Home Comics & Toys Mark Waid reveals his upcoming legal defence against Comicsgate’s Richard Meyer

Mark Waid reveals his upcoming legal defence against Comicsgate’s Richard Meyer

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Crikey, but comic books are becoming an ugly business. Last week, it was reported that Comicsgate’s most prominent face Richard Meyer was taking veteran comic book writer Mark Waid to court, claiming that Waid had managed to get publisher Antarctic Press to drop his crowdfunded Jawbreakers comic book series from the imprint by flexing his well-connected muscles.

Claiming defamation and tortuous interference, Waid responded by launching a GoFundMe to cover his legal fees, which at the time of writing this post now sits at just over $77 000 of the $75 000 that he asked for. According to Waid, any leftover cash from the upcoming brouhaha will be donated to ‘an appropriate anti-harassment fund’. Comicsgate proponent Ethan Van Sciver launched a GoFundMe for Meyer, and secured over $100 000 in financial pledges.

Anyway, Waid’s lawyer Mark Zaid responded to the lawsuit with a Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction and a Declaration of Mark Waid in Support of that motion, which boils down to his legal team arguing that the case should be thrown out from the Texas court where it’s due to be heard, on account of the fact that Waid has zero business or business interest in that part of the US of A.

“‘if the Plaintiff wants to actually choose the right court elsewhere in the US I’ll be there. No matter where that is, I’ll be there,” Zaid wrote on his Twitter account. Meanwhile, Meyer has also been busy on his side, purging tweets and then deleting the Diversity and Comics Twitter account in its entirety while also deleting numerous videos on his YouTube account:

Besides the Texas jurisdiction issue that Waid’s team will argue in court, the other side of his defense will revolve around Meyer’s own actions being the cause of his downfall, as Waid claims that by the time he phoned Antarctic Press to voice his concerns about Meyer’s Jawbreaker’s comic book series being published, the company had already begun taking steps to sever all ties with him. As Waid stated at the time to Bleeding Cool:

I called the publisher, who I knew to be a good guy, because I suspected there was more to this than “Yes, sign us up to make money for the transphobe,” and there was. He’s a busy man who has a full-time day job as well as a publishing house, and he’s not much for social media, so it never occurred to him to vet the creators. Why would it?

That’s an honest mistake to make–as a publisher myself, if I see work I like and want to publish, it doesn’t automatically occur to me to just, by the way, make sure the creator is a decent human being (but apparently it ought to–lesson learned).  I phoned him out of legitimate concern to warn him that there seemed to be a lot of anger directed at him by fans unhappy that he’d so openly embrace someone whose entire reputation was based on harassment and preaching intolerance and bigotry.

Not “warn” him like “Hey, if you know what’s good for you, I’m just sayin’…” — warn him, as someone who has respect for him, that he may not realize who he’d gotten in bed with.

As it turns out, he was way ahead of me on this. It’s not my place to speak for him, but he was appalled that stores–the stores he makes his living selling to–were getting harassed. He’d learned an awful lot about his new partner in the previous 24 hours. He and I had a good, productive conversation, listening to one another, disagreeing on some philosophical points but agreeing on others.

If you want to see more of Waid’s legal defense, here’s a link to the court documents which were filed. Love or loathe Waid, it certainly appears as if he’ll walk out of this legal tussle as winner.

Last Updated: November 5, 2018

28 Comments

  1. This comment section is gonna explode again isn’t it?
    D, if I didn’t know better I’d accuse you of baiting 😛

    Reply

    • The D

      November 5, 2018 at 14:11

      Perish the thought. *Sweats nervously*

      Reply

    • Pariah

      November 5, 2018 at 14:17

      I bet D Zaid; “Oh that last article garnered some hatred? Waid one minute, hold my liquifruit!”

      Reply

  2. konfab

    November 5, 2018 at 14:19

    “Crikey, but comic books are becoming an ugly business. ”

    That is what happens when people turn entertainment into a political lecture.

    Reply

  3. Kromas

    November 5, 2018 at 14:29

    Keep your politics out of my media. Thanks.

    Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      November 5, 2018 at 17:06

      If you don’t think media is controlled by politics you’re gonna have a bad time

      Reply

  4. Admiral Chief

    November 5, 2018 at 14:36

    Quick, add a 4/10 score to increase comments!

    Reply

  5. Original Heretic

    November 5, 2018 at 15:10

    I have not followed this, the only info I have is what I’ve read here.
    Regarding that guy deleting his online footprint, um, I really cannot blame him for that. This world has already shown us that people can get screwed over for comments made a decade ago, back when you may have been a completely different person.
    It just seems like the safe thing to do, imo.

    But people will probably look at that action and reckon that he has something to hide.

    Reply

  6. SagatatiaRZA

    November 6, 2018 at 02:15

    This is a well programmed NPC if it manages to formulate a legal defense. 8/10 devs, deducting points for making it too regressive.

    Reply

  7. elwood p. dowd

    November 6, 2018 at 15:22

    > thrown out from the Texas court where it’s due to be heard, on account of the fact that Waid has zero business or business interest in that part of the US of A.

    This is a demonstrably false statement, given that Waid attended at least one comic book convention in Texas in 2018, and was either providing autographs for a fee or for “free,” assuming said autograph seeker purchased something AT THE CONVENTION. Not sure how you spin that as a vacation. Unless your fetish is hotel conference rooms.

    I have no idea who will ultimately prevail in this case, but I think it is safe to say this motion is gonna get summarily bounced by Judge Yosemite Sam or whoever it is they’ve assigned, and that this case WILL be heard in Texas.

    I’m guessing this is one of those pro forma things attorneys do on the one in a million chance it is granted, and I’m also thinking Waid wasn’t properly vetted by his attorney if they stuck that “no business interests in Texas” language in the filing. That by itself should spike this.

    Reply

  8. Trask

    November 7, 2018 at 15:43

    You misspelled defense in your headline.

    Reply

  9. Critical Blast

    November 7, 2018 at 20:46

    Then, of course, there’s the matter of his statements in his motion for dismissal not quite matching up with his recorded statements at Comicpalooza in May: http://criticalblast.com/articles/2018/11/06/mark-waids-move-dismiss-lawsuit-did-he-forget-or-did-he-lie

    Reply

  10. Mitchell Coleman

    November 8, 2018 at 14:58

    Oh man this king baby is sure screwed also how in the hell do I say your last name?

    Reply

    • The D

      November 12, 2018 at 09:59

      Bon-Tay-s. Or LEVIOOOOOOOOSAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

      Reply

  11. Sibongile N

    April 15, 2019 at 21:23

    Long time lurker here. I just had to drop this in the message box.

    “If you want to see more of Waid’s legal defense, here’s a link to the court documents which were filed. Love or loathe Waid, it certainly appears as if he’ll walk out of this legal tussle as winner.

    This comment has not aged well. If you look at the recent court documents it seems like Waid is in serious trouble. They had the depositions this pastt month. It’s not looking good for Mark Waid. If he doesn’t settle, he’s not going to be able to sit for years.

    https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/7903402/meyer-v-waid/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

    Reply

    • Sibongile N

      April 16, 2019 at 16:34

      Just some guy has a great summary of it

      Reply

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