Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: comic shop, dc comics

Last Year's DC Comics Firings Impacted Relations With Comic Stores

Last year, DC Comics, as part of a line-wide Warners employee downsizing, made many of their most senior staff redundant, some who had been with DC for decades. As well as a reduction in projects and publications, DC Comics also lost a lot of their sales staff, including people who had long-term, longtime relations with retailers.

This has had a significant impact on launches such as Batman/Fortnite – the comic book was underordered by retailers despite being made fully returnable, FOC being delayed closer to the sale date, and DC overprinting retail orders by 100%. But that could only go so far, DC Comics didn't have the staff or the longterm relationships with retailers to make the case to lift those orders.

This is something that has become very obvious to DC Comics of late and Bleeding Cool understands that DC Comcis has even admitted it to retailers. And as a result, they are going to be doing their best to find ways to connect with retailers, with fewer resources than they once had. Bleeding Cool scooped the news that the print catalogue for solicitations will be returning in July as well, which might help. Of course, anything Bleeding Cool can do to help, DC, feel free to get in touch.

Say, maybe they could hire 30-year-DC Comics veteran Adam Philips' new comics PR company? He does know his onions and might potentially help DC Comics recapture some of the expertise, trust, and knowledge they recently lost. Maybe he could bring in Bob Harras and Patty Jeres too.

Here are the list of staffers confirmed to have been lost in 2020 – there may be more besides. The first wave in August 2020 included the following names;

• Bob Harras, DC Editor-In-Chief
• Mark Doyle, Executive Editor at DC Black Label,
• Bobbie Chase, Vice President, Global Publishing Initiatives & Digital Strategy
• Andy Khouri, DC Comics Editor
• Brian Cunningham, Senior Story Editor
• Hank Kanalz, SVP Publishing Strategy & Support Services,
• Eddy Choi, Executive Assistant to Jim Lee
• Sandy Resnick, International Publishing, Ad Sales & Custom Creative Studio
• Sara Haskell, Marketing Director,
• Jonah Weiland, VP of Marketing & Creative Services
• Jim Sokolowski, VP, Comic Book Specialty & Newsstand Sales
• Dan Evans III, Vice President of Creative Affairs

While November 2020 saw the departure of:

• Adam Philips, Director, Marketing Services at DC Comics
• Stuart Schreck, Sales Manager DC Comics,
• Fletcher Chu-Fong, Events Director at DC Comics,
• Sandy Yi – SVP, Global Franchise Management,
• Lissette Osterloh, VP Digital Marketing & Events
• Michele R Wells, co-Editor-In-Chief at DC Comics, Vice President and Executive Editor, DC Children's/Young Adult
• Alex Carr, Group Editor at DC Comics (Justice League titles)
• Vince Letterio – Executive Director – Direct Sales

Other departures of note in the past year, included

• Dan DiDio, DC Publisher
• Courtney Simmons Brown – Senior VP, DC Publicity & Communications
• Mark Chiarello, SVP, DC Art & Design Director
• John Cunningham SVP DC Sales Trade Marketing
• Eddie Scannell – VP DC Consumer Marketing.
• Pat McCallum – DC Universe Executive Editor
• Alex Antone – Editor
• Molly Mahan – Editor
• Rob Levin – Editor
• Harvey Richards – Associate Editor

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