Zack Soto announced on Twitter and a blog post that he’s left his position as editor at Oni Press to return to what he does best, making comics.
No slight to Zack’s manifold editing skills, but we missed his comics.
👉Big news from/for me: I'm moving on from my time at Oni in order to be an active cartoonist again. 🖌️👨🏼🎨📚
More detail at the link👀https://t.co/Tvx2EyscMZ pic.twitter.com/H9vuUfoooK
— Polite Angel’s Thesis (@zacksoto) October 9, 2023
On his blog he wrote:
I’ve been feeling lately, somewhat ironically, that I’ve been drawing some of the best comics of my entire life…when I could find the time/energy to do so. It has been pulling at me with more and more gravity as time went on: “This job (which I do love) is making me crazy, and I sometimes feel like I’m grinding my face against the gears of the publishing world, while I just wanna make books and putter around my workshop…”
Add to that the feeling that we probably don’t even have twenty years left of things like “book publishing” (at least as we know it) and the hinky feeling started turning into a full-blown Pivot Point.
“I love my job. I love making books (usually) better, I love working on story structure with people, and I love the thrill of working with the creators and an amazing designer to hone in on what the perfect package for a particular comic is. But I need to tell my own stories again. I need to have the time and space to make things.” And when I took stock of it all, I had to admit I haven’t had that space to create in a long time.
Zoto was an editor at Oni for four years, working on books like Soggy Landing, Utown, Pink Lemonade, Cartoon Show and many more.
Before that his cartoon creations included the ongoing series Secret Voice and Power Button, and running the influential Study Group webcomics collective which was a who’s who of 00s indie cartoonists and beyond.
Moving forward, he points folks to his Patreon, where he’ll be serializing new pages of Secret Voice, sneak peeks of WiP Power Button Vol, and link to his podcast In This Issue.He also available for work.
It’s a chaotic time out there, but we’re happy to see Zack making comics again and wish him all the best.
