below from Alex DeCampi
Alex de Campi
@alexdecampi
Oh wow the IDW / Jud Meyers gossip is SCALDING and it reflects super bad on the main two guys who enabled him over the warnings of MULTIPLE women
11:12 AM · Jul 28, 2020
My apologies. I was incorrect. According to the settlement downloaded from the internet, the suit was not dismissed. It was, in fact, settled with prejudice. At which point D’Angelo was ordered by the court to pay Meyers $40,000.
Does the “settlement downloaded from the Internet” actually state that “D’Angelo was ordered by the court to pay Meyers $40,000”, Mark? Where can we find this Settlement document? Settlement details are not typically available publicly in these sorts of cases, so I’m interested in the sourcing of this particular information. Thanks!
From everything I have read and heard Thomas, I seriously doubt that Waid is correct on who had to pay who in the case settlement. Let him keep making an ass out of himself though. He’s good at that.
Mark, settlements are not part of court filings. We get that you are defending your friend, and leaking confidential information is part of that.
That’s what I was getting at, Heidi. From what I understand, neither party is supposed to be discussing any aspect of the settlement, so it’s very interesting that he thinks he knows some of the details. It means either somebody is talking out their ass, or somebody else is talking out of school. Either way, I’m guessing there’s a lawyer or two who might be interested in the situation.
Comments are closed.