IDW CEO Ted Adams talks IDW Limited, the publisher’s new ultra-high-end limited editions line, at ICv2:

In most cases the edition sizes are so small that selling direct-to-consumer was the best method to avoid overselling which triggers challenging allocations through traditional distribution. With such a small quantity of books we’re launching with, there really wasn’t another way that made sense other than going directly to the consumer. And when I say “small quantity” here’s the perfect example. We’re making 10 copies of the Blue Label edition (the top tier) of our launch book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. 1 Deluxe Limited Edition. Only 10 of these books for the entire market. How do you allocate that? The only fair thing to do is to give the fans direct access on a first come first served basis. We’re putting an incredible emphasis on quality, and that directly affects the quantity of books IDW Limited can produce. We’re designing new covers, building custom cases and paying the artists to do hand drawn sketch work to go with these books. The reality is that that’s all very expensive and unfortunately it makes it difficult for us to offer this line at the deep discount needed for traditional retail distribution.

Apparently, IDW sees itself doing three or four books like this a month; although no titles are officially announced, he does mention a Transformers release being worked on.

Consider this a public service announcement of sorts. Last night, I read The Nao of Brown, by Glyn Dillon (Steve Dillon’s brother, for those who like to know about comic book familial relationships), which is described by its publisher thusly:

Nao Brown suffers from OCD, but not the handwashing, overly tidy type that people often refer to jokingly. Nao suffers from violent morbid obsessions, while her compulsions take the form of unseen mental rituals. Working part-time in a “designer” vinyl toy shop, while struggling to get her own illustration career off the ground, she’s still searching for that elusive love – the perfect love. And in meeting the man of her dreams, she realizes… dreams can be quite weird. Nao’s meditation practice is an attempt to quieten her mind and open her heart, and it’s through this that she comes to understand that  things aren’t so black and white after all. In fact, they’re much more… brown.

It was just released through Diamond yesterday, for those curious enough to check it out, and I urge you to do so. Not only is Dillon’s writing wonderfully messy in a way that feels honest and affecting and thoughtprovoking, but it is also the best-looking comic I have seen in the longest time (And this has been a year filled with some beautiful comic books). Here are three pages to back up my claim:

A serious contender for graphic novel of the year, for me. If you like stories about normal people with real problems told with kindness, subtlety and humor, hunt it down. If nothing else, just for the amazing, amazing art.

We now return you to your regular posts about superheroes and snark.

I’m very happy to see that Chris Roberson and Rich Ellis’ underrated IDW series Memorial is already continuing, via a nine-part digital series, Memorial: Imaginary Friends:

Return to the world of MEMORIAL in “Imaginary Fiends,” an all new digital-only 9 part series! The fantasies and fears that seem so real to children are often forgotten in adulthood. But after the events of the first Memorial miniseries, forgotten memories are being recovered all over the world. Can those lost fears and fantasies be far behind?

I guess that, maybe, I shouldn’t be too surprised by this: Roberson’s MonkeyBrain digital imprint has shown that he’s firmly in the digital camp these days, exploring the format and coming up with the goods en route (The third Edison Rex, his digital series with Dennis Culver, is also out today and should be checked out if you haven’t already sampled the book), and yet – I don’t know; I tend to think of print and digital separately, for some reason. If something starts in print, I imagine that it’ll stay as print with the occasional digital reprint, but not digital spin-off. Seeing new Memorial turn up like this – without the traditional solicit-then-three-month-wait cycle that you get with print – is a really pleasant surprise, and one I’m hoping to see more of in future.

Oh, poor Judge Dredd. Apparently, he just isn’t destined for movie success, with his second movie following the lead of the first and… well, flopping at the box office:

In sixth place, comic book adaptation/remake Dredd bombed with just $6.3 million from 2,506 locations. That’s less than one-third of Kick-Ass‘s $19.8 million, and only a little over half of the original Judge Dredd‘s $12.3 million (and that movie was considered a flop 17 years ago!). It’s at least up on Shoot ‘Em Up ($5.7 million) and about on par with April’s Lockout ($6.2 million), though those comparisons suggest Dredd is on track for less than $20 million through its entire run.

It made less than half of the first Dredd movie?

Ouch.

