Following the removal of founder Mark Richardson as CEO back in March, Dark Horse Comics has announced a new leadership team for the publisher — apparently they’ll be lead by a “three-pillar leadership structure,” as revealed to Publisher’s Weekly. The three department heads are:
- Tim Wiesch, Head of Publishing and Business Development,
- Vanessa Todd-Holmes, Head of Publishing Operations, and
- Melissa Teeman, Head of Finance and Administration.
Gaming executive Jay Komas, who previously served as head of Embracer’s Middle Earth Enterprises division, has been serving as interim CEO after Richardson’s departure, and it’s not clear if he’ll still be involved with Dark Horse. Wiesch was quoted in the press release, and seems to have the biggest piece of the pie, as his responsibilities include editorial, licensing, entertainment and games, product and direct-to-consumer operations. He is a well-respected veteran of the company whose experience also includes stints at Mondo and the Alamo Draft House Cinemas.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the future our team is building at Dark Horse right now,” Wiesch said. “I’ve been lucky enough to know a staggering amount of people here for 20 years and my entire world view on the industry was shaped with their influence. It’s truly an honor to be taking these next steps at the company that literally inspired me to work in comics to begin with.”
In addition to the new leadership, Dark Horse promoted several employees internally to senior roles, including: Mark Bernardi, who has been promoted to vice president of publishing sales; Daniel Chabon, who has been elevated to executive editor; and Samantha Garcia, who has been promoted to director of marketing. Dark Horse also announced that publishing industry veteran Kevin Callahan has joined the company as vice president of marketing.
The news comes on the heels of other recent Dark Horse news: in May, Dark Horse parent company the Embracer Group announced they would spin off several of their companies, including Dark Horse and Middle Earth Enterprises, into a new company called Fellowship Entertainment. This was followed by an announcement that Dark Horse’s employees planned to unionize, which the company said they supported, but was soon followed by word of layoffs at the publisher.
Publishers | Via press release, Ignition Press has announced two new additions to their staff: Max Marcil, formerly with Tapas, joins as a senior designer, while Ian Shaughnessy, formerly with Oni Press, joins as editor.
Controversy | Over at The Beat, Samantha Puc reports on a controversy that has arisen around Tillie Walden’s graphic novel, Charity & Sylvia, which was published by Drawn & Quarterly last month. It tells the true story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, an openly lesbian couple who built a life together in 19th century Vermont, and Walden acknowledged a 2014 biography of the couple written by scholar Rachel Hope Cleves — also titled Charity & Sylvia — in the afterword.
Cleves posted to social media saying she believes she deserves more than just an acknowledgement, asking Drawn & Quarterly to co-credit her with appropriate compensation and to consider the graphic novel an adaptation of her work. “Walden’s illustrations and storytelling are wonderful, as I told her when she reached out to me during the writing process,” Cleves said. “It would take nothing away from her hard work to be honest about how it is built on my hard work.” The Beat’s coverage includes a response from Drawn & Quarterly, which says they stand by the research Walden did and how it was credited in the afterword.
Creators | Speaking to The Telegraph on what I’m guessing was a publicity interview for his upcoming memoir, Frank Miller talks about his career, his thoughts on recent politics and some of the criticisms that have followed his work over the years, including misogyny and Islamophobia. In terms of stirring up new controversies, he also refers to Neil Gaiman, who has been accused of sexual assault, as “a lovely person, he’s a terrific writer,” which became the Telegraph’s headline.
Creators | In his newsletter, Jeff Lemire reveals that JSA #24 will be his final issue on the title.
“Despite what what a few articles have said, I did not ‘quit’ the book,” he clarifies. “Quitting implies leaving before something is finished, or leaving on bad terms, and neither is the case here. It was always my plan to do two full years on JSA and then assess where my workload was at. And, DC and my editors, were all very aware of this plan long ago.”
He also said that Minor Arcana #24, the creator-owned comic he writes and draws at BOOM! Studios, will be the final issue. “Working on Minor Arcana over the last few years taught me that my days of writing and drawing an ongoing monthly comic, and also trying to juggle all my other writing work, was just too much to handle. I turned 50 this year, and don’t have the same energy I did back in the Sweet Tooth days,” he said. In the future, he said anything he writes and draws will either be a miniseries or graphic novel.
Creators | Here’s a fun post from veteran writer Ron Marz, who asked three different artists — Phil Hester, Sean Izaakse and Bill Masuku — to draw the same one-page script he wrote while they all attended Comic Con Cape Town in South Africa. It’s interesting to see how each of them interpreted the script.
Awards | Congratulations to Mike Curato, whose Gaysians won a Lambda Literary Award in the LGBTQ+ Comics category this year.
Awards | I missed this back when the nominees for this year’s Reuben Award were announced, but the National Cartoonists Society will award Bone creator Jeff Smith with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the Reuben Awards Banquet that’s set for Aug. 7 in Smith’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio.