Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: Pam Lifford, pamela lifford

Pamela Lifford Resigns As DC Comics' Big Boss

In 2018, Pamela Lifford topped the Bleeding Cool Top 100 Power List. Five years later, she is stepping down as the big boss of DC Comics.

Pamela Lifford – or Pam Lifford – topped the Bleeding Cool Top 100 Power List in 2018, and made No 3 on the Power List in 2019 (the last year we ran one) as her role at Warner Bros., President of Global Brands, Franchises, and Experiences, saw her oversee all DC Comics businesses, as well as worldwide consumer products, themed entertainment and franchise management.

Deadline quoted Warner Bros. Discovery  saying that Lifford is "stepping back from her role to focus on a family member's healthcare needs." Those reporting to her will now report to her own superior, Bruce Campbell. No, not the Evil Dead Bruce Campbell  (though Deadline is linking to him in their article). But WBD's chief revenue and strategy officer, Bruce Campbell, who says, "Pam is an extraordinary leader and unique in the entertainment industry.  She's brought tremendous value and thought leadership to the company over the years, and while we wish she were staying on, we understand and appreciate the commitment to family first.  She put a tremendous team in place, and I look forward to what we will do together."

Lifford joined Warner Bros. in 2016 as President of Consumer Products and moved to take over DC Comics in 2018, a couple of weeks before Batman hit national headlines for revealing what was under his Batsuit, leading Lifford to impose restrictive new policies regarding comic book content.

It was Pamela Lifford who shuttered the DC Vertigo imprint, as well as DC Ink and DC Zoom, with a reported dislike for the complexity that imprints brought to a publisher. She saw Marie Javins make EIC of DC Comics, a move towards larger pricier anthology comics at DC, the growth of YA and kids graphic novels, and a move into Webtoons and more prestige-format graphic novels. How much of that was her own hand on the tiller may be debated, as she had a wide WBD remit at a time when the company was going through major changes.

Pamela Lifford was also head of a series of downsizing moves at DC Comics in 2020 and 2021, including the firing of Dan DiDio, Bob Harras, Adam Philips, Fletcher Chu-Fong, Michele R Wells, Alex Carr, Stuart Schreck, Mark Doyle, Bobbie Chase, Andy Khouri, Brian Cunningham, Hank Kalanz, Mark Chiarello, John Cunningham, Mark Chiarello, Jonah Weiland, Eddie Scannell, Jim Sokolowski, Dan Evans III, Sara Jaskell, Sandy Resnick, Vince Letterio, and more.

She is credited with a greater cohesiveness with DC and Warner Bros. Discovery amid the Warners-wide downsizing. Pamela Lifford is quoted as saying, "When I joined the company back in 2016, we set out on a mission to transform the division and how WB thought about fans. Today, our team owns franchises, products, in-person experiences, DC, and keeps our global consumers engaged in our IP 24/7.  I couldn't be prouder of what we've accomplished together".

But with neither Pamela Lifford at DC Comics, nor Ike Perlmutter at Marvel, it feels like the era of the "big beasts" is over. And that this also removes a rumoured stumbling block regarding future Marvel/DC Comics crossover projects. Maybe that 2030 "Secret Crisis" prediction by Geoff Johns in Doomsday Clock #12 was bang on the money?

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