For those who feel as if 2012 is Image Comics’ year – You may not be mistaken:

This year, Image, IDW and Dark Horse have aggregately sold approximately 6.5 million comics this year.  While that’s only 16.9% of the total sales this year, it’s a significant increase from this time last year.   From January through July 2011, those same three publishers sold only 4.7 million comics.  That means that sales have increased 38% from last year.

Further breaking down those numbers, it becomes clear that Image is the biggest mover of the three this year.  It’s sold nearly a million more comics than it did during the same time period in 2011 and is only 200,000 comics shy from matching its 2012 totals with five months of sales remaining.  In fact, Image’s sales growth (how many more actual comics it’s sold this year than it did last year) is greater than Marvel’s by nearly 200,000 units.

That’s from a must-read post at the Outhousers about the rise of the big indie comics over the last few months. As writer Christian Hoffer explains, “While the market has expanded by 19.31%, these three companies have nearly doubled that rate of growth.  The three companies’ aggregate sales are up 37.95% from last year, a figure far exceeding Marvel’s growth and comparable to DC’s.” There’s a lot to chew over in terms of information from the post (Not least of which is, if Image, IDW and Dark Horse are growing at twice the market rate, as is DC, and Marvel is also growing, albeit at a slower rate, how badly is the rest of the market faring in comparison? Despite the title of the post, I really don’t think this is the “Year of the Small Publisher,” but the year of the midrange publisher and the small ones should be worried), but don’t take my word for it: Go and read, and learn for yourself.

I’m not sure if I’ve said it on this here blog or not, but I am of the opinion that Al Ewing – best known, probably, in the US for his Jennifer Blood work following up on Garth Ennis’ run on that Dynamite title, but hopefully that’ll change as soon as IDW releases Zaucer of Zilk and people start to realize how great his various 2000AD work is – is one of those there “Writers To Watch” who’ll soon have the world as their metaphorical oyster. The reason I mention this now is that Colin Smith, he of the Too Busy Thinking About My Comics blog, has the first part of an interview with Ewing up, and it’s worth checking out:

“Why comics”… well, they’re my favourite medium. That combination of words and pictures, read as one thing greater than the sum of both… I understand it, in the way that someone who can play the guitar understands how the six strings work together without being able to fully put it into words. And I love it. I love being part of the history of comics, part of that tapestry that stretches from the first awesome issue of Union-Breakin’ Laffs (first appearance of The Golden Scab) to a poorly-photocopied scrap of what looks like Daisy Duck wanking off a horse that I just found in a hedge. I’m a small part of that history, but I’m part of it, and that history is in turn part of a larger history of pop culture (which is my favourite form of culture). So it’s nice to be involved in that.

Also: Track down Ewing’s collaboration with the severely-underrated Henry Flint on Zombo, those who like funny, self-aware comics full of violence and commentary. Seriously just great work.

I could be wrong, but this might be the first time that Bryan Lee O’Malley has actually explained what Seconds, his upcoming new project, is about:

I came up with the general idea for Seconds right after completing the first volume of Scott Pilgrim. I worked in a restaurant in Toronto for a little while to pay the bills while writing the second volume and planning the rest of the series, and I had a few ideas for this other story, a story about a restaurant. So, Seconds is about a restaurant, and the restaurant is called Seconds, and 90 percent of the story takes place within it. Beyond that it’s really hard for me to explain and I’m going to have to work on that so I can talk about it properly when it comes out. But it’s funny and weird and kind of big and crazy despite the mundane setting… [It's] grounded in the reality of this restaurant environment, and I did do plenty of research, so there’s that. It takes place in a town that is like a kinder, gentler fairy tale version of reality. Then it takes off into a story that is very strange, very mental. So it’s a little of both, I guess.

The protagonist, Katie, is a loveable spaz, and she’s in practically every panel; her personality drives the story in a way that’s basically identical to my other work. They’re all very subjective worlds. But this is a new subject, so it’s got its own feeling.

The interview also covers the colorization of Scott Pilgrim, what it’s like to revisit old work, and the possibility of new Scott Pilgrim material in the future. It’s well worth checking out.

