Although some were wondering of former Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso had been moved to a different position at Marvel, this tweet would indicate that he’s left the company.

 

Alonso started at Marvel in 2000, after a successful stint at Vertigo, and was elevated to EIC in 2011.

 

Marvel has released an official statement on the switch to C.B. Cebulski as new editor in chief. 

Marvel Entertainment, the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment company, announced today that C.B. Cebulski has been promoted to Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief effective November 17, 2017. Former Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso has mutually parted ways with the company. The announcement was made by Dan Buckley, President, Marvel Entertainment.

In his new role, Mr. Cebulski will oversee all day-to-day editorial and creative aspects of Marvel’s publishing division. This includes driving the overall editorial creative vision, shaping the larger story direction of the Marvel Comics line-up, and bringing to Marvel the world’s best and brightest writers and artists. Additionally, Mr. Cebulski will be furthering Marvel’s efforts to expand the publishing division internationally.

During his more than 15-year tenure at Marvel, Mr. Cebulski has established himself as one of the industry’s top editors, storytellers, and talent recruiters. His editorial and writing highlights include the hit comic book series, Runaways by Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona, and Marvel Fairy Tales. He is also a renowned talent recruiter, helping to sign the industry’s top talent including Skottie Young, Adi Granov, Sara Pichelli, Phil Noto, Steve McNiven and Jonathan Hickman, among others.

 

Over the past 6 years, Mr. Cebulski has been at the forefront of Marvel Entertainment’s global expansion, as both VP, International Development Brand Management and most recently VP, Marvel Brand Management and Development, Asia. In these roles, he has been instrumental in exploring new opportunities for Marvel in both emerging and established markets. Mr. Cebulski also paved the way for the further globalization of the Marvel Universe — overseeing groundbreaking deals with manga publisher Kodansha in Japan, webcomics platform Daum in Korea and content creator NetEase in China, bringing Marvel to Asian markets through localized stories and characters. He has also helped introduce fresh new creative styles to the company’s world-renowned Super Hero franchises across comics, animation and games through the recruitment and development of numerous international artists and writers.

“C.B. is one of the most well-known, liked and respected editors and personalities in the comics industry. He has a keen understanding of the Marvel brand, and knows the importance of publishing within the larger Marvel ecosystem,” said Dan Buckley, President, Marvel Entertainment. “As our characters continue to reach unprecedented levels of global popularity, we need to ensure our core comic business sets the standard with fresh and compelling graphic storytelling that excites both our longtime fan base and new fans. Marvel has set a high bar for super hero stories for over 75 years, and we believe C.B. is perfectly positioned to take Marvel Comics to new heights.”

Mr. Cebulski takes the helm at Marvel Comics at a time the division continues to dominate the market. Marvel consistently leads in both market and dollar share, with Marvel comics regularly in the top 5 best-selling in the industry. Over the past five years, comics and collections sales have grown over 30% in the direct market and 60% in the book market. He is inheriting a buzzed about line-up of high-profile initiatives including Marvel Legacy, Venom’s 30th Anniversary, and Avengers No Surrender weekly series.

Additionally, Mr. Cebulski will be tasked with bringing his global perspective to his new role. He will be working closely with comics partners like Panini, NetEase, Daum and Kodansha to expand the everyday Marvel Comics experience for fans across the world.

“Spending these last 18 months in Asia, and introducing more fans here to the depth of the Marvel Universe, I’ve seen firsthand how our comics and characters constantly bring joy into people’s lives all over the world. I hope to continue capturing that creative magic here at home, and deliver inspirational and entertaining stories that are true to the classic Marvel DNA, but built with an expanding global mindset.”

Mr. Cebulski is relocating from Shanghai to New York.

15 COMMENTS

  1. So…is Alonso taking the bullet for the collapsing sales? Did Disney get complaints about him sexually harassing female employees?

    I remember Alonso was used as the scapegoat for all the late books in the mid-2000s. He was a buffer to protect Quesada from criticism from the comics press.

