Various news sites, including Comics Alliance, Comic Book Resources and The Beat are reporting that seven members of staff from publisher Dark Horse Comics have been laid off this afternoon, including editors Shawna Gore, Dave Land and Tim Erwin. CBR broke the news first, with The Beat and CA adding and confirming information as it came available. Of most interest, CA quotes occasional contributor Aaron Colter, who was fired by the publisher last month, as suggesting that the one-two punch of Borders’ bankruptcy and “toxic” licensed projects – The much-hyped Janet Evanovich Troublemaker graphic novels and Jim Shooter-written revival of Gold Key characters like Doctor Solar, Man of The Atom and Magnus, Robot Fighter are both mentioned – led to the company’s current financial trouble:
I have sat in several meetings going over numbers and plans for books like Troublemaker and have seen voices of dissent point out the obvious: that Dark Horse is spending too much money on projects that the majority of modern comic readers do not want to purchase… And the answer was always the same, get on board because this is the direction the train is heading.
Over at the Beat, Heidi quotes Shawna Gore from her Facebook page, sounding surprisingly not-depressed:
I’m indeed still going to Stumptown [Comics Fest, this weekend in Portland, OR]. I’m even still moderating the Axe Cop panel AND doing the horror comics panel! The events of the day may suck, but my attitude remains set on “awesome.”
Dark Horse have confirmed the number of employees laid off, but is refusing to comment beyond that beyond saying that more layoffs are not expected. What this means for the company’s output – with three editors gone, will their books be reassigned or canceled? – remains to be seen. Developing, as they say.
April 12th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
This scares me. The best Star Wars stories since the 3 original movies have come from Dark Horse.
April 13th, 2011 at 9:36 am
I always admired how innovative Dark Horse has been over the years. I guess it is only a mater of time before they go under or some mega media outlet steps in and buys them out.
April 13th, 2011 at 9:37 am
They could ask Washington D.C for a bailout
April 13th, 2011 at 10:53 am
its never the writer or artist who’s product may not be top notch but the editor
Why don’t they fire a manager instead of a worker? Or just cut the junk out
Same junk as always as the middle man gets it
April 13th, 2011 at 11:13 am
They have always been bad to their staff. I had my own problems years ago. Mike Richardson runs the show and everyone else “get on board”
April 13th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Dark Horse needs to refocus on what used to make them great–Creator-owned books and targeted, quality licensed products. Ten or fifteen years ago, each Star Wars comic released was an event. Now, the racks are filled with tons of Star Wars books that all seem bland and uninspired. There seems to be more energy coming from publishers like IDW in the niches that Dark Horse used to dominate.
April 13th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Shawna’s attitude remains set on “awesome” because Shawna is, in fact, “awesome.” Best for these great people to land right side up and moving forward.
April 13th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Jim Shooter and anything comics-related equals trouble!
April 14th, 2011 at 11:23 am
As others have said, DH needs to refocus on what made them great in the first place, those ‘core brands’ in other words. Revising Gold Key was already tried back during the Valiant days and although it worked then this one had stinker written all over it. Sorry, but for anything Hellboy or BPRD is about all the DH I read these days.
April 14th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
I was fortunate to work with Shawna, Tim, and Dave at Dark Horse when I was in Editorial a decade ago. All three are excellent, professional, and passionate editors who would be an asset to any publisher. Here’s hoping they land on their feet.
April 14th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
This current siituation with Dark Horse does surpise me in the least. As a publisher, they are stayed on traget with the same old product. Really, how many STAR WARS titles can current buyers purchase? Dark Horse at one time was very keen on picking relationships with licsenes that that were innovative and exactly what buyers and collectors wanted. Isn’t the same siutation now! Someone mentioned IDW, and I must confess, as a published they seem to be making some very wise choices in terms of publishing titles that readers actually want to buy. I wish Dark Horse no ill will, but they really don’t do a good job of relating to what readers currently want to purchase. They aren’t along in this sad state of affairs. How many times can you return to the same old licensing property and expect the comic book public to get excited. I sincerely hope Dark Horse can pull there stable of titles around
Thanks for the listen!