In a move that could either be an interesting sign of things to come or a total irrelevance, depending on what follows, Bluewater Productions has split from Diamond Distributors and signed a new distribution partnership with a company called Comic Flea Market. Judging by the announcement that’s gone out today, the move comes as a result of Diamond’s order benchmarks and a potential admission by Bluewater that it’s a small publisher with a particularly niche audience:

According to Bluewater, Comic Flea Market (www.comicfleamarket.com) will print all future Bluewater titles including several that Diamond abruptly canceled due to their benchmark. These individual issues will be available in print as well as digital downloads for Nook, Kindle, iPad and other standard eReaders. Bluewater’s graphic novels will still be distributed by SCB.

That’s not a mistake above, by the way; Comic Flea Market will be printing the books as well as distributing them for Bluewater from now on:

“Many people have tried to compete with Diamond and failed, what makes Comic Flea Market unique, is a lot of main stream book publishers and DVD companies such as Warner Bros. are going print on demand on some oftheir titles. Comic Flea Market is doing it not only for Bluewater but the entire comic book marketplace”, said CEO Nick Sachs from Comic Flea Market.  “Not only will we be handling the printing of the titles, we will also handle distribution to comic book stores at the similar discounts.  This dynamic will secure the place for printed material in comic book stores”.

So, what this means is that Bluewater has essentially downgraded to a small-press publisher using print-on-demand technology, right? I’ll be very curious to see how this plays out as a business decision: Will the cost of each book rise, and if it doesn’t, will the quality fall? (Is POD tech affordable and professional quality these days? I genuinely haven’t been keeping up with it.)

We’ve seen other publishers make noises about moving away from Diamond in the past – Boom! did it most recently to my memory, to offer re-orders at such levels that Diamond wouldn’t allow – but this feels like a first nonetheless. I wonder what Bluewater’s sales figures through Diamond were like, and whether they’ll be impacted by this shift in any way?

There’s clearly something in the air – Maybe it’s the impending seventh season of the rebooted version of the show – because at the same time as the Mindless Ones’ Andrew Hickey writes about the launch of Marvel UK’s Doctor Who Weekly in the 1970s, Paul Scoones makes a preview PDF available from his book The Comic Strip Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who in Comics: 1964–1979.

Here’s Hickey on the launch of the Doctor Who title:

Doctor Who Weekly was started by Marvel UK, in the belief that all those seven-year-olds who loved Star Wars and were buying Marvel’s Star Wars comic would also buy anything else with space and robots in it. So they started a cheap weekly comic, with little attention paid to what was in it, so a bunch of young nobodies, most of whom had been in the business a couple of years at most, were asked to work on it. Nobodies like John Wagner, Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Steve Moore, Steve Dillon, Dave Gibbons…

Scoones, meanwhile, goes more in depth into the creation of the stories, with some interesting revelation:

BBC Publicity’s Editorial Assistant, Evelyn Thomas, raised some concerns with Donald Wilson (BBC Head of Serials) about the above proposed storyline. Wilson responded, ‘I am quite sure that you are right in worrying about this outline. It is a direct crib of our “Dalek” serial. If they want to do this they must do the Dalek serial and make acknowledgement, including financial acknowledgement, to the copyright owners, namely, the author and ourselves. I am personally against changing our four characters and I think we should hold out against this.’

Longtime and newcomer Whovians, these are things you might want to check out.

Unexpected good news for oldschool comic fans – Steve Skeates is writing new comics:

“Although Steve is an industry legend, he’s very approachable and still absolutely loves comic books,” says Surprising Publisher Mark F. Davis. “Hiring Steve Skeates turned out to be an excellent choice, as he hasn’t lost even a hint of a step in his ability to script fantastic comic book adventures.”

Surprising’s All Surprising Comics issue 1, featuring one of the stories, is available now from the company, and the other two stories will see print later this year, Davis says.

Skeates now is working on an online weekly comic strip for Big Bang Comics featuring the Knight Watchman, “sort of like a Batman-type character but done in almost a Golden Age style, like a ’40s comic book,” Skeates says. “I’m enjoying that.”

“When I got thes job to do Depthon, I was surprised how much I was enjoying writing those stories. ‘Oh boy, this is fun.’ So there’s something I do miss (about comics).

“We just started this Watchman thing. So maybe that will work out too.”

