Comings & Goings old

Ruwan Jayatilleke has been promoted to SVP Associate Publisher at Marvel, where he previously held the title of SVP, development and planning. Jayatilleke started has new job yesterday, tweeting: Over the years, Jayatilleke has spearheaded a number of important initiatives at Marvel, including the Stephen King partnership, the Halo GN and tie-ins, and a number of digital and "motion comics" projects, including "N", the Stephen King-based digital comic.

More names of the layoffs at Marvel are drifting out, including Taylor Esposito and Damien Lucchese and Special Projects' Production Coordinator Jerry Kalinoski. A total of 12 people were let go from editorial and production. Also among those laid off: Scott "Pondscum" Elmer, also known as Scummy. Elmer had been with Marvel since the days of Romita's Raiders, a survivor of bankruptcies and Marvelcutions of the past and a figure of some legend to Marvelites past and present. He's shown above in a photo with fellow ex-Marvelites John Czop and Steve Bunche. Our very best to all those let go today.

Rumors of more layoffs at Marvel were the hot topic at NYCC and today, confirmation that editors Jody LeHeup and Alejandro Arbona have been laid off. CBR is reporting that as many as 15 people were let go today in a cost cutting measure.

Over the last few years, all the Wizard news stories have been about who's leaving, but here's a story about a new hire for a change. Kevin Kelly, formerly of G4, io9, Cinematical and so on, has joined as managing editor for web endeavors. WIzard is currently published as a computer- and tablet-friendly PDF about once a week.

Following his stint at BOOM! Studios, Chip Mosher has joined comiXology as VP of Marketing, PR and Business Development, where he'll run the digital distributor's West Coat office. Mosher was in on BOOM!'s early experiments in digital comics, so he'll doubtless bring much of that experience to comiXology, as well as his formidable talking abilities. It's a strong move for both parties. As if you hadn't figured out that digital comics are here to stay, they are now hiring real people for real jobs for, presumably, real salaries.

We're not savvy enough on the West Coast operations of Marvel to know what was behind this, but it's fairly safe to say that Disney cares much more about Marvel Studios than Marvel Comics. Implementation of the Disney-Marvel relationship has been an odd one -- on the one side, you have a corporate juggernaut who wants to reach the boy market for toys and toons. On the other, you have a company that is very much still led by chairman Ike Perlmutter, who, by some accounts, is Disney's second biggest shareholder after Steve Jobs. Marvel Studios is known for knowing the value of a penny -- something Disney also knows. But whereas Disney has controlling costs down to an art, Perlmutter has it down to a science. The relationship is still evolving.

In the new Axel-in-Charge feature at CBR, Axel Alonso announced that the most senior editor at any comics company anywhere is retiring:

Former Marvel editor John Barber has been named to the Senior Editor position at IDW, taking over their Hasbro licenses. Barber worked at Marvel as an editor for six years, and has a background in webcomics, which should fit in well with IDW's strong digital presence. In addition, IDW named Tom Waltz as senior staff writer and Alonso Simon was named assistant editor.

Marvel editor Steve Wacker was tweeting some art earlier in the day, including rather nice page by Emma Rios on the Cloak & Dagger Spider-Island tie-in. Clickee for largee!

On his Twitter account, DC's vp of Online Ron Perazza confirmed that he is leaving DC instead of moving to the West Coast, as had been previously reported. Perazza was a 12-year-vet at DC, following a stint at Marvel, starting out in creative services where he rose rapidly in influence and rank to vp of creative services. Perazza's best known public move at DC was starting the Zuda webcomics line, which was controversial but one of the most innovative efforts at DC in recent years, and one which developed a thriving online community.

In the many many reports of layoff at Wizard over the years, there was one name which never came up: Mike Cotton. Cotton had been at Wizard for 11 years as one of their most essential writers/editors, and it was commonly said that when Cotton left the Wizard ship, it would be nothing but an empty hulk drifting the seas. Well that day has come -- or it did on last Friday, according to a press release that Cotton sent out to several outlets.

Boutique classic comics publisher Hermes Press puts out a number of collections, like Brenda Starr, Dark Shadows, and so on, but we generally hear little about them. Well, that has changed starting now, since they just hired a publicity director, namely chris Irving, best known for his interviews at Graphic NYC. Irving has already set up the above-linked Tumblr blog and sent out a press release about his hire -- we'd say it's working already.