by Avi Green
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The site that first announced this Comics Beat. Mr. Ryall himself eventually confirmed the news via his Twitter account.
The business of leaving a 14-year job eats up a lot of hours so it seems sometimes word can leak out before there's time to announce it publicly– but it's true, I'm stepping aside from IDW. We'll announce things properly soon… https://t.co/qWS0GmRub8
— Chris Ryall (@chris_ryall) March 7, 2018
The executive had been with indie publisher since 2004. Even if his resignation is voluntary, that doesn’t mean it had nothing to do with the disaster they became in the past couple years, as they suddenly went down the same ill-advised route that Marvel did when they began pandering to social justice mentalities, hiring writers like Mags Vissagio and Aubrey Sitterson, the latter of whom caused a serious embarrassment and PR catastrophe after he insulted Americans devastated by 9-11, which also includes plenty of GI Joe fans. And David Mariotte’s abrupt attack on the consumers was no improvement. All these errors combined evidently had a negative impact on their income, bringing them down to barely a tenth of what they once were in sales, and there’s no telling if they’ll recover.
Like, oddly enough, if you support a hate group/person like D&C that targets my friends, colleagues, and admirable strangers, I'm not interested in hearing your hate.
— David Mariotte (@IDW_David_M) February 24, 2018
Their best option, for those succeeding Ryall, is to move away from identity politics and distance themselves from any contributor, internal or freelance, who can’t keep their mouths shut. And maybe they should start concentrating less on licensed merchandise comics that make up too much of their inventory (but whose licenses they may stand to lose) and focus more on creator-owned fantasy adventures. If they don’t, chances are much higher they’ll be out of the ball game within another year or so. From what I know, Chuck Dixon’s got a project he’ll be publishing under their labels, and that’ll be good if they go through with and fully respect the deals with him. But if not, then again, they mustn’t be surprised if it’ll further the negative impacts on their business.
Originally posted at the Four Color Media Monitor
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