The effects of Diamond’s bankruptcy continue to ripple across the comics industry as two more publishers who were distributed by Diamond have had layoffs.
Kevin Ketner, who was an editor at Ablaze Publishing posted today:
Ketner was formerly at Dynamite Comics, edited many titles including Almost Dead and the Mighty Barbarians for Ablaze, which publishes a wide range of graphic novels and periodicals, including several foreign licenses. Ablaze announced a renewal of their exclusive with Diamond in 2023, but had been crowdfunding books, like many publishers, in recent months.
Lysa Hawkins, long associated with Valiant Comics and currently editor in chief for the Valiant line at Alien Books posted on a Valiant fan group today:
It has been my honor and privilege to work with and be the advocate for the Valiant Universe for these 6 + years. I wish Alien and Valiant nothing but the best. Thank you for being the most wonderful fans.
Hawkins joined Valiant, then a stand alone publisher, in 2018, and transitioned to Alien when they took over Valiant as a license. She was promoted to editor in chief last year. She was formerly at both Marvel and DC as an editor. Alien Books continues under Director Matias Timarchi, who founded the line a few years ago as an American arm of his long running South American publishing operations. In addition to Valiant, Alien also publishes manga, and some foreign licenses such as the upcoming I, Dragon collection, which is also being Kickstarted.
That smaller publishers with no other distribution options would be most affected by the Diamond situation is something long predicted. It was a brutal week overall for comics, with layoffs at both Dark Horse and IDW.
Unfortunately, this could be just the start of cuts at even more publishers. When things start to build up again (as they inevitably will) there will be some good editorial folks out there to hire.
