Mike Medney was made CEO of Heavy Metal Magazine in 2019 when he bought into the compoany. But now, he;’s out.
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Matthew Medney, CEO of Heavy Metal Magazine since his 2019 investment in the company, has given Variety the PR that he has quit the company in its entirety, to be replaced by Myth founder Marshall Lees. Jamie Penrose will stay on as chief operating officer. Joe Illidge remains as editor-in-chief of Heavy Metal since 2021 and we know him of old.
Bleeding Cool has been covering some of the publisher’s woes of late, even as publication of the magazine has been handed to Whatnot Publishing. Yesterday that included Claudio Alvarez and Geraldo Borges complaining that Heavy Metal Italy had published their comic without their permission.
With the recent appointment of Joseph S. Durko as Chief Restructuring Officer & Corporate Secretary, there have been issues expressed with payment to creditors, and at the time Medney told us that “Due to a sum of receivables not being collected on time, our payments to creators have slipped further than what’s acceptable. Luckily we have a dedicated and committed investor group whose support is allowing us to pay all creators before Christmas, while we catch up on our invoicing.”
Customers have continued to complain about of lack of delivery. and there have been further issues with their creators over who owns and who owes what. Here is Medney’s statement as given to Variety;
Heavy Metal has been at the core of my existence for 3 years, it’s where I found a brand that I understood from the jump, something I could help shepherd back into the conversation of storytelling brands. I am so thankful for the experience, the time, and the trust in delivering such an iconic and important brand back from legacy status to active. That journey will stay with me forever.
But with that said, it is time for me to focus on creative endeavors such as my intellectual properties, narrative games that I’m helming and projects that I care about from a creative position and let Heavy Metal be guided by someone who soaks in the excitement from the business building that is needed from this plateau to bring it to the next. I will be stepping into my role as a partner in the business and cheering on and helping in important projects and relationships.
I am thrilled for this next chapter of my life where I will focus solely on creative endeavors while being confident that the operations of Heavy Metal are in trusted hands.
Heavy Metal Magazine will be relaunching for its second volume, with a new number one, next month from WhatNot Publishing.
HEAVY METAL VOL 2 #1 (MR)
WHATNOT – HEAVY METAL
DEC221741
(W) VARIOUS (A) VARIOUS (CA) Ben Templesmith
The legendary sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine commemorates the start of its 46th year with a brand new #1 issue, featuring original stories and serials and designed as a jumping on-point for new readers.
Author(s): Joe Trohman and Brian Posehn, Matthew Medney, Didier and Lyse Tarquin, Chris Anderson, Joe Harris
Artist(s): Scott Koblish, German Ponce, Federico Pietrobon, Didier and Lyse Tarquin, Santa Fung,
Chris Anderson In Shops: Feb 22, 2023 SRP: $9.99
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