Z2 Comics, an indie graphic novel publisher specializing in music and pop culture merchandise, announced that its founder and CEO Josh Frankel has left the company, and a new leadership team has been appointed. Rumors of the change were circulating during the recently ended New York Comic Con.
Effective immediately, the executive team of Z2 Comics includes: Sridhar Reddy, who will continue as publisher; Kevin Meek, former CFO and general counsel, who has been named CEO; Josh Bernstein, former senior v-p, who has been named president; Aleksey Zelenderg, former data scientist, who has been appointed CTO; and Courtney Menard, former director of production, who has been named creative director.
According to Z2, Frankel is moving on to new ventures. After starting the company under another name, Frankel, relaunched it as Z2 Comics in 2013 with revised hardcover editions of works by cartoonists Paul Pope and Dean Haspiel. Reddy joined the company as publisher in 2019 and by that time Z2 Comics had evolved into its current business model: developing original graphic novels in combination with well-known or emerging musical figures in Jazz, rock and popular music.
The company has continued to evolve, combining a focus on partnering with well-known music and pop culture figures or their estates, with data-based social media marketing to grow the company from a handful of titles to about 25 new titles a year. Titles include works on jazz, hip hop, rock/Christian rock, and punk, including books on Charlie Parker, Chuck D, Wu-Tang Clan, Tori Amos, Gorillaz, Anthrax, and Cheech and Chong.
The company has grown from about 3 employees to 30 and Reddy said, he is, "very excited to see Z2 achieve the next level of success under this new team.”
