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Comics: DC lays off 3 percent of employees, Florida man recovers million-dollar Batman comics
Let's talk comics for a second.
DC is going through a shake-up in its comic book division, which means downsizing.
Then it's time for a trip to Dark Horse for an early look at the follow-up to Christopher Cantwell's acclaimed series from 2018.
How about the story of stolen comics that could make anyone a millionaire?
All of this and more in today's comic news roundup!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, DC Comics is laying off 3% of its workforce, which will total seven individuals out of the publisher's 240 employees.
Those who will become casualties of the newly announced downsizing are: John Cunningham (VP of Sales Trade Marketing), Eddie Scannell (VP of Consumer Marketing), and Mark Chiarello (Senior VP Art Director). There were rumors that Jim Lee and Dan DiDio would also be leaving, but the duo remain with the company.
Reportedly, the layoffs are part of a reorganization plan that splits the company into three distinct departments: Editorial, Production & Manufacturing, and Publishing Support Services. This comes at a time when Warner Bros. (the owner of DC) is laying off 10% of its Consumer Products staff.
Over at Dark Horse, Karen Berger is bringing back Christopher Cantwell’s She Could Fly series under the Berger Books imprint, SYFY WIRE has confirmed. Cantwell, known for co-creating AMC's Halt and Catch Fire with Christopher C. Rogers, received overwhelming praise with the initial four-issue run of the series last year.
The story revolves around a mysterious flying woman, who just explodes in midair one day. This prompts 15-year-old Luna Brewster to set out on a quest to discover all she can about the "Flying Woman."
Cantwell's follow-up, She Could Fly: The Lost Pilot, takes place a year after the events of the first four issues. Luna's in a mental institution, but her yearning to know more about the Flying Woman and the woman's family has only increased.
According to a press release: "Luna’s obsession reignites, threatening to unravel her fragile mind again. Meanwhile, a mysterious guru appears in the sewers of Chicago, and a Russian mercenary seeks old secret technology, and the specter of violence begins to loom over everyone once more. Luna starts to wonder... will she even survive long enough to go insane?"
Martin Morazzo (illustrator) Miroslav Mrva (colorist) and Clem Robbins (letterer) are all returning for the sequel series. Issue #1 of The Lost Pilot goes on sale April 10.
Check out the front cover and two interior pages of the first issue below:
Down in Florida (you know, the place where all that crazy stuff happens), a comic book collector has recovered four stolen comic books that can fetch nearly $100,000 on the secondary market.
On Jan. 8, South Florida resident Randy Lawrence discovered that over 400 rare issues from his Batman collection, some of them from the 1930s, had gone missing from "an indoor air-conditioned, double-locked storage unit."
Including the four that have already been found, the stolen cache is worth about $1.4 million. After his initial shock panic, Lawrence posted a full listing of the comics online, hoping for the public to help him find the valuable comics. The full list can be viewed here.
Phillip Weisbauer, a 30-year-old citizen of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, was arrested in Fountain Hills, Arizona, where he tried to sell four of the issues to a comics shop. The manager of the store immediately contacted the Phoenix Police Department, which tailed Weisbauer and eventually apprehended him at the shop.
“Get him to give up who has these books so I can help him," Lawrence told KTXS, an ABC News affiliate in Abilene, Texas. "I know I can help him here in Florida, and I’d be willing and happy to do what I can do in Arizona to lighten his load, but I can’t do that unless I recover all my merchandise."
It is not confirmed if Weisbauer perpetrated the robbery or came into possession of the comics from another person at a later date.
(via the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Insurance Journal, and azfamily.com)
Valiant is all set to release a new ongoing X-O Manowar series this fall, although full details have yet to be disclosed.
The character was created by Jim Shooter, Steve Englehart, Bob Layton, and Barry Windsor-Smith in the early 1990s.
Starting off as Aric of Dacia, X-O Manowar was a royal heir until he became stranded on an alien planet belonging to a malevolent race known as The Vine. His only chance of returning home and saving his planet from Vine enslavement is to kick butt with the help of weaponized armor.
