News

While 105,000 people converged upon the New York Comic Con last week, some 150,000 booksellers, publishers, and bibiophiles packed the halls at the Frankfurt Book Fair, held October 12-16.

Yesterday was a gloomy day for the comics industry, as 15 Marvel staffers -- including several popular editors and a couple of legendary Bullpenners -- were laid off. This followed the recent layoff of COO Jim "Ski" Sokolowski. We all know the economy sucks, and that comics sales are down this year. But was that the reason for the cost cutting? Or was it Disney? The Mouse purchased Marvel for $5 billion two years, two months ago and they are well known for being very budget conscious. Did some Disney suit look at revenue, say it wasn't enough and order some budget cuts? While both these scenarios sound plausible, according to Marvel insiders contacted by The Beat, neither seems to be the case. The budget slashing is the work of Marvel's CEO, Isaac Perlmutter, an executive of legendary stinginess whose fanatical devotion to saving money —an increased interest in being hands on at Marvel — has led to the layoffs and other draconian measures inside the company.

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.

BY JEN VAUGHN - This Friday, 'Marvel' will face the ghost of Jack Kirby when professor and attorney Oliver Goodenough squares off against creator rights advocate and cartoonist Steve Bissette.

Does the Society pay any of its staff? Does it rent office space? Does it buy office supplies? If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," please consider paying cartoonists and other creators. Cartooning is hard work, and it deserves recompense.

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.

Scream Awards were presented to comics people; and the comics people rejoiced.

Over on the Vertigo blog, we find an announcement that Vertigo's titles are starting to be released simultaneously in both print and digital ("day and date" is an insipid phrase; let's all stop using it).

Yen Press has announced two manga style adaptations of bestselling YA novels: Sherrilyn Kenyon's Chronicles of Nick and Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices trilogy.  HyeKyung Baek...

This is a little premature, but we might be looking at Sesame Street comics in the not-too-distant future.  APE Entertainment, which does have some...

This is interesting.  Viz is migrating Shonen Jump to a digital edition that's only 2 weeks removed from the Japanese original.  (And you can...