She rises above the turmoil where Archie reigns
Nancy Silberkleit is out of the office ”“ by choice rather than by a judge”™s order ”“ this sunny weekday morning. She and her dog greet us at her secluded Sixties-modern home in Rye with views of Mamaroneck Harbor and the Long Island Sound. A tall framed portrait painting of Archie in kingly regalia ”“ Archie Andrews, the comic-book kingdom”™s illustrious redhead who turned 70 last winter but doesn”™t look a day over 17 ”“ is propped against a living room wall.
Nancy doesn”™t know the provenance of the King Archie portrait. It belonged to her late husband, Michael Silberkleit, the former chairman and publisher at Archie Comic Publications Inc., a global enterprise that operates from an industrial building housing 28 employees ”“ about the size of Betty”™s and Veronica”™s English class at Archiedom”™s Riverdale High ”“ on Fayette Avenue in Mamaroneck. Half of the company belonged to Michael too as the son of one of its founders.
Nancy inherited her husband”™s 50 percent interest after his death in 2008. She showed up at the office in 2009 as co-CEO, a title she shares with Jonathan Goldwater, the son of another Archie Comics founder and the brother of Michael Silberkleit”™s longtime business partner and co-publisher, the late Richard Goldwater. Nancy and Jonathan did not harmonize as well as Michael and Richard did, or as Archie and Jughead still do, if you can believe what you read in civil lawsuits describing mutually uncivil office behavior.
Nancy had been a public-school art teacher in New Jersey for 25 years. Michael wasn”™t the kind of guy to bring his work home with him as dinner-table conversation. His wife was not at all involved in the business.
“I literally was stepping out of the classroom and into the boardroom with no formal business experience and no type of training in business,” she says. “It was a little overwhelming. I said, ”˜What have I done?”™”
That unrehearsed career step apparently came with several missteps that antagonized employees and her co-CEO at Archie Comics.
Last year, Archie Comic Publications Inc. and Jonathan Goldwater filed separate complaints in state Supreme Court that sought to have Nancy barred from the Mamaroneck office and from communicating with employees. Goldwater in his lawsuit asked the court to remove her as co-CEO and company director, claiming her refusal to dilute her ownership stake by bringing in equity investors could force the company to liquidate.
The plaintiffs claimed she had created a “hostile work environment” and threatened and harassed employees. Her co-CEO claimed that Nancy in her self-made company role as a literacy champion organizing comic book fairs at schools in the U.S. and Canada had cost the company at least 10 times more than those scholastic fundraisers returned in revenue.
The beleaguered co-CEO ”“ “I am the first woman to walk through Archie Comics as an executive in 70 years,” she says ”“ countered with a lawsuit against Goldwater and Archie Comics seeking $100 million in damages. Goldwater, she said, had defamed her character and reputation with employees and the press and was undermining her to gain control of the company and dissolve it.
A state Supreme Court judge in Manhattan did bar Nancy from the office while the cases were pending. The co-CEO-in-exile in February was found in contempt of court and fined $500 by the judge for contacting employees.
In May, a confidential settlement was reached that keeps her as co-CEO. Back in the office, she remains in charge of the company”™s education and theater operations. Goldwater”™s three nieces, however, who hold a 25 percent interest in the company, are not pleased with the settlement. They claim it was all about “resurrecting Ms. Silberkleit”™s image” and concealing the theft of company assets by their once-dear “Uncle Jon.”
“It”™s over,” Nancy says when we ask about the pact that ended the widely publicized court battle. “That”™s all I”™ll say.”
“It was a very sad, disturbing time.”
Nancy has pushed on, apparently undaunted. “I know I”™m very confident,” she says. “I enjoy being a businesswoman.”
She has expanded her work promoting literacy through comic books and graphic novels. This summer she founded her own nonprofit, Rise Above Social Issues Foundation Inc., to reach kids with important messages through the medium of comics.
The foundation”™s first comic-book project addresses bullying. She plans to address issues such as bullied gay youths, Internet-related suicides, childhood obesity, drinking and driving and the environmental impact of plastics. Ever a teacher, she wants to develop lesson plans in comic-book formats for other teachers. She wants to reach kids in danger of dropping out of school.
“The comic book is a very powerful tool to engage children in the thinking process of being creative,” she says. “The comic book to me is an entertainment, but also a great vehicle for me to educate people on important issues. People love it when they see those speech bubbles ”¦ it”™s magnetic. The magnetism of the comic book is there for me.”
A nonreader for much of her life, Nancy discovered the allure of comics when she stepped into her new job in Mamaroneck. Comics sparked in the former remedial-reading pupil a passion for reading.
Diving into an Archie comic for 30 minutes is her “Archie Therapy,” she says. She believes it works for others too.
“I had a man who told me he learned everything about business from Archie, not from business school,” she says. At $2.99 and $3.99 a comic, Archiedom dispenses a cheap education.
She hands us a scented business card of her design. It smells like apples ”“ Betty”™s scent, she says. That led her to develop a perfume, Rise Above.
“My platform has expanded,” says the co-CEO at Archie Comics. “Who knew when I developed this card that I would have my own perfume?”