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.
Arbona edited such titles as IRON MAN 2.0 and CASANOVA. LeHeup was best known for shepherding the long delayed STRANGE TALES anthology to its conclusion.
We’ll have more on this breaking story — including why the layoffs are happening — later.
Arbona, a prolific tweeter under is @alejandrobot handle, tweeted:
Now I can start tweeting REALLY dirty.
Update: Assistant editor Rachel Pinnelas is also said to be among the departed. Pinnelas worked on FEAR ITSELF, BLACK WIDOW, and many other titles.
My money’s on post-buyout parent company-induced downsizing. Disney isn’t making back that $4 billion fast enough.
Frigging shitty, man. They’re oversaturating the market with 3.99 Avengers and X-Men books and they’re still greedy enough to fire staffers?
Booooo. Thumbs down. I just met Alejandro in a bar on Monday night. He seems like a cool dude. I’m hoping this leads to even better things for everyone involved.
Hmmm… Could it be the “five million”? Or the “one hundred” at the Distinguished Competition? Not enough mainstream exposure for Marvel Comics?
Hmmm… there’s an Editor position open at MTV Geek:
http://tbe.taleo.net/NA5/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=MTVNETWORKS&cws=1&rid=2104&source=Indeed.com
They’re publishing 100 books a month, why not cut the hell out of the line and promote/market books better? A book that costs x amount to make can sell 120k instead of 80k a month, for only the marginal price increase of marketing efforts, instead of the serious increase of paying a writer/penciler/inker/letterer/colorist?
Over at Bleeding Cool, Rich makes a great case for this not being a Disney thing, but instead typical Perlmutter savageness. Remember, he doesn’t own the company anymore, but he does run it, and word has it that he has positioned himself to be the only voice from Marvel that Disney hears.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/20/the-spinning-pennies-of-marvel%e2%80%99s-isaac-perlmutter/
(Sorry to send traffic elsewhere, Heidi, but it is a very well thought out article that complements some of the comments here)
Thank heavens I’m not working there. Employee morale among the lower ranks must be in the toilet.
SRS
I find it interesting that Matt Fraction and Jim McCann have each announced that they’re hiring one of the laid off staff to work for them. Corporations can’t be counted on to keep people employed full-time, but individuals are stepping up to offer work to talented people.
Welcome to the 2010s.
Jerry: the Ike Perelman situation was first brought up here.
https://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/10/06/marvel-has-no-circulation-coo-jim-sokolowski-gone/
There is no evidence taht this had anything to do with Disney. But I’ll have more information tomorrow.
“There is no evidence taht this had anything to do with Disney”
—oh for crissakes.
there was no evidence OJ killed his wife either.
BEAT, you worked at DC and you bad mouth them every day.
you also worked at Diseny and you write this crap.
you arent still on the payroll, are you?
“I find it interesting that Matt Fraction and Jim McCann have each announced that they’re hiring one of the laid off staff to work for them.”
I find it interesting that Fraction makes enough writing mid-level sellers for Marvel to hire anybody.
Mike
Yeah, Heidi! The important thing isn’t the facts, it’s whether you badmouth the people svenj would prefer you to badmouth!
Meanwhile, best of luck to those who’ve lost their jobs, regardless of who the proper badmouthery target is.
And I doubt Matt or Jim is hiring anyone full-time; they’re doubtless hiring them on a freelance basis. A fee for editing one book freelance isn’t as expensive as a staff job. But to the suddenly-unemployed, I’m sure it’s welcome.
I worked as an intern for ~2 years at Marvel and worked with both Alejandro and Jody LeHeup. Both of whom are great guys, consummate professionals, and passionate folks.
Both of whom also helped to produce most of the actually interesting books to come out of Marvel in the last 3-4 years.
Damn shame.
Disney has a “Pixar” policy with Marvel. Aside from printing a few comics magazines via Disney Worldwide Publishing and a few picture books, Disney hasn’t PUBLICLY meddled with Marvel. Of course, Marvel’s profits are not publicly known, so perhaps there is some concern from Burbank.
If this is a result of not meeting profit goals, then at what point are the executives questioned or blamed?
I sent in an Oz script yesterday and the copy going to Assistant Editor Rachel Pinellas bounced back. So it looks from here like you’re correct that Rachel is one of the folks cut.