Antarctic Press

**Antarctic Press** is an independent comic book publisher based in San Antonio, Texas. They're best known for "Amerimanga" series, as well as science fiction and political satire books. They were originally meant to publish the *Jawbreakers* series, as well as additional books by Richard C. Meyer with whom they set up a publishing deal, until Mark Waid tortuously interfered with the contract.

## About

Antarctic Press was formed in 1984 by Ben Dunn and Mark Ripley, and has since been taken over by Ben's brother Joe and Brian Denham. While never a particularly big name, Antarctic Press had seen their biggest success in the 1990s with *Gold Digger* and *Warrior Nun Areala*. By Meyer's own admission, AP is a company that has always existed on the fringe of the industry, and surviving due to the owner's willingness to keep the company running at all times.

In 2018, Richard C. Meyer set up a publishing deal with Antarctic Press for the *Jawbreakers* series after the success of *Jawbreakers: Lost Souls* on Indiegogo. Meyer also stated that this was a deal that would've covered additional books outside of the *Jawbreakers* series, such as *Iron Sights*, *Theosophy*, and *Impossible Stars*.

The idea was to give comic book stores products they could actually sell, and for other customers to be able to buy his books outside of the crowdfunding space. However, due to massive pressure by comic book pros and journalists, finally culminating with Mark Waid threatening to use his connections to blacklist AP from the industry (which for a small publisher would've destroyed the company), which is said to have also extended to other creators like Fred Perry and Terry Espinosa, AP dropped the book and their deal with Meyer.

Afterwards, Meyer formed his own company called Splatto Comics, which serves as Meyer's own publishing label. Meyer would then sue Waid for tortious interference with a contract and defamation, which lasted for two years until Meyer dropped the case on December 23, 2020.

## Trivia

* Antarctic Press predicted that *Jawbreakers*, had they published it, would've been the company's biggest hit series since the 1990s.
* Despite everything that happened, AP and Meyer remain on good terms with Joe Dunn even providing info to him from his own end of his phone call with Waid for the lawsuit.
* Meyer made a video on a "what if" scenario focusing on what would've most likely happened if AP didn't bend the knee and published the book, titled *WHAT IF...Antarctic Press Had Published JAWBREAKERS- LOST SOULS?*. Mainly, he predicted:
	+ SJWs would've thrown a fit when it released, but would've most likely forgotten it to focus on something else like they often do.
	+ Antarctic Press would've had sales far higher than what they normally get, due to the high demand of the book. This would've helped them tremendously from a financial standpoint, and gave them an entirely new audience.
	+ Overall, he believes the situation changed from one where everyone wins to one where everyone loses, due to Waid's interference making things worse for all involved (with Waid losing the most).
* Antarctic Press publishes the works of Timothy Lim including books like *My Hero MAGAdemia*, *Punchline*, *Rags*, *Black Hops*, and *Kamen America*. Lim is a friend of Meyer and helped support *Jawbreakers: Lost Souls* from the start.