Comings & Goings old

§ Hank Kanalz has been promoted to Senior VP-Digital of DC Comics, it was announced at this morning's DC Nation panel. He was formerly...

And our second press release about a comics retailer getting another job in as many minutes, Alex Cox, formerly of the much-missed comics shop Rocketship in Brooklyn, has joined the CBLDF as Development Manager. Just to tie up all the loose ends, Shy Allott, who formerly held the position, has joined Dr. Sketchy's as Sponsorship Coordinator. Congrats to everyone who is now employed!

Retailer Atom! Freeman, recently hired as Direct Market Liaison at Top Cow, has already been promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing. Congrats to Freeman!

Nothing really, business as usual. Seriously, there is a lot of change going on -- although DC Comics is staying in New York, a lot of people are either leaving their jobs or being faced with a move to another coast. We're not going to run all 80 -- or however many it is -- names, but some departments are newsworthy enough to be reported on.

As part of DC's ongoing reorganization, three editorial personnel have been laid off from the Vertigo imprint: Pornsak Pichetshote, Jonathan Vankin, and Joan Hilty, The Beat has learned. All three are Vertigo veterans. Pichetshote was responsible for the recent hit THE UNWRITTEN, while Hilty and Vankin had mostly worked in acquiring graphic novels, including fall releases, CUBA and HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS.

Former Marvel E-i-C Bob Harras has just been named DC Editor-in-Chief. Harras will be in charge of all DC imprints, including DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD. Since leaving Marvel in 2000, Harras held a variety of consulting positions and and joined DC's collected editions department several years ago as Group Editor. The announcement is a little bit of a surprise as Harras had kept a low profile at DC...perhaps all the more reason to be given a promotion. At any rate, it's sort of a no-brainer since he already has experience running a giant comics publishing company and knows DC's operations inside out.

When a company spokesman suggested that the LA Times story stating that 20 percent of DC's 250 or 50 employees would be laid off, was incorrect, he was perhaps half right. Bloomberg News uncovered a NY State Dept. of Labor WARN filing (Worker Adjustment and Retraining) which says that 80 employees will be laid off or relocate. Layoffs will begin on 12/27/2010 and continue through 8/27/2011, according to filer June Martin, SVP Human Resources. A DC spokesman told Bloomberg:

Okay, now we know why there's still unease over all outposts of the DC Entertainment empire today: In the first interview we've seen with DC head Diane Nelson, she explains that DC's staff will be cut by 20%:

Kari Yadro has joined Dark Horse at the new job of events and community manager, a position which will oversee both convention appearances and events and social networking channels. Yadro was formerly at Barnes & Noble. PR below:

We won't slap a "Tolja!!!" over this, but a memo this afternoon confirms what many had been predicting since DC's new regime took over...

Via PR, retailer Chris Powell has stepped down as president of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund board and cartoonist Larry Marder has been elected to succeed him. PR below.

In the recent manga cutbacks, one company has remained conspicuous by their silence -- Del Rey's manga line, mostly licensed from Kodansha, has been...