Comic and related industries are HIRING it seems. Lots of people on the move so let’s take a look!
§ TKO Studios has been getting great reviews and launching new books and they have just hired two folks to help out. First, Beat pal Colleen Lindsay has been hired as Senior Manager Marketing and Social Media. Lindsey was formerly at Amazon and Del Rey, among other places, and to say she is a gem of a hire is an understatement.
TKO has also hired Marc Visnick as Vice President of Sales and Business Development, heading up global sales, distribution, rights, and e-commerce. He was formerly at Ingram and Lonely Planet. Some quotes from the PR:
“TKO is redefining comics publishing,” said Visnick. “I’m honored to be leading our talented global team as we support our shops, libraries, partners and loyal followers worldwide in both print and digital.”
“We’re excited to bring Marc aboard TKO Studios as our VP of Sales and Business Development,” said TKO Studios CEO Salvatore Simeone. “Marc’s track record of growing media companies will help us expand distribution of our content and further our brand awareness. He’s a top notch professional who’ll help take TKO to the next level as a publisher.”
“We’re thrilled Colleen has joined our team; her vast experience in publishing and pop culture entertainment is a great fit for TKO Studios as we continue to expand our product offerings,” said co-founder Tze-Chun.
Once again, for a company that started with a small direct to consumer line, hiring two industry vets like this is pretty impressive.
§ Another industry veteran, Jay Edidin, has been hired at Undercats Media as Managing Editor.
Finding a publisher who shares my values and deep-rooted belief that making media for kids is fundamentally activist work, and sharing a team with the absolutely wonderful team of @francescavallo and @alessiabcc, is a dream come true. <3
— (((Jay Edidin))) (@NotLasers) March 2, 2021
Undercats is a newish(2019) publisher founded by Francesca Cavallo, co-author of the
“Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls” book series, with the goal of radically increasing diversity in children’s media.
§ Kristen Simon, yet another highly experienced vet of Image, Skybound and several events companies, has joined Netmarble as Editor in Chief where she’ll work on developing novels, webtoons and their comic book division. Netmarble is a Korean video game company, with such titles as Blade&Soul: Revolution, Marvel Future Sight and many more. They seem to be new to publishing, but this hire indicates their growing involvement, and as Simon’s portfolio indicates, getting in on the booming business of online comics.
§ And over at the incredibly busy world of Z2, they have hired Camilla Zhang as Senior Editor. Zhang is formerly of Kickstarter, where she was the comics lead for years, and has been helping out with other crowdfunding efforts since leaving KS. Another great person and hire! Z2 has about 50 projects on the books this year, so they’ll need all hands on deck!
§ I’ve actually had a few people from other companies reach out to me of late looking to hire, so here’s my bold prediction: as COVID recedes (slowly) we’ll see comics come ROARING back with all these great folks and more.
