As we noted earlier this week, on Tuesday Marvel employees had to make the decision whether to move to Los Angeles or look for another job. While only a few people have publicly posted their decisions, The Beat has confirmed that David Bogart, svp of operations and procurement, publishing, will not be making the move west and will be retiring from Marvel Comics.
In this, he is the minority: I’m hearing that the vast majority of the staff decided to make the move, including some surprising names. I’ll wait for them to make their own announcements, but the bottom line to me is that people who work at Marvel Comics love Marvel Comics. In a way it’s heartening that they have so much passion for the company. While Marvel is changing forever, in some ways it is going to change less than we expected.
As for Bogart, although his current title (as seen on LinkedIn) didn’t sound like it, he ran the Talent Relations department for many years, a very important department. He wasn’t much known to people outside the industry, but inside, he was a very key figure, very involved in managing talent, setting page rates, and, generally, doing a lot of things behind the scenes that made the company run. He leaves after a 25 year run at Marvel, following a pervious stint as Editor in Chief of Harris Publications, original home of Vampirella.
Looking at the very big picture, Bogart’s departure concludes a complete changeover of Marvel’s executive suite including President Dan Buckley, editor in chief CB Cebulski and sales and marketing head David Gabriel. This team had an exceptionally long run! Although Cebulski was only on the job for nine years, the rest were in place for more than 20 – longer than Stan Lee’s hands on reign.
In many ways, there was no reason to change things: Marvel was the #1 publisher for 98% of that period (guesstimate), and you don’t mess with success. Maybe what changed the most in recent years was the definition of success. The Buckley regime excelled at running things despite the strange meddlings of renowned penny pincher CEO Ike Perlmutter, and they never really pivoted outside that even after Ike’s departure.
I’ve known David since his Vampirella days, and he’s a good guy. In particular, during the earliest days of the Beat, when it ran on Comicon, I had a difficult situation with Marvel that David helped sort out, and I’ll always be grateful for that and other things. The Beat wishes him the very best.
We’ll have a lot more on The Marvel Evolution as as it unfolds.
