I’m not exactly sure what Action Lab is but I like PRINCELESS, which they publish, and I like their logo. So heck, I’ll run this PR.
Effective October 1, 2012, Kevin Freeman has been named the new President of Action Lab Entertainment. He replaces Shawn Pryor, who has served as President since the publisher’s inception in 2010.
Pryor will remain an integral part of the Action Lab team. He will focus his efforts on building the digital side of comic production and serve as the primary contact to ComiXology, Comics Plus, Graphic.ly, and other digital outlets for Action Lab’s wide range of titles. He’ll also serve as Action Lab’s web admin and be a facilitator for special projects.
In the almost two years that Pryor served as president, Action Lab went from a small unknown publisher to an award-nominated, and award winning, company.
“An administrative shift was needed to ensure that the future of Action Lab was maintained as it continues to grow,” explained Pryor. “As we expand, our staff needs to expand as well. We need to be able to spread out responsibilities, and that’s where Freeman comes in. Now is the time to let someone else take the company further.”
Freeman brings with him a myriad of editorial and administrative experience, having served as the Managing Editor for comics publisher Ape Entertainment from 2005 to 2012. He also served as interim Editor-in-Chief at Ape in 2009. He joined the Action Lab team as Managing Editor in June 2012.
“I’m really excited to serve as Action Lab’s new president, and humbled that they are giving me this opportunity,” said Freeman. “The upside of this company is limitless. Given our early success, our recent acquisition of the Vamplets license, and a number of other huge projects that we can’t talk about yet, Action Lab is going to be on the publishing map for years to come. We are doing amazing work here.”
Action Lab received two Eisner nominations in 2012 for its critically-acclaimed all-ages comic Princeless, and has been praised for its diverse library of titles, including Double Jumpers, Fracture, and The Order of Dagonet.
Instead of saying you dont know what Action Lab is why not do some research first ? I think the quality and hard work put in by the people there deserve more than a passing comment.
I agree. Beat, you may have wanted to sound withering and over it all, but to not be familiar with an award winning publisher (including Glyph Award wins covered on your own blog), and to not be bothered to Google for an answer, or to contact whoever sent you the PR to find out more, just comes off as lazy. Like you don’t want to make it seem like posting PR without adding context is worth doing, so instead of going and getting that context, you are instead going to slight the publisher as not worth your notice.
I don’t think this is the tone you’re looking for, and The Beat is usually better than that.
I’ve been watching these guys go from a bunch of individual creators selling their wares around the country to banning together, building, and planning. They aren’t a bunch of hobbyists making comics whenever inspiration hits. They are motivated and passionate about comics and going somewhere with it.
Yes, a few of them are my friends. But, as I start my venture into publishing, they are a model for me as I look at what they are doing in terms of working cons, networking, and getting their books out there. I can learn from these guys. Are they a household name? No but to go from their first book to Eisner nominations in two years is pretty darn good.
Congrats to Kevin and the team!
I hope that some day we can keep the snark out of comic book journalism
Agreed. If you’re “not exactly sure what Action Lab is”, then find out. I’m not a comics journalist, but my impression is that Action Lab is a comics publisher. If I had reason to suspect otherwise, I would spend the five or ten minutes necessary to investigate.
Too much to expect?
Obviously, ACTION LAB has a lot going for it — and I expected to see everyone explain what they are in the comments.
I will say their PR didn’t not contain a link to their website, and sometimes I am too busy to Google. A lot of these “non-SPX indies” tend to fall below my radar—and probably that of a lot of people.
It’s hard to get a lot of traction from this part of the industry, but yes putting out a great series like PRINCELESS puts you on the map. And I will be sure to visit at NYCC and get the rest of the story!
Deal?
“I’m not exactly sure what Action Lab is…”
Wha? Really?
The time it takes to defend not Googling, even to get a website link, it time better spent doing the work up front. Journalists shouldn’t leave it to their comment section contributors to take care of informing the audience for them.
But if this has intrigued you enough to visit the booth and find out more at NYCC, then deal. I am not affiliated with Action Lab, but I have enjoyed some of their product, and Princeless has become a go-to gift for many of our family friends with daughters.
While I understand that there are a lot of publishers, and a lot of them can fall under the radar (Action Labs, and I guess I do have time to Google, because Google just told me this, debuted a book at SPX this year, but so it goes). But I see The Beat as the kind of place that exists to have a bigger and better radar than I do. I’m just a consumer. You’re the press.
Even the “mighty Beat” cannot know everything.
In fact, the rumours of my omniscience are grossly overstated. If there’s something you think I should know about,hit that “Tell the Beat button!”
So this is still The readers respinsibility?
I’ve been reading about Action Labs on your own blog ever since the got their Glyph and Eisner nods. I guess I should click that button and tell the Beat to read its own blog.
(Make that “responsibility” of course. Some of us don’t have time to Google, others of us don’t have time to spell-check while typing on the move, I guess. Of course, I’m still just the comment, not the content.)
Actually, most websites use tons of crowd sourcing these days, in terms of reader comments and tips. Is it the reader’s responsibility? No. But I can’t write about what I don’t know about. The more people who tell me something is good, the more likely I am to check it out. I can spend all day scouring twitter and facebook for nuggets of information and demographics….or I can sign on a few trusted researchers and spend my day writing about this stuff.
At the end of the day, in your framing of this blog piece and these comments, you seem to be blaming Action Lab for not doing a better job of telling you who they are, but you can’t be bothered to Google or visit their website to find out more. So the announcement by this award winning, up and coming publisher got shared with a tone of ‘I don’t know who the heck these people are, but here is their press release anyway. . .”.
I think The Beat can do better than that, and usually does. Again, in the time you have spent talking about this in the comment section, you could likely have been more informed up front. But if you are going to find out more about them at NYCC and be able to know who and what they are in the future, then I look forward to it.
There was an “about Action Lab” paragraph at the end of our press release which didn’t appear on your post above. That contained some info about the history of the publisher. Our site is http://actionlabentertainment.com if you want more info, and you are more than welcome to drop me an email and I will be happy to talk to you about us and our mission. I appreciate the repost. Your doing this gets information about us into more hands than we can by ourselves, and getting that exposure is one of the hardest things to do in this industry, even if you have Eisner Nominations.
Whoops! Getting my URLs mixed up! the URL for Action Lab is http://www.actionlabcomics.com. Getting it mixed with my old gig. Clearly I am getting old! and you can reach me at [email protected]. Thanks again!
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