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Sokolowski

The annual ComicsPro retailers/publisher summit is taking place today and tomorrow — virtually of course — so a lot of news is spinning out of it. Among it, some personnel news from Dynamite: The publisher has hired industry veteran Jim ‘Ski’ Sokolowski to be their VP and Associate Publisher.

They’ve also added Nick Pentz, formerly of Diamond, to their design team.

Sokolowski, universally known as Ski, joins Dynamite after a storied career that started, in the comics business anyway, as Executive Director of Publishing Operations at Marvel. From there he switched to DC as their Chief Operating Officer/ Publishing. But not content to work at the two oldest companies in comics, he had to go to the third eldest, Archie, as SVP, Sales & Business Development, in 2012. And then to top it off, in 2015 he returned to DC as VP, Comic Book Specialty & Newsstand Sales. Which, since DC’s involvement in the comics periodical business seems iffy these days, left Ski out in the last wave of layoffs.

All of which to say that Ski is not just a veteran of sales and circulation; he’s probably the last Jedi Master of comic shop sales and circulation. And he’ll definitely kill me when he reads that. Seriously, the guy knows his stuff, which is why Dynamite founder Nick Barrucci was ready to give him an associate publisher role. Turning to the PR:

Jim Sokolowski, known to colleagues as “Ski” will be taking on his new role as Dynamite VP and Associate Publisher. With multiple stints at leading comic book publishers including Marvel, DC, Archie, and other great publishers, he brings a wide scope of knowledge and experiences to apply and innovate at Dynamite. At previous companies, he has been significantly involved in expanding sales and business partnerships in many categories. With Dynamite he will be working both with licensors and creative talent to hone and expand the publisher’s initiatives.

“Having worked at Marvel and DC as well as other publishers, I’m excited to work with one who has also had an incredible track record and in multiple genres and categories,” said Jim Sokolowski. “Looking at the entire publishing library that Dynamite has, from comics to prose, retrospective books, instructional and art books, and so much more, this is a new challenge that I’m looking forward to. I’m psyched at the opportunity to work with the Dynamite team in continuing their momentum as one of the most unique and visionary forces in the industry.”

Nick Barrucci shared, “I’ve had the greatest amount of respect for Jim, in the 25 plus years that I’ve known him. His knowledge of not only the comics industry, but the book and magazine industry, has accumulated through decades of experience. His track record speaks for itself as he helped grow and strengthen the publishers he’s worked with. We’re very fortunate to have him join the team and I’m looking forward and excited to see how well the company grows with his being a part of us.”

pentz.jpgAs for Pentz, in his previous role he did things like lay out the monthly Previews catalog, and design FCBD graphics, among other duties. He’ll report to Dynamite Art Director Alexis Persson to work on periodicals, graphic novels, logos, and more.

“With our growth comes the need to staff up multiple departments,” added  Barrucci in another statement. . “Nick Pentz came highly recommended by Jim (Kuhoric), and we were able to bring him on board. He’s incredibly talented and has worked with the department extremely well, and we couldn’t be happier to have him on board.”

I’m told there may be yet another Dynamite hire announced….we’ll keep you posted if it happens!

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