Heavy Metal to Respond to Claudio Alvarez & Geraldo Borges Over Claims

Brazilian comic artist Geraldo Borges, best known in the US for his work on Justice League, Aquaman, Nightwing, Wolverine, Star Wars and X-Men is also the founder of the art academy Quadriños Estudio Chile, and ArtistGO agency. Last week, he posted a widely shared message from his creative and business partner on the comic book The Last Detective, writer and agency founder Claudio Alvarez. Translated into English by Geraldo, and then re-edited by Claudio, this message appears below. He writes on Facebook;

“Being an “international author” has a lot of goodies. But there’s also the darker side of dealing with unscrupulous and chatty editors, a world that many of the creators who offer their content from Latin America know – unfortunately – all too well.

“I remember how happy we were with Geraldo when The Last Detective was published by Heavy Metal Magazine . That joy of fulfilling the goal of being in a historic magazine diluted with the months, when payment for publishing rights turned into an odyssey of emails, broken promises, forwarding of invoices and a long etcetera. The same months it took to get a report of sales and payments for our titles on the Virus line, payments for the agency Artistgo (some subjected to a nonsense of successive and endless corrections), or any c bear that meant to make the most basic of the agreements signed.

“Until one day we said enough. In meeting with Matt Medney, the “CEO” of the magazine, I confirmed what he had expressed by mail: I ended the business relationship, demanded payment of the debt and communicated that Geraldo would not continue drawing Adrienne James, the title he was writing And that someone else turned into an understandable script). I still remember when Pame came in from the next room and asked me “hey, who was the gringo yelling at you so much?” “. Matt was furious and raised his voice. The situation was absurd to me. I didn’t agree to negotiate anything, and I tried to make him understand it wasn’t just about money, it was about respect. Since then we don’t talk anymore. It was thanks to Joe Illidge (a bloke) that we got – after months – to process payments, get our rights back, and finally close that bitter chapter.

“The final surprise came last December, when Matt reappeared via email telling us “as a courtesy,” that The Last Detective would be published in the pages of the new Heavy Metal Italy. According to him, he “notified us in good faith” even when in his view it wasn’t even necessary, because the magazine – again according to him – could reproduce the English comic by contract. We couldn’t believe it.

“I had to explain to him that the contract with Heavy Metal had not only expired in June 2021 and that I no longer had any rights over the play, but was never authorized to license our comic in another language (for some reason it was obvious) even that in Italy is published in Italian). Not only that: I told him we had a publishing contract in Italy and he could get his partners in trouble in that country. It took me a couple of emails to understand and agree to comment to the Italian publisher that the work wasn’t available.

“Imagine the outrage to see our comic published in number 3 of Italian Heavy Metal. With our names featured on the contract. Without having the rights to it. Without paying us a dime.

“For these days, I have notified the editorial in Italy of the facts and potential conflicts that the behavior of your “partner” can bring them. They’re surprised and complicated on the subject, especially since they acquired the rights in good faith and like history.

“I know we’re not the only ones who have gone through things like this and some much worse in the last few years. I also know that I’m sure many have kept quiet and made their best attempts to fix the issue privately, to not close doors or to avoid the slogan of “conflict” in a market where you don’t want to close doors. I might do the same thing. I did, in fact … but now i have no why. I do this post because I can (neither Geraldo nor I live from the rights of our works), and because with my partner we want to warn creators who are thinking of publishing outside to take care of the ‘Matts’ that are going around .

“It’s sad that a brand as beloved and powerful as Heavy Metal has been driven – in light of recent news – to ruin by a CEO who doesn’t understand what respect for creators is and who doesn’t have the slightest work ethic. Now, are we going to charge our illegally published comic in Italy? It sure does. But it’s not just about money: it’s about respect.”

Jamie Penrose, Chief Operating Officer of Heavy Metal Entertainment LLC has told Bleeding Cool that, in response to these allegations, “Heavy Metal takes allegations of impropriety very seriously, in particular those related to our relationships with talent and contributors. We intend to communicate with all relevant parties and fully investigate this allegation, and we will provide further comment on the matter once we have absolute clarity. We thank Bleeding Cool for reaching out to us, and want to ensure the community that any legitimate claim will be properly explored and rectified.”

Bleeding Cool has published a number of issues regarding Heavy Metal Magazine of late, even as publication of the magazine has been handed to Whatnot Publishing.

Matt Medney has been the CEO of Heavy Metal since 2019. Joe Illidge, as mentioned, has been editor-in-chief of Heavy Metal since 2021 and we know him of old.

With the recent appointment of Joseph S. Durko as Chief Restructuring Officer & Corporate Secretary, there have been issues expressed with payment to creditors, Meanwhile, in 2021, many customers had been complaining of lack of delivery.

Furthermore, Diane O’Bannon would still like Heavy Metal to talk to her about the use of her husband Dan O’Bannon‘s work in recent projects. Grant Morrison also has made complaints over payment issues, and there may be more to come. Bleeding Cool is appreciative that Heavy Metal has recently hired Jeremy Atkins of Seen All Over to deal with media, so we look forward to plenty of reliable communication going forward.