Skeates is one of those almost-entirely unsung heroes of the late ’60s and 1970s; he wrote for Marvel, Warren, Carlton and a lot of classic DC books, including what might be the greatest Aquaman run of all – Sorry, Geoff and Ivan – with artist Jim Aparo (One that included a secret DC/Marvel crossover). While other writers from the era have become more well-known in recent years – I think we can all agree that Bob Haney is a genius now, right? – Skeates remains under-appreciated, I think; while we wait for the collected editions of classic work that he’s due, maybe it’s time to go search out his Surprising Comics work…

In which Brian K. Vaughan explains the value of creator-owned comics:

Not to brag — maybe a little bit — but the biggest surprise is how much fucking money there is in truly owning your own work.  I know I tried to sound all altruistic when you were asking about the price of our trade, but I’m exactly as mercenary as every other freelancer out there.  Good story and art are two of the most valuable commodities on the planet, and I think comic creators deserve to make great livings, and still have a little time left over for friends, family and multiple rounds of Slayer pinball.I loved working for my friends at Marvel and DC, and I was always compensated with a very generous upfront page rate, but by betting on myself (and Fiona [Staples, artist of Saga]!) and waiting for money on the back end with Saga, I’m already making way, way, WAY more than what I made on comparably selling books that I wrote for other companies.  And that’s after splitting everything 50/50 with my richly deserving co-creator.

The usual “BKV’s experience is not the experience of every creator-owned creator” provisos are necessary, of course, but nonetheless; isn’t it kind of wonderful to see this kind of thing, every now and then? And even better, Fiona Staples gets 50% of the property, lessening the chance of any Walking Dead-style lawsuits in the future. Isn’t this the future of comics…?

It’s apparently a great time to be a 2000AD fan. Not only is the British anthology celebrating its 35th birthday this year with day-and-date digital distribution through Apple, not only is there a new (and, unlike the first one, apparently good Dredd movie hitting theaters next month, but now IDW is announcing a new line of Judge Dredd reprints tailored for the American audience. Quoth the press release:

Once again showing a willingness to tailor books to fan requests, IDW’s first hardcover collection of classic Judge Dredd comics, JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE BRIAN BOLLAND, will first appear as a fully black-and-white edition, presenting crisp, clean, and stunning pages of Brian Bolland artwork as they first appeared. Bolland’s amazingly detailed linework will be on full display in this oversize hardcover edition.

“Fans have been very vocal to us about wanting to first see Bolland’s amazing pages in pristine black-and-white,” said IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief and JUDGE DREDD editor Chris Ryall. “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimate Collections presented the original Eastman/Laird stories in gorgeous black and white, and that’s what fans have told us they’d like to see here at the start, too. We’re happy to give them what they want, especially since Brian Bolland’s art is so stunning even without color.”

The publisher will also be releasing a new monthly series of reprints of classic Dredd stories from the pages of 2000AD next year, with colors from Doctor Who Classics‘ Charlie Kirchoff, all of which will hopefully bring Dredd, and 2000AD in general, to a new audience who have been starved for decades of decent amounts of Thrill Power.

As if that isn’t enough, current 2000AD editor Matt Smith is starting a new series of interviews over at CBR about the anthology, Dredd and all things Galaxy’s Greatest Comic – including an appearance from Tharg the Mighty himself, guaranteed to confuse the non-faithful:

I am conscious that there are corners of your planet that are still holding out against the inevitable pull of Thrill-power, so it’s zarjaz to have a website like CBR to advertise the ghafflebette contents of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!

Welcome to greatness, Americans. Splundig Vur Thrigg!

It has a really odd format, but a killer list of contributors; something tells me that Aces Weekly might be paying attention to. The new digital anthology will feature work from David Lloyd, Kyle Baker, John McCrea, Phil Hester, Steve Bissette, Colleen Doran, Shaky Kane, Dave Hine, Henry Flint and a whole manner of other creators less known to American audiences (Note to UK readers: Phil Elliott, Hunt Emerson and Lew Stringer are in there), but what’s fascinating me is the way it’s going to be released:

Aces Weekly will be released as seven weekly issues which form a volume. Each issue will have at least three landscape pages from six contributors (18 pages per issue), plus extras such as artists sketches etc. Then there’ll be a break in publication before the next seven issue volume begins. Readers subscribe to volumes which cost £6.99/$10 per seven issue volume.