    Never met the guy personally, so I can’t comment on how he is as a human being, but he seemed to be an enabler for all of the worst tendencies of Bendis, Slott, et al.

    Like if Bendis came to the editorial board and said “Hey, I wanna do a story where Miles Morales wakes up one morning and has turned into a white woman, and is then sexually assaulted.”

    Alosno’s reaction to that would have been “Sounds great. Go do it.” instead of the more obvious “That sounds horrible, get out of my office.!”

  2. Axel Alonso’s actual editing was awesome back in the day. I’m not the biggest Preacher fan, but he helped shepherd that into existence and that’s a huge deal. He also helped create MAX at Marvel and edited two of my favorite Peter Milligan runs ever (Human Target at Vertigo and X-Statix at Marvel – X-Statix in particular might be one of the best things Marvel’s published this century). His best projects were always ones that were quite a bit outside of the superhero box, and perhaps that’s why the “core” titles [with notable exceptions] at Marvel didn’t seem to be quite as great with Alonso as EIC. Hopefully he will land on his feet in a role conducive to his sensibilities.

    (Side note: to be honest, I’m not 100% sure what an editor or an editor-in-chief’s day-to-day duties entail, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include complaining about artists not “moving the needle,” coming up with “diversity” as an excuse for slipping sales, and setting debut-issue cover prices as $4.99, so Axel can’t be held accountable for the biggest things that have made my enthusiasm for Marvel cool in these last couple of years).

  3. Ok, can someone help me org chart-wise?

    Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor… Does that mean Cebulski works for Brevoort? Vice versa? Neither?

    Alonso replaced Joe Quesada, who’s now Chief Creative Officer? So did Alonso report to Quesada? Or is CCO more of an emeritus position?

  4. Editor in Chief is above any executive editor. So, Brevoort works for Cebulski (and used to work for Alonso, and Quesada, and…).

    Quesada was promoted to the new Chief Creative Officer position when Alonso replaced him as EiC. CCO is above EiC, but it’s not as much of a hands-on, day-to-day position like EiC is. At the time, Quesada’s newly created CCO position was compared to Dan Didio’s position at DC, but it wouldn’t quite be the same thing as Marvel already has a publisher in Dan Buckley (but his title seems to switch between publisher and president).

    Boiling that down to more directly answer your question, Brevoort reports to Cebulski, and Cebulski reports to Quesada.

  5. Great answer, thanks.

    Now I’m confused as to the difference between an exec editor and an EiC — they sound like the same job…

  6. Sure thing!

    I think of it like the way a chain of retail stores is set up. You have a store manager of one location; that manager oversees assistant managers and employees. Then, there are district managers that oversee the various store managers. Then, there are regional managers that oversee the district managers. Then, there’s the corporate office which has different departments that oversee the whole operation.

    An editor is like a store manager; they have assistant editors and oversee the talent (writer, artists, letters, colorists, etc.). An executive editor still does those things, but also oversees some other editors, so kind of like a district manager (but while still managing a store). The Editor in Chief oversees all of the editors, so kind of like a regional manager. Then you have the corporate positions, like Chief Creative Officer, publisher/president, executive producer, etc. that oversee the whole operation.

    So I guess an executive editor is basically a special editor with a few extra responsibilities… but still an editor. The Editor in Chief is in charge of all the editors, no matter what “kind” of editor they are.

    I hope that makes sense. :)

  7. Sad to see Alonso go and with no proper thanks from Marvel for all his hard work pre Editor in Chief and after. He edited a lot of great books.

    He’s not the one to blame for sales. He worked in a team after all, they’re all to blame.

    Looking forward to what Cebulski does.

  8. @DJ

    Thanks for the answer. I’m used to the Editor-In-Chief being the person in charge, it’s that “executive” thing that threw me for a loop.

    In my line of work we’re always trying to remember if the “Managing Directors” outrank the “General Managers” or vice versa.

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