Two “Sign Of The Times”-Style Personnel Moves

Two straight up industry hire stories that seem reflective of the state of things in comics right now. John Shableski of Diamond Book Distributors' Sales Manager has resigned to take up a new position at JeffCorwinConnect, where he will continue his advocacy for the graphic novel by spearheading a line of them aimed at various audiences the Animal Planet personality has targeted for his views on various issues. (That sounds unsavory, doesn't it? I just mean they seems like issue works rather than fictional ones.) Meanwhile, Courtney Simmons was named Senior Vice President of Publicity for DC Entertainment, where she will manage that company's publicity efforts in its East Coast and West Coast operations. I'm sure both of these folks are excited by their new jobs, and I wish them the best of luck in finding success with their new duties.

I couldn't help but see both hires in terms of the still-settling landscape facing comics right now. That Shableski could move from his current position to what under a different reading could be seen as a start-up initiative far from the center of comics seems indicative of where the comics industry places emphasis and value -- I've been thinking about that a lot recently, how one company can have 10 employees and another, smaller one can have 40 employees and they don't seem to operate all that differently. That kind of thing. As for Ms. Simmons, I'm sure that she has a very specific role to play, and the publicity and marketing of comics companies is an evergreen source for hires and departures, but the symbolism of another executive being hired for a company already rich with them seems important, too. I'm not a chart-maker, but I have to imagine that if you marked where the money goes at these hugely successful media companies over the last ten years, I bet there's a bigger jump above a certain level of company employee and not so much below a certain point, with freelance talent.
 
posted 5:15 am PST | Permalink
 

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