So you’re looking at ending up with a 126 page anthology for $10? That’s a pretty good deal, especially considering the projects are completely creator-owned and, according to editor Bambos Georgiou, “this company has been set up to make money for the creators… This time readers will know their money is going direct to the creators.”

More info, including a launch date, soon, I hope.

(Via.)

In the rush of information from SDCC last month, apparently I missed the news that Mark Waid’s Thrillbent is about to open up to all manner of creators, familiar and less so. Waid talks about the “second wave” of his digital comic site over at CBR:

Really, what we were looking for is a diverse selection of properties and creative ideas. These aren’t all the same notes you’ve seen over and over again in comics.

Overall, we’re trying to keep to that weekly model where the site will have something new every day. Mondays could be John Rogers new series. Tuesdays could be Gail Simone’s. Wednesday will probably always be “Insufferable.” We’ll build around that idea.

Several other series are in active development right now: A crime series called “The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood,” by Christy Blanch, Chris Carr and Chee. “Working For Monday,” the story of the personal assistant to an over-the-top supervillain by Lori Matsumoto and Ben Dewey. “The Eighth Seal” by James Tynion IV and an artist TBD, a weird blend of “The West Wing” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” “The Incapables,” by Kevin Levy and Nate Watson. “Arcanum” by John Rogers. More. Nothing’s officially scheduled yet, but it soon will be and we’ll make an announcement probably at Baltimore [Comic-Con this weekend]; right now, we’re stockpiling content.

Firstly, any and all new John Rogers material is a great thing to me, but seeing Ben Dewey attached to something is another massive plus to me; also mentioned in the interview is something that leaked on Twitter awhile back – Kurt Busiek is also contributing a story to the site.

I’m looking forward to seeing more from Thrillbent; I’ve been enjoying Insufferable quite a bit, but feel that both Thrillbent and, to a greater extent perhaps, Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett’s Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether have been weirdly, and unfairly, overlooked in the constant “Hey Look Superhero Creators Are Quitting To Do Their Own Things!” conversation for some reason. Anything that’d raise the profile for both is a good thing to me.

As far as I’m concerned, this could be the news of the week: 2000AD is now available, digitally day-and-date with its UK release, through Apple newsstand. From the press release:

Earthlets hungry for Thrill-power can now buy individual issues or select one of our great value subscription options, then have the latest issue delivered direct to their iPad or iPhone every week!

Subscribers can save up to 24% and get a range of back issues totally FREE!

And for those who are new to 2000 AD there’s a FREE 69-page sampler issue featuring the first episodes of some of the recent top 2000 AD stories including Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos, Zombo, and Ichabod Azrael!

“Making 2000 AD as accessible as possible is something we’ve been working towards for some time,” said Matt Smith, editor of 2000 AD. “For the first time we can offer easy, quick digital subscriptions so that readers can download the latest issue with a single push of a button.

“If you’ve ever had trouble getting hold of the latest 2000 AD, don’t like waiting for the physical Prog to reach your shores, or you just want the ease of having digital copies then our new app is ideal.

Single issues cost $2.99 (for around 26-27 pages of comics each issue), with subscriptions from one month ($10.99) through one year ($109.99) available. For those who’ve had problems with Diamond’s uneven distribution of the series in the US – and the US price, considering the exchange rate (It’s currently at $5.95, I think?) – then this seems like a great solution. Alongside creators familiar to Marvel and DC fans like Andy Diggle, Dan Abnett and Alan Grant, there’s a whole host of writers and artists whose work appear in the series who’re about to become your new favorites.

Now, I wonder if Rebellion will start pushing out digital editions of the collections through iBooks…?

Every now and again, I get news of an event that’s happening somewhere other than Portland, OR, and I think to myself “Dammit, I live in the wrong place.” Rarely do I see something and think “I live in the wrong country.” And yet… on September 1? I’ll wish I was in the UK.

That’s because, on September 1, six comic stores all across the United Kingdom will be holding signings from 2000AD creators, to celebrate both the 35th birthday of the groundbreaking anthology and the imminent release of the Dredd movie. Names mentioned in the official press release for the event include Judge Dredd (and Strontium Dog, Robo Hunter and countless other strips) co-creator, John Wagner, Rogue Trooper and Watchmen‘s Dave Gibbons, Simon Bisley, Dan Abnett, Mark Buckingham, Steve Yeowell, John Higgins and many others, with more to be named between now and the day itself. Updates are promised on the official 2000AD site soon, but come on: This sounds rather wonderful, doesn’t it?

