Valiant Comics, who ran titles such as Magnus, Robot Fighter and Turok early in their career, appear to show signs of downsizing. Heidi McDonald over at Comicsbeat.com reports employee layoffs. “Publisher Fred Pierce and senior Editor Lysa Hawkins changed their social media postings to indicate they no longer worked at the company.” (comcisbeat.com). And yet a source close to the company says Pierce is indeed still publisher. Something seems off in the tea leaves.
This is just one out of a number of companies dealing with restructuring issues right now. The biggest and most obvious being Warner Bros. Discover. They completly canned the latest Batgirl film (and another Scoob! film). Which was right on the heels of several bad press reports. The first being the “grassroots” movement to release the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Turns out it was actually an army of bots. Not to mention whatever Ezra Miller’s been up to. There may be a functioning company somewhere in there, but by the smoke billowing from the windows I’d say the place is on fire.
Oni Press–officially called Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group–has also made headlines lately.
Oni has laid off some of the most prominent members of its staff, including senior VP of sales and marketing Alex Segura, sales manager Henry Barajas, and senior editor Amanda Meadows. Editor Jasmine Amiri was also laid off, as confirmed on Twitter.
Comicsbeat.com
Oni-Press did release a statement saying that the recent “personnel changes were made with the sole purpose of evolving the company and brand, and positioning it for long-term success.” Things still don’t look so good.
Tapas Media, the popular webcomics website and major competitor of Webtoons, also announced some major layoffs at the end of July. Shall I mention the bloodbath held over at DC comics last year? Tons of big name creators…gone. With all this going on it’s hard not to ask, “What’s going on?”
Comic and graphic novel sales numbers are through the roof. Hollywood finally embrace comics with open arms and have several projects inspired by their source material. One has to wonder what’s happening at the watercooler in these corporate offices.
Even Marvel, the juggernaut movie studio that it is, seem to be showing some cracks when it comes to its content. Are they losing their way as well? The only thing this fan can do is sit by and watch things unfold. Well, not the only thing I can do. I can go back to what I loved about comics in the first place: great art, great stories, told in small chunks bought in tiny local stores surrounded by comic nerds just like me. Corporate money be damned, find me picking up the latest TMNT and let the big dogs fight.