Calling all Alan Moore fans: Top Shelf’s website is selling exclusive signed-and-numbered limited edition copies of Moore’s new project, Unearthing:

One of the world’s foremost authors of the fantastic, Alan Moore, joins internationally esteemed photographer Mitch Jenkins for an unprecedented visual and literary experience. An intensely poetic and innovative work of biography, Unearthing maps the lifetime of author, orientalist and occultist Steve Moore, while simultaneously investigating the extraordinary history of South London with which that life has been intertwined. Integrating text with haunting and exquisite imagery, Unearthing excavates a territory at the margins of a city, of reality, and of human imagination.

The book will be released to stores in December in two editions: a $29.95 regular paperback and an oversized (A3, which is 11.69 x 16.54 inches) hardcover edition for $74.95. The $99 signed and numbered edition available online is a third edition, and limited to just 300 copies.

Calling all comics scholars:

Fantagraphics Books, publisher of The Comics Journal, has announced a partnership with Alexander Street Press to make the complete archive of the The Comics Journal available as part of its Underground and Independent Comics online collection. This is the first-ever scholarly online collection for researchers and students of literary and underground comic books and graphic novels, and the inclusion of more than 25,000 pages of interviews, commentary, theory and criticism from the 35 year history of The Comics Journal marks a significant contribution to the academic study of the comics form.

“Most back issues of The Comics Journal are sold out and unavailable,” says Comics Journal founder and Fantagraphics President Gary Groth. “This will allow academics, critics, and historians access to the magazine that’s covered the widest range of cartooning for the longest period of time. We believe Alexander Street Press’ project serves an important cultural function and we’re very pleased to be part of it.”

Considering the breadth of interviews and criticism that’s appeared in the Journal in its 300+ issue history, this is kind of stunning – and the kind of thing that makes me immediately want to rush out and find how I can get access to all of this.

Start your speculation engines again. ICv2 talks to Valiant Entertainment publisher Fred Pierce, and he talks about the company’s growth over the next year:

We have so much to do and we’re trying to have a slow growth.  We launched one comic a month for four months.  We’re going to take a break from it.  Sometime between now and April, which will be a year that we’ve been publishing, we hope to launch two more properties.

So six in the first year and then four in each year after that.  Again, if we’re hugely successful maybe we’ll do more but the plan is really four.  Let’s give everybody a chance to absorb the universe because Valiant is a universe.  You can read any comic individually but you’ll get more out of the universe like you would with the DC or Marvel universe if you read more of the properties, and as things happen in one book you might see some passing reference to it in another book down the road.  That’s really what we’re doing.

We already know that Shadowman is the fifth book, but what will be the sixth…? Earlier in the interview, Pierce lists “Shadowman, Rai, Eternal Warrior, Dr. Mirage, [and] Quantum and Woody” as titles that Valiant hasn’t yet dealt with when answering the question about whether or not they’ll try to get the Gold Key characters back from Dark Horse (Short answer: Not anytime soon), so should we take that as a list of the next titles in the offing, or…?

From the New York Times profile on Valiant:

Home to superheroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk, Marvel achieved one of the most spectacular rallies in media history. With its shares trading for as little as 93 cents, Marvel went from bankruptcy in 1997 to Hollywood heavyweight in 2009, selling itself to Disney for $4.3 billion, or about $53 a share.

Now two professed comic book geeks — with backing from the turnaround specialist Peter Cuneo, who spent 10 years at Marvel in various roles, including chief executive — are trying to make lightning strike twice with Valiant, a comics company that was a force in the 1990s but fell victim to legal quarrels and bankruptcy. Valiant, which is based in New York, restarted its comics line in May, achieving strong sales, and has five movies in development.

“Think of us as Marvel 2.0,” said Mr. Cuneo, whose résumé includes turnaround work at Black & Decker and Clairol.

The story goes on to explain the the comparison is more one of business model similarity to explain the company to investors than anything else, but it’s still an interesting